The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland.

Brief report of Council Meeting, Sheldon Park Hotel, May 6th 2005.

Niall Galway has agreed to take the chair of the Heritage Committee and is seeking members to join it and wants every branch to appoint a heritage officer.

Dave McCabe is prepared to take over from John Thompson the chair of the Membership Services committee but wants to change its title to Membership Supplies Committee.

Brian Cassells (President) stressed the importance of increasing and maintaining membership of the IWAI. Branch treasurers and other officers were encouraged to pursue renewal of all subscriptions. It was now May and only 56.5% of members had renewed their subscriptions.

Paul Garland (Vice President) intended to get 5000 membership forms printed and distributed and to encourage each member to recruit at least one new member this year, and a prize of dinner for two at the Wineport would be presented to the member who recruited most.

Greg Whelan, chairman of the Liaison and Lobbying Committee, presented an outline of of his plans for the conference proposed for October, of which further detail will be presented and publicised later in the summer.

Paul Garland said that the IWAI had sufficient financial resources in hand to fund the post of part-time administrator for two years. He proposed that the IWAI should press on with the creation of this new post, advertising it and inviting applications, noting that the executive had started to develop the framework of a job description which needed further elaboration and Greg Whelan's proposal that the word "administrator" be changed to "Project Manager" was accepted. The post should be advertised in Inland Waterways News, said Paul.

John Corrigan (Treasurer) pointed out that each branch needed to review its policies and practices since bad or incompetent practices could affect the extent of cover provided by the IWAI's insurance if claims were made. All IWAI events should be recorded and those records kept for a period of three years. Consultative discussions would be held shortly.

Colin Becker, Chairman of the Boating and Leisure Committee, asked the meeting to approve his proposals to re-activate the "snags" list of problems over the inland navigations, lobbying for appropriate help with larger projects, and he was seeking volunteers to join the B and L Committee.

Donal O'Siochain (Immediate Past President) proposed that, since Waterways Ireland had indicated that they should have the Royal Canal operational to Clondra by 2007 if there were no planning permission delays, the IWAI should announce a series of rallies for the restored sections in 2007 to celebrate the occasion.

The President, Brian Cassells, told the meeting there would be a boat show at the Kings Hall in Balmoral on July 1st to 5th and all the Northern Ireland branches would be participating. And, an invitation having been received from the Slaney branch, the next Council meeting will be held in Wexford on Saturday, 24th September.