In order for our Club to operate successfully, a wide variety of roles and responsibilities have to be covered by our members. With very few exceptions these positions are entirely voluntary and unpaid.

In order to give members a flavour of what is involved in running our Club, and to encourage greater participation, we felt that it was appropriate to give a snapshot of who does what and the types of tasks available for those who would like to get more involved in Club activities.

The Club is administered by a General Committee which is made up of 8 Officers and 8 others all elected at the Annual General Meeting however, many jobs don’t require Committee membership. The Committee meets on the first Thursday every month to receive Officers’ reports and deal with Club business.  Should a Committee member miss three or more consecutive meetings they will be replaced by a co-opted Club member.

President

Honorary position. Jennifer Patterson. The President is a Club Officer but not a Committee member unless elected. Jennifer is a past Ladies’ Secretary, past Secretary of the Ulster Women’s Hockey Union and the first female President of the newly amalgamated Ulster Hockey Union in 2010.  Jennifer will stand down at the end of the 23/24 season.

Chairman

Club Officer. Colin Mockford. Responsible for chairing and leading all General Committee, Annual and Special General meetings.

Honorary Secretary

Club Officer. Jonny Linter. The formal contact for the Club. Responsible for all club correspondence, calling Club meetings, keeping minutes of meetings for approval at the next meeting and presentation of an annual report at the AGM.

Ladies Honorary Secretary

Club Officer. Maxine Taylor. The formal contact for the ladies. Responsible for all ladies’ correspondence and presentation of an annual report at the AGM.

Honorary Treasurer

Club Officer. Kathryn Rogers. Responsible for all income and expenditure, maintenance and control of the Club bank account, presentation of monthly accounts and presentation of the annual audited accounts at the AGM. The Treasurer also presents the appropriate selection committees with a list of those members whose subscriptions are unpaid at 31 October.

Club Development Officer

Club Officer. Harry Templeton. Responsible for ensuring that the Club complies with standards set by SportNI and Ulster Hockey such as Clubmark and to report on progress in meeting ongoing targets for the Club’s five year development plan.

Fundraising Officer

Club Officer. Josh Gilmore. Responsible for overseeing and reporting on all aspects of the Club’s fundraising activities including the Easter Tournament. Assisted by a sub-committee comprising at present Betty Burrows, Cora Busby and Sam Pyper. In addition, Gareth Bailie organises the Last Man Standing fundraiser, Robin Mitchell the Annual Fixtures Book and Sam Pyper the Annual Ballot.

Communications Officer

Club Officer. Jim Patterson. Responsible for maintenance and timely update of the website, compilation of match reports etc for the local press and maintenance of the photographic and statistical archive. Also provides financial analysis and forecasts.

Child Protection Officer

Alan McMaster alhoc16@hotmail.com. The Child Protection Officer is a Club Officer but is completely independent from day to day Club operations and not therefore a Committee member. Alan’s role is to resolve issues arising under the Club’s Safeguarding Policy where resolution has not been possible in the first instance at Club level and, if that is not possible, then to escalate to the next level.

Ladies Club Captain

Julie Fisher. As well as representing the ladies’ membership when required, this role includes Ladies Members’ Officer where Julie is available to assist with resolving ladies members’ Club related issues.

Men’s Members Officer

Stephen Magee.  Stephen is available to assist with resolving men’s members’ Club related issues.

Men’s 1st XI Representative

Ross Linter. This role is to ensure that the men’s 1st XI have an input to the Committee.

Ladies’ 1st XI Representative

Betty Burrows.  This role is to ensure that the ladies 1st XI have an input to the Committee.

Coaches Representative

Diane Boyd. This role is to ensure that there is a channel of information to and from all of the Club’s coaching staff. Diane is also ladies 1st XI manager.

Youth Welfare and Development Officer

Clare Smith. Responsible for managing and reporting concerns about children and young people and for the implementation of safeguarding procedures.  Clare is also responsible for the non-coaching aspects of the administration of the Youth Section.

Grants Officer

Claire Smyth.  Responsible for sourcing the availability of funding from grants and dealing with their applications.

Social Media

Anna Rogers.  Responsible for the Club’s public Facebook page.

Other General Committee members without specific responsibilities

Sam Pyper.

Other Non General Committee Roles and Responsibilities

Ladies’ and Men’s Match Secretaries

Judith Orr and Peter Gray.  Responsible for planning and co-ordinating all home fixtures and the point of contact for communication with their counterparts in other clubs for both home and away fixtures. Input of results to the Ulster Hockey Fixtures Live system.

Management of Pitch Usage

Robin Mitchell.  Responsible for all pitch bookings then the verification and approval for payment by the Hon Treasurer to suppliers on receipt of invoices. Robin is also men’s 1st XI manager.

Men’s Head Coach

Responsible for coaching the men’s 1st XI squad.

Ladies Head Coach

Responsible for coaching the ladies’ 1st XI squad.

Ladies’ and Men’s Registrations Secretaries

Judith Orr and Jim Patterson. Responsible for the registration of players and any monthly changes to Ulster Hockey. Also updates to the Hockey Ireland Membership databases.

Umpires – Panel and Club

Panel

The Club is required to provide qualified umpires to serve on the Ulster Hockey umpires panel which may also lead to Hockey Ireland appointments. The present requirement is one umpire per 1st XI however this is due to increase as the number of panel umpires continues to fall. Current panel members are: Paddy Wright, Amy Jones , Julie Fisher and Aaron Saunders.

Club

There are not enough non playing members to cover 2nds – 5ths men’s and ladies’ games which  means that the gaps have to be filled by players.  The Club is keen that interested members attend one of the regular umpires courses to boost our Panel and Club numbers and this could lead to a different hockey career path.  You may realistically feel that you aren’t going to make a representative team whilst playing but if you take umpiring seriously and have a talent for it you could be at the Olympics in a few years.  Worth thinking about!

Ladies’ and Men’s Junior Coach

Ben Palmer. Responsible for conducting junior ladies’ and junior men’s coaching.

Youth Coaches

The Club is dependant on the support of members to provide quality coaching for the children in our youth section and for individuals to take responsibility for specific under age teams on blitz days and fixtures with other clubs. The Club is keen that as many members as possible obtain coaching qualifications and will bear the cost of coaching courses. All youth coaches will pay their annual subscriptions as normal and at the end of the season each of the 7 categories of youth membership will have refunds based on the agreed budget for each category.

Team Captains

Team captains for 2nds – 5ths teams are responsible for team selection, team tactics, notification of players, game day arrangements and team management and prompt notification of the result to the Club’s Facebook page.  A summary match report for the Club’s Facebook page should also be provided for each team.  In addition, team captains should be aware and remind team members of the subscription deadlines.

Summary

What is involved in running our Club continues to evolve and change as sports governing bodies continue to think of new ways to make club admin more difficult. The main aim of the presentation above is to let everyone know what running our Club entails and that we are always looking for increased participation from members ie YOU! How can you help our Club move forward?

Now that you are on the website, go to the Downloads link, take another 60 seconds to read the Club Charter where the key message is: ‘the Club is you and you are the Club’. If you are feeling really adventurous, take another 5 minutes and read the Club Constitution – you’ll feel the better for it!

Jonny Linter
Hon Secretary