The AGM was held in Club na Múinteoirí on Wednesday November 27th. There was a record attendance of 120, in spite of the cold weather. The proceedings, as usual, began with Aifreann na Marbh and the celebrant was the avuncular Mon Dan O’Connor, Indeed, a highlight of the proceedings were the jokes and homily delivered by Fr Dan.

We were very pleased to have as a guest speaker, President Of RTAI, Charlotte Maye. Charlotte told us that she started her teaching career in Taney NS, Dundrum. So had she continued her teaching career in Dublin, Charlotte would have become a member of Dublin South RTAI!

The business side of the meeting was efficiently carried out by the Secretary, Deirdre Lohan and Cathaoirleach Maura Roberts. The treasurer, Mary O’Connor explained the accounts and these were adopted.

Connie Steele has decided to step down as Leas Cisteoir. Connie is continuing on Committee where she does fantastic work on organising golf lessons for members.

An unfailing and most popular part of the proceedings is the “draw” at the end of the meeting where a number of lucky members are drawn at random to receive a token. Here we have some of the lucky recipients this year.

As usual Anne Kitterick accompanied the singing during the Mass. We are ever grateful to Anne who never lets us down and comes out in all weathers to be present.

Peigí Ó Ruairc once again volunteered as a Minister of the Eucharist in the distribution of communion

Finally Matt Reville gave a short presentation on our website. He said that only 500 of a possible 1200 members have registered to receive the blog. He appealed for contributions form both members and from branch committee. A query was raised by a member as to the possibility of establishing a Facebook Page for the branch. Matt indicated that such a page would present a major headache to monitor. It would be open to any member of the public to access, and inevitably it would be subject to attacks by trolls, causing much hurt to our profession. The blog on the other hand is only available to members. The moderator can filter out bogus requests for membership, and each post is instantly transferred to a member’s inbox. Once you register to receive you don’t have to access the blog again. Each new post will be sent directly to your inbox.

Matt appealed to members to send him submissions. So many of our members are involved with voluntary organisations, writing poetry and fiction etc. Please send your finished products to us and we will publish Matt appealed for a mix of contributions, to include both print and visual items.