Board Notes – 9/26/16

At the request of our members the TRU Board will be releasing their monthly board call minutes and notes. View all of the archived minutes or read on for the most recent notes:

9/26/16

*Pushed back a week by the Board.

• Roll Call (8:05pm)

• Tomsak
• Parker
• Dodge
• Tate
• Turner
• Butch
• Yeoman (guest)
• Approve minutes from last call
  • Tomsak: I motion to approve the minutes from last month.
  • Parker: Second
  • Tate: Any discussion? None.
    • Dodge: I abstain as I wasn’t present.
    • Any objections? APPROVED.
• Follow Ups from last call
  • Budget
    • Tate: We have a few items below that will require an updated budget.
  • Summit, HOF and AGM recap
    • 86 people certified in various courses
  • 7s Summit – January
    • Tate: The best weekend for that may be January 14 but I’ve heard that the Austin Huns are hosting an Atavus clinic that weekend. So instead of conflicting with that, perhaps we look to early Spring and do a round table discussion.
      • Turner: Jan 14 is also USA Rugby National Development Summit.
  • RRRC 7s Administrative Fees
    • Bonobo didn’t attend 7/23 – sent notice 9/9 and 9/21
      • Young: No response from Teshay at this time. They have been informed that referees will not be assigned until paid in full.
        • Young: Sent another reminder 10/5 and mentioned that their upcoming matches will have referee pulled unless paid by 10/7/16.
    • HEB didn’t attend 7/23 – sent notice to TD 9/9 and 9/21
      • Young: TD responded that payment should arrive next week. They have been informed that referees will not be assigned until paid in full.
        • Young: Sent another reminder 10/5.
    • Ft Hood didn’t attend 6/25 or 7/23 – sent notice 9/9 and 9/21
      • Young: They acknowledged but will focus on registering club first and then pay us. They have been informed that referees will not be assigned until paid in full.
        • Young: Sent another reminder 10/5.
    • HARC (W) didn’t attend 6/25 – sent notice 9/9
      • Young: PAID as of 9/25/16.
    • Austin Blacks?
      • Young: Last call we didn’t determine if any sanctions would be applied (reference Board Meeting Notes 8/15/16). Not trying to stir the pot but we had a note that we would talk about this further.
      • Tate: Thoughts on following our laid out forfeit policies, etc? We have also had teams inquire about sanctions for teams that leave tournaments early and don’t finish the event. Discussion?
      • Dodge: How does this work with the RRRC? Do we have jurisdiction?
      • Tate: Great question, as the TRU we can sanction or fine teams. RRRC sets the rules of the competition and we implement the competition.
      • Dodge: I’ve talked with Fil (RRRC 7s Director) and he has several ideas or proposals for next year. So I don’t want to take away from those.
      • Tate: Right, and neither does the TRU. We can’t impose sanctions but rather we just service the policies. For example, if you say you are going to show up to a match and then you don’t, the TRU can impose fines if warranted. Part of that fine goes back to the opponent so they benefit from it as well.
      • Dodge: I would propose a fine as a backstop to whatever the RRRC chooses to implement. I’m not proposing that we do anything retroactively, but rather from this point forward.
      • Turner: Yes, I agree, moving forward we need to have policies in place to stop teams leaving early or not showing up.
      • Tate: I would propose that Wendy, who is not a voting member here but is a voting member on the RRRC committee and a 7s director; I would propose that she work with Fil and Teshay (the other 7s directors) and she can help determine monetary sanctions if desired. She can represent the TRU and then the policies can be shared with both boards.
      • Young: Yes, I can do that.
      • Tate: Any objections? None.
• Welcome David Dodge (D1 Men’s Rep)!
• Congress Update
  • Tate: Ron Watson was elected as a result of the nomination process. Wendy and David did attend the latest Congress meeting in Denver in August.
  • Yeoman: I would say it was the best meeting we’ve had and the most productive. I sent out my notes, did anyone have any questions? None.
    • Yeoman: The big task for the weekend was affirming Will Change and Dean Barrett. We also talked at length about the 2020 Strategic Plan. It has been put on hold a bit with the new CEO but they are anxious to get it started back up again. Dan Payne will be rolling that out on a roadshow, we invited him to The Lost Afternoon (October 29).
  • Young: Yeoman has already put Ron on the USAR list serv, etc. The other big announcement was that USA Rugby is looking to potentially move their headquarters. I’m trying to get a RFP from Dan but if anyone has any city contacts, let Dan know!
  • Yeoman: Yes, good point. They are looking at Orlando and the coasts, would be great if we could have it in Texas! We also talked about RIM quite a bit, some of the public pressure out there prompted that. RIM isn’t making money yet but they have signed several promising deals.
  • Tate: When can we expect documentation on the strategic plan? We want to have as much advanced notice as possible, we don’t want to be playing catchup.
  • Yeoman: Yes, I’ll keep everyone as informed as I can. One other change is that Dan will be sending out a monthly communication to Congress. So we may have more info in October.
• All Stars
  • Tate: Our big event coming up this Fall is an All Star event, Nov 19 in Grand Prairie, TX. There will be three women’s teams and a regularly scheduled D3 league match at that location. We’re very excited about this as we’ve tried to have this event for 2 years now!
  • Young: I’ve gotten a T5.5 quote for All Stars AND RRRC Championships, if we agree to both we get a 20% discount.
    • Young: For All Star, do we want to broadcast the D3 match at the same field? Do we want to try and move other matches to Grand Prairie?
  • Tate: Last year we spent $6,200 on streaming RRC Championships (Men’s D2/D3 and Women’s D1), so this is quite a discount. Do we have any discussion or objections to budgeting with t5.5 this season? We do need to make a decision on All Stars tonight.
  • Tomsak: When I started this process, I thought it would be an easy task. A main draw that we pitched was having this streamed and the teams are counting on that. I would recommend that we go with the t5.5 quote.
  • Young: I agree and would also say that there is a Grand Praire match vs Shreveport at the same field. We could also live stream that for a small increase since the broadcast team will already be there. We could even pitch to other teams that are playing that day if they move, they will be streamed.
  • Tate: Yes, I am all in favor of streaming the D3 match and see if other teams want to move matches there.
  • Young: Ok, we’ll need to make sure Grand Prairie is OK with additional matches as well. t5.5 also asked if we want to do sponsor profit sharing (50/50 split with t5.5). Our current sponsors would be premier and have the most presence.
  • Tate: Absolutely, if our sponsors are considered premier and we can make some extra cash, lets do that.
  • Tomsak: I motion that we vote on this proposal.
  • Dodge: Second.
  • Tate: Any objections? None. APPROVED.
    • Young: I’ll let t5.5 know that it’s approved. I’ll also get an updated quote on potentially adding other matches to the day.
• Website Redesign
  • Tate: Wendy and I have been working with our website provider to update the website to be more modern and most importantly responsive. They have been working on the redesign and the product that we were shown was quite disappointing to say the least. We asked about more of what we would like and it was quite an exorbitant price. Would the Board have any objections to use shopping around for a better fit?
  • Dodge: When you guys go out shopping for web designers, I’d recommend pitching them as a sponsor and getting a discount as well. We use Brian Dubsalon because he did the TRU site and we were really happy.
  • Tate: That’s a great idea and that hadn’t occurred to me. We have a couple of companies in Austin and we can reach out to those. Any objections to us looking around? None. APPROVED.
• 7s
  • Proposals to Enhance Competitiveness at 7s National Tournament (Dodge)
    • Dodge: I didn’t realize that the 7s Summit had been discussed, that is what I was thinking as well. We could also invite International traveling sides to bolster competition but wouldn’t bump anyone out of Nationals.
  • Rejuvenation of TOLA 7s (Dodge)
    • Dodge: This summer I tried to put together a developmental social side but found information on tournaments almost impossible. I would recommend that we rejuvenate TOLA and build it around the RRRC 7s competition.
    • Tate: This is a very simple thing, but the biggest thing is finding a volunteer to run the structure. In the past, Fil, TJ and Wendy have been the major pushers of this but have moved on to other events now. Dodge, if you’re willing to take this on, that would be fantastic.
    • Dodge: Yes, as far as expense, I think it would only be trophies. Yea, I’m happy to take up that banner.
    • Tate: Any objections? Anyone want to help Dodge out? None. APPROVED.
• Compliance
  • Tate: This all comes down to Clubs and all the various things they should be doing. I was looking at our data earlier today and we have 26 clubs in good standing (USAR Club registration, have at least 15 members and a L200 certified coach. We have 21 clubs pending (lack 15 members or a L200 coach) and 4 or 5 clubs that have lapsed. We need to have our reps reach out and start getting teams compliant.  
    • Dodge: How can I see that?
    • Tate: Wendy and I have an admin login that we can see it.
    • Young: I also get a weekly(ish) report from USA Rugby that I can send out to everyone.
• CMS
  • Young: CMS logins for the men should be coming in the next few weeks. Do note that there have been LOTS of requested changes on the schedule and those will be updated in CMS after the logins go out.
• Coaching L200 – San Antonio in November – FULL
• Mayday call – Scrum
  • Young: This came from a women’s team, they were finding that some coaches and referees weren’t aware of this call to stop a scrum.
  • Tate: I’ll take a closer look but I’m pretty sure there are resources out there. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but just publish other resources.
• New Business
  • U21 Pilot Program
    • Tate: TRU has partnered with the RRRC and USA Rugby to develop a pilot program to create a men’s U21 program. A grant proposal request from the U21 group has been submitted.
      • U21 Budget Proposal
      • U21 Grant Request
    • Tate: I propose that in lieu of the Men’s All Star that we use some of that budget for the U21 program.
    • Young: I agree but note that Drew and I have earmarked part of that budget already for the women’s All Star for streaming and helping the visiting teams. We’re budgeting $8,400 of the approved  $14,250 .
    • Tate: Ok, so we need to either UP our approval to help with the U21 program or look at sharing those funds.
    • Dodge: I understand that they have requested some funding from USA Rugby?
    • Tate: Yes, they have requested but none has been approved.
    • Dodge: Dave Yeoman, how is the program going?
    • Yeoman: We have 25 positive responses and 15 guys at practice.
    • Dodge: Yea, we aren’t having those kinds of numbers in Dallas. We have sent out a text blast to all eligible players from Rugby Texas.
    • Tate: So we can approve a budget line item for this and if it’s spent, great. We had All Star budget line items for years that weren’t spent. But if we don’t fund it, we need to let these guys know ASAP.
    • Dodge: I think it’s an event worth funding but I feel like it was a bit late getting off the ground. The effort to recruit is going to be more than I think we all thought. And we are waiving the TRU CIPP fee, right?
    • Tate: No, unfortunately we can’t do that because it’s all preset in USA Rugby. But we can reimburse them afterwards. Ok, are we all good with this concept and the budget amount? No objections? APPROVED.
• Collect Donations
  • Tate: I met with an attorney to see how we would capitalize on the HOF and other events we have, where we can collect donations, etc. I would propose that we create a TRU Foundation (or something like that) and that we leverage people from the HOF Class. It would need to be a separate entity from the TRU Board. He quoted me $6,000 for the work to set this up. We could probably find some folks to do it pro bono but I’d rather have someone on “retainer” if you get my drift.
    • Tomsak: I think it’s a great idea and I have a program that Shreveport is already doing that could be a good fit.
• Summit combined with Lonestar College Player Clinic
  • Dodge: I sent an email about this but thought it would be good to combine our forces.
  • Tate: I think it’s worth looking into.
  • Young: They usually run that the second weekend of September? The women are usually playing by then, but we could push them back.
  • Tomsak: My thought was possibly moving it somewhere else this year.
  • Tate: Yep, we can rotate. Wendy and I have already talked about that.
• Adjourned (9:58pm)
  • Dodge: Motion to close.
  • Tomsak: Second.