EXTERNAL LINK

On the home page I have created flip boxes in the county colours and I need to get contact details for these individual GOBAs. Any help would be appreciated.

I have included GOBAs for Kilkenny, Limerick, North East and North West as these areas / tracks should have representation through the IGOBF. I have changed the name of the Mullingar GOBA to the Midlands GOBA in order to give Longford track representation.

The About Us section requires a webpage outlining the IGOBFs rule and procedures. It should layout how the individual GOBAs should interact with the IGOBF in order to streamline the process and prevent meetings turning into a talking shop.

In my opinion each GOBA should nominate 2 contacts to interact with the IGOBF. When an issue arises then that individual GOBA should agree on their position and one of the 2 designated GOBA members should contact the IGOBF who interacts with the IGB.

I will create an email address [email protected] which can be used by the GOBAs to contact the IGOBF and will save people traveling long distances to attend meetings especially the North East and North West GOBAs. Dundalk and Lifford should have a voice similar to the southern tracks.

If anyone has any suggestions for the website or the IGOBFs rule and procedures then do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]

Finally contact me if anyone needs to develop a business website using the latest technology as there are substantial discounts for greyhound folk.

Kieran

There is no IGOBF and GOBAs. The IGOBF is the delegates from each GOBA.

I have the contact details for all the GOBAs, affiliated and unaffiliated. Kilkenny do not have a GOBA. There is no GOBA named Limerick or North West. You cannot change the name of the Mullingar GOBA to Midlands GOBA, the members of a GOBA can only change the name of their GOBA. Wexford Greyhound Owners & Breeders Association adopted their constitution 30th August 1995. The name was changed at this years AGM to be known as Wexford GOBA, only the members can vote on changes.

The members of a GOBA elect a committee at their AGM to work on their behalf. This committee then selects the two delegates to represent them at IGOBF meetings. The two delegates from each affiliated GOBA forms the National Committee of the IGOBF and this includes the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and PRO. The National Committee works together to discuss the agenda and agree on any meetings with IGB etc. Meetings of the National Committee shall be called as necessary but in any case not less than quarterly Conference calls could be the way to hold some meetings in the future.

Any chance you could post a contact name, email address and mobile number for each GOBA so I can finish the website.

Also if you have the contact details for the IGOBF officers that would be great.

"Kilkenny do not have a GOBA. There is no GOBA named Limerick or North West."
Do you not think that the tracks at Kilkenny, Limerick, Longford and Lifford should have some sort of representation at a national level.

Kieran

It only became a minor issue for this years AGM as some of the GOBAs were not notified by email.

As Secretary on behalf of the Federation I would call it more than Just a minor issue more like a plan that was orchestrated from one GOBA but went pair shaped on the night.
Mrs Morris, As Secretary on behalf of the Federation
I would prefer if you told the true reason why [SOME] GOBAs were not sent out any information regarding the AGM instead of undermining the workings of the current Federation, also you being the assistant secretary you should be ashamed of your actions.You have a copy of the IGOBF Constitution and if you cared to read it you will notice that Wexford GOBA along with 3 other GOBAs failed to follow the rules of the Constitution, you failed to send me your nominated Delegates for 2018 after your AGM therefore I could not send out any information, the relevant information was sent to the GOBAs who returned their AGM results and their motions to me, 2 GOBAs have not held any AGM in 2018 and you where fully aware of this bluff, one GOBA had an ordinary meeting and sent me 3 delegates names on the 15th June, another GOBA sent in their motions only also on the 15th June, After asking on the 17th June I got confirmation on who the delegates were for one GOBA, at the AGM one GOBA had 4 representing them and they thought they had 4 votes, another GOBA had no AGM but insisted they had held one which you also were at the back off hoping no one found out, so Mrs Morris the next time you arrive at an IGOBF AGM with your box of voting slips and outrageous friends you should make sure to have your own house in order first before you try and take over the running of the Federation.
Due to the inadequate information received and the slanderous and outrageous slurs from the floor the chairman had no option but to call the meeting off.

Dave Cunningham
Secretary on behalf of IGOBF.

Could you please share the "contact details for all the GOBAs, affiliated and unaffiliated"

The only GOBA to have sent information so far is the Tipperary GOBA and I have developed a webpage for this GOBA in the link below.

EXTERNAL LINK

I have created a new menu called GOBAs for the individual GOBA webpages and the link below is also contained on the reverse of the county colours flip boxes on the home page.

Anybody with any suggestions to improve this website then do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]

Some people seem fixated with the GOBAs articles of association and organisational procedures when everyone should be trying to ensure that Dundalk, Lifford and Longford are represented by the IGOBF. It is vital to get every track / region is affiliated to the IGOBF so that it is a nationwide organisation thereby strengthening the hand of all greyhound owners and breeders in any future discussions on the industry.

The members of these Northern GOBAs can use the websites contact form or the email address [email protected] to communicate issues with the IGOBF thereby saving having to travel long distances to IGOBF meetings. If the owners and breeders that race at Dundalk, Lifford and Longford cant be bother to organise then they cannot complain about the way the industry is being run.

Kieran

What about Newbridge, Youghal, Waterford, Derry, Drumbo.

As far as I am aware, Dundalk is represented by the North East GOBA.

At their official AGM, I understand that they chose not to send any delegates to the farce of what has now become the IGOBF.

Should Counties that have no Greyhound Track be allowed to form GOBAs and if so should there be 26 or 32 GOBAs and if not why not ?

It would appear that most owners and breeders feel that they should have a representative body but it also appears that a only very small number of owners and breeders are willing to allow the IGOBF represent them.

If you have the information it would be very useful to publish how many members of each GOBA that was represented at the IGOBF Annual General Meeting actually were present at their individual AGM and voted to allow the IGOBF represent them in negotiations with the Board.

The divide and conquer strategy of previous Boards did no favours to the Owners Breeders or Ordinary Racegoers.

Surely it is time for a National Representative Body to be formed that will truly represent the views of all owners and breeders, after all, the new CEO has made every effort to speak directly to GOBAs, Track Supporters Clubs, Breeders, Owners, Trainers and the Racing Public so there is a willingness on behalf of the CEO to effect positive change for the Industry.

It seems a sorry state of affairs that it is so difficult to bring the Groups together, maybe people have their own vested interests and little fiefdoms and it is time that those who want the Industry to move forward and not stay in the dark ages, to organise with a view to creating an IGOBF that is representative of all tracks and that will engage with the Board through the Forum and whatever other avenues are available to it.

With regard to those tracks and Greyhound people living working and racing North of a line from Dublin to Galway, it is as if they do not exist.

When was the last IGOBF AGM held in the Northern half of the Country?

Even the Board think that moving from Limerick to Horse and Jockey and back is acceptable for a Forum.

Do those people not pay the same Stud fees, have the same feeding and rearing costs as this in Cork and Kerry.

It is time for people to wake up and smell the coffee.

The planning permission for the schools at Harolds Cross has been approved, the finances are in the best position that they have been in since 2006, the Country is nearing full employment and many people have disposable income for the first time for 10 years and we have a shambles of an Organisation purporting to represent the interests of those working in and supporting the Industry.

There is an opportunity to invest in the Industry, improve stadia so that they will attract new racegoers, which in turn will attract new owners.

Surely the Current IGOBF as it is operating is completely unsuitable.

As for their website, it is a total embarrassment, in the shortest Policy and Vision Document ever produced by a National representative Body, it describes Adrian Neilan as the CEO of the IGB and he must have left 7 or 8 years ago.

There are no details of the elected representatives, no reports of any local GOBA AGMs or any IGOBF AGMs.

I could go on but I am sure that people get the picture

I do not post on data but felt strongly your post should be supported.

I endorse every word.

Geoff Parnaby

All my posts in relation to the IGOBF website development have been inclusive and I have been saying that all the tracks should be represented.

I have posted on data and facebook looking for suggestions and a main reason why I am developing a website for the IGOBF is to give GOBAs a reason to affiliate thereby making the IGOBF a nationwide organisation. Each GOBA will get its own web page similar to the Tipp GOBA.
EXTERNAL LINK

I believe this to be a proactive approach as opposed to the usual animosity and in fighting that seems to infect the greyhound owners & breeders organisations and the last thing we need is another one.

You are correct, the IGOBF need a new website but your Policy and Vision Document comment is bitchy in the context that you know that a new website is being developed.

David McGrath wrote:

The divide and conquer strategy of previous Boards did no favours to the Owners Breeders or Ordinary Racegoers. Surely it is time for a National Representative Body to be formed that will truly represent the views of all owners and breeders, after all, the new CEO has made every effort to speak directly to GOBAs, Track Supporters Clubs, Breeders, Owners, Trainers and the Racing Public so there is a willingness on behalf of the CEO to effect positive change for the Industry.

The new CEO has been in the job nearly a year now and should not be traipsing around the country to speak directly to GOBAs. It should be channelled through the Federation. He should be concentrating his efforts on Sales & Marketing to get new people to go greyhound racing, ensuring that the IGBs IT infrastructure doesnt crash and putting in place a process to prosecute positive drug samples. EXTERNAL LINK

Your call for a new organisation to be formed will create divisions that the previous Boards divide and conquer strategies you mentioned above, could only dream about. It will weaken the voice of the greyhound owners & breeders and should be ignored.

But then again I stopped taking your posts seriously after you proposed the last commercial director for IGB CEO based on his PAC performance and despite knowing that the IGB have returned some of the worst financial returns in the history of the state.

Kieran

It is exclusive not inclusive.

I presume that the new CEO is traipsing around the Country as you put it as he understands that in general, owners and breeders around the Country simply do not feel represented by the IGOBF as it stands and this is almost certainly a correct view.

I take your point about the new website being developed but I cannot find any logic as to the way in which it is set up.

It is a good step forward to identify the Federation Committee.

As far as I was aware, Mullingar and Longford are not affiliated as a GOBA, and I would like to have a sense of the size and membership of the MId West GOBA.

After all there is no track in its geographical area unless it is Galway and I thought that they already had a GOBA.

If that is to be a fully fledged GOBA, then surely, Meath should have its own GOBA as should Wicklow, Roscommon, Sligo etc.

With regard to your last comment, it is simply a matter of fact that the last Commercial Director was by far the most able performer put forward by the Board at the Public Accounts Committee, I wouldnt know the man from Adam if I met him but your response and those of others in relation to the Board is very simplistic, ie everything that the Board does is portrayed negatively, yet you still have photos of the Horse and Jockey meeting on the new website, where most of what was said with regard to the sale of Harolds Cross has turned out to be factually incorrect.

In addition, your PRO, with regard to Financials gave a detailed presentation at the previous Horse and Jockey meeting as a warm up for Pascal Taggart where the thrust of the Vision for the future was that we should aim to have approximately 8 tracks in the Country.

That was a vision which looked backwards rather than forward and did not take in to account how the economy of the Country was improving for the majority of Citizens and that we should be battling for the leisure Euro by improving our stadia and encouraging people to get involved again.

I applaud you for trying to get the website set up and almost a thousand views shows that people are looking at it.

It is a pity that more people are not prepared to air their views as most people would seem to want an organisation that would put forward their views in a Strategic and positive manner.

My own view is that anyone who races a dog at any track should join the GOBA or Track Supporters club at that track,and if they race at several tracks, they should be a member of each one.

That would improve membership and encourage people to get involved.

Taken from the News & Views section of the new website - it has not been disproved and is not simplistic.
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Co-mingling from other countries was the excuse that the IGB used at the PAC when presented with the fact that the HRI has outperformed the IGB in terms of Tote returns to such an extent. However if you consider the HRI tote breakdown for 2015 below it shows that just 5.4 million came from the International pool. EXTERNAL LINK

On-course Tote 13.3 million
Off-course Tote (Irish pool) 60.6 million
Off-course Tote (International pool) 5.4 million

And the majority of the off-course Tote (Irish pool) of 60.6 million would be punters using their apps at the race track instead of queuing up at the Tote window.

Alan Kelly questioned Colin Walsh on why the IGBs tote revenue has gone from being 1.5 million higher than the horses in 2007 to being 60 million lower in 2015. He justified the IGBs dismal performance by stating that the HRI has managed to offset the on-track decline with an exceptional performance in international markets.

Alan Kelly queried Colin Walsh at the second PAC stating that international markets only represented 5.4 million out of the total tote revenue. Colin Walsh argued that the narrative at the time, and in advance of the meeting, was that HRI's on-track tote was outperforming that of IGB. In effect he was trying not to include the off-course Tote (Irish pool) 60.6 million in the HRIs Irish Tote turnover.

He was being disingenuous and splitting hairs regarding his HRI's on-track tote comment by not accepting that punters at tracks might use their smart phones instead of the Tote window due to convenience. It was obvious to me that this line was given to him by the PR Company that charged the IGB 40,000 + for advice in the run-up to the 2nd PAC meeting.

Why dont you write the procedure / rules on how the IGOBF and the GOBAs should interact into the future and send it to me at [email protected] and I will send it to the IGOBF officials for their contributions.

This will allow me to create a web page on the new website in the About Us section that will spell it out in black and white.

This would be a forward thinking approach and would be a lot more positive that creating a new greyhound owners & breeders organisation that would split the industry down the middle.

At the end of the day does it really matter if Helen Morris or Bill Murphy is IGOBF chairman?

Kieran

Kieran, David dosnt need to do this there are procedures to follow.

Before a AGM the secretary will send out voting forms to every person eligable to vote. The very least these should go to every GOBA secretary along with the date they should be in by.

At the AGM there should be available a agenda of the meeting and
a sheet laying out the club finances.

Then send me these procedures and I will put them on the website.

Also let me know what authority decided on these rules? Are they statutory?

Kieran

I would totally agree with your above comments of creating an IGOBF that is representative of all tracks but I feel strongly that the last thing the industry needs is a rival organisation that would split the greyhound owners and breeders.

While some people may have their own vested interests and little fiefdoms, I believe that the main problem has been communication channels due to resources and distance. I have obtained the IGOBF constitution from Dave and it is now on the beta version of the new website. The About Us section contains the IGOBF constitution, the IGOBF officers and a mission statement which shows that the current IGOBF officers are not afraid of transparency.

EXTERNAL LINK

Now anyone with a perceived problem with the workings of the IGOBF can pull up the IGOBF constitution on their phone and quote the paragraph number in question.

If every greyhound track in Ireland had a GOBA affiliated to the IGOBF then the makeup of the IGOBF officers would sort itself out as the elected Committee shall appoint from their Committee, two delegates to represent their GOBA on the National Committee (6b of the IGOBF constitution).

Bottom line is that the best way to improve the IGOBF is for every track to have a GOBA that is affiliated to the IGOBF.

David McGrath wrote:

The planning permission for the schools at Harolds Cross has been approved, the finances are in the best position that they have been in since 2006, the Country is nearing full employment and many people have disposable income for the first time for 10 years.

Unfortunately I would not hold the same optimism as you have in your above quote. Over 30 million (up to 2015) EXTERNAL LINK was taken from prizemoney to fund a miss-managed industry. The extent of this miss-management multiplies when you consider that the industry also received millions from the Horse & Greyhound Racing Fund every year.

So the 23 million from the HX sale will only prolong the agony if the IGB doesnt change and with the exception of the CEO there has not been a lot of change to the IGB executive. Do they have the experience and training in IT and sales & marketing that the industry urgently needs?

David, you might say that I am looking backwards again not forwards but if you examine the IGBs Strategic Plan (2018- 2022) it sets a target to increase the Tote Turnover to an average of 1,200 (2010 level) per race run within the lifetime of this strategy (page 29). This represents a targeted annual tote turnover of 24 million when the greyhound industry achieved over 50 million in 2007 without the advances in technology for betting that we have today. EXTERNAL LINK

In addition the Tote crashed in April on one of the busiest nights of the year and the IGBs legal eagle has allegedly been on leave for a considerable time which might explain the industries drug testing debacle and could cost the industry a huge pay out.

Consequently the new IGB chairman faces a monumental task and requires the full support of ALL the greyhound owners and breeders. I have spoken to a number of IGOBF officers and they agree that a change is required in the IGOBFs strategic direction which has had to be very negative during Phil Meaneys time as chairman. The aim was to remove Phil Meany and that has been achieved. The IGOBFs strategic direction will become more positive so that it backs the new IGB Chairman to drive the industry forward and the first stage in this process has been the website development.

Kieran

YOU DONT SEEM TO HAVE MUCH CONFIDENCE IN IGOBF YOURSELF DAVE OR HAVE A VERY HIGH OPINION OF GREYHOUND OWNERS AND YOU ARE IGOBF SECRETARY IF I READ YOUR EARLIER POST RIGHT,

SCRAP IGOBF AND FORM A NEW BODY THAT IS INCLUSIVE OF EVERY TRACK IN IRELAND BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH AND LET IT REPRESENT A MAJORITY NOT THE MINORITY THAT IGBOF REPRESENTS.