UPDATED: Belgium GAA (Still) Needs You

UPDATED: 

The AGM takes place on Wednesday 30 January 2013, from 19h00. 

Everyone attending the AGM is requested to fill in their details here (url: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Au2NuPg-Cx1JdG1FT1h0eUtTcXpJMTE5ZlljS1BuOGc). 

This information is requested for all attendees (not just those who need Parliament passes) so as to keep track of numbers.

Please note: the deadline for nominations and motions is today, 18 January 2013

It's January 2013. Don't worry - it isn't time to go back to training yet (that time will come in February) but it is time to get back to the business of running this club. 

With that in mind, the 2013 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place in the European Parliament on Wednesday 30 January. You will be contacted by your relevant code officer in the coming weeks to submit your details for access to the Parliament, as well as more information on the time and exact location of the meeting. If you are not on one of the lists, please send an email to pro.belgium.europa@gaa.ie.

Ah, the AGM. It's an exciting time, so much hangs in the balance. 2013 is no exception. For once, the majority of the current committee is leaving office. Familiar faces such as Colin Byrne, Jane Brennan and Phil Cushen are moving on from committee life. Don't be afraid. The club will continue. Fresh blood and new ideas are always welcome.

Any club member is entitled to put their name forward for any of the positions on the committee. Are you one such eager beaver? Do you yearn for power and responsibility? Do you believe that there is more to a club than what takes place on the pitch during training or a match? Or do you just want to pay forward the work of current and previous committee members. If so, Belgium GAA needs you.

Below you will see a list of the roles and the current occupants (those in red have indicated that they will not stand for re-election).

Chair - Aonghus O Muirtheartaigh - Maria Brosnan nominated

Secretary - Jane Brennan - Jelena Radakovic nominated

Assistant Secretary Irish Club Liaison Officer - Caoimhe Ní Shuilleabháin

Treasurer - Oliver Swan

Men's Football - Colin Byrne - Gavin Flynn nominated

Ladies Football - Anna Bates - no nominations to replace

Camogie - Christine O' Gorman  - no nominations to replace

Hurling - Shane Ryan

Equipment Officer - Phil Cushen - David Kitching nominated

Social Secretary - Maria Brosnan  - no nominations to replace

PRO - Sylvia McCarthy - Paul Quinn nominated

Here is the important part: to date, only two nominations have been received. These are Jelena Radakovic to replace Jane Brennan, and David Kitching to replace Phil Cushen. 

Please note: your nomination is only valid if you communicate it directly to Jane Brennan (secretary.belgium.europe@gaa.ie). That drunken conversation you had with the lads in the pub does not count as a nomination. 

Jane has kindly extended the deadline for nominations to 18 January, so get cracking!! If you have any questions about what any of these roles entail, please don't hesitate to get in contact with any of the existing officers for more information.

A lot depends on this meeting, not least because it is the one time during the year when everyone gets together in a formal setting to discuss the future of the club. Anything that happens during the year, from committee meetings to tournament management to  training locations, will stem from this meeting. If you do not attend and do not have any input (unless for a very good reason), then you really don't have the right to complain about any decisions made during the year.

Quiz-nuts Roasting on an Open Fire

In case you missed it, tonight will be the very last Belgium GAA event of 2012, the Christmas quiz in De Valeras. Contact the lovely Christine O' Gorman (belgiumgaa.camogie@gmail.com) if you want a last-minute registration for your team. 

That's it - no more end-of-season dinners, no more Race Nights, no more Fr. Ted Céilis and no more St. Patrick's Day Festivals. 

Until 2013, that is, when it starts all over again with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the European Parliament on 30 January (tbc). Watch out here, on the Belgium GAA+Friends FB page, on Twitter and in any emails you receive from the code officers in the coming weeks for more information, as you will need to submit your details to get a pass for the Parliament.

During the meeting the 2013 committee will be elected. Any club member is entitled to put their name forward for any of the positions on the committee.

I have listed them below for your information.  Those in red are committee members who have indicated that they will not stand for re-election in 2013.  As you can see there are alot of positions which need to be filled!  

Chair - Aonghus O Muirtheartaigh

Secretary - Jane Brennan

Assistant Secretary - Irish Club Liaison Officer - Caoimhe Ní Shuilleabháin 

Treasurer - Oliver Swann

Men's Football - Colin Byrne

Ladies Football - Anna Bates

Camogie - Christine O'Gorman

Hurling - Shane Ryan

Equipment Officer - Phil Cushen

Social Secretary - Maria Brosnan

Public Relations Officer - Sylvia McCarthy

If you are interested in any of these roles, and why wouldn't you be, please contact Jane Brennan (secretary.belgium.europe@gaa.ie) no later than 10th January 2013 to declare your interest.

Being a committee member is a rewarding role, and this year's committee deserves its just rewards. It is always good to have fresh faces and fresh ideas, but the beauty of a revolving committee is that the old committee members are still around to give support and help where needed. Between them and the rest of the reliable club members who are willing to provide their time and expertise, there is no excuse for 2013 not to be as productive and prosperous for the club.

Please click here to see some descriptions of the various roles - these descriptions were made by the officers themselves and the roles are constantly evolving.

Finally, if you have made it this far, you deserve a little flashback on Belgium GAA in 2012. Yes - it's the little slideshow that could (or could not, depending on where you were on the night of the end-of-season dinner). Enjoy, good luck tonight, happy Christmas and see you all in the New Year!!

2012: A Belgium GAA Odyssey from Sylvia McCarthy

The Return of the Wild Geese

On Saturday 8 September 2012, the current batch of Belgium GAA footballers will face their biggest threat yet: a conglomerate of past players, former comrades and old friends. The All-Stars have challenged the Belgian men to a duel on home (astro)turf. In the words of organiser Shane Griffin, the All-Stars “will return to Brussels and take on the current pretenders to their former shirts. It’s a time for anyone who enjoyed playing in the red and grey to show the 2012 team exactly what they are missing”.

The winning Belgium Shield team in Limerick, November 2011 (photo by Caoimhe Ní Shuilleabháin)

For many, Brussels is a temporary home. People arrive with a set departure date in mind, but this is usually adjusted and postponed by months or even years. While the unofficial capital of the EU has other endearing aspects in the form of its vibrant nightlife, culture and location, the GAA club is a strong welcoming presence for anyone fresh off the boat.

Oliver O’ Callaghan, who relocated to London in 2010, points out that the club acts as so much more than an athletic endeavour: “It is a social hub, a support network, a link to home and Gaelic games, and above all, the source of instant yet long-term friendships”. Other non-Irish Brussels experiences notwithstanding, he says “I never get tired of reminiscing on the adventures I undertook with this club and good times that surrounded it”.

When club members eventually move on, they do so with heavy hearts and numerous leaving parties, rarely passing up the chance to pay a return visit. The Eagles could just as easily have been referring to Brussels when they sang “You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave”.

GAA in Europe provides an added twist for home-grown players: distances between clubs mean that tournaments across Europe are played on a monthly basis. Brussels-based Mayo man, Olof Gill, notes, “I've always been struck by the phrases many players repeat when they come back from European tournaments - 'a great day for the parish' after a win, 'a bad day for the parish' after a loss. It's not a coincidence that so many players use this word - it's a marvellous validation of the community aspect of the club.”

O’ Callaghan was one of the first to sign up to Shane Griffin’s All-Star experiment, the first of its kind in mainland Europe. “I thought Griff had an organisational nightmare on his hands, akin to herding cats. But it is a testament to both his efficiency and the affection retained by former players for the Belgian club that it has come together with a minimum of fuss or hassle.”

This heart-warming spirit of fellowship is overshadowed by a dark and murky policy of Social Media Sparring. Even Muhammad Ali, godfather of sporting trash talk, never anticipated such sharp sartorial wordplay as “The All-Stars are the football equivalent of the Ugg boot - out of ideas, out of luck, and past their sell-by-date” or “You are the human equivalent of sandals with socks: hideous, never in style, woefully uncool, and only ever accepted in parts of mainland Europe”. This is expected to accelerate in the lead-up to Saturday’s match.

In a hushed tone tinged with disapproval, Gill confides: “It saddens me to report that the Belgium GAA “wild geese” are, in fact, nothing more than a hotchpotch motley crew of chancers, bounders and knaves. It is a cause of great disappointment to me how these former greats have let themselves go since they left the parish.” Nevertheless, some may say that the All-Stars are at a competitive advantage: with nothing to prove and an in-depth knowledge of their opposing numbers, they have the power to shake the current team to their very core. Many of those returning on Saturday have a history with the club that goes back to the one and only European Championship won by the Belgian men, in 2008, and there is an element of “We did it then, can you do it now?” in the minds of the club veterans.

The ties that bind past members to Belgium GAA should not be underestimated: although strips will be torn from both sides, they will be torn as a test of the strength of the team that will go on to represent the club in the first Pan-European football tournament in Copenhagen the following weekend. Copenhagen will also play host to the first ladies football equivalent of 2012, where the women of Belgium will battle to maintain their four-year grip on the European Ladies Football Championship.

As for the match between Belgium GAA and the All-Stars, the endlessly quotable O’ Callaghan imagines that “on the day it will be a lot like the scene at the end of The Quiet Man - no quarter will be given, we will have a real ding-dong battle, and leave it all out there on the field: but at the end of the day, we will be singing songs and raising glasses, toasting the continued success of Belgium GAA”.

Kickoff: Saturday 8 September, 15h00, VUB, Brussels, Belgium. 

Match to be preceded by ladies football practice game at 13h00. 

On Sunday 9 September, Belgium GAA sponsors, De Valeras, will host a barbecue for Belgium GAA and show the All-Ireland Hurling Final between Galway and Kilkenny.