FIVEMILETOWN UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 6 th June 2017 Youth Annex, Fivemiletown Secretary Report Mike Long
Secretary s Report The purpose of the Secretary s report at an AGM is to summarise the activity of the Club since the previous AGM. I will try to be as brief as possible and wish to apologise in advance if I have omitted the contribution or achievement of any individual. I would like to extend a warm welcome to all members to our Annual General Meeting tonight. The goal of my report is to outline the events both on and off the field and to outline the future vision and aspirations of the club going forward. Firstly I would like to cover the Off the Field achievements of the club over the past 12 months and to outline to all members the continued workload and effort taken on by the elected officers each year. As an elected committee, one of our main goals is to generate income to cover our costs, but this year we also decided to look at ways to reduce our costs as well, to ensure the club is financially stable and can use fundraising funds for development projects and not just to cover ongoing expenses. This is something we are going to continue into the new season. Fundraising Fundraising is a vital component for any club, to not only survive but to also ensure that we can develop and provide excellent facilities for our players, members and the wider community. While Fundraising is increasingly harder to undertake given all the financial burdens on our members and community, the club would like to thank you all for your continued support in our efforts over the past 12 months. I will not go into the costs or profits, Brian our Treasurer will have more details on that front. This season saw the introduction of a couple of new fundraising ideas; firstly the 1000 ticket draw with a monthly 50 prize and a 1000 prize when all tickets are sold and huge credit to Gareth for his efforts regarding the amount of tickets sold. The other new venture was the introduction by Scott long of the club lotto; he was responsible for getting them printed getting sponsors and getting the thing up and running, so credit to him, these tickets were sold at all first team home games and is quite popular, something we are looking to expand next year. Other fundraisers this year, and again Gareth must be commended for his efforts, were the Darts night held at the British Legion, a night at the races and three poker nights all in the Jubilee bar and all organised by Gareth. In the clubhouse itself, it was a quiet year, with only a couple of games nights, a quiz earlier in the season and the family fun day with bouncy castles, face painting and BBQ during our Irish cup game against Newington. The club awards night last year, 2016, turned out to a great night not only financially, but was talked about for quite some time after. Another success was the youth blitz back in July; many compliments have been received about how well it was organised and run on the day, which credit must go to our Chairman Davy who organised the tournament.
Sponsorship The club would like to thank all our sponsors, too many to name, who have contributed to the club over the past 12 months and have given much-needed support in enabling the club to continue to grow and evolve. our sponsorship overall is up this year, with companies sponsoring kit at all levels from the first team right down to the u11s, this, however, is usually a one off deal and very little, if any of that money coming into the club itself. Getting local companies involved with this club, is very important for the survival, progression and future of this club, and every effort must be taken in securing and increasing the number of sponsors over the coming months. Social On the community front the club, as I have already mention ran a family fun day and only a couple of weeks ago Rhys organised a games night in the clubhouse for the youth academy. Something we take great pride in, is the use of modern forms of communicating with, not only the local communities but the whole world, and that is the use of social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to an extent, these platforms have lifted the club's profile to a new level, with over 2200 likes on our Facebook page and over 1300 on twitter, you can see there is a lot of people interested in what goes on at Fivemiletown United. With our, week commencing, match results, live game updates, man of the match, player of the month and first team results, our social media is top notch At the start of the season our website was overhauled and brought right up to date and, I think, is one of the better sites, certainly for a club of this size, out there at the moment. But keeping a good website running with up to date information needs people to look after it, or at least supply information to be included, if anyone is interested in helping out on that side of things please let me know. Also, new this past season was the introduction of a free text alert service, sending messages on first team fixtures and results, we currently have over 40 people who have signed up, and I would like to see this service continued and get more people involved. Ground Development Over the past 12 months, there has been a tremendous amount of work done around the grounds. The purchase of our own mower enabled our pitch to be maintained to the highest quality throughout the year by Gary Noble with his son Dylan and they are a credit to the club. All visiting teams have commended us on the quality of pitch and the good condition it is always in. At the start of the season we had walkways put in, ball catcher, fencing repaired, painting and general maintenance. Throughout the season we have continued to improve the facilities by adding 6 fencing around most of the ground, acquired a good number of seats and got our hands on some turnstiles, all things required if we wish to be considered for promotion. Over the course of the coming season, more work will be carried out, the completion of the fencing, installing the seating and upgrading the walkways.
Membership Membership is another main fundraising source and is required to cover the club s team affiliations, cup entries and insurance at the Valley Stadium. We currently only have 42 Full members which is very low considering over two-thirds of these are players, and membership collected just about covers the costs for affiliations and insurance. Like everything else the cost of insurance and affiliations are due to rise annually, so I would strongly encourage you to actively promote club membership with your family, friends and neighbours to help the club cover these costs. On The Field On the Field events for the club during the past year: I will start with the not so good part which is the Fermanagh and western senior teams. Both these teams struggled throughout the season and both managers will agree things were tough at times, lack of commitment from our registered players and the weather causing so many games to be rescheduled that it was hard to get any consistency. The thirds, in particular, had two failed to field something this club hasn t had for many years. But new season approaches and hopefully both teams will be fighting at the top of their leagues rather than the bottom. The first team, on the other hand, has had a positive effect on the club, the newly appointed manager Scott Robinson didn t take long in getting his backroom staff together, and over the preseason, he made several key signings and bringing a more professional look to the squad and lift the team s profile. During pre-season we played the likes of Ballinamallard and Dungannon, we also lifted some silver wear when we won the Coffey Cup for the eighth time in its history. The first half of the league campaign produced, as Chris McDowell said, a wee stat, This squad is the first in modern times (25 years) to go the opening 13 league games unbeaten. That, you have to agree, is quite outstanding, we ended the Intermediate A challenge in fourth on goal difference in a very tightly contested league with only the one point separating 3rd place with the 7th place I think a successful season for this squad s first year together. Our cup campaign was a little indifferent with early exits in the Premier cup, Bob Radcliffe cup and the Intermediate cup, but the Irish cup was an unprecedented success with wins over Sirocco Works, the memorable comeback against Newington and of course the away win at Dundela to take us into the fifth round for the first time in the club's 130 year history. The dream came to an end against Loughgall with three late goals to seal our fate, but what an exciting time, for the players, the supporters and for the club as a whole, roll on next year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our senior management team for all the commitment and hard work that they have put into the senior team over the past year. A lot of this work goes unnoticed or recognised by the wider membership of the club, and it is a great credit to yourselves that you have put so much dedication and time into preparing the team for training and games throughout the year. The club is truly indebted to have people like this give so much time and commitment for the benefit of the players and the supporters.
So on behalf of the club, I would like you to thank Scott Robinson, Andy Charlton, Micky Curry, Gary Noble, Neil Stronge and our new physio Paula Leonard, the Fermanagh and Western team managers Gareth & Ryan Mallaghan and Gary McClean. Youth level Last July the club took the decision to enter several young teams into their appropriate leagues. An Under 10s team and two under 12 teams were entered into the Brenden Keogh youth leagues, an under 15s team into the Mid Ulster youth league and an under 18s into the Fermanagh and Western league. Under 10s The Under 10s, under the watchful eye of Brian Hamilton and Bob Carroll, maintained steady progress throughout the campaign, finishing high in the table; they are a talented group of players and have a good foundation to be a driving force in their age group in the years to come. 2 players from this squad, Corey Porter and Cody Burke, have progressed into the player development programme. Under 12s This under 12s group of players were the outstanding squad of the year at any level, under the guidance of Davy and Rhys McQuigg, they improved steadily as the season went on, so much so they went on to win the League and cup double, a first for the club, and something that can t be praised enough. Under 15s The Under 15s progressed well throughout the season after taking a few weeks to find their feet Marc McCleery and Shane Murphy's side quickly adapted to a new League, and after a long campaign, the Under 15s finished a respectable mid-table. Under 18s Another club first, was Chris Burkes outstanding achievement in guiding his under 18s team to be crowned league champions for the first time in the clubs history. Captained by Nathan Sherry this squad came close to doing the double themselves. Several of these players are already playing regularly at senior level, with Nathen Sherry and Scott Johnston in the first team squad. We currently have two under 11s, an under 13s, under 15s and under 17s all playing league competitions. Youth Academy Another new development was made last December when the decision was taken by the club to revamp the Mini Soccer Centre and change it to a fresh Youth Academy from February 2017. The Academy was suggested and pushed forward by Rhys McQuigg & Chris McDowell with club chairman Davy McQuigg overseeing proceedings.
The new academy directive which will see all coaches being fully qualified and will see a fresh ethos taken within the club to provide each child with football across the board. In the coming months, Fivemiletown United Youth Academy will look to expand its catchment area and develop further the clubs cross-community outlook. The club will also adopt a more professional outlook for all youth players by offering the opportunity to buy Club gear and wear it at the Youth Academy which will help the clubs exposure and we hope that the parents will buy into what the club is trying to achieve. The club also would like to reach out to parents and guardians to get involved with the club whether this is in a coaching role or behind the scenes. Shane Murphy, Arran Gowdy and Dylan Noble all passed their KICK START 1 recently and this leaves only 1 or 2 outstanding coaches to be qualified. 3 trophies came into the clubhouse from the youth section this year, it's been a long 10-year wait for a trophy at youth level but to bring 3 within weeks of each other is a testament to academy director Davy McQuigg and all the clubs hard working coaches and committee members. We need this progression at Juvenile and Junior levels in order to, not only win titles and cups again at senior level but to ensure that we progress at a senior level in the future. Future Short term Our priority is getting the ground up to PIL status level so that we can progress and compete in the higher divisions. Over the coming season, we will be working hard to get the reserve team playing a standard of football that will enable them to compete at the level they should be, fighting for promotion themselves. Long term If you ask anyone what they would like to see this club do more than anything, is gain promotion, but we have to be able to consolidate our position, this will not be easy. As we continue to grow as a club and increasing in stature, attracting more support, other problems start to arise, for example, the lane leading into the ground; it needs constant work to keep it as it is at the moment. Car parking facilities will need to be increased, and it will be vital that we obtain the second pitch to cater for our playing and training needs. These are a few things that will need addressing over the coming years. I would like to thank the committee for their work over the past year, the committee members give up their free time to help run and look after this club, which at times is not an easy thing to do. I would like to thank the volunteers that have helped over the season, this club would not be able to run without your help and dedication, selling tickets is very important but it s much more than that, repairing things, cleaning things, fetching things, painting things and a host of other things, all need doing and we thank you for that. On a personal note; I would like to thank our chairman Davy McQuigg and vice chairman Gary Noble for their help in my first year as club secretary, they have been a great source of advice and has always been there to take my calls and emails. Their help has allowed me the opportunity to grow and develop in my role and I am very appreciative of this, also a word of thanks to Rhys my assistant
this past year, he has been a great help and very knowledgeable, especially in anything connected with the youth academy, Thank you. Mike Long