Report of Galway Soccer Co-op AGM that was held on Monday evening 25th January at Eamonn Deacy Park. The Chair for the evening, Jim Brennan, opened the meeting just after 7pm. He gave a brief update of the activities for the year which included setting up the co-op and building the membership of over 200 people. He recognised that this year would be an important year for the development of the co-op. He then introduced the Galway United Team Manager, Tommy Dunne, to address the meeting.
Tommy gave a talk on how the pre-season for the senior team was progressing and what his aims for the upcoming season was. He hoped that the club could consolidate on last year and finish in a higher position in the league and repeat a good cup run.
Report of Galway Soccer Co-op AGM – Treasurer Report
The Treasurer, Tom Quigley, presented the accounts for the co-op for the year to the membership. He went though the income which consisted wholly of membership fees collected. The expenditure was also gone through. There were expenses of about € 700 to legally set up the co-op, about € 400 was spent to produce membership brochures and on the printing and postage of share certificate. The Co-op may a financial contribution to Galway United of € 4,300 and entered a team in the Galway United golf day for €200. It was explained that under the rules of the co-op it is required to keep members shares in reserve and this was done. A balance of approximately €600 is to be carried into next years accounts.
Galway Soccer Co-op Elections
The elections of the committe for the Galway Soccer co-op the upcoming year were held. Both Nicola Deacy and Mike Bucley were resigning for the committee and were not seeking re-election. A third of the existing board were to step down but could seek re-election. Jim Breenan, Tom Quigley and Ronan Coleman sought re-election. Donnie Farragher, Gavan Duffy, Iain Shaw, Sean Dunleavy and Steve Madden were proposed and seconded from the floor for election. All candidates were elected to the committee. The committee for 2016 are Jim Brennan, Steve Madden, Tom Quigley, Cliff Rowe, Sean Dunleavy, Donnie Farragher, Iain Shaw, Gavan Duffy, Ronan Coleman, and James O’Toole.
Motions passed
The members present passed to motions that were presented by the committee. The first was that the Galway Soccer Co-op would fund-raise and contribute to the running of the Galway United Under 19 team for the upcoming meeting. Johnny Glynn, the manager of the under-19 team, spoke to the meeting about his vision of the under-19 been a stepping stone for young players. The second motion passed was that the committee would investigate a re-branding of the co-op to more closely reflect it’s association with Galway United and to create a short-list of names that the members can decide upon.
Any Other Business
Throughout the meeting there was a number of discussions in relation to ways in which the co-op could promote Galway United and raise funds for the under-19 team. Gavan Duffy gave an update on a meeting attended on behalf of the Galway Soccer Co-op of the Irish Supporters Network(ISN). The meeting was attended by Supporters Direct Europe who are running a Erasmus+ programme over the next few years with funding from Europe. The meeting closed at about 8.15pm