Annual General Meeting 2022 (18th Feb)
Delighted to be able meet again in-person, the 2022 Annual General Meeting was held on Friday evening 18th February in the Annebrook House Hotel, Mullingar. The numbers attending were similar to pre-Covid times, which is excellent and shows the interest among members on how the Club is managed and organised on their behalf.
Chairperson, Margaret Daly opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and introduced the Secretary’s report by Colm Walsh, the Treasurer’s report by Joanna Tyrrell and Competition Report by Greg Duggan. These were followed by Margaret’s own Chairperson’s Address. Like every Club in Ireland, membership is increasing again as we emerge from the Covid pandemic and the foundations in Mullingar Harriers are strong and membership will continue to grow as things get back to normal. Despite the completion of the new all-weather track, the largest project ever undertaken by the Club, the Club’s finances are in a healthy state. The financial report showed the tremendous part played by members and friends in supporting the various fund raising activities, without which we could not have completed the work. The invaluable financial support of the Sports Capital Grant and the tremendous private financial support from members and friends of the Club was also acknowledged.
The Club faces challenges in managing the increase in membership, due in no small measure to the completion of the new track and a call was made for more help for coaches, particularly with the younger underage members. A new position of Juvenile Training Officer was created to co-ordinate efforts in recruiting parents and others to assist coaches at training and identify those that might wish to coach field events.
Because of the surge in Covid infections around Christmas 2020 that resulted in a prolonged lockdown until late April 2021, all Clubs were closed for the period and the indoor season was cancelled. Thankfully there was an outdoor season in 2021 for all but the youngest members. By the time the autumn came around, there was light at the end of the long Covid tunnel and there was a full cross country season, and the 2022 indoor season is currently underway as normal. No doubt, 2021 was a tough year for the Club, but when members could compete, they turned in some outstanding performances.
One of the two stand-out highlights of 2021 was four Mullingar athletes competing at the European u/20 T&F Championships in Estonia – Eoin Quinn (800m), Oisin Lane and Matthew Glennon (10k walk) and Charles Okafor (4x100m relay) with a special mention for Oisin Lane who finished a fantastic sixth place in the 10k walk with a new personal best. The other stand-out highlight was of course Jamie Battle and Cormac Dalton competing at the European Cross County in Dublin, where Jamie finished fifth man for the Irish u/23 team that won team gold and Cormac finished a terrific twenty eighth place in the senior race, the third finisher for the Ireland team that placed fourth.
The following were elected as officers and committee members for the coming year:
Sean McMullin (President), Breda McDonnell (Vice-President), Margaret Daly (Chairperson), Greg Duggan (Vice-Chairperson, and will take on the roles of PRO coordinator, Registrar and Competition entries), Joanna Tyrrell (Treasurer), Colm Walsh (Secretary), Philip Burke (Assistant Secretary & Juvenile Training Officer), Tom McGrath (Minute Secretary), Pauline Quinn, Margaret Daly and Greg Duggan (Child Officers), Cormac Finnerty, Pat Muldoon Senior, Vera McCool and John Shaw (Trustees). The officers and trustees are automatically on the new committee, as are Life Vice-presidents Seamus Gibney, Cormac Finnerty, Martin Fagan, Bobbie Begley, John Mulvihill, George Bell (RIP) and Christy Creagh, and will be joined by James Carton, Declan Costello, Amanda Dalton, Catriona Duffy, Paul Ginnell, Sean Liston, Joe Ryan, Alan Sherwin, Tom Wallace and Sinead Whitelaw who were elected to the committee, and by Club Captains Aine O’Reilly and Ian McCormack.
Concluding the meeting, Margaret Daly thanked all present for their attendance and input and closed a successful AGM.
