Next Monday night the different committees of the Mayo GAA Strategic Action plan will meet up and give their recommendations from their various committees, the chairperson of the strategic action plan steering group Liam Horan has been very pleased with the amount of engagement from the public and GAA members at large to the plan. Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser this week he said “It has proved that there are plenty of people who are willing to work and roll up their sleeves to help Mayo GAA, it also shows that people who say that the age of volunteerism is dead are wrong. We’ve had a huge amount of interest from people who wanted to get involved and still do want to get involved.”
As for the feedback that has been received so far Horan has been hugely encouraged with what the committees have received. “We’ve had a very positive feedback, there has been a big level of engagement from people all over the county and elsewhere who are willing to get involved and work hard for the betterment of the GAA in the county. That didn’t surprise me though, I’ve always thought that there was, but this is the first time we’ve got to see that by putting this review into action and the people have come out in force. We’re meeting next Monday night where all the different committee will come together and put their recommendations forward and then it comes to putting it all into a coherent document and then going back out to the clubs and the public for feedback before we present it to the county board in February.”
While he may be chairing the overall steering group, Horan is keen to praise the efforts of those involved in the different committees and the way the committees were set up so that those on the committees were able to use their talents to come up with their recommendations. “The people on the committees are dedicated people and they have been able to go off and come up with interesting and good ideas to shape the future of the GAA in Mayo. The way it was set up the committees did their own work and take responsibility for their own recommendations, it’s then up to the steering committee to pull their results together.”
The time frame of the review has been very short, but this narrow time frame has been a good thing to keep it focused and on track according to Horan. “We’ve had a short time to do this, but I’m a firm believer in short deadlines because it gets everyone focused. There was no putting things on the long finger, if a meeting had to be cancelled because of the weather they met again a few days later, whereas if we had a long drawn out time frame things could be put off to January or February.” With the committees bringing their recommendations on Monday night and the results going out to the clubs in January before being put before the county board in February, time is ticking down, but Horan is keen to emphasis that there is still time for people to have their say and he actively encourages them to do so. “There is still time for people to get involved and make a submission if they want, and if they have an idea that they think should be taken on board they should do that.”
