*Photograph: Joe Buckley
33 percent of actions from the five-year Clare GAA strategic plan are now considered complete, the County Board Chairman has outlined.
In his address to Tuesday’s Clare GAA Convention in Hotel Woodstock, Kieran Keating detailed that one third of the actions from the Saffron and Blue strategic plan are now considered to be completed.
A further 39 percent of actions are labelled as “in progress,” he explained. “As any Strategic Plan will lose effectiveness and focus if not continually updated, we have commenced a review of the Saffron & Blue Plan in recent weeks and an updated plan for 2024-2028 will be presented to the County Committee for discussion and approval during the first quarter of 2024”.
There are a total of 240 actions from the Saffron and Blue Plan. It is broken into four strategic areas: Governance, Our Clubs, Our Games and Commercial Growth.
Further detail was provided in the report by planning and training officer, Paddy Smyth. Governance has a total of 22 actions, 7 of which are completed, 13 are in progress and two are delayed. In the area for clubs, a total of 53 actions are listed, of this 8 are complete, 16 are in progress, 2 are not yet due, 24 have not started and 3 are delayed.
Games is the section which also encompasses Caherlohan and has 106 actions, in this sector 40 actions are complete, 35 are in progress, 3 are not yet due, 21 have not started, 7 have been delayed. For commercial growth, 59 actions are listed where 23 are complete, 30 are in progress and 6 have not started.
Addressing the Convention, Smyth detailed, “the strategic plan is two years up and running. The report is the culmination of fifteen months’ work”. He is joined by Joan Crotty of Scariff, Sixmilebridge’s Vincent Delaney and two-time All-Ireland winner Sean McMahon on the planning and training committee.
A former secretary of Éire Óg, Paddy assured delegates “progress has been made”. He stated, “I was here last year and I addressed you and I said the implementation of the plan would not be a light switch moment, all committees have put their shoulder to the wheel”.
At the beginning of the December, the planning and training committee met with the nine people who devised the strategic plan, namely Enda Connolly, Roisin Glynn, Mark O’Connell, Conor Gilligan, Colin Kelly, Eoin Conroy, Eoin Doohan, Enda O’Flaherty and Kieran Keating.
Smyth said of the plan, “It is unique to the best of my knowledge, it is only one developed by independent business people”. He continued, “People from other counties couldn’t believe we got independent business people to devise the plan, it is way more objective because of this fact”.
Efforts in progressing the plan are “at a critical stage,” he acknowledged as they attempt to get another thirty five percent done. “It will take a huge effort, we’ve picked up the low hanging fruit, it will take work and the committees to work to get there”. The Ennis man concluded, “Clare GAA is in a good place but to keep it there will require continuous effort, when this is done we will need a new plan”.
