The committee held its first meeting on the 21^st June, 2011, coincidentally the longest day of the year!  The main order of business for the meeting was to look at the response to the questionnaire. There was a hugely positive response to the questionnaire which issued to all members with the notice of meeting. A total of 224 responses was received – some at the AGM, although the majority were received by post. Some more responses are expected though the number should not be many.

Here is a brief résumé of the responses:

Club na Múinteoirí as venue for Branch meetings:     Yes 205           No 9                No opinion 9

Ecumenical Service before May meeting                    Yes 197           No 11              No opinion 11

Memorial Mass before November meeting                 Yes 187           No 17              No opinion 19

Imeachtaí ina bhfuil suim ag baill páirt a ghlacadh:

Bridge Club:  37                    Book Club      80                    Golf:   43

Drop-in Centre          133                  Ciorcal Cainte                       61

Computer                   139                  Digital Camera                      138

Walking Activities     148                  Family tree:                            118

Day Tours, Ireland   128                  Short Breaks Ireland            118

City Breaks Abroad  135                  Longer Trips abroad              97

Suggestions from members:

Venue for branch meetings: Blackrock Education Centre; Spawell, Templeogue; Victory Convention Centre, Firhouse; Airfield House, Dundrum; Burlington Hotel; Moran Hotel; Bewley’s Hotel; Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire; Stillorgan Park Hotel; Alliance Francais, Nassau St.; St. John’s GAA, Ballinteer; a church hall on the southside.

Activities and interests: Cookery trips to France and Italy; Trips to castles, big houses, monasteries, historic and battlefield sites; Stratford on Avon.

Committee discussed how best to serve the interests of members as expressed in the returns to the questionnaire.  It was decided to concentrate initially on those activities that had engendered the greatest interest and different members of the committee volunteered to look after certain of those activities as detailed below:

Bridge Club: Micheál Ó Gríofa is to liaise with Brenda Granville who organises Bridge in Club na Múinteoirí.

Book Club: Mena Ó Leary will check out the Book Club and check on the existing book clubs functioning in the Branch

Golf: Dónall Ó Murchú will organise golfing activities

Drop-in Centre: Matt Reville will check on the availability of Blackrock and Dublin West Education centres. Micheál Ó Gríofa will check on Ballyroan Community centre and on Club na Múinteoirí

Computers: Marion Connolly is to check out a number of options – The Digital Hub is a possibility and group rates may be an option.  She will also check on VEC adult education classes;

Family tree: Micheál Ó Gríofa is to follow up on this.

Longer Trips abroad: Finbar O Driscoll undertook to look at options and to report back to the next meeting.

It is hoped to collate ideas and options at the next meeting of the committee and to commence some of these activities in September.  The next meeting was arranged for the 26^th August.