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INJURY SCHEME REGISTRATION AND SUBSCRIPTION 2011

Injury Scheme Benefits and subscriptions will be unchanged for the 2011 season. Registration of teams for the 2011 season should be completed via the online registration system as per the 2010 season. Registration is required to be completed and subscriptions paid by March 31, 2011.

Payment should be forwarded direct to Sinéad Quinn, GAA Risk and Insurance Manager, in Croke Park.

The only email address recorded in the system should be the official GAA email address, secretary.club.county@gaa.ie.

The system will generate an invoice when registration is completed. Please note that this invoice will only be sent to the official GAA email address. Non-use of the official GAA email addresses last year contributed to delays in payment of subscriptions.

Non-payment of subscriptions will contribute to delays in the processing of claims and leave the injured member awaiting reimbursement for extended periods. In 2009, this contributed to a volume of complaints from members which could have been avoided.

Units who experience any difficulty in accessing the system should contact Servasport directly.

Email: gaasupport@servasport.com
Phone: 26 counties: 04890 313 845
Six counties: 02890 313 845
International: +44 2890 313 845

CARDIAC SCREENING

The GAA’s Medical Scientific & Welfare Committee have updated their position on cardiac screening following the completion of a two-year research programme in which nearly 300 GAA players were examined in an attempt to assess the effectiveness of various screening methods.

Details of the updated position paper and further information on Cardiac Screening can be found at http://www.gaa.ie/medical-and-player-welfare/cardiac-screening/.

GAA INJURY DATABASE

The GAA Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee presented some findings from the GAA’s Injury database in December last. The database has tracked injury data from 17 inter-county Gaelic Football and 16 inter-county Hurling teams since it was established in 2007.

The database shows that the most common injuries sustained in Gaelic Games are:

a) Hamstring (Football: 18.2% of all injuries, Hurling: 16.5%)
b) Knee (11.6% of injuries – both codes)
c) Pelvis & Groin (Football: 9.4% of all injuries, Hurling: 10.4%)
d) Ankle (9% of all injuries – both codes)
e) Shoulder (Football: 6.8% of all injuries, Hurling: 6%)
f) Wrist & Hand (Football: 4.2% of all injuries, Hurling: 10.3%)

The study showed that recurrent injuries generally require significantly longer recovery periods and that allowing significant time for recovery and proper rehabilitation could have major beneficial effects for players in the long term, particularly in relation to hamstring and groin injuries.

The study showed that typical “return to play” time for a new hamstring injury is 18.5 days (Football) or 16.5 days (Hurling). This rises to 41 days (Football) and 30.5 days (Hurling) for a recurrent injury.

2011 GAA ONLINE REGISTRATION AND DATA BREACH

Arising out of the recent membership data breach, Deloitte has been engaged to undertake a review on behalf of the GAA. This review is ongoing and we expect their report by early February. The PSNI investigation into this matter is also ongoing.

For the 2011 registration season, we are asking clubs to continue with registration of players and members on the online system operated by Servasport. However, we have suspended all development on the system, except for essential upgrade work. Servasport has been provided with a short term contract until April to facilitate registration.

If clubs, or club members, are concerned about their data being entered into the system, we would ask those clubs to enter a reduced amount of information (i.e. name, part address etc). Please note that any contact information (i.e. phone number, email) is not required for GAA member and player registration. Membership cards will be issued to all members in April.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

For the full GAA statement see http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/news-archive/1012101236-important-notice-on-gaa-membership-database/.

For the full Data Commissioner Statement seehttp://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=1102&m=f.

ADDITIONAL EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR CLUBS

Due to the successful role out of the GAA Google email accounts in 2009 and 2010 and as part of the GAA’s Strategic Vision and Action Plan 2009-2015, the Association has obtained additional Google email accounts which are free to all Clubs.

The additional emails are to provide clubs with a PRO and Chairperson account.

The structure of the email addresses are as follows (using the Austin Stacks GAA Club as an example):

• pro.austinstacks.kerry@gaa.ie
• chairperson.austinstacks.kerry@gaa.ie

In order to obtain a Pro or Chairperson account for your Club all you need to do is contact the GAA Email support team.

Contact details are as follows: GAA email support team at:

• mail.support@gaamail.ie or
• by phone on 076-615 4932 (a lo-call number) or alternatively +353 1 6384822

The GAA email support team will create the accounts and forward the details to the club secretary who in turn will pass on the relevant details to the PRO and Chairperson.

As the Google email is part of the GAA Google Apps environment your account is much more than just email. It also provides additional applications: Google calendar, Google documents and Google mobile.

For Google videos, articles and help information see the following links below:

• http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BakerTutorials#grid/uploads
• http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=21758

GAA PLAYING GEAR RULES CLARIFICATION

The GAA has received a number of queries from Clubs who have been approached by unlicensed companies offering to supply playing gear to GAA teams, and claiming it is not in breach of GAA rules to do so.

Rule 1.17 of the GAA Treoir Oifigiúil states that all jerseys used in official matches must display the GAA’s official logo and that any unit or team in breach of this rule shall be liable to disqualification and/or loss of expenses and an individual(s) to a suspension of not less than twenty four weeks or to expulsion.

The following are the only companies licensed to supply official GAA playing gear:

• O’Neills – 01 4293500
• Azzurri – 051 850066
• Masita – 046 9241595
• Intosport – 056 4441652

GAA GAMES DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2010

The rescheduled 2010 GAA Games Development Conference took place on Saturday, January 15 after initially being postponed due to the adverse weather conditions before Christmas.

Attracting approximately 100 extra delegates than had initially been targeted, over 600 attended from throughout Ireland, Europe and North America. The Conference focussed on issues relating to coaching of children (up to U12/Primary School age) and was a combination of key note and parallel sessions, with practical coaching demonstrations also taking place over the course of the day.

Speaking at the Conference, Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Criostóir Ó Cuana congratulated the attendees and stated that “delegate numbers showed the interest there is for the development of our youth and how this knowledge can assist them in the development of our games and the coaching of young people”.

To download each of the presentations made on the day, visithttp://gaa.ie/coaching-and-games-development/conferences/. To obtain a DVD of the Conference, email gamesdevelopment@gaa.ie, with your name and postal address and a copy of the DVD will be sent to you.

IRISH SPORTING HERITAGE DATABASE

Boston College Ireland with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport has launched a publicly assessable Irish Sporting Heritage Database which aims to record Ireland’s built sporting heritage, existing and historical, over the past 150 years. No such inventory currently exists. The project will produce an online searchable database for use by the general public.

A key part of the continued success of the project will be for members of sporting organisations to send in additional information so that contemporary and historical images of sporting sites across Ireland can be recorded.

The Association would encourage all members to contribute information to the database to ensure that it has comprehensive GAA information and guarantee the long term legacy of this worthwhile project.

For more information, please visitwww.irishsportingheritage.com.

CLUB SCHEME PRIZEWINNERS

The GAA Club Scheme was set up under the presidency of Alf Murray in the 1960’s, where members and Clubs contributed either £100 or £500 respectively towards a fund that aided Clubs in developing facilities. Each year, prize winners are randomly selected from the pool of entries. 2010 winners are as follows:

€127 Prize Winners
Martin Hogan, Dublin; Castletown GAA, Meath; Séamus McGrath, Dublin; Augher; Naomh McCartan, Tyrone; Thomas Hayes Ltd, Clare; Waterford Glass Ltd, Waterford; Tipperary County Board; James Morgan, Armagh; Synge St Templelogue GFC, Dublin; Michael O Cuimín, Westmeath; Thomas Ryall, Kilkenny;
Kilkenny Products Ltd, Kilkenny.

€635 Prize Winners
Thomastown United GAA, Kilkenny; Begley Bourke, Limerick; Francis Scallon, Fermanagh; Sara McInerney, Dublin; John Bresnan, Dublin; St Marys GAA, Tipperary; Basil & Denis O’Meara, Tipperary; Athleague GAA, Roscommon; Edward O’Dwyer, Dublin; Ballymartin GAA, Down; Martin Bolger, Waterford; Easkey GAA, Sligo.

GAA LAUNCH OFFICIAL ANDROID APP

The GAA recently launched an official Android App. It contains the latest GAA news, fixtures, results, image galleries, videos and venue information.

You can download the app for free by visiting the App Market on your Android Smartphone and searching for “Official GAA”. Further details and download information can be found athttps://market.android.com/details?id=ie.ebow.gaa. We hope this will keep all GAA members and supporters up to date while on the move!

GAA SOCIAL INITIATIVE NEWSLETTER

The January edition of the GAA Social Initiative was recently sent to participating Clubs. The GAA would like to thank its members for the positive response to the first Social Initiative Newsletter in December.

To view a copy of the January edition, please click here.