An Cathaoirleach
The GAA is a huge organisation with a wide range of activities run by voluntary workers. Voluntary effort is harnessed into action by means of committees. Committees have certain advantages:
- they give representation
- they provide group judgement, give collective decisions and accept collective responsibility
- they avoid personal bias
- they involve people and help to develop them as persons
- they stimulate people to think
Committees have disadvantages also:
- they can be slow, time-consuming and frustrating
- they are not good supervisors and decisions taken are not always followed up
Our Committees must be properly run. Otherwise we are wasting the most valuable resource we have - the spare time of voluntary workers. The effectiveness of the GAA depends on effective committees. To be effective, a Committee must have an effective Cathaoirleach.
The Qualities of an Cathaoirleach
- An Cathaoirleach is a leader and a manager. He/She must have:
- Dedication - the G.A.A. and the Club must come high in his/her priorities
- Knowledge - He/She must prepare by knowing what the G.A.A. is all about. He/she must become familiar with An Treoraí Oifigiúil.
- Power of Persuasion - He/she is not a dictator. He/she must be able to motivate and handle people.
- Integrity - He/she is the symbol of the Club and must guard its reputation jealously.
We will not always get the ideal Cathaoirleach. We may even find it difficult sometimes to get one at all! But we should do our best to get someone.
- who has time to do the job
- who is a genuine interest in the Association and the necessary background knowledge
- who has a good standing in the community
- who has leadership qualities.
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General Duties
The duties of an Cathaoirleach may be summed up as follows:
- To uphold the constitution of the Association. This of course means that he/she must know it thoroughly. He/she must also know his/her Club Constitution.
- To act as Cathaoirleach at certain committee and other meetings.
- To strive continuously to improve the club; this involves full co-operation with the other office holders.
- To represent the club at various functions
- To act on behalf of the club in the interval between meetings.
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Meetings
We will now move on to the role of the Cathaoirleach at meetings. This begins in advance of the meeting when an Cathaoirleach should prepare or obtain an agenda; certainly he/she should know what will be on the agenda for the meeting (very often he/she will draft the agenda with the Club Secretary). He/she will decide what the priorities of the meeting are with the intention of getting those matters finalised, leaving unimportant matters to be decided at a later date if necessary. He/she ensures to be at the venue of the meeting before the appointed time so that he/she and the Secretary can discuss the agenda.
The Cathaoirleachs role at the meeting is by far the most important of his/her functions. Most of the essentials are referred to in the Club Manual.
The efficient transaction of committee business calls for set procedures. The extent to which these are put into force varies a good deal. Generally, the contributions or individual members are limited by rules which are interpreted and applied by the Cathaoirleach. These rules of procedure are designed to help keep order and to enable sound and acceptable decisions to be reached quickly and with least effort.
Broadly speaking. the rules of procedure will ensure:
- That, for practical purposes, the majority decision is the right one
- That at a committee meeting the majority vote will represent the committee's opinion
- That the minority will agree with the majority ruling
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A Few Important Points:
The Cathaoirleach has more authority than any other member of the committee; An Cathaoirleach should ensure that the meeting is effective. He/she must guide but not lead.
- He/she must encourage all members to express views.
- The responsibility for seeing that the meeting achieves its purpose rests with the Cathaoirleach. He/she must decide priorities to see that the important things are dealt with.
- He/she must keep to the point and see that others do likewise. He/she must not allow talkative members to dominate the meeting.
- He/she must close discussion on a subject when it has gone on long enough: summarise the points made and make sure that members understand the decision/s they are taking.
- He/she should see that all speakers address the Chair and do not engage in cross-talk with each other. This formality should be followed even at small committee meetings.
- He/she should be tolerant to reasonable interjections but prevent excess heckling.
- He/she should adopt a neutral attitude and remain impartial especially where a matter is contentious.
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Some Techniques of Chairmanship
The technique of handling groups of people comes with experience, though some of it can be acquired by training. An important technique of Chairmanship is the use of questions. Instead of making a statement beginning with "I think . . . " or "Yes but don't you see . . . "or "I don't agree with you", the skilled Cathaoirleach uses phrases such as "What do you think about . . "? Do you feel strongly . . "? "Can we turn to this aspect . . .?" "Can we take point A first?" "Tom, can we hear your views?" Sometimes these questions will be directed to a whole group, sometimes to a particular individual. Searching questions from the Chair can uncover information, facts and opinions, call attention to problems or ideas or to another phase of the subject.
Another important technique is summarising e.g. "We have agreed to do . . .", "Our solution seems to be . . ", "We are still disagreed about . . ."
Summaries can help a committee to confirm or modify their decisions; they help the Cathaoirleach to keep control and ascertain that he/she is interpreting views correctly, and the Secretary recording decisions accurately.
However, one could go on for a long time trying to cover all the situations that arise at meetings and, for example, discussing how to deal with difficult "challenging" characters one meets at meetings. The "Rambler" who talks about everything but the subject; The "Show-off" who loves to talk; The "Heckler" who is always on for an argument; The "Smart Alec" who tries to put you on the spot with tricky procedure questions; The "Silent" one says nothing until he get outside after the meeting; The "Obstinate" member who won't budge from his view; The perennial "Griper" who blames everybody else; The "Talker" who wants his own private meeting in a corner; The "Hogger" who wants to talk at length about everything, and so on.
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One or Two Other Points
The Cathaoirleach of a GAA Club has an obligation to promote the use of Irish if he/she is able, though over-enthusiasm has its dangers also. An Cathaoirleach should at least use occasional phrases in Irish. An important guide for all GAA Club Officers is the Club Manual, every Officer should read it.
The post of Vice-Chairman should be regarded as a training post of a future Cathaoirleach. The Vice-Chairman should be given specific duties apart from the obvious one of taking the place of an absent Cathaoirleach, such as being nominated Cathaoirleach of a Sub-Committee.
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