GAA President Christy Cooney lauds Edenderry GAA's Strategic Plan
ON Wednesday, March 3, Edenderry GAA welcomed GAA President Christy Cooney to the club to launch the Edenderry GAA Strategic Plan 2010-2015.
The plan has taken over 600 man-hours of preparation and will be used as a 'roadmap' for the future direction of the club.
The plan outlines clearly defined goals and objectives across all vital areas of development for the club.
The evening began with an official opening ceremony for the newly refurbished pavilion. Christy Cooney cut the ribbon to declare the pavilion officially open. Fr Greg Corcoran then gave the building his blessing.
Sean Farrell, Edenderry GAA Chairman acted as MC for the evening and invited three young members to welcome everyone to the club. Cian Lawton addressed the audience in Irish, followed by Damian Sadowski in Polish and Jade Oglesby translated the welcome to English.
Mr Farrell then thanked Colm Cummins for his tireless work in putting the plan in place and welcomed Christy Cooney to Edenderry for the second time in six months, stating that his previous visit had given the club lots of food for thought.
Fiona Brady, Chairperson, Edenderry Ladies Football Club spoke about the growth of Ladies Football in the past 10 years and the bond of friendship and co-operation that exists between all sections of the GAA family in Edenderry.
Colm Cummins, Vice Chairman of Edenderry GAA and Chairman of the Strategic Plan Steering Group then gave a short presentation of the process involved of putting the plan in place. He thanked everyone that helped in the process and stated that 'the people who are Edenderry GAA have developed this plan'.
Colm also commented that the visit of Christy Cooney to the club last July as part of his Ag Eisteacht programme was 'the catalyst for the development of the plan'.
However Colm stressed the importance of the club not sitting back admiring its work to date as much work remains to be done if all of the goals and targets in the plan are to be achieved.
Pat Teehan, Chairman of Offaly County Board, said he was honoured to be in Edenderry to see the plan published. He thanked the Edenderry club for their contribution to Gaelic Games in Offaly over many years and stressed the importance of planning for an organisation as large as Edenderry. Mr Teehan stated that he believed an Edenderry resurgence will benefit Offaly in time.
GAA President Christy Cooney said 'the brightest light of my time as President' was when told that Edenderry GAA had planned to put in place a Strategic Plan. He said the document would serve the club and the community in Edenderry by providing a strong and vibrant club structure into the future.
Mr Cooney informed the audience that the National Plan is in place since November 2008 and to date three provinces and thirteen counties have developed and published their own plans also.
However he said Edenderry GAA 'have shown leadership among the clubs in the country' and are now the first club to have completed the process of putting their plan in place. He stated that everyone involved in the process should feel a great sense of pride in the achievement and that the fruits of the plan were already evident in the transformation of the clubhouse since his previous visit in July.
To conclude proceedings, Edenderry man, Paul O'Kelly, who through his company O'Kelly Sutton, had been involved in drawing up the National Strategic Plan in 2008, addressed the audience.
As Edenderry means 'Brow of the Oak' it had been decided to present an oak tree to Christy Cooney, which it is hoped will have pride of place in his garden in Youghal and will provide a living reminder of the occasion.
Before accepting the gift, Christy Cooney thanked the club for a wonderfully thoughtful gesture and suggested they really had done their homework as his wife is a keen gardener. Paul O'Kelly then presented a bouquet of flowers to Lisa Clancy, Communications Director, Croke Park to thank her for her assistance during the entire process.
Refreshments were then served and the audience were then treated to traditional music and song by local group 'Uncle Arthur'.
Copies of the Edenderry GAA Strategic Plan 2010-2015 are available in the clubhouse or by e-mailing secretary.edenderry.offaly@gaa.ie. The Edenderry GAA Strategic Plan 2010-2015 will also be available to download in the coming weeks on the club website www.edenderrygaa.com.
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