Club Focus: Donegal side de-Termoned to take it to next level

Termon taking big strides

THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN

THERE have been big changes in the Termon club in recent times.

The club, which is situated on the outskirts of Letterkenny, has orchestrated a reshuffle of the club during the past three years.

They expanded their committee, led by chari Brian Trearty, and set up a new structure and then set about a fundraising campaign to deliver an ambitious plan for the club’s facilities. One of the key men involved in this was Daireann Gibson.

Having transitioned out of playing for Termon, as well as managing the senior team, Gibson moved into the administration side of things.

“We could see that the club had a lot of good people however there needed to be a number of adjustments to the administrative side so that we could bring more people on board, and more people could take part in the administrative side of the business.”

They got a group of 48 people together and after a series of workshops, came up with a club plan.

That was their five-year plan that set out what they wanted to achieve. It also identified what they wanted to achieve year by year, in order to make their aspirations a reality.

“Our five-year plan is that we want to be a model club that upholds the mission of the GAA, which is the promotion of Gaelic Games and culture together with life-long participation.

“We want to make that available to a many people as possible.

“We are into that second year of that plan and we are well on our way to achieving those targets.”

They have a series of committees, such as finance and fundraising and a games development. Those committees are then tasked with achieving the goals in their set area.

Gibson said: “We felt that perhaps by broadening out we would bring in a greater skillset that would ultimately benefit the club, its members and the community.”

Volunteerism is good in Termon. As well as 350 playing members, they have over 40 trained coaches in the club. Kevin McGettigan deserves credit for the work that he has done in training up coaches.

On the administrative side of things, they have 45 people on their various committees who have been working on the five-year plan.

FUNDRAISING

MONEY is important to every club, but before Termon set out on their five-year plan they knew that they needed to get their finances right.

Daireann Gibson, who came into the administration side of the club a few years ago, explained that they wanted to make sure that they had a good steady stream of money coming into the club.

“When you are establishing a plan there is intent there. You also need fuel to fire the engines. To be fair to the club, when we came in there was no significant debt, which was a tremendous positive.

“It needed an injection of capital. We took a look at the operational costs, and we tried to box that office with a certain amount of fund-aising and club lottos, memberships and a few other initiatives. In order to give momentum for the capital projects like the facilities we needed a bigger shot in the arm.

“We did a club 300 last year, where we connected with a lot of people who played with the club, but also people who were outside the club, and also neighbouring clubs who participated in the draw.

“That gave us a great shot in the arm. They were able to help us redevelop the facilities and were able to give us a social and recreational hub, which we would imagine would be completed in our five-year plan.”

That draw gave them the seed capital, and that plan gave them the momentum to go forward and they were able to connect with a large investor in Nicole Shanahan. She is the president of Clear Access IP, a successful legal tech company. She is also a generous philanthropist.

“We were able to make a connection with Nicole and she very generously came on board. She liked the plan, she liked what we were about. She resonated with the values of the GAA. The values that are teamwork, respect, inclusiveness, amateur status. All those good things. That sat well with her foundation. We have got a €500,000 investment to set us on our way.

“That was a phenomenal level of generosity and was a game-changer for the club.”

Daireann Gibson runs a successful solicitors practice in Dublin and Donegal, Gibson and Associates. Ms Shanahan is a client of that office, and through that connection she became involved with the Termon club. Gibson and Associates has an inward investment unit and the connection was made through that.

“The connection was made through an inward investment programme. You can invest in a commercial enterprise. There is also an opportunity to invest in social enterprise, so that is how we managed the connection.”

Club plans

Club secretary Kieran Gallagher accepts that Termon are no different to any other club, yet they have managed to put together an exciting package for the future of the club.

For example, the work that is being done to build their new facility, a lot of it will be carried out by their current memebers.

Architects, Solicitors, Structural engineers, site manager, they have all come on board and to a large extent offered their services free of charge.

Club secretary Gallagher said: “We are no different to any other club. All clubs have the same sort of people with the same sort of backgrounds, but perhaps we are a bit more cheeky and we ask for things.

“A lot of the times people want to be asked.”

Gallagher has been secretary for the past three years. He has been part of the restructure of the club, as they created a whole new structure of committees, and set up the five year plan.

“A lot of people are moving into the area. We want to accommodate all those people and include everyone. We have facilities that hold a lot of sentimental value to us. We want to keep that value, but we have 24 or 25 teams and we need to provide for them.”

It was Gallagher who drew up the design for the new facility. He said he wanted to model the club on Dublin outfit St Jude’s.

They hope work will begin at the start of next year, and they hope that the facility will be completed within 18 months. That facility includes six dressing rooms including two that will be specifically for their ladies teams, who have been so successful of late. They will also have function rooms, meeting rooms, and gym facilities.

“We aspire to be like the best. We want to be the best club in Donegal, in Ulster really. I know that’ ambitious, but we think we should be ambitious.

“We want our club to stand up with the best clubs in Irealnd.”

FACILITIES

THE facilities Termon are hoping to have at the end of the five-year plan are the 11,000 square foot social and recreation hub. It will have dressing room, a function room, a meeting room, an indoor training area and a gym.

A lot of the preliminary work has been done. Club secretary Kieran Gallagher has worked on the design of the new clubhouse. He has gained support from club members. He is also working on the planning application, and has got the permissions. He wll be the point of contact for alot of the work. Though many are working for free. That is going to provide a massive saving for the club.

They are hoping to break ground on the work by next February.

The club has welcomed support from across the community, but in particular the project has the support of TS McLaughlin on the structural side. Michael Friel. a local architect, has also got involved.

MEMBERSHIP

IT’S clear that Daireann Gibson understands that the GAA is an organisation that goes beyond just the provision of a sporting outlet for its members.

Termon are a club with great numbers and great participation, but it is interesting to know that they want to grow those numbers.

Gibson thinks it takes time, but people soon come to realise how important the Association is to the Irish community.

“One only needs to look at the reaction to Covid pandemic. The first guys out of the block were the GAA.

“Certainly in Donegal they were first out to have their programmes established to assist with the elderly members of the community. That is a serious organisation.

“People who haven’t come from that background, sometimes – while it is an inviting organization – perhaps are not immediately drawn to it. It is a traditional organisation and the more people we get into the clubs the better it is going to be for community cohesion.”

Termon is doing great with numbers, yet Gibson explained that the club wants to reach out to those in non-traditional areas.

“We have the advantage that we are on the edge of Letterkenny, which is a developing town. More and more people are coming out. There are more non-national people who are coming to reside in Letterkenny and the periphery. It is those people in particular that it would be great to see more involved. We are extending the hand out all the time.

“While there is no sectarian element to the GAA, it is at the same time visible that members of the Protestant Presbyterian group don’t participate in the same numbers as members of the Catholic community. There is no reason for that. We would like to see more participation across the spectrum.”