STEPPED DOWN Mayo LGFA Secretary Cathy Fleming.
Oisín McGovern
SEVEN key positions on the Mayo LGFA County Board executive have been left unfilled after no nominations were received for the posts before or during the association’s AGM last Friday evening.
The positions of chairperson, vice-chairperson, public relations officer, two player representatives and two Central Council delegates are now currently vacant.
Nominations forms for the positions will now be sent back to the county’s 34 clubs.
Brian Galvin from Moy Davitts was elected unopposed as Mayo LGFA Secretary after he put his name forward at last Friday’s meeting.
The position of Assistant Secretary was filled by Burrishoole’s Neil Masterson, who will also serve as Connacht LGFA Council delegate alongside Parke/Keelogues/Crimlin’s PJ McDonagh.
Sitting Treasurer Breda Waldron (Davitts), Assistant Treasurer Aisling McLoughlin (Davitts), Registrar Terry Pattinson (Castlebar Mitchels) and Language & Culture Officer Máire Cáit Uí Mhurthú (Cill Chomáin) were all re-elected unopposed.
Outgoing chairman Declan Kennedy, who is stepping aside due to work commitments, called on a successor to step up and take Mayo LGFA ‘one step forward’.
The Westport clubman served as vice-chairperson in 2020 and 2021 and as chairman of Westport LGFA for five years prior to that.
“As outgoing chairperson, I want ye to know that due to my business recovering substantially after Covid, unfortunately I do not have the time to fulfil this role,” he told delegates.
“I enjoyed my time as chairperson, worked with and met some great people, but now it is time to move on.
“I do hope that somebody will put their name forward for the good of Mayo LGFA and take this one step forward.”
He also said that there was a shortage of referees in the county, an issue which he said ‘needs looking at from different levels in the LGFA’.
Outgoing Mayo LGFA Secretary Cathy Fleming warned that the association was ‘going nowhere quickly’ without a chairperson.
The Davitts clubwoman said that the county board had ‘burned the phones’ inviting people to nominate themselves for the vacant roles.
She also cited time constraints for her decision to step down from her role.
“The spirit of volunteerism is alive and well in all clubs. I know ye are struggling to fill positions in executives and it is critically important that they are filled, because without a functioning executive it’s very hard to run a county,” she said.
“We need to dig deep really and try and fill all of those roles so that the workload is spread across.”
She encouraged delegates to nominate names of people to stand for the role of chairperson over the coming weeks.
