Last night the final meeting of the board of directors for 2010 was held here at Irish Fest HQ. Nothing too earthshaking going on this time of year to be honest with you. But we laughed a lot and that's always a good outcome for a meeting. We welcomed one of our new boardies, Kevin Bundy to the table and as junior member, he dutifully made frequent trips to the fridge for beverages for the group. We also said goodbye to board members whose terms have come to an end. One of those is Irish Fest president Rory O'Connor.
Rory joined the board 5 years ago and has been instrumental in the phenomenal growth we've seen in those 5 years. His expertise in construction, engineering and site planning have been invaluable, but are just the tip of the O'Connor iceberg. A transplanted Dubliner, Rory was always vigilant to keep us real and true to our mission. His mark on the festival was most recently seen at the brand new Art In The Park area which he modeled on the art market in Merrion Square in his native Dublin. The pub front? The thatched roof cottage? The original ramp? All O'Connor legacies. At the board table Rory never hesitated to be the dissenting voice if he believed in something, his "now, wait a minute" was a familiar road mark in our lively discussions, as was his signature verbal exclamation mark, "Grand."
Our board voted in term limits long ago in an effort to avoid stagnation in festival leadership and we all believe that it's a good thing, but that believe is tested when saying goodbye to someone like Rory who has done so much to make the Kansas City Irish Fest so successful. It's difficult to imagine the board without him, but with any luck he'll continue to be part of the Irish Fest crew and avail us of his formidable skills and talents for years to come. And of course our bylaws allow former board members to apply for reinstatement after a short two year break. We'll be reminding Rory of that.
Rory, thank you for 5 great years of incredible service to Irish Fest. You're grand.
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5 comments:
Grand job Rory!
Barbara Scanlon
Congrats and kudos for an awesome year to Rory!
But, now wait a minute -- similar glowing praises should be expressed to YOU and your 5 years of Board leadership - to your imagination, humor, talent, hard work and deliberation. So it's goodbye to the Board, but please Uncle Bloggy, don't stop the blogginess!!
Snug sisters
Rory - I will miss driving you crazy and all of our disagreements! :) Danny is right....your contributions to this fest are too many to count.
As for you Mr. Regan - you too will be leaving us this year, leaving me as the most senior member of our board (very very scary thought) and you deserve some recognition yourself. You said you can't imagine our board without Rory, but the very same can be said for you. This festival has never known a moment that you were not a vital member of it's board of directors. Our look, brand and feel can all be contributed to you. Because of you, our festival stands out world wide (as we found out at our conference in Ireland) as being innovative, creative and just plain fun. You have managed to create a brand image that no other festival (that we know of) has been able to duplicate. This festival has been a personal labor of love and it has shown in every thing you do. Your humor, passion, and love of the fest won't be missed because I have no doubt we will continue to see that face of yours as well as the fruits of your labor towards the fest. Thank you for being a mentor, a sounding board and a truly great friend to me Pappy. There is no one else I would have rather served my time with.
I vote that you post the previous post on the blog instead of hiding it here in the comments.
I second that! All in favor?
CTG
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