CEHG

Sean Crudden reported that all of our sponsors had generously agreed to renew their sponsorship for another year. The Committee recorded its appreciation for the support our benefactors provide. Without their support the CEHG would not be able to function.

Sean also reported that an approach would need to be made soon to the Louth Local Enterprise Office for support for the Winter Workshop in January. Sean is to liaise with Aine O'Reilly (CEHG Treasurer) with a view to making a joint approach, hopefully before the end of the month.

The Winter Workshop provided the other major item on the agenda. Dennis Pringle agreed to speak about trends in Cancer morbidity and mortality over the past twenty years. While it may not be possible to get information specifically on Cooley, he did not anticipate any difficulties obtaining information nationally and for Louth.

Jonathan Larkin reported that he had received a very positive response from a local member of the Green Party who expressed a willingness to speak about sewerage treatment in Cooley. It is hoped he might also speak about other environmental issues such as climate change.

The 2020 Workshop will be the 20th Workshop. Sean Crudden discussed a few ideas how we might mark the occasion. He noted that he had now managed to compile a complete list of the previous workshops. Detailed accounts of some of the more recent Workshops may be found here, whilst a complete list of Workshop titles may be viewed here.

As always, one of our prime concerns is to bring greater public attention to our activities. Various ideas were discussed with regard to how we might better publicise the 2020 Winter Workshop.

Today's meeting marked a momentous landmark in the history of the CEHG: Sean Crudden stepped down as our long-serving Honorary Treasurer and formally handed over the reigns to his successor Aine O'Reilly. We hope that Sean will continue his very active association with the CEHG, especially offering advice and support to Aine if required. We would also like to take this opportunity to wish Aine every success in her new role.

The other important item on the agenda was the Winter Workshop. Given the fluid nature of our proposals at present, it was decided that it might be better to progress our planning for January by informal meetings between committee members rather than by a discussion at the full committee. The committee will review progress at our next meeting on 17th November.

Sean Crudden, as outgoing Treasurer, provided us with a detailed description of how he managed the CEHG accounts. He explained that transferring the signatories on the current Post Office accounts to the incoming Treasurer was not as straightforward as one might imagine. He also noted that the Post Office account does not provide internet banking. In the light of this, he suggested that it might be better for the incoming Treasurer to open a new Credit Union account and transfer the existing funds to that. It was decided the choice of Credit Union should be determined by which would be the most convenient for the incoming Treasurer.

The need for a social media savvy Public Relations Officer was again discussed. No new names for a potential candidate came immediately to mind. After discussing the workload that might be involved, it was felt that one of the existing officers might be able to 'double up' as PRO. The Chairman, Jonathan Larkin, is to speak nicely to our preferred candidate. It was noted that following an attack by hackers our Facebook page has now been taken down.

The next Winter Workshop was the main item on the agenda. Given that the 2020 Workshop will be the 20th hosted by the CEHG, it was decided to run with the provisional title "Health and Environment: 20 Years On". Various potential keynote speakers and organisations were identified. These are to be approached before the next meeting in September, at which point we hope to have a better idea of what form the Workshop might take.

It was agreed to hold the September meeting on the 22nd September - one week later than previously announced.

A number of items were discussed in today's business meeting, including arrangements for the transition to a new Treasurer to allow Sean Crudden to step down later in the year, and the need for a PRO to help publicise our events. The current state of our Facebook page received a lot of attention. This has unfortunately been hijacked by a dating site. The Chairman and the Hon. Secretary are going to put their heads together to see if our own page can either be salvaged or shut down completely. There was agreement that we need to raise our profile on social media. Sean Crudden reported briefly on the current state of finances, before we turned our attention to the 2020 Winter Workshop. It was noted that this will be the 20th annual Workshop. It was agreed that we would provisionally run it on the theme 'Health and Environment 20 years On'. The precise format will be fine tuned at forthcoming business meetings.

By way of experiment, a seminar on Nuclear Power: The Renewed Threat To The Cooley Environment had been advertised to follow the business part of the meeting. The turnout, however, proved to be very disappointing. It would seem that Sunday morning seminars are not the solution to raising public awareness on health and environmental issues. The seminar itself actually proved to be very interesting. Sean Crudden, as the principal speaker, treated us to an exposition on Einstein's special relativity theory and how this led to the development of atomic weapons during World War II and subsequently to nuclear power generation. Although Ireland does not generate any nuclear energy, we are beneficiaries of nuclear power generated in the UK although we are also at risk in the event of a major accident. Although the UK announced plans for a major expansion in nuclear power generation about 10 years ago, the general impression is that most of these plans have been shelved for economic reasons. It remains unclear whether wind and solar power will meet the likely future demand, but we should strive towards clean and safe energy wherever possible.

The AGM of the Cooley Environmental and Health Group was held at its February meeting. Sean Crudden provided a detailed breakdown on the Group's finances over the past year. These remain in a healthy state. We have a small reserve fund, sufficient to meet unanticipated contingencies, which was supplemented this year by a small excess of income over expenditure. It was felt that we were now sufficiently secure to consider a modest expansion of our activities. To this end it was agreed that we might experiment with hosting a Sunday morning Seminar at our next meeting (to be held on 14th April). In the light of some recent developments, it was decided the topic should be: 'Nuclear Power: The Renewed Threat To The Cooley Environment'. The seminar will begin at 11am and refreshments will be provided for attendees at 10am.

The Chairman, Jonathan Larkin, formally stood down the current committee and called for nominations for the Executive positions. Jonathan Larkin was re-elected Chairperson, Archbishop Michael Desmond Hynes was re-elected Honorary Secretary, and Sean Crudden was re-elected Treasurer. It was decided to leave the positions of Vice Chairperson and Public Relations Officer open for the present, although a couple of very suitable candidates are to be approached. The Honorary Treasurer reported that he might need to step down later in the year. Hopefully this may not come to pass, but as a precaution it was decided that we should create a new position of Assistant Treasurer to allow a successor to be trained in. There was consensus agreement on the ideal candidate. The Chairman is to 'head hunt' our preferred choice before the next meeting.