TRU Board Notes – 10/16/17 – Texas Rugby Union

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:

10/16/17

Roll Call (8:05pm)
- Young
- Yeoman
- Tate
- Dodge
- James
- Turner
- Tomsak
  - Regrets
    - Green
    - Parker (technology issues)
Followups
- Budget
  - Tate: We can almost run with the same template as last year with a few small exceptions; that is also assuming that we have roughly the same amount of CIPP’d players. Referee fees are going up but we know that the USA Rugby Western playoffs will more than likely be in our area so that will help with travel costs for our teams. The main thing I need to know from everyone is if anything needs to be added to the budget (above and beyond normal activities).
  - Young: The only thing I was thinking about was that if we wanted to stream the RRRC Championships we will need to go with a new vendor. That could cost more than last year.
  - Tate: We do have a large number of new clubs this year and so we could bring in more than anticipated as well. But if there is something else that we want to do (coaching clinics, player development, U20s, etc…) then we need to figure out what it is and how we can fund it. Or we can carry over essentially what we did last year.
  - Dodge: Do we have a new contract with the referees? How much is that going up?
  - Tate: I don’t have a signed contract with them yet but I do have a fee schedule. The difference is that I’m assuming our fees are going up because we are going to have more games. The cost per games aren’t going up but rather they are being billed differently. In years past they billed us the match fee, travel (if there was travel) and a 20% overhead administrative markup (that’s how they’ve billed us for years). This year they are billing us a flat fee per match and that includes travel etc.
  - Dodge: How much do AGMs cost us? We are dropping one this year.
  - Tate: Not much, about $1,200. That does include some Summit costs as well.
    - Tate: So, I’m not hearing a lot here from the group so I will put together a standard budget and send that out to the Board for review.
- Forfeit Policy – RRRC hasn’t reviewed yet, will review on their next call (Nov 13)
  - Dodge: I’d like to get this reviewed and hopefully approved by the RRRC.
  - Tate: So we don’t have to wait for the RRRC as that is more of a “courtesy” as it follows their policy but adds fees. Do we have any objections to publishing this policy as it directly relates to the TRU MD4 and WD3?
  - Dodge: Does the RRRC do electronic votes like we do?
  - Tate: Yes, they do. Alan always wanted to make sure that these policies are separate but that each committee discussed them. He would probably request that the RRRC review and acknowledge the policy before it’s published.
  - Dodge: I’d like to have some sort of unified statement and I’m a bit worried about confusion. I just want to make sure that everyone understands what a forfeit is and what it means. I’ll put together an email to the RRRC and see if it is something that they’d be willing to put together an email vote.
- RRRC Logo – RRRC hasn’t reviewed yet, will review on their next call (Nov 13)
- HOF Date
  - Tate: This was postponed due to Hurricane Harvey, we have not rescheduled that. We had had a couple of requests and there has been some discussion but not found a good date yet.
  - Young: I’ve been trying to look on USA Rugby website for America Rugby Championships and such but nothing is published. We know these will be in the spring…The NDS is Jan 18-19 so we do want to avoid that.
  - Tate: Right, we don’t have a guarantee that those matches will be in our region though.
  - Tomsak: Since the USA Rugby West Playoffs are in our area, do we want to couple it with that?
  - Tate: Sure, we could do that. That would be a June event then. We could also do it at the RRRC Championships which will also be in our region.
  - Young: I think that the RRRC Championships would be excellent, we could honor the inductees during the day.
  - Tomsak: They could do honorary coin flips, etc.
  - Tate: Do we have a sense of if the RRRC Championships or the West Playoffs would be better?
  - Tomsak: I just worry that some inductees would be busy with their teams at RRRC Playoffs.
- AGM Winter/Spring date
  - Young: Waiting on any USA Rugby International match dates before we set anything in 2018. Need to avoid NDS (Jan 18-19, 2018).
  - Tate: This will be our first virtual winter AGM, if anyone has any ideas on what they would like to have us cover…we are happy to hear from anyone. In it’s simplest form we can do a webex and we present the information we would normally cover.
- CMS
  - Young: Still waiting on USAR to get back to us about logons. I’ve emailed three times and left two VMs.
  - Tate: Wendy is pinging Erik weekly and we are hoping that we get that very quickly.
- Compliance
  - Young: 24 “current” clubs, 22 “pending” and 15 lapsed.
  - Tate: Current means that they have renewed their registration, have a L200 coach and at least 15 cipp’d members. Pending means that they have done some of those things but not all of them. Lapsed indicates they were registered in the past but haven’t done anything. 46 in progress is pretty good for this time of the year. We will not assign referees to clubs that aren’t “current”.
  - Young: I’m checking that weekly and letting clubs know if they aren’t in compliance.
RRRC Chair – David Dodge
2018 NDS
- Tate: I went to this last year in Baltimore. This year it is in Denver and is Jan 18-19, 2018. I don’t believe I’ll be attending unless there is something compelling once they release the presentations.
- Young: They are still requesting presenters and want things that are kind out of the box. Does your club have a great social media presence? Is your club great at fundraising? How are you developing your players?
Tournaments – Referee Training
- Tate: In working with TRRA and Scott Green we are using fall tournaments as opportunities for referee training. The focus is on the newly certified referees and getting them as many matches as possible. Our referee resources are very heavy in the Central area and lighter in Houston. They are VERY light in the DFW area and already very strained. We desperately need referees in DFW and Houston. If we can’t develop and find more referees in the DFW area then matches will have to be moved to Sunday and/or we will need to bring in more referees and that compounds expenses.
- Young: I think to put this into perspective we are already having to turn teams away because we don’t have enough referees. We haven’t even had what we would consider a “heavy” weekend yet.
- Tate: The RRRC did try to put as many matches on Sunday but almost every club has requested that those matches be moved back to Saturday. Something has to change. The referees will not be able to cover our spring schedule as it stands right now.
Technical Zones
- Tate: USA Rugby and World Rugby have a technical zone policy. The TRU has had a recommended policy and we’ve never mandated it for our clubs. Mainly this is because Clubs don’t always have control of the layout of their fields. This does relate to referee retention as TZs help with keeping players, fans and coaches away from ARs and referees. It also helps maintain a better gameday environment. The referee society would like us to take a tougher stance on this.
- Young: Yes, the referee society would really like us to do TZs. The main idea is that spectators are separated from reservers and coaches and then there is a barrier between teams and referee staff. It looks very professional and helps keep everyone happy.
- Tate: We do this at RRRC Championships as a preparation for the next level as this is already done at USAR Playoffs and Nationals. My proposal would be that we make a statement that we will mandate proper technical zones for this season. If a club’s facility doesn’t allow this they would need to request a waiver. I am a little wishy washy on this as I come from Austin where that is a pretty easy ask.
- Dodge: I know an issue that we run into sometimes is that if we are hosting multiple sides is that we simply run out of space.
- Tate: Right, the main thing we are talking about is that the reserves and the coaches are present in the TZs.
- Young: Yes, the TZ shouldn’t really affect space too much as it’s just adding space for reserves and coaches. Here is a quick diagram: https://texasrugbyunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Technical-Zones-Diagram-rugby-field.png. The administrative area isn’t really needed at this level unless you have a #4 or want to use that space for sin-bins.
- Tate: On this diagram it has the TZ in front of the rope but that is just a coach or a medical person, right?
- Young: Yes, this diagram includes bench areas inside the ropes for reserves.
- Tate: Ok, so we would be OK with everyone behind the ropes as well. I make a motion that for the 2017-2018 cycle that as part of our game day procedures that we will require that all home teams setup technical zones and ask that all clubs abide by them. If for some reason a club’s facility will not accommodate this then it is incumbent upon the club to express a waiver.
  - James: Second.
    - James: Who would the waiver be sent to?
    - Tate: It can be submitted to the TRU Board or the TRU Administrator.
    - Dodge: Will we include information on how to submit the waiver in the announcement?
    - Tate: Yes.
      - Tate: Any objections? None. APPROVED.
New Business?
- None
Adjourned (9:21 pm)
- James: Motion to close.
- Dodge: Second.

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