Dear valued Irish freestyle members and members of the public,
The 2nd attempt at the Irish freestyle AGM will take place on Saturday the 15th of November at 3pm in Sluice car park.
The committee will have a free "come-and-try-it" and coaching sessions at the Sluice on that day. We hope to have demo freestyle boats available for people interested in trying freestyle for the first time or for just trying out the latest boat designs. For more advanced paddlers there will be a selection of experienced freestyle paddlers available on the day to offer tips and tricks. Further details of this event will be added in the coming weeks.
The last AGM was organised in conjunction with a Sluice rodeo before and talks from prominent members of Irish kayaking giving talks afterwards. The entire day was designed around the AGM and to get paddlers to attend yet despite high turn outs a quorum of only 20 was not reached. This time round we're having free coaching sessions and come-and-try-it sessions but the aim is to get numbers to the AGM.
A minimum of 1 months' notice is necessary to hold the AGM hence the November date.
I've been receiving feedback from the paddling public regarding reasons why people didn't attend the AGM having made the effort to get to the rodeo and the after party after the AGM. One of the reasons is that many people who attended the Sluice rodeo have never really been involved at a committee or national team level and therefore wouldn't really have anything to bring to the meeting. From my point of view these people are in fact the most important people to have at an AGM. They can tell us from an unbiased view what sort of job we're doing and what they'd like to see more of. The timid first-time paddler at the Sluice is an invaluable insight at out AGM to find out what these people want to see happen. This is one of the main reasons for having a come-and-try-it session before the next AGM along with coaching sessions for more experienced paddlers.
Another reason for not attending that came up was that people didn’t know what committee positions were available and what each role involves. To try and dispel this problem I've posted below a list of the various Freestyle committee positions, a brief description of each and who currently holds each position...
