AAI Congress

emerald007

With the AAI congress coming up in April it might be handy to have a thread here to track various aspects of it, i.e

New rule/process proposals
Nominations to the board

Are there any boardies who will be attending/have attended before.

thirtyfoot

Not sure how this could be done but can we have the thread so that its not used blatantly as a tool to canvass certain nominees for positions which in fairness is only likely to be done by a small number of posters (I only want one nominee to get in but I won't canvass here from now on). I'm not going as the Varsities are on in Dublin, wouldn't go anyone as I'm not a delegate and if I did would probably shoot myself with disbelief, boredom and frustration. As canvassing is purely based on personal opinion and will usually involve knocking an opponent this could get very messy and personal.

Mods/other posters: Is it possible to have a No Canvassing Rule are regards this thread. That way there is no problem. If not, thats cool but I'd be expecting an oul locking before too long:D

shels4ever

emerald007 wrote: »

With the AAI congress coming up in April it might be handy to have a thread here to track various aspects of it, i.e

New rule/process proposals
Nominations to the board

Are there any boardies who will be attending/have attended before.

I'd say there will be a few from here there that weekend, a strategic boards voting strategy could be developed ( Oh no, nobody agrees on anything on here ).

Peckham

I'd probably be there, except am in London marathon that weekend.

ecoli

I'm out aswell due to the intervaristies being on. Pity would have liked to head down

meathcountysec

emerald007 wrote: »

Are there any boardies who will be attending/have attended before.

For my many and varied sins I will be there:o

emerald007

is anybody aware of the proposal for permits that will be proposed at the congress?

meathcountysec

27.That: where two or more clubs/organisations apply to host an equivalent athletics event within a 50-mile radius of each other on the same day then the club/organisation whose event has traditionally on that day shall be given preference.
Meath County Board

28.That: AAI Members do not support athletic events without permits and that clubs actively ensure that athletic events in their area have permits. (This Motion is not referring to BHAA and Community Games)
Cork County Board

emerald007

any chance of posting 1 to 27 and 28+ ?

thirtyfoot

emerald007 wrote: »

any chance of posting 1 to 27 and 28+ ?

Yes, are there any other motions of interest?

meathcountysec

Tingle wrote: »

Yes, are there any other motions of interest?

My pdf copy of Congress Program exceeds 5mb limit for uploading to Boards and I ain't going to type them all out.....

robinph

meathcountysec wrote: »

27.That: where two or more clubs/organisations apply to host an equivalent athletics event within a 50-mile radius of each other on the same day then the club/organisation whose event has traditionally on that day shall be given preference.
Meath County Board

Will that 50miles include crossing county lines? Or do they neighbouring county's consult each other already as far as the permits go?

lecheile

robinph wrote: »

Will that 50miles include crossing county lines? Or do they neighbouring county's consult each other already as far as the permits go?

Currently the 50mile distance does not stop at county boundaries. Difficult in and around Dublin with so many races and so few dates - what tends to happen is that the first holder of the permit can 'agree' to allow another event within the radius to be given a permit for their event.

emerald007

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/counties-demand-coghlan-case-gets-airing-at-congress-2131207.html

emerald007

meathcountysec

emerald007 wrote: »

These are just the motions, though. Some of the reports make interesting reading.

emerald007

emerald007

If a boardie is attending the congress this weekend, can you ask when we might expect to hear the team results of the national 10km road race?

notsofast

the AAI website has an article about the election of some officers at congress over the weekend. Anything exciting happen otherwise ? Any interesting motions carried (such as extending all cross country distances ?).

thirtyfoot

Most of the motions are rubbish anyway so probably don't matter.

I was shocked to be honest to see such a majority for Liam Hennessy in beating the Coghlan/Giblin candidate Michael Heery. Maybe they shot themselves in the foot with such an aggressive campaign (with one or two posters on this forum being an example of such tactics) but when it comes to personal and threathening attacks on a volunteer, then there was something wrong. The members obviously didn't like it and the emails that were flying around spectacularly backfired.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics-hennessy-calls-for-united-front-after-retaining-aai-presidency-2152388.html

I think its now time to move on and as the losing presidental candidate Michael Heery said

"If anyone in the association is still harbouring a personal agenda, for God's sake, give it up."

Well said. Goodbye politics, Hello sport. I think its now safe to say, we are moving on:cool:

ecoli

Tingle wrote: »

Most of the motions are rubbish anyway so probably don't matter.

I was shocked to be honest to see such a majority for Liam Hennessy in beating the Coghlan/Giblin candidate Michael Heery. Maybe they shot themselves in the foot with such an aggressive campaign (with one or two posters on this forum being an example of such tactics) but when it comes to personal and threathening attacks on a volunteer, then there was something wrong. The members obviously didn't like it and the emails that were flying around spectacularly backfired.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics-hennessy-calls-for-united-front-after-retaining-aai-presidency-2152388.html

I think its now time to move on and as the losing presidental candidate Michael Heery said



Well said. Goodbye politics, Hello sport. I think its now safe to say, we are moving on:cool:

While i am suprised about Hennessy retaining his tenure the tone from the Congress is one of moving on which is what is needed. Rather see him learn from his mistakes than someone new making the same mistakes i suppose

IrishTrackFan1

Tingle wrote: »

Most of the motions are rubbish anyway so probably don't matter.

I was shocked to be honest to see such a majority for Liam Hennessy in beating the Coghlan/Giblin candidate Michael Heery. Maybe they shot themselves in the foot with such an aggressive campaign (with one or two posters on this forum being an example of such tactics) but when it comes to personal and threathening attacks on a volunteer, then there was something wrong. The members obviously didn't like it and the emails that were flying around spectacularly backfired.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics-hennessy-calls-for-united-front-after-retaining-aai-presidency-2152388.html

I think its now time to move on and as the losing presidental candidate Michael Heery said



Well said. Goodbye politics, Hello sport. I think its now safe to say, we are moving on:cool:

Agree. its over now for 2 more years and if the members want Hennessy then so be it. Don't be fooled by crocodile tears from Hennessy though. He begged for the job and ended his plea in tears, But at the same time he called a break right after his speech which prevented any questions being asked (which is standard procedure) and then went straight into the vote after the break. He put the CEO presentation on early to soften people up (its been at the end of the day on the two previous occasions it happened). He complained about threatening emails, very unlikely I'd say and he wasn't slow to get unsubstantiated bullying complaints about Coghlan into the Sunday papers when it suited his purposes. Pot, kettle etc. He is on the board for thirty years, has seen off the Nagles, Walls etc and while I doubt Coghlan and Giblin control Heery they were wasting their time trying to change the culture if that was their plan. Another candidate would probably not have attracted the negatives about Heery i.e. the whole idea of him coming back from retirement, but it is hard to see who could have been put up other than Heery. It was good that Heery went up for election as it enabled an honest debate to be held.
I thought McGonagle was the big loser - his aura of invincibility was broken and while I think they will keep him as team manager his days of controlling all aspects of HP are coming to an end.
More generally I thought the new Board is an improvement. O'Cathain knows how to manage a budget and while he has less business experience than Giblin he has the links to the third level.<Snip>. Quigley is an honest sort and kept Drumm off the board which is positive. Same for Jim Ryan, honest guy who will manage any misbehaviour in the Juvenile side.
Ray Flynn and Jim Kidd are both strong enough to keep any stupid ISC HP plans at bay and they both are athlete centred.
<Snip> but you can't expect everything to happen in one go and overall I would say things are moving in the right direction.
Only losers will be our London elite as I can't see any world class initiatives coming from the HP plan but as I have said earlier I would love to be wrong about that.

thirtyfoot

Irishtrackfan1 - would you have pinned as a reasonable one but that post sounds a bit like sour grapes.

The people have spoken and no element of re-jigging the schedue, faking emotion (harsh comment), getting Sunday Indo reporters to report what they heard or making up stories of threathening emails/texts (easy to believe him when you read some of the posts here by a small number of posters) will give such a comprehensive victory of over 60%. It was a crushing victory and the grassroots aren't stupid, brainwashed, naive and believing of the conspiracy theorists (not saying you are a conspiracy theorist;))

Excited by some of the appointments to the board, leaders who get (good) sh*t done.

ChickenTikka

I was at Congress for the Saturday and my main impressions were

a) The workings of the current board had completely broken down with several members of the board having a swipe at each other in their contributions to the congress.

b) The strong opinion voiced by many of the speakers for unity moving forward.

Hopefully b) will be the case. For a) I felt that there should have been accountability for the situation that had been allowed to happen in the last two years - with that resting with the President. But that didn't happen. While maybe Heery wasn't a popular option for the Congress, he wasn't allowed address the Congress on his merits for Presidency while the outgoing President had the floor for an extended speech. Heery attempted to speak early in the Congress in regard to clearing up some misinformation that he felt had been circulated about him not been able to work with the CEO. But his contribution was cut short and ruled out of order - and he concluded by politely asking the outgoing President for the opportunity to speak later in the day. He was given that opportunity after the presidential vote - a bit late for what he wanted. But I guess that was the perogative of the President. It probably would not have swayed the vote since most of these votes are decided at County Board level in advance - but the decent thing to do was to let each candidate for the presidency a chance to speak prior to the vote.

It brings it back to points made here previously that a large chunk of the delegates have no clue who/what they are voting for other than voting along provencial lines in many cases. It would be real nice to see a brief resume of each candidate prior to future elections so that the membership can decide who they'd like to lead the organisation forward.

So hopefully the new Board under the existing President will show unity and that the President will show strong leadership and work immediately to nip any disunity in the bud so that it doesn't interfere with the workings of the board.

Before anyone comments, I'm not on any side here. Just commenting from what I perceive as fair/unfair. I sincerely hope that there is no infighting on the new Board and that the President rises to the challenge and leads AAI to an incredibly successful and united 2 years. And in case he's reading, I'm available for selection to go to London 2012 if he needs someone to carry his bags.

Fish'n'Chips

Originally posted by Tingle
Irishtrackfan1 - would you have pinned as a reasonable one but that post sounds a bit like sour grapes.

The people have spoken and no element of re-jigging the schedue, faking emotion (harsh comment), getting Sunday Indo reporters to report what they heard or making up stories of threathening emails/texts (easy to believe him when you read some of the posts here by a small number of posters) will give such a comprehensive victory of over 60%. It was a crushing victory and the grassroots aren't stupid, brainwashed, naive and believing of the conspiracy theorists (not saying you are a conspiracy theorist)

While it's time to move on and hope the new members of the board can influence some positive change I don't agree with what you have said above. I don't think saying the "people have spoken" truly reflects the grassroots or the reality of what has taken place within AAI over the past 2 years. Congress is pure politics; not necessarily what is really right for the sport. Look at the GAA and you'll see similar parallels.

I'm not saying the delegates are stupid or naive but were any of them given an explanation for the wasted money or did many of them even ask for one? Draw your own conclusions to the answer to that one. If they were shareholders in a company you can bet they would have. As one example, the youtube clips show that it was obvious Hennessy was lieing in front of an Oireachtas committee yet the majority of the delegates must have thought that was ok. High court transcripts reveal similar shenanigans. A lot of principles must have been checked in at the reception of the hotel.

It's not exactly too difficult to figure out why AAI/BLE is/has been such a dysfunctional organisation when you see a man of that character re-elected to lead it. A lot of people in athletics in Ireland operate within a bubble and can't see what a joke it is in this country compared to other countries and other sports in Ireland. This doesn't look like changing any time soon.

The fact that Hennessy chose to call a break at a time when questions would normally be asked is very damning (or would be in a normally functioning organisation). If he was so innocent in the whole debacle why wasn't he willing to field questions on the matter? Reducing himself to tears is pathetic and a real sign of desperation but it appears to have worked for him. If there was ever an example of going for the sympathy vote that was it!

Also, if he had really received abusive and threatetning e-mails/texts why didn't he contact the Gardai about it?

Tingle, when valid points have been raised about Hennessy, McGonagle etc. on this board you have fobbed them off and made a skit of them by suggesting that it was an attempt at a conspiracy theory but I can't recall you ever backing your comments up with facts.

Do you honestly think Hennessy and McGonagle are really the victims they have made themselves out to be and do you really think Hennessy is suitable to be the president of the organisation?

thirtyfoot

And the abuse continues, calling someone pathetic, a liar......is it too much of a stretch to think that the type of posts Fish N Chips puts up here wouldn't manifest into texts and emails of a similar nature to Hennessy himself (not saying FnC would be sending these texts/emails) but to me I am not surprised that he did get such abuse.

I think you are losing credibility by saying that the grassroots aren't represented at Congress, again it seems you are saying you know what grassroots want. Grassroots has very little interest in HP plans!!!

As for the joking and the skitting, whats wrong with that? Some people take life too seriously and take things like this too seriously. On that, one final joke, maybe you could have got Joe Coleman to make the short trip from Knock to Sligo at the weekend and re-created some visions in the sky or made the sun dance as it might have swayed the vote;) Being serious though, I never saw these valid points you made about Hennessy and McGonagle apart from the same old 'Hennessy is a .....' and 'McGonagle is like a GAA trainer bla bla bla......'. It was all gusto and no substance. You didn't want to discuss the HP plan in detail unlike say irishtrackfan1 but instead went back on the 'Hennessy is a .....'. So, your posts had no real substance apart from personal opionion and personal attacks, my retort to that was to have a bit of craic.

Finally, I was on no real side here. You could say I have a score to settle with McGonagle/Devlin after I was 'shafted' out of a Europa Cup spot a few years ago and in fact a lifelong coach of mine blanks Liam Hennessy due to his perceived involvement in it, even though he wasn't so you see I was on no side and believe it or not was trying to balance it up here on Boards.ie when I saw the constant vitriol being posted. Remember the same type of vitriol that was thrown at Mary by irish_athlete1 when he came on here first last year and I came on to balance that up or raising Patsy's blog about the athletes last year. You see, I am unbiased and in the main don't take here too seriously and definetly don't use it for political reasons and probably would try to balance things up if I saw this place being used for such a purpose, which in the main what was being done by Fish N Chips. Did you expect to get a free ride to spout the spin? I'm sure if irish_athlete1 had been on we could have been locking horns with him too.

Anyway, its all over now, thanks be to God. The court case is sorted, Congress is sorted, we have a good board, a HP plan and a great summer of athletics to look forward to with hopefully a load of medals in Barcalona and maybe boards.ie will be a sport politics freezone for a while.

Fish'n'Chips

Originally posted by Tingle
And the abuse continues, calling someone pathetic, a liar......is it too much of a stretch to think that the type of posts Fish N Chips puts up here wouldn't manifest into texts and emails of a similar nature to Hennessy himself (not saying FnC would be sending these texts/emails) but to me I am not surprised that he did get such abuse.

Are you saying he didn't lie at the Oireachtas hearing and breaking down crying in order to gain sympathy and votes isn't pathetic? As I said before if he really received threatetning texts/e-mails why hasn't he contacted the Gardai about them?

Originally posted by Tingle
I think you are losing credibility by saying that the grassroots aren't represented at Congress, again it seems you are saying you know what grassroots want. Grassroots has very little interest in HP plans!!!

Nor do they seem to have much interest in the leadership of their organisation blowing hundreds of thousands of Euros. Go figure. As I stated before Congress is pure politics. The same people have been involved for years and as ChickenTikka stated a large chunk of them don't seem to have much clue what they are voting on other than voting along provencial lines in many cases. This provencial minded approach is probably the main reason why athletics is so poorly developed in this country compared to others.

Originally posted by Tingle
Being serious though, I never saw these valid points you made about Hennessy and McGonagle apart from the same old 'Hennessy is a .....' and 'McGonagle is like a GAA trainer bla bla bla......'. It was all gusto and no substance.

No substance? Was that Liam Hennessy's double you saw on youtube? Were the High Court transcripts a complete work of fiction or did you even bother to read them? Why did the organisation notch up close to 400K in legal expenses and eventually settle? Was it all just bad luck on their part?

Originally posted by Tingle
You didn't want to discuss the HP plan in detail unlike say irishtrackfan1 but instead went back on the 'Hennessy is a .....'.

I stated my reason for seeing no poin in discussing the details of the HP plan - I said there's no point in discussing it when the people involved in implementing it don't have the ability to do it. They've been involved in the sport for donkey's years and have achieved nothing as regards putting a proper HP programme in place. That's a harsh reality you're simply not willing to face up to.

Originally posted by Tingle
So, your posts had no real substance apart from personal opionion and personal attacks, my retort to that was to have a bit of craic.

I stated facts so that is an outrageous comment to make. When the facts were presented to you you never addressed them and instead decided to hide behind jokes and skits. I'm all for having a joke but you conveniently say 'I don't take life too seriously' when it suits you to distract attention from the fact that you haven't specifically addressed the points I have made. Can you answer some of the questions I've asked?

thirtyfoot

FishnChips wrote: »

Are you saying he didn't lie at the Oireachtas hearing and breaking down crying in order to gain sympathy and votes isn't pathetic? As I said before if he really received threatetning texts/e-mails why hasn't he contacted the Gardai about them?



Nor do they seem to have much interest in the leadership of their organisation blowing hundreds of thousands of Euros. Go figure. As I stated before Congress is pure politics. The same people have been involved for years and as ChickenTikka stated a large chunk of them don't seem to have much clue what they are voting on other than voting along provencial lines in many cases. This provencial minded approach is probably the main reason why athletics is so poorly developed in this country compared to others.



No substance? Was that Liam Hennessy's double you saw on youtube? Were the High Court transcripts a complete work of fiction or did you even bother to read them? Why did the organisation notch up close to 400K in legal expenses and eventually settle? Was it all just bad luck on their part?



I stated my reason for seeing no poin in discussing the details of the HP plan - I said there's no point in discussing it when the people involved in implementing it don't have the ability to do it. They've been involved in the sport for donkey's years and have achieved nothing as regards putting a proper HP programme in place. That's a harsh reality you're simply not willing to face up to.



I stated facts so that is an outrageous comment to make. When the facts were presented to you you never addressed them and instead decided to hide behind jokes and skits. I'm all for having a joke but you conveniently say 'I don't take life too seriously' when it suits you to distract attention from the fact that you haven't specifically addressed the points I have made. Can you answer some of the questions I've asked?

I think you need to let it go, its over. Not wasting my time and energy debating with you as its like a broken record and if that is seen as me dodging your questions, so be it. To attempt to answer your questions:

1 - Did he lie in the Oireachtas, if so, will he not be in trouble and the Gardai coming looking for him (dunno, maybe there is some special Dail privilege)?
2 - How do you know his emotions are't genuine. One of the court transcripts mentions Mary Coghlan said he cried in some meeting or other and Mary admitted she felt sorry for him at the time. He is an emotional guy, passionate about the sport.
3 - Maybe he did go to the Gardai, don't know. How do you know he didn't, have they not contacted you yet;)
4 - The board was made up of more than Liam Hennessy. Mary and Gerry were there too. Gerry was chair of finance, Mary was leading the finance side of Euro Cross, a financial disaster only saved at the death by John Foley, something Gerry metioned in his Congress notes. Maybe those who got compo should have done a McGonagle and gave it back.
5 - Whats wrong with the provincial mindset. Again, you claim to know whats good for all the members, what authority do you do this on. What international world class HP plans have you implemented? What club structures have you put in place to provide conveyor belts of talent? If Congress is all political yet Heery won ,would you not be proclaiming it that the people have spoken, I think so. In reality its the mindset of many in the provinces, ie, Ferrybank, Kerry, Dooneen, Ballymena, Mullingar and others that are the real success stories in Irish athletics. Thats what really annoys me about some of your postings, you think you know whats best for the little people.
6 - Oireachtas thing, yes probably not the greatest display of leadership and composure but it was not the only example of a lack of leadership at the time.
7 - On legal costs, as I said, there was a gang of them in it and some of the gang gave back their winnings.
8 - On not discussing the HP, fair enough if you don't want to discuss the more interesting parts of our sport, as in the content and how it could affect people on a day to day basis as opposed to the personalities.
9 - Answered all the questions there I think.

Here, this is all now boring. If it makes you happy, I am willing to admit you are right, everything you say is right and we are all led by a gang of gombeen men and women, the delegates are all out of touch with the grassroots and we are all going to descend into the hell of athletic doom. Message to all out there. We are all f**ked, stop coaching, stop training, shut down your clubs and give up, its all to no avail.

Tingle, over and out!

Rineanna

Mod Warning: I'm after deleting some personal comments made about individuals which have zero substantiation. If the same people can't be bothered to respect the charter or just have any common sense about posting about individuals on a public forum, then this thread is being locked down and bans handed out. It's getting slightly tiring to see the same comments by the same individuals regarding the same topics. The AAI's recent troubles have been beaten to death, and the congress was the place and forum to really solve them and air your grievances, not here. The votes have been cast and decisions made so I suggest we move on.

Fish'n'Chips

Originally posted by Tingle
9 - Answered all the questions there I think.

Not very well though. Poor enough explanation of how the 400k spent on legal fees came about. Fairly critical to all that has been discussed here I would have thought.

Originally posted by Tingle
we are all going to descend into the hell of athletic doom.

No we won't and I never said we would. Things will just trudge along as they have always done in athletics in this country with very little change. Ignorance is bliss.

downthemiddle

Tingle wrote: »

1 - Did he lie in the Oireachtas, if so, will he not be in trouble and the Gardai coming looking for him (dunno, maybe there is some special Dail privilege)?

Only TD's and senators are covered by Oireachtas privilege. When you make a presentation to an Oireachtas committee the chairperson covers the subject of privilege before you speak. If Liam Hennessy was thought to have said anything unacceptable at the committee he would be subject to the same legal restraints as anyone other private citizen.
I'm amused to find myself defending people I have previously criticised. However my difficulty with the criticism on this and other threads is that it is personal. It is in no way constructive and it ignores the wishes of the majority of AAI members. Liam Hennessy is president for the next two years. It is time to move on. There is nothing new that can be said on the subjects covered over the last few weeks.

notsofast

Does anyone know where the results of the motions at congress can be seen ? Were the increase in cross country distances passed for instance ?

meathcountysec

notsofast wrote: »

Does anyone know where the results of the motions at congress can be seen ? Were the increase in cross country distances passed for instance ?

The minutes will be circulated in due course. As far as the cross country distances, I presume you mean the juveniles? A composite motion was agreed with increases in distances. Can't remember the exact distances but they will be in the minutes.

longjump67

Was wondering if anyone knows whether or not the motions passed at the recent AAI congress take effect this year?

Juvenile distances for cross country
Inclusion of ball throw for U-12 programme

meathcountysec

longjump67 wrote: »

Was wondering if anyone knows whether or not the motions passed at the recent AAI congress take effect this year?

Juvenile distances for cross country
Inclusion of ball throw for U-12 programme

As far as I understand all changes will take effect this season.

longjump67

Yes had confirmation from AAI regarding the cross country distances and the inclusion off the Ball Throw for U-12 Boys& Girls in this years Juvenile Championships

notsofast

Did you hear what the new juvenile cross country distances are going to be ? thanks

longjump67

Yes
New Cross Country Distances From
September 2010.
Changed at AAI Congress 25th April 2010.
Ages Girls Boys
U11 1500m 1500m
U12 2000m 2000m
U13 2500m 2500m
U14 3000m 3000m
U15 3500m 3500m
U16 4000m 4000m
U17 4500m 5000m
U18 5000m 6000m
U19 5000m 7000m