2014 Registrations and Important Information regarding competition entries, fees etc.

Dear all
First of all, on behalf of the European GAA Management Committee ("Board"), I would like to this opportunity to wish you and your club a Happy and Sporting 2014 and we look forward to seeing you on the playing fields of Europe and/or at other ECB events during the year. This year promises to be yet another great year for gaelic games in Europe with more clubs, more games and more activities than ever before.
However, increased activity levels also mean increased costs and a need to be stricter in our implementation of various rules and procedures. As in any membership based organisation, the GAA has various rules, procedures and deadlines. Details of membership registration, club affiliations, various fees and competition entry requirements are detailed below. 
Please read this email carefully and bring relevant items to the attention of your club officers and committee etc.
1. GAA members registration
The GAA membership year commences on January 1st each year. All details of club members currently on the GAA (Servasport) Online Membership System will be reset to "unregistered" on January 1st 2014. Existing members can be easily registered for 2014 by simply updating their membership status after January 1st. 
Please note that all members must be registered by March 31st. Only new members can be added after this date. Former members who wish to re-join a club must be treated as "new" members after this date. This entails extra administration and data entry. All players must be registered at least three days before playing for a club. This will be necessary in any case as teams must produce team lists from the membership system and hand to the referee before each game.
Only those members registered by March 31st are permitted to be members of club committees, vote at general meetings or be appointed as delegates to European Conventions or hold any office with the GAA, the LGFA or Camogie associations. In addition, only registered members may apply for, or be allocated, tickets for All Ireland finals.

The ECB also hopes to extend the benefits of GAA membership by year by arranging certain benefits/deals with various "commercial partners". These benefits may include special offers on products or services e.g. discounts with hotels, car rental companies, airline tickets, playing equipment, etc., but they will only be available to registered GAA members.

It is in everyone's interest, whether they are members, clubs or the ECB, to have members registered as early as possible and before other responsibilities and activities such as training, arranging travel to tournaments start to add to club officer's administrative burdens!!

2. GAA membership and ECB management fees
One key decision taken at the 2013 Annual Convention was to change the system for collecting various fees.  The former "ECB Management Fee" which was due from each club (based on numbers of members in "bands" of 1-50; 51-100 etc) along with the individual GAA membership fee has been replaced with a more equitable arrangement which combines both.
The new ECB management Fee will be €10.00 per adult member per year, (this applies to all adult members of the GAA whether players or not) and will be collected by clubs and payable to the ECB quarterly in arrears i.e. the first collection date will be March 31, with fees for additional members who join after that date, payable on June 30; September 30 and December 31st.
This fee which is payable by every member of a GAA club in Europe, without exception, will be allocated as follows:

- €2.00 to be forwarded to GAA H/Q as required by the Official Guide ("GAA Rule Book")
- €8.00 to be retained by ECB and/or recognised federations and subsidiary bodies.

The €8.00 retained by the ECB will then be distributed as follows:- 

- €2.00 to be forwarded to national (or multi-national) oganisations/federations (if such body exists and is recognised by ECB. The only current such federation is the FFG in France). The national federation will use this amount to fund their activities and those of subsidiary bodies.

- €2.00 to be forwarded by the national federation to other subsidiary bodies (if such body exists and is recognised by the ECB. Currently the ECB recognises two subsidiary bodies, the Ligue Breton in France and the Galician Federation in Spain).  If there is no national federation, the ECB will forward the €2.00 directly to the subsidiary body. 

- remainder retained by ECB ((replacing "old" management fee)

Some examples of how this work are as follows:-

A: A member renews his/her membership of the Rennes club in Bretagne in France in February and pays €10.00 (in addition to any club membership fee, insurance fees etc.). This amount will then be sent by the club to the FFG on March 31st. €2.00 is retained by the FFG to support their activities; and the FFG then sends €2.00 to the Ligue Breton to support local competitions etc. The FFG will then transmit the remaining €6.00  to the ECB. The ECB will send €2.00 to the GAA and retains €4.00 to fund the expenses of organising, administering and developing Gaelic games in Europe generally.

B: A new member joins the A Coruna club in Galicia in Spain in May and pays €10.00 (in addition to any club membership fee, insurance fees etc.). This amount will then be sent by the club to the ECB on June 30th. The ECB will send €2.00 to the GAA and as there is no recognised national federation, the ECB will send €2.00 to the Galician Federation to support their local leagues etc. The ECB retains €6.00 to fund the expenses of organising, administering and developing Gaelic games in the "Iberian region" and Europe generally.

C: A former member re-joins the Helsinki Harps club in Finland in August and pays €10.00 (in addition to any club membership fee, insurance fees etc.). This amount will then be sent by the club to the ECB on September 30th. The ECB will send €2.00 to the GAA and as there is no recognised national federation or subsidiary body, the ECB retains €8.00 to fund the expenses of organising, administering and developing Gaelic games in the "Nordic region" and Europe generally, this reflects the additional costs and operational requirements for the ECB where there is no national federation or other recognised body

The majority of clubs will pay their €10.00 per adult member direct to the ECB. Clubs in France will transmit the €10.00 to the FFG. 

Please note that the ECB receives details of each club's membership on a weekly basis. Invoices will be issued for clubs who have not returned their fees on time. However, as we are all volunteers, we would hope that clubs will assist the smooth operation of the system by transmitting their fees to the ECB bank account within TEN days of the end of each quarter, without having to be reminded!

3. GAA Club Affiliation fee

Every GAA club in the world is obliged to pay a €20.00 annual "club" affiliation fee before March 31st each year. The ECB has no discretion in this matter.

4. ECB Competition Entries & Fees

Every team is required to pay a €20.00 entry fee per competition to the ECB. This small fee helps to cover costs of running competitions such as referees travel. medals etc. Newly formed clubs, in their "foundation" year, may be allowed late entry to a competition and/or exempted from entry fees at the discretion of the ECB Management Committee.

Please note that the entry fee is "per team", not per club. Thus a club entering two teams (e.g. "A" and "B" teams) in a particular competition would be liable for €40.00 entry fees. 

The ECB plans to organise the following competitions in 2014:-

Pan-European

European Hurling Championship

European Camogie Championship

European Ladies football Championship 

European Ladies football Shield

European Premier football Championship (15-a-side)*

European Senior, Intermediate and Junior football Championships (11-a-side)

European Football 7's (To be confirmed)

* NB: Entry fee for this competition is €50.00 per team

Regional

Iberian Ladies football Championship 

Iberian Football Championship 

Benelux Ladies football Championship  

Benelux Football Championship  

Benelux Football Shield

Nordic Ladies football Championship 

Nordic Football Championship 

Central & East Ladies football Championship 

Central & East Football Championship 

Italy-Switzerland Ladies football Championship 

Italy-Switzerland Football Championship 

North-West (France & Channel Islands) Ladies football Championship 

North-West (France & Channel Islands) Football Championship (organised on a "conference" basis)

Clubs will also be sent a link to electronic entry form which is required to assist the Competitions Control Committee (CCC) in planning and organising the various competitions. 

The closing date for completing the 2014 ECB Official Competition Entry Form will be March 1st. 

Late Entries

Late entries (if permitted by the CCC) may incur an additional late entry fee of €30.00. 

Withdrawals

Clubs will be refunded their entry fee for any team which officially withdraws from a competition provided that notice of the withdrawal is sent to the European Secretary at least 14 days prior to the date of the first round of a competition. 

NB: Due to the logistics involved in the organisation of the Premier (15-a-side) Football Championships, the date for withdrawals will be decided by the CCC but will be at least 30 days prior to the first round of fixtures.

5. Club & Officer Contact details

Every organisation needs to communicate with it's constituent units from time to time. The ECB regularly communicates with clubs via email and posts information to our website and Facebook page.

Whilst all official European GAA communications are conducted by email to official GAA email addresses, we are also required to hold on file, certain basic details in relation to each club and the club officers. An electronic form to collect this information will be issued shortly to all clubs. Completion of this form is mandatory and we request clubs to cooperate.

6. Affiliation & Entry forms

In order to assist both clubs and the ECB, and make the process easier for all, the 2014 ECB/GAA affiliation form will be shortly be issued as online form.

7. Failure to comply with regulations

In the GAA we are all volunteers and giving up our time to organise club and ECB activities and this includes administrative and financial matters. With almost 70 clubs in Europe, the ECB officers have a heavy workload and many are also active in their clubs as well. Therefore we appeal to all clubs to supply requested information and pay fees on time. 

We do understand that problems arise and clubs have difficulties too and we try to be as flexible as possible however clubs who have problems should alert us as soon as possible, outlining their situation. Unfortunately, we must advise that it is unlikely that we will be able to waive fees for clubs due to general economic conditions as almost all clubs are suffering to a greater, or lesser, degree in these difficult times.

However, in order to be fair to those who respect the rules, clubs who fail to supply requested information by the due date will be penalised by fines and/or other sanctions such as non-participation in development or coaching activities, not being allowed to host tournaments etc. Clubs who are in arrears in the payment of fees will NOT  be allowed to play in any competition or participate in other GAA activities until fees are paid. This requirement will be strictly implemented this year. Clubs are asked to bear this in mind when commencing activities for the season ahead, contacting members, collating contact details and collecting fees for the season and also when accepting new members. 

My apologies for such a long email and thank you for taking the time to read it and on behalf of the ECB, I again wish you a super 2014 season.
Kind regards
Tony

Tony Bass 

Secretary, Europe GAA