Clubhouse Design Specification

Over the last few months, the Clubhouse Redevelopment Subcommittee has been working on the detailed design specification for the new clubhouse. The design specification consists of two stages. The first involves agreeing (or ‘freezing’) the layout, with the second requiring decisions on the internal fitout (such as flooring, finishes etc).

For the first stage (the layout), there are many great ideas on how best to use the limited space available in the new clubhouse. Unfortunately not everything can be accommodated. Hence, to aid in the decision making process, design principles were adopted to help guide between the many competing demands on the space. These principles are:

1. Intensity of use: Serve players of all standards, users of all ages, and enjoyed by many.
2. Flexibility: In design to best use space available.
3. Belong: Members feel they belong
4. Welcoming and inclusive
5. Focus on uses and users: Priority is sports, focus on the need of most members, and acknowledge that social aspects build a strong club
6. Environmentally sustainable
7. Commercial: Ensure the building delivers value for money in capital expenditure and operational costs
8. Safeguarding

In addition to the design principles, a wide consultation across the club was held. This included meetings with the An Coiste, Cuala staff, the Coaching Forum, as well as engagement with the wider membership at the Design Specification Open Day on January 25th. We also continue to receive advice and guidance from the architects and the rest of the professional design team. There are also laws in relation to fire safety, disability access, environmental, planning, and other regulations with which we must comply in the layout design.

Following this consultation and decision making process, the layout has now been agreed. The key changes made to the original layout are:

1. The physio room has been moved downstairs to the Changing Area (Design Principles: Intensity of use, focus on uses and users: Priority is sports, commercial, safeguarding).
2. The room upstairs that was previously allocated as a Physio Room is to be an office to accommodate staff (Focus on uses and users)
3. Sports hall will have 1 larger storage room, rather than 2 – reducing the number of doors and increasing the flat wall space in the sports hall: (Intensity of use)
4. A social room has been provided off the café (Belong, social aspects build a strong club, safeguarding)
5. The wall between the Fitness Studio and the Performance Analysis Room will be solid to provide storage space and wall space (Focus on uses and users).

The next stage of the design specification will be agreeing the internal fitout (such as flooring, lighting, materials, etc.). We will continue to communicate with members and keep you up to date on this and all other important aspects of the project as it progresses.

View the finalised ground floor layout here and the upper floor layout here.

Clubhouse Redevelopment SGM Thursday 12th December

In light of the recent announcement of grant funding, the Home4Cuala clubhouse redevelopment project is now at a very important stage. A Special General Meeting (SGM) will take place next Thursday 12th December at 8pm in the Royal Marine Hotel where members are going to decide on whether to progress to the next stage of the project, or not.
The next (penultimate) phase will essentially be the final due diligence phase of (i) settling the detail of the final design spec (ii) tendering the contracts (iii) settling the terms of our new lease and the terms of the construction contracts. This next phase is essential and requires your support. Please see your member email for full details of the motion. There will subsequently be a final approval motion for members to consider later next year before the construction contracts are actually signed.
It is a very important decision for the club and a major investment in the future. It will be a short meeting with one item on the agenda and prescribed amount of time for contributions. Expect it to be over in less than 1 hour.
A quorum is required for the SGM to proceed next Thursday.  Irrespective of your opinion on the project, we would ask members to attend the SGM if it is at all possible for you to do so.
Míle buíochas,
An Coiste, Cuala.

Please note the following information regarding SGM, quorum and voting rights:

  •  The rules are as per the GAA Club Constitution and are therefore not those from Cuala or An Coiste, Cuala.
  • We are bound by the GAA Club Constitution. We as a Club signed up to this a few years back.
  •  Only Full paid-up members are entitled to vote. For the year we are in, these members must have paid their club membership by 31 March 2024. Within ‘Family Memberships’ a parent(s)/guardian(s) that has paid the Full Membership (Ordinary) fee will be entitled to vote. Any family member over 18 (from 1 January 2024) that is included in that ‘Family Membership’ and has paid the Full Membership fee by 31 March 2024 will be entitled to vote.
  • “Only Full Members, whose membership fees are paid up to date in accordance with Code 8, and who are not suspended or disqualified under this Constitution, Rules or the Official Guide and Codes, shall be eligible to vote at a General Meeting. The onus shall be on the member to prove that the member has paid their subscription.”
  • Social Members, Temp. Members and Youth/Juvenile Members do not have a vote.
  • There is no voting by proxy. Voting should be in person and the count based on those present and entitled to vote.
  • A quorum is required for an AGM and SGM. “No business shall be transacted at any General Meeting unless a quorum of members is present at the time when the meeting proceeds to business. Save as herein otherwise provided, fifteen per cent of Full Members eligible to vote shall be a quorum at a General Meeting, subject to a minimum of 15 members being present.”
  • “A Special General Meeting may be called by the Executive Committee at any time, provided ten days clear notice, in writing, shall be given to the members, specifying the purpose of such Special General Meeting.”
  • “If within half an hour after the time appointed for a General Meeting, a quorum of members is not present, the meeting if convened on the requisition of members shall be dissolved; in any other case it shall stand adjourned and be rearranged at a date and time to be decided by the Executive Committee, provided the reconvened meeting takes place within 14 days of the original meeting; and if at the reconvened meeting a quorum of members is not present within half an hour after the time appointed for the meeting, the members then present shall be a quorum.”

€4.6million for Hyde Park Community Sports Centre

Cuala GAA is delighted to have been informed that the Hyde Park Community Sports Centre Project has been granted €4.6m towards the construction cost through the Government’s Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). In addition to club fundraising to date and funds committed by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council the project budget is now fully funded.  

Completion of this project will help to address the sports infrastructure deficit in the area and provide enhanced indoor sports and social facilities for Cuala members and project partners Dalkey United and St. John of God’s Adult Services. 

We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our members, our neighbours, donors, the project Ambassadors and subcommittee for its hard work, local council representatives, Ossian Smyth TD (Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications), Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD (Minister for European Affairs & Defence), Cormac Devlin TD, Richard Boyd Barrett TD,  and the wider community for their vital support.  

We would also like to thank the partners in the project for their collaboration and positive approach; Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Dalkey United, and St. John of God Adult Services (Dublin South East). We would specifically like to express our gratitude to the officials and management team in DLR Co. Co.  

We also wish to thank officials in the Dept. of Sports, the Minister of State for Sport, Thomas Byrne T.D., the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin T.D., and the government for providing vital funds for the upgrading of critical sports facilities across the country, including this project.