Public Relations Officer Report / Meath Athletics convention 2012

Looking back over the past twelve months it is heartening to reflect on the great progress which has been made in the promotion of our sport. This county has a number of very good media outlets which are supportive and cooperative to the sporting community in their reporting. The coverage given to our county championship events and awards night is greatly appreciated. The increased numbers taking part in the county running league events presents further opportunities for athletics to raise its profile. It is essential that the organising clubs make the most of this by engaging the local and national media with good pre event publicity material and follow up with prompt reports, results and photographs.

The involvement of the Irish Independent in the Dunboyne road race was a major public relations coup for the local club . I feel that the huge profile which resulted helped bring many new runners into the county for the rest of the league calendar. Many more clubs got up to speed on their online presence. The clubs and events promoted through websites, blogs and Facebook continues to grow and I’m sure the clubs involved will vouch for their effectiveness.

There remains a number of areas where improvements need to be made.The current blog site which I use for disseminating county board information is adequate but not ideal. Advise and cooperation from within the club ranks which would enable the setting up of a more professional website would be appreciated. Information about clubs, training times , contact details for officers etc... remains thin on the ground. Athletics is not yet a proscribed activity yet, so don’t be shy about sharing information which will benefit your club and raise its profile
I would like to thank the executive of Meath County Athletics Board , the Sports Development office staff , and the club PROs who provided me with results, reports and photographs during the year. A special word of thanks to Ger Heery & Brendan Meade for reporting back form events I was absent from.

Thanks to the Meath Chronicle, MNS, LMFM,I rish Runner, Drogheda Independent, L indie Naughton, Frank Greally, John Quirke, Racepix365, Chris Grant, Leinster Athletics , and AAI Marketing Department all other local media outlets for their cooperation, coverage and support during the past year.


Public Relations Officer Report Ciaran Tobin
Meath Athletics Board Convention / AGM 1 February 2012-02-01