Sports Council AGM brings changes to Committee

[Kintyre Forum News]

Monday's South Kintyre Sports Council AGM saw the departure of Chairperson Stuart McQuaker after three years in office. In Stuart's three years in office he has led a very proactive committee who continue to support sports clubs and organisations within South Kintyre.

Stuart, who also gives a huge amount of his own time to the running of Kintyre Swimming Club, stepped down and is now replaced by Jane Gallagher of the Campbeltown and Lawn Tennis Association. Jane has been an active committee member of Sports Council for a number of years before taking up the position of Vice Chair two years ago. The new vice chairperson is Elaine McGeachy, the retiring secretary, who is Race Director of the wonderful MOKRUN races and secretary of Campbeltown Running Club.

Elaine's role as secretary has now been taken up by Catriona McLean who has been an active member of the Sports Council since her return to Campbeltown to take up her position as a PE Teacher. Alison McGeachy of Jog Scotland remains as secretary - a post she has held superbly for four years.

The remainder of the committee are made of Duncan and Malina McAulay, Campbeltown Pupils AFC, who work tirelessly to maintain and manage the Sports Council mini bus along with Linda Robertson (Athletics and MOKRUN), Lindsay Owen (Active Schools) and David Paterson of the All Weather Pitch Campaign. Stuart McQuaker has agreed to remain on the committee too.

Councillor Rory Colville remains as the Sports Council main elected official, while Maruius Huysamer will act as a contact for Argyll & Bute Council.

Everyone at the Sports Council would like to thank Stuart for his three years in office - well done Stuart!

Below is a copy of Stuart's Chairperson's report which highlights some of the work the Sports Council achieved in the last year and highlights Stuart's outstanding leadership.

Chairman’s Report

At this time last year we were busy with our preparations for our first Sports Council Awards Dinner and Dance. Held in October 2010 in Stronvaar Bowling Club this evening was I am sure you will agree a huge success. After nominations were collected, short lists were made up. The awards were presented by David Laing, Vice Chair of SALSC for the following categories:

• Coach of the Year
• Team of the Year
• Young Sports Person of the Year
• Sports Person of the Year
• Service to Sport Award


I am sure you will all agree a great night was had by all and I certainly feel that this evening was one of the highlights of my tenure as Chairperson to the Sports Council, not only because I received an award that night but it for me this highlighted what Sports Councils are all about – bringing those interested in the promotion and development sport together. I do hope that this awards ceremony becomes a regular event on our calendar.

Over the last year attendance at our monthly meetings has remained healthy with numbers in the teens attending. In September we were visited by Ian Lynchahom representing SALSC. (Oliver Barsby managed to get lost!) Our membership remains strong with in excess of 20 paid up member groups at present.

This year saw the Sports Council assisting a number of clubs with small grants including; £250 to Campbeltown Running Club to assist with their club setting up with a new website, Scottish Athletics affiliation and club running vests. £300 was committed to Carradale Cricket Club towards the cost of a BOLA machine and Kintyre Amateur Swimming Club received £100 towards the purchase of timing software.

Our Sports Council mini bus continues to be widely used by our user groups and is a huge asset to the local sporting community. It’s had its bumps and scrapes this year although nothing major. We decided to start the process of looking towards the purchase of a new mini bus in the not too distant future. Our mini bus account as you will see has a healthy balance. I would like once again to thank both Malina and Duncan McAulay for their continued hard work with the mini bus. They are there to take bookings, ensure the bus is fit for the road and fuelled as well as ensure bills are paid by users. This sometimes is a thankless task but without such dedication we would struggle to keep the mini bus in action and let’s face it would struggle to keep the healthy membership that we have.

Last weekend saw our 6th ceilidh organized with the MOKRUN. Again this event shows each year the excellent committee we have on the Sports Council. From ordering the drink to clearing the hall at the end, everyone just gets involved and as a result the evening ran smoothly and was most enjoyable. It is great to read comments after the event encouraging runners to participate stating ‘the after race ceilidh is a must’. I am sure again this year our efforts have raised a substantial amount of money to help with next years MOKRUN and with the Sports Council Funds that we can then make available to our member groups. Thanks to you all and – well done!

I have left one thing on my report to last. The AWP or All weather pitch. In my three years as Chair this has never left the agenda and rightly so. We have as a group worked tirelessly on this front, in particular David Paterson. Back in December 2010 we were all encouraged to write letters of support for an AWP in Campbeltown to Sportscotland. It is testament to our campaign that PMR Leisure reported that they were overwhelmed with the response of the community gaining 155 letters of support of the AWP, the most they’ve ever had before was 40. We were all delighted to hear the exciting news on Thursday 11th March that Argyll & Bute Council had agreed to commit £480,000 of funding to the initiative from the CHORD project. I had hoped to bring you further news tonight from Sportscotland about our stage 2 funding application, however their meeting has been put back until 23rd June – let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I would like to finish by thanking you all for all your support over the last three years I have been chair. I have enjoyed the healthy discussions, the challenges and the successes. As most school teachers would say; keep up the good work!

Stuart McQuaker, SKSC