28 May Tennis Ireland CLG Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of Tennis Ireland was held on Saturday 16th June in The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry where there was significant representation from almost 60 affiliated clubs and the Regional Branches.
The Chief Executive, Richard Fahey, provided a detailed operational review for the past year in which he highlighted the key successes of the year including:
- €3.2m in funding secured for 61 Tennis Projects via the Sports Capital Programme
- The securing of $60,000 in grant funding from the ITF
- A 7% increase in players participating in open tournaments held around the Country
- 3 successful ITF Professional events were hosted in Ireland including a combined Men’s and Ladies Irish Open which was broadcast live on TG4 Television Coverage for the first time
- 5 International Junior Events including 3 ITF U18 Events and 2 Tennis Europe Events
- Improvements in internal and external communications
- The awarding of Best National Governing Body to Tennis Ireland at the CARA National Inclusion Awards, secured €78,000 in new funding for Enjoy Tennis Programme and hosted the World Blind Tennis Championships in Shankill Tennis Club
- The continued expansion of Tennis Ireland’s Regional Player Development Programme which now engages with over 460 players
- Simon Carr reaching the last 16 of the US Open and competing in all 4 Junior Grand Slams
- Finalist in Best NGB Category in 2018 Irish Sports Industry Awards
- More engagement with Key Stakeholders including clubs, the ITF, Tennis Europe and Government
- Governance Review / Code of Governance compliance
The Chief Executive paid tribute to all of the clubs and volunteers within the sport who helped to facilitate and develop the sport over the past year and looked forward to further developing relationships with them to grow the game.
The delegates present were also informed of the financial position of the Company. They heard that:
- Overall company income was up €255k to €2.46 million
- Overall expenditure was up €425k to €2.54 million on the back of a significant investment increase in the sport in 2017
- An accounting loss of €78k was made in 2017 the company broke even in terms of cashflow for the year
- The company has a strong balance sheet showing €585k in cash reserves with Zero Debt
The delegates were updated on the significant work carried out in the last 18 months in relation to improvements in the Governance of the organisation culminating in the recent declaration of compliance with the Governance Code and High Performance Director, Gary Cahill provided an excellent presentation on the work to develop players in the regions and in the National Training Centre.
3 New independent Directors as well as 4 new representative Directors were elected on to the board including;
- Nickie Coffey – Leinster
- Rosamund Thompson – Ulster
- Brendan Murphy – Connacht
- Shane Cooke – Munster
- Paul O’Connor – Portfolio Director, Finance
- Leo O’Leary – Portfolio Director, Commercial
- Louise Byrne – Portfolio Director, Communications
A further Director, Stephen Reid from Ulster was re-elected to the Board for a second term.
Outgoing Chair of the Coach Education and Technical Committee, Joe Flood, was presented with an Honorary Level 3 Coaching Award and Simon Carr was presented with an award to recognise his outstanding achievements on court in the last year.