Chairperson’s Address 2014
I would firstly like to thank everyone for making the effort to attend our AGM. As we all know, we are a voluntary group of school staff, doing our best to help the students in our care. Without our collective cooperation and enthusiasm our students would never get to participate in all the varied sporting activities we provide. The unseen work behind the scenes, such as organizing the sporting calendar at the AGM, is vital in this effort.
So, Thank You All!
This has been my first year as Chair, and thanks to the systems put in place by my predecessor, Joe McCarthy, most everything ran smoothly. The one hiccup has been the Grant Application process. For next year I will definitely be chasing people for their Event Templates much earlier in the year!
I have had some very informative meetings with CARA, the National Adaptive Sports Centre. We have linked up with their initiatives in Sportshall Athletics, and are making plans for their upcoming Tag Rugby initiative.
I have also had similar meetings with the Inclusion Officer in the Community Games.
The ISSSC is not widely known, and I feel that it would benefit us to become more so. As a result of meeting with other sporting bodies, I am becoming convinced that many sports would love to help coach and set up competitions for us. To be honest, it ticks the boxes for them also.
With this in mind, I participated in a radio interview with South Dublin FM, along with students from Colaiste Eoin from Dublin. I had better stick to the day job… a career in broadcasting is not for me!
Finally, best of luck to everyone in the upcoming academic year. I hope we all enjoy it, and may all our students’ succeed.
Niamh Walsh
Chairperson October 2014