Hi everybody,
I was on the phone to Benny Cullen yesterday and he mentioned that there is a Canoeing Ireland meeting this Saturday from 09:00-13:00 in Athlone to plan what CI should do for the next four years.
Here's the text from an email about it:
QuoteDear Club Chairperson,
As you may be aware Canoeing Ireland has in recent months been planning a major strategic review to identifying a growth orientated strategy over the coming years.
With this in mind I appointed Mr Mark Clinton a new Executive member elected last November to take charge of the process. Mark has been visiting clubs and groups around the country over the last few months to get their views and ideas, which can be used as part of this strategic review.
The next stage in the process is to have a broad based round table discussion where nominated club members and committee chairpersons from all around the country can discuss a strategic direction for Canoeing Ireland over the next few years.
With this in mind I would like to invite you to a meeting in The Radisson Blue Hotel, Athlone on Saturday 1st September 2012 , Registration will commence at 9am and the conference will commence at 10am concluding at 1:30pm. You and another nominated colleague are invited to attend and we would ask you to indicate the name's addresses and contact email of those representing your club before the 23rd August 2012.
I would also like to emphasise the importance of this meeting as it will be used as the basis of moving our development strategy on to the next phase and finally to ratification, hopefully at the next Annual Delegate Meeting in late October.
In conclusion I would ask you to fill out the brief survey document attached as well as the registration form for the conference. The survey document is to give us some advance feedback that can be taken into consideration in preparation for this meeting. Club chairpersons may feel it appropriate to consult their fellow committee and club members before sending in the survey document. By doing this we feel we will get a better idea of peoples views.
Yours Sincerely.
Pat MacAlinney.
President,
Canoeing Ireland.
Representatives from loads of canoe clubs from around the country will be going, but he hasn't heard from many college clubs yet. I've been passing on the information to all the other captains I can get hold of, so hopefully we'll be well represented.
It looks like they're trying to assess what state kayaking in Ireland is in now and how best to improve it. This Mark Clinton mentioned didn't make it to UCDCC in his visits, I don't know if he made it to other college clubs either, so we might have missed that phase.
If college clubs are well represented at the meeting then college paddling should register as an area for them to support. I'll be going so I can suggest things on behalf of the club if there are any good ideas!
So, does anyone have ideas about ways Canoeing Ireland could support university kayaking?
Brainstorm away!
Here is the survey Canoeing Ireland sent out, only I've googledoc-ed it
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHZ0THpUUU50dlFHWDlya3hDUlpNUnc6MQ#gid=0 (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHZ0THpUUU50dlFHWDlya3hDUlpNUnc6MQ#gid=0)
Is that going to you the google doc?
1. College clubs provide one of main gateways to paddling in the country
2. Support has been given in the past for safety training this was given at the captains and safety weekend (we were the first club to change this all the details are with Benny)
3. Promotion of a weekend of courses similar to the Scottish canoe union. They have this annually.
4. A weekend for college clubs to train members in basic safety plus organisation( tried to do this myself but it was too expensive as I included, transport, accommodation and food plus instruction if it was just the cost of instruction much easier to do)
5. Development of an environmental aspect to paddling, since new legislation is in the pipeline we need to be on the committee responsible, so this is a lobbying role. (I also have this ready but still needs some field testing to make it work)
The google doc results appear to everyone once they've entered their answers, but I'll throw up some screen shots of the final results when all the answers are in.
I've access to the whole thing, and so does Benny.
It was Canoeing Ireland's survey to begin with , I just copy and pasted it from a word doc into an online form reincarnation. It's got over 20 responses from college clubs around the country now :)