The County Board Chair

Leadership sometimes has a price

"It is only lower down the rungs of society that we see duty and trustworthiness in abundance. Consider Aaron Van Langevelde, a little-known lawyer and Republican who sat on the board tasked with certifying the 2020 presidential election result in Michigan. At the time, colleagues pressed him to refuse to do so, citing spurious grounds of voter fraud. Senior Republicans piled on the pressure. Had Van Langevelde gone along with them, he would doubtless have become a right-wing hero and might even have parlayed his new status into a lucrative media role.

He did not. On November 23, 2020, he sat before the committee and said: “John Adams once said, ‘We are a government of laws, not men.’ This board needs to adhere to that principle here today.” His action allowed the result to stand, something that was crucial to the transfer of power, but he paid a considerable personal price: he was vilified on social media, spurned by elements in Michigan and sacked from his position. He has since disappeared into obscurity." The Times

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The County Board Chair; The Unofficial Guide

1. The Verdict

“The only time to be ahead is at the final whistle” Brian Cody

It’s a relay if not quite a race as the note is eventually transferred to the outstretched hand at the top table. There follows the customary if needless delay before the anticipated information simultaneously reaches delegates’ ears via the Bluetooth sound system. In a proud if under achieving county you have been elected to the position of Chairperson of the County Board, (more correctly the County Committee) of the Gaelic Athletic Association for what ought to be a five year term. You speculated as to how it might feel to have achieved this goal and you have imagined a plan of action but fantasy is no substitute for reality and now you must hit the ground running.

A literal interpretation of the role is that you chair a committee who collectively arrive at decisions but in reality you have assumed a position not unlike that of a chief executive and that is how you will be perceived. You will be expected to leave the association in a better place than you found it and given the GAA’s role in society you have a de facto responsibility to the entire community.

It is envisaged that a certain amount of imaginative endeavour will be employed in progressing its aims while fiscal rectitude will be expected providing it doesn’t impact negatively on those who most demand it. Legacy will beat length in any biography and if surviving a full term is the extent of your ambition you will achieve little. Once you have decided that a boardroom coup is the least of your worries you will be “free at last” knowing that your adversaries will not wield the knife if they don’t smell the fear.

Now might be an opportune time to reflect on a global study of 3000 Chief Executive Officers who were on the cusp of retirement. This survey revealed that a sizeable number regretted their failure to achieve many of their initial objectives. They began with ambitious plans only to be side tracked by the mundane. Your office will feature prominently a framed copy of “mission, vision and values” for unless these are front and centre your days will be consumed by, among other things, fixtures, disciplinary matters and the availability of County players to their clubs; items that should be anticipated, agreed and signed off on, long before they become an issue.

No doubt your election journey was not without its moments as it’s difficult to make an omelette without breaking eggs but a lot of the skills that got you to this point will be of little use in the role itself; apart, that is, from your ability to network. The show that was convention was but one moment in the long history of the County Committee with further analysis futile. Of what use the information that some delegates ignored club wishes when casting their votes or canvassed against you rather than for another candidate? In spite of the secret ballot the chattering classes will have all angles covered as they accurately speculate as to who supported whom. As the new Chair you need to rise above all that (no matter how well you practiced the dark arts yourself) because your mission is to effect positive change and nothing is more negative and energy sapping than a desire to get even.

Those who supported you will expect some reward in the form of a place on a prestigious committee and they will be confident that those who opposed you will be low in the pecking order when it comes to administrative posts: for it has always been thus. Precedent will not be your master however.

The Association was founded in large part due to the reality that Gaelic games and pastimes were under threat. That risk no longer exists as the quality of our games and the skills displayed by our amateur players are recognised worldwide but the notion that hostility towards other codes will somehow protect our own still prevails among a small cohort. Members involved in GAA activities usually have an interest in all sports and the reality today is that a number of our teams are made up of players who have never set foot in Ireland. It is best, therefore, to apply the principle of “sport sans frontiéres.”?

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