At the request of our members the TRU Board will be releasing their monthly board call minutes and notes. View all of the TRU archived minutes or read on for the most recent notes:
- Roll Call (8:05pm)
- Butch
- Dodge
- Yeoman (Guest)
- Tomsak
- James
- Tate
- Parker
- Turner
- Follow Ups from last call
- Timote Katoa
- Tate: Katoa has sent a few emails to Wendy but has not followed through with his requirements. He is still suspended indefinitely unless he follows the stated requirements.
- Forfeits
- 12/17 San Antonio vs Woodlands – RRRC has worked with the teams to reschedule for 3/18.
- 12/17 Little Rock vs Ft Worth – RRRC has worked with teams and Ft Worth will accept the forfeit.
- Tate: In general we haven’t had a very strong opening to our fall season, way too many forfeits. The RRRC has asked that we review our current policy in regards to forfeits as it’s pretty lenient right now. However, I am not advocating a change right now as we are in the middle of the season. Does anyone object to this?
- Dodge: Are we enforcing the policy now?
- Tate: Yes, we are but it doesn’t have much teeth behind it. https://texasrugbyunion.com/administration/operating-policies/
- Tate: In general we haven’t had a very strong opening to our fall season, way too many forfeits. The RRRC has asked that we review our current policy in regards to forfeits as it’s pretty lenient right now. However, I am not advocating a change right now as we are in the middle of the season. Does anyone object to this?
- Timote Katoa
- AGM Recap
- Tate: A small event but the Board was represented and Dan Payne, USA CEO attended. We did discuss again if we need to have a winter/spring meeting. We floated the idea of doing a detailed report or looking at restructuring the meeting to try and have more attendance.
- Tomsak: I thought that moving the AGM to where the USA match would help attendance…we were totally wrong.
- Gold Cup Streaming
- Tate: In the past USA Rugby picked up the streaming of this event and they will be doing so this year. Tomsak mentioned that he may be able to get some sponsorship lined up to help with this. He also requested a quote from T5.5, it will be $5,680 if the TRU helped fund this event.
- Tomsak: I am looking at sponsors but don’t know that I’ll be able to cover this in less than 10 days. Is there any funds left over from the All Star budget? Do we use some of that money and ask the Reds and Blacks to kick in?
- Tate: We have the money but we have to keep in mind that we can’t keep doing this if streaming can’t generate revenue or we don’t have sponsors available.
- Dodge: I think it does raise the profile of rugby in the TRU though.
- Young: I would also point out that the RRRC playoffs and the All Star event was covering lots of teams; this would only be 2 teams.
- Tate: Yes and in the future we could require that they schedule other matches around the Gold Cup so this benefited more teams (more games webcast). Dodge, do you think the D1 clubs would support this if we committed to next year?
- Dodge: No, I think they would be OK with that. We can also ask the other GU as well as any participating team’s local sponsors to help as well.
- Tate: We also have a tight turnaround on this, T5.5 needs to hear an answer by noon tomorrow. Would anyone like to make a motion or do we need more discussion?
- Dodge: As D1 representative, I move that we approve this.
- Tate: Do we have a second? NONE.
- Tomsak: I do think we could get some funds from the Reds and the Blacks but it’s a very short timeframe.
- Parker: Agree, it’s a really short time frame but I’m afraid that if we say yes, we may be footing the bill.
- Tate: Yes, that is a risk, we could be taking on the entire cost.
- Butch: Since this is so late in the game, I say punt. We can plan for the future if need be. Plus there is plenty of rugby on TV right now (domestic and International) and we’d be competing with that.
- Tate: So we haven’t had a second, do we decline this?
- Dodge: I have an alternative motion, how would you guys feel about subsidizing it to the tune of $1680 IF the four teams can come up with the rest? If we can find sponsorship it would be split proportionally.
- Tate: I’m inclined to say that that is OK, can we get a response by tomorrow?
- Dodge: I can try and am happy to chat with Johnny at T5.5 to see if we can get a few more days.
- Tate: If we can get this going, I’m inclined that we cover $1,700 and Dodge will work with the clubs or sponsors to cover the rest. That way Dodge can move forward and doesn’t need explicit Board approval.
- Tomsak: Second.
- Tate: Any other discussion? NONE. APPROVED.
- Tate: A small event but the Board was represented and Dan Payne, USA CEO attended. We did discuss again if we need to have a winter/spring meeting. We floated the idea of doing a detailed report or looking at restructuring the meeting to try and have more attendance.
- RRRC Bids
- Tate: Luke of Tulsa let us know that their bid would be happy to include the TRU Women’s D2 Championships. Originally we had planned to have the TRU Women’s D2 Championship on the weekend before due to field logistics and referee availability. This would add 2 matches on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. We do have to be mindful that Rugby Texas is also having their Championship weekend as well.
- Tate: My first question is to Wendy and Butch, do we think we can cover RRRC, TRU and Rugby Texas Championships, all on May 5-6, 2017?
- Butch: I think it would help us to move the Women’s D2 matches to ⅚ and 5/7; the 4/29 matches are going to stretch us quite a bit. We need to have another discussion with Rugby Texas and see if we can have their event close by.
- Tate: Dodge, how many games could you do at your facility? Could you accommodate the women’s D2?
- Dodge: Yes, we’ve reserved the entire facility; some of them would have to be on the soccer fields.
- Tate: So we can go with either bid and can include the TRU Women’s D2 Championship. I would like to motion that we move the TRU D2 Women’s Championships from the 4/29 to the ⅚ and 5/7 weekend due to referee resources.
- Tomsak: Second.
- Parker: Are we still sending two women teams to Nationals?
- Young: Yes, the women’s D1 is a hybrid still. This is the last year. Also, to be clear, we weren’t going to stream the women’s D2 and that is still the case.
- Tate: Yes, we will not be able to promise that, it may happen but we can’t promise it. Having said that, if the participating clubs want to film and provide the video, we can upload to the TRU Youtube channel.
- Young: We also need to confirm with the women’s teams…
- Tate: I don’t know, we set the date, the teams have to conform to this. If the teams can’t accommodate this change, we can push it further but the 4/29 weekend isn’t going to work.
- James: I propose that we announce the move and make sure that the teams are comfortable with it. If not, we need to be fully prepared to move it later if the teams have issues. I do love the idea of having all of the teams in one location, the schedule has been set and confirmed already.
- Tate: Ok, let me rephrase my motion, I move that we approve the date of May 6-7 for the TRU Women’s D2 Championships. I ask that Nick and Wendy get feedback from the D2 clubs on that date. Objections? NONE. APPROVED.
- Young: There’s already an email chain on this so we can hopefully get a quick turnaround.
- Tulsa ATTACHMENT 1 | ATTACHMENT 2
- Dallas Reds ATTACHMENT 1 | ATTACHMENT 2 ( The South warm up area is a youth soccer pitch (not full sized). The area to the Northeast is longer, but not as wide as a full pitch.)
- Tate: Wendy will send out the bid packets and the sub-committee will review and give the Board a recommendation ASAP. We need to get a recommendation to the RRRC ASAP as well. We know there was some issues last year and we want to give them as much lead time as we can. We have also published that we will have an announcement by March 20 on the website.
- Young: OK, I’ll send the bids out to everyone and start up an email chain for the sub-committee.
- UPDATE: Since Tulsa RFC has submitted a bid, Luke has recused himself and will be replaced by the RRRC D3 rep, John Kurylas.
- Young: OK, I’ll send the bids out to everyone and start up an email chain for the sub-committee.
- Tate: Wendy will send out the bid packets and the sub-committee will review and give the Board a recommendation ASAP. We need to get a recommendation to the RRRC ASAP as well. We know there was some issues last year and we want to give them as much lead time as we can. We have also published that we will have an announcement by March 20 on the website.
- Tate: Luke of Tulsa let us know that their bid would be happy to include the TRU Women’s D2 Championships. Originally we had planned to have the TRU Women’s D2 Championship on the weekend before due to field logistics and referee availability. This would add 2 matches on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. We do have to be mindful that Rugby Texas is also having their Championship weekend as well.
- Grants
- John Anderson (ARC – USA Liaison)
- Tate: John was the liaison for both ARC legs and has requested a grant to help cover his costs. While his official role is to interact with the team and provide “management”, I would look at this as a coaching grant. He has exposure to the coaching staff and world class players.
- Tate: I’ve done this in the past and it was an awesome exposure to the coaches and their training environment.
- Tomsak: I would also chalk this up to professional development, I’ve done it in the past and while it’s great, you also do spend your own funds.
- Dodge: I’m not 100% comfortable with the after the fact request. Do we have any receipts or substantiation for any amounts?
- Tate: I don’t believe there were any receipts submitted with the request. As it is after the fact, we can absolutely ask for those for further review.
- Tomsak: I move that we provide a $250 grant and request a roll call vote
- Parker: Second.
- Tate: Any other discussion? None. APPROVED.
- John Anderson (ARC – USA Liaison)
- Disciplinary Sanctions
- Will Lyon (Alliance)
- 1/28/2017, the Alliance Rugby Club fielded a suspended player, Will Lyon CIPP# 2273693, in their match against Grand Prairie. RRRC determined that the match is a forfeit and has been marked as such in CMS.
- Tate: Alliance felt that the 2 yellow cards (2 YCs=Red card) weren’t warranted and since they didn’t receive a DC response, they played this player. Alliance has sent in an appeal (to the RRRC committee) late this evening that will be reviewed. I would move that if the TRU confirms the RRRC decision, we would access the fine or not depending on if it was a forfeit or not.
- Young: I’ll be posting a post to the TRU website since we’ve had a few issues around ineligible players.
- 1/28/2017, the Alliance Rugby Club fielded a suspended player, Will Lyon CIPP# 2273693, in their match against Grand Prairie. RRRC determined that the match is a forfeit and has been marked as such in CMS.
- Will Lyon (Alliance)
- Fines
- OKC non-CIPP’d referee
- Young: OKC has tried to help CIPP Patterson but he has been uncommunicative. They’ve asked if they can pay the $100 fine directly.
- Tate: Anyone have an objection? None. APPROVED.
- Euless (Ineligible player)
- Tate: We probated their fine originally and asked that they send their admins to the administrator course at the summit. Knowing now that they did play a suspended player and he received a red card, do we want to revisit this? I move that we rescind the probate and fine the team the $100 fine.
- Tate: Anyone have an objection? None. APPROVED.
- Tate: We probated their fine originally and asked that they send their admins to the administrator course at the summit. Knowing now that they did play a suspended player and he received a red card, do we want to revisit this? I move that we rescind the probate and fine the team the $100 fine.
- Alliance (Ineligible player)
- Pending RRRC ruling of appeal
- OKC non-CIPP’d referee
- RRRC 7s Series
- The RRRC 7s sub-committee has sent in a proposal to the RRRC that is being reviewed. Will update once we know more.
- Tate: The proposal does include a fourth tournament with two thoughts behind that, 1) teams have more matches to make sure their players are eligible with their match requirements. 2) This gives us the opportunity to move the tournaments around regionally.
- Young: With Bloodfest in particular we wanted to add that because it brings in high level teams for the men and women. Better competition for everyone and we can play teams that we don’t normally see.
- TO BE CONFIRMED:
- Bloodfest (6/17: Austin TX) – 2 day qualifier with pool play in the afternoon of day 1 (Saturday) and knock out rounds in the morning of day 2 (Sunday)
- North (6/24: OK, LA or AR) – 1 day qualifier
- South (7/8: Austin, San Antonio or Houston area)
- Central (7/22: DFW area)
- Tate: The proposal does include a fourth tournament with two thoughts behind that, 1) teams have more matches to make sure their players are eligible with their match requirements. 2) This gives us the opportunity to move the tournaments around regionally.
- The RRRC 7s sub-committee has sent in a proposal to the RRRC that is being reviewed. Will update once we know more.