Congratulations to our members who took part in the NTSA Club Instructors Course this weekend.  The course which lasted 1 day and was held in the Community Centre was a great success and was attended by 22 instructors drawn from NTSA Clubs as well the Pony Club and Modern Pentathlon.  The course was led and coordinated by Matt, Marina, Mark and my good self!  I am very pleased with the outcome.  Every one who took part on the course participated fully and enjoyed the experience and  have learned an enormous amount of material both practical and theory.  Now that we have a pool of instructors available to us, the challenge will be to ensure that this wealth of talent and experience and energy is  fully channelled into the development of our sport both in our club and into supporting other clubs and helping them to become established and to prosper.

Well done Mark, Mark, Colm, Dick, Richard, Jimmy and Marina, we welcome you as our new instructors and we wish you well in your new role, may you grow, prosper develop and never stop being willing, enthusiastic and keen to learn!  Better coaches make better athletes - be the best you can and believe me that will be excellent!

I want to give a brief report on our first committee meeting for this year, which took place last night.  A more detailed report will be made available in a couple of days.

We discussed at length aspects of membership and communication.

We looked at ways of making membership more accessible and at membership fees.  It was agreed that membership of the NTSA would be included in the Club fee.  A number of amendments were made to the levels of membership currently available and we are hopeful that these changes will encourage more members to join.

In the club at present, we have, available to us, most methods of modern communicating technology, it was pointed out that we are very much lacking in content.  Even though, we are able to get the information 'out there', we are a bit shy on people willing to submit articles and comments for circulation.  In the comming weeks, we will be showing our members how to submit material, and we will be encouraging our members to be keen to do so.  It is our plan to be much more proactive in making information available, this does not get away from the fact that if people do not open emails, open sms msgs, or check with the web site, then the information will not get to them.  So please pay attention to the various items that will be sent to you and please be willing to engage with us.  Communication is a two way path.  We will push information out to you, we will be keen for you to pull the information in by opening the emails and checking the other messages and we wil also be depending on you to keep your ideas and comments coming into us.  So we can all work together to make our club better and stronger.

We have our next meeting planned for next Tuesday night and we weclome your comments and ideas always, so please do not be afraid to get in touch with me or with any of our committee and keep us informed.

Enda Kenny, the leader of Fine Gael, paid a quick visit to Wilkinstown last night to formally launch the election campaign of local councillor Patsy O'Neill.  Enda was accompanied by Mariead McGuinness MEP, Shane McEntee TD and John Farrelly, to name but a few.  The reception to host the launch was very well attended and Mr. Kenny was introduced and spoke briefly with all present.  Enda also engaged in a robust and good natured way with Jack, who is a supporter of a different party!  Plenty of time for photographs, (some of which I will post, as soon as Mark shows me how!).

The speeches from Larry Duffy, Patsy, Mairead, Shane and Enda encouraged all to support Patsy in the forthcoming elections and to help the Party to win the next general election.  There was a great atmosphere in the club house and music entertainment and light refreshments were all provided locally.  Patsy has been a good friend to our club and we wish him well.