Further Executive meetings were held in July and August and various projects and club matters are progressing well overall. 

Since the last update https://dashboard.clubzap.com/articles/154195, a lot has happened in the club.  The club hosted very successfully the G4MO Blitz in June and my thanks to all who volunteered or helped in anyway.  My particular thanks to the working group, led by Claire Coyne.  An excellent ‘walkathon’ event was held in July and my thanks to the organisers, particularly Gareth and Melessa and all those who ‘walked for their club’.  My thanks to DK Motors for their valued support of this event.  In addition, Championship football has started and my thanks to James Fox Bar (Audrey and Jimmy) for their support of our Senior Team in the Group stages and their continuing support of our club. 

In terms of Finance updates, the Finance Committee is looking to roll out a more structured sponsorship offering for 2026 and any companies/businesses wishing to be involved with us going forward should watch out for further details.  A new fundraiser ‘the 200 Club’ will be launched soon and your support and sharing of this would be great.  A quick reminder that the 'Gaels on the Rails' is still live and all are encouraged to consider it. 

As regards our ‘Community’, in addition to many other offerings, the committee is organising the Club Day, scheduled for 06 September. This is an event open to all members, supporters, past and present and all are encouraged to take part.  There will be family/fun activities, a BBQ, live music and our cup winning teams from 1995 (Minor, Junior and Intermediate) and 2005 (Division 1) will be recognised.  The club has decided to have Meath Jigsaw https://jigsaw.ie/location/meath/ as our club charity for 2025 and 2026.  They do excellent work for young adults ‘health in mind’ and further details on how we will support their excellent work will be announced soon.  As part of the club’s initial support to them monies raised from raffles/fun activities at the Club Day will be donated to Jigsaw. 

In Football, we have started a Strength & Conditioning Programme for our young adult footballers (aged 16 to 23) to prepare them physically for playing and to avoid injuries.  Our second Football Camp is underway and my thanks to all who have organised it.  A particular thanks to Sherry Fitzgerald Reilly   https://www.sherryfitz.ie/branch/navan for their sponsorship of this camp. The Mini Leagues will return to our club, in mid-September with more details to follow.  We will be targeting schools for new players very soon and anything you can do, to advocate for the club would be great.  There is also an upcoming Go Games Goalkeeping session, led by club member Morgan Hughes. All our teams are involved in their respective competitions and I urge all who can, to come out and support the teams. 

In terms of ‘Infrastructure’, planning and grant work for the installation of the new lights on the Main Pitch is ongoing.  A change in how the grants operate means that we have to provide information (and quotes) on all our intended grant projects (lights, goals, ballwall) and obtain the ‘go ahead’ from the Department so as to be able to start them.  So whilst this will mean a slight delay, it will provide certainty and enable us to progress all the projects as we then require.  My thanks to the Committee for their work and also Lorraine and Mags who manage the allocation of our pitches.  As Navan grows so will our club and we will need further pitches and we are looking at all options in that regard.   

Our ‘Working Groups’ on ‘Membership’ (led by David Brady) and ‘Club Gear’ (led by Alan Kavanagh) will revert to the Executive in the next few weeks with various proposals for decision and those outcomes will be communicated as soon as possible. 

You may be aware that Meath GAA are developing Pairc Tailteann and as part of that I, along with our Club Delegate Gerry Fitzpatrick, attended a meeting in Dunganny where the County Board requested support from the clubs.  The development will consist of the demolition of the existing stand and dressing rooms and the construction of a full length 5000 seater stand, installation of floodlights and the building of dressing rooms, functions rooms, media facilities amongst other minor works.  The budget is circa 26 million and as part of that each Senior club is asked pay a levy of €3000 pa in addition to the current Dunganny levy. This means that we are asked to contribute €6000 each year for the development of county facilities and will obviously place an additional burden on clubs.  That said, a new County pitch is required and is one that we can all enjoy as players, coaches or supporters in the future.  After a lively debate it was agreed to but on the condition that all commercial/fundraising revenues created for the redevelopment project would be offset against the club levies, thus reducing the burden on the clubs as quickly as possible.  

There are some upcoming club dates to flag:-

 
My thanks to all those who continue to support and volunteer for the club. A reminder to get involved in any way you can (become a member, play, coach, volunteer, fund-raise, administer, advocate) , its your club. 

Best of luck to those starting back at school, those awaiting exam results and particularly to all our teams.