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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
New plan tackles the future
All good organisations plan for the future by laying down a strategy for consolidation and expansion. And so it is with the GAA. Its latest version is entitled ‘The GAA Strategic Vision and Action Plan 2009-2015.’
A similar bible was issued in 2002 and provoked considerable controversy by suggesting that Dublin was too big to be treated as one county and should be divided in two. That plan’s considerable value was largely swallowed up by the controversy.
This plan, launched two weeks ago in Croke Park, has taken a much less provocative and more sensible route. It lays out a strategic plan that covers a wide vision of the future, including club and community, integration, urbanisation, games development, volunteering, games, funding, officer support and communications. It is an excellent document that seeks to build on the Association’s past developments and achievements.
It was put together following a wide level of consultation right across the organisation. Perhaps, its authors were a little cautious in dealing with some of the Association’s future challenges. Maybe this was an effort to avoid negative feedback. Unfortunately this in itself has caused its own controversy, attracting the attention of the fourth estate and GAA membership.
The focus is honing in on a few key areas. There is no strategy for resolving the ongoing difficulties that arise between administrators and intercounty players or for establishing a partnership arrangement between Croke Park and the GPA. The Association’s seriously unbalanced fixtures structures are not dealt with, nor is the negative impact this is having on games at grassroots level.
There is no mention of the widespread abuse of the GAA’s Amateur Status rule by way of payments to managers or how this might be resolved. The issue of wastefulness in developing far too many provincial stadiums is not mentioned. Why does the GAA need several stadiums of 30,000 plus capacity in each province when most of them are rarely filled?
The rule book is in serious need of revision but is not mentioned and finally, the issue of the use of Croke Park when Lansdowne Road re-opens gets no attention. In the latter case, rest assured there will be more controversy from 2010 unless the Association gets pro-active on this and comes up with a strategy for the future.
However, this document will come up for regular review and no doubt these and other items will come in for attention. This needs to happen because the future will provide new challenges. Already economic decline, unemployment and emigration loom large on the horizon. Then again, the GAA has faced many similar challenges in the past and survived. With future planning, as embraced in this strategic plan, it will undoubtedly do so in the future.
International Rules back on track The success of the GAA’s recent trip down under has put the International Rules series back on track. Sean Boylan has been reappointed to take charge of the national team in 2009 and following that a further two-year series is planned for 2011 and 2012.
The 2009 series will form part of the GAA’s 125th anniversary celebrations. There will be a oneyear break before the series resumes in 2011 and continues in 2012. If all goes well this should consolidate the compromise series for the longer term future.
There will certainly be a move to terminate the series from counties who continue to oppose its value. Motions are being considered and may well find their way to Central Council.
However, at this stage, the latter body has approved the games up to 2012 and it is very unlikely that the required twothirds majority would be achieved to alter that.
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