Donegal Pool Association

Annual General Meeting Minutes.

Held at the CYMS club 14/6/2024 8pm. 

David Moore opened meeting.

Treasurer’s report was read out by Mark McCarron detailed report given, this is available to view if requested to the committee as it wasn’t felt it was sensible to put all our finances online.

Secretary’s report:

As a year 2023 into 2024 has been a very productive one from the committee’s point of view: we have produced the website and use of cue score, the tablets were introduced at the County Championships and that in itself was our largest ever championships, in fact it was one of the largest in the country. We feel it was a great success overall, though we admit there is always room for improvement.

We have introduced the youth league and improve the ladies leagues numbers in both substantially.

We introduced the constitution and the memberships and we have seen a rising numbers of members across the board throughout.

We removed the entry fees for the all Irelands for all qualifying players for the team events and we held eight qualifiers all season in total, more than was ever offered before.

We helped raise money and funding for local charities such as Letterkenny Food Bank and the Greg Fitzgerald Fund.

We purchased all new tables at the club and the club is financially in very good standing moving forward into 2025. 

David Moore then addressed his gratitude to all committee members for their hard work over the year. 

He gave special thanks and mention to Marc McCarron for all his hard work as treasurer. He noted that the amount of work, time and hours that have been put forward has been immense by both Marc and Tina as Secretary / PRO. David made special mention about the Chris Melling evening brought about Tina and what a success that was for the club. 

David made a special thanks to Tracey Hennessey for all her hard work and input through the year, especially for the sponsorship of the tablets which are a great addition to the club. 

David went to to acknowledge the members and their achievements especially on the youth side of things and the great achievements made by them throughout the year. With special thanks and credit to Brian Doherty. 

Committee members stepping down: 

Mark McCarron

Christine Henderson 

Adam McDaid

Darryl Doherty

Gavin Boal 

Anthony Anderson 

Michael O’Hara 

Ronan Kennedy

Newly elected committee members:

Vice Chairman / head coach David Mcgurn. Nominated by Tina and seconded by Anthony Anderson. 

Treasurer Tracey Hennessey.  Nominated by David Moore seconded by David Mcgurn. 

Vice treasurer Joe Gallagher.  Nominated by David Moore seconded by Tracy Hennessy. 

Pro / Media officer Kevin Boyle. Nominated by Mark McCarron seconded by Tina Reaney. 

Returning committee members voted back in:

Chairman: David Moore. 

Secretary: Tina Reaney. 

Sponsorship/Funding Officer: Damien Whoriskey. 

Youth Development Officer: Brian Doherty. 

Cuescore/Event Coordinator: Sean Devenney. 

Members stepping up to help in a non-committee role with PRO/Events Management/Sponsorship:

Chris Mc Anaw

Joe Fish Gallagher

Kevin Cassidy

Joe Hughes 

Ben McMenamin

Catherine McMenamin 

Sean McVeigh

 

Player coaching:

David McGurn kindly offered to step forward as players coach. Alongside this should any other high rank players like to step forward and offer their assistance in coaching we can consider going forward what we can offer from the club. 

New business / matters arising:

Qualifiers.

All members present generally agreed that last year’s system needs some sort of change. 

Shaun Sharkey sent an attached proposal.

 Hi Tina, just a proposal I’d like to put forward for the AGM … unfortunately it’s clashing with Ultimate so I won’t be in attendance.

I think the A team should be top 4 in the rankings followed by 4 wildcards that leaves 2 spots remaining that can we win through a trail from the next 8 in the rankings … I think that’s more than fair so if you finish at least top 12 in the rankings you still have a fair chance to make the A team and it gives us the best opportunity to win the All-Irelands.

That doesn’t mean you need 2 play a event to get a wildcard because for example maybe Ronan Whyte won’t be able to attend one this year but he’s a must for our team … I’d really like if you would give me this for one year as a trial because I know it will be the difference between winning and losing in Killarney. 

Thank you, 

Shaun Sharkey 

Paddy Diver also sent in attached proposal:

So I think many C and D team players feel they will never win a qualifier , therefore get a bit pissed off , 

So if there’s 8 qualifiers the first 4 should be a mixture of all standards , ABC and D teams 

– By that stage it should be well established who’s going to playing in ABC and D teams , 

– so for.the next 4 qualifiers have the A and B team players play together and the C and D team players play together 

– with a prize for A and B section and prize for C and D 

– After them 4 qualifiers are over the bottom 2 of the A team play Top 2 of B team and winner goes to A team , loser to B 

– bottom 2 of B plays top 2 of C and winners fo to B and losers to C 

– Bottom 2 of C plays top 2 of D , winners go to C , losers to D 

I’m sure that’s a big mad idea that would need to be ironed out but maybe it would give c and d standard something more to play for.

The outcome of the discussions were that:

Top two places from the Premier League have automatic qualification for the A-Team. 

Winner of king of the Hill A’s has Direct qualification for the A-Team. 

Winner of the Donegal County Championship singles has Direct qualification for the A-Team. 

Top four players from the ranking events have qualification for the A-TEAM.  

The reminder should be wildcards discussed with captain and chosen by committee.

All B, C and D teams have seven players qualifying from the rankings with two wild cards they should be discussed with captains and chosen by the committee.

The system of the qualifiers was discussed at length, several ideas were put forward including a return to the one frame format.

A tiered system was discussed, most members seeming to agree in general with the option of it being a one frame round robin set up with ranked sections. This was only queried as to whether it could be done with current numbers within a one-day format.

It was also questioned that the divisions our teams are entered into at the All-Irelands could be looked at. This year with the current IPA system we had our C team facing A teams and D teams facing B teams, if this continues is there a possibility of trying to re-rank our teams and move the B and C team down a tier to C and D sections.

This will have to be questioned at the next AGM for the Irish pool Association which is on August the 3rd and will be attended by Tina and Tracey. 

Matters to be bought to the IPA AGM being:

Selection of team rankings A teams are in C-sections and B teams are in D sections. Teams were not being ranked fairly.

Overall length of the competition if it couldn’t be shortened could it be moved from a Tuesday to a Saturday so that finals weren’t being played out Sunday night when everybody just needed to be on the road.

The All-Ireland used to be mainly a County Team event, it now has so many sub sections and single events is there a possibility of dropping plate rounds completely.

Any of the business..

New members shirts. 

It was agreed that we will be looking at replacing the shirts for next season with the suggestion of return to onboard sport shirts. There was also several other companies mentioned with the details of one brought forward by Mark Carlin, details have been noted. Rosie Mcguigan previous to the meeting has also suggested a supplier, details also noted.

Competitions.

Friday flyers will continue going forward. 

Summer leagues will start shortly, the new committee will be holding a meeting within the next week to get the ball rolling. 

It was suggested that more competitions were also needed. A recommendation was put forward by Chris Mc Anaw that Saturdays will have an open competition for anyone wanting in. We will be posting on facebook shortly a poster with details so. Any player can put their names in and simply turn up for the competition and run it between the players present. 

Ulster championships.

The Donegal pool Association have 4 teams entered for the Ulster Championships. Team selections is again something that will be sorted out in next week’s committee meeting.

However it was mentioned that a team has been entered privately made up of Donegal players but will not be played under the Donegal banner. This was not well received as it was felt that all teams going from Donegal should be selected by the committee and represent Donegal. 

Any other business continued..

It was proposed that we should have a routine streaming table permanently set up at the club on table 4, a camera should be installed so all finals can be live streamed. This will require further work as we will need to also bring in the Wi-Fi to the club but we were looking to it further. It was also suggested that new stools were needed for the club.

A proposal was made to get a card machine put in providing we have the Wi-Fi connection sorted. This will help Donegal players be able to pay with a card if preferred.

The pool tables need leveling and a pool table Jack needs purchased by the club.

Committee costs.

It was proposed by Mark McCarron that going forward the most active members on the committee should have some costs covered i.e. room for County Championship or subsidies towards the All-Ireland levies. 

It was also mentioned that the All-Ireland teams should have non-playing managers and these managers should also have subsidies off their levies or their levies covered.

Members meeting.

Are members meeting will take place again later on in the year.

Close of meeting.