TRU Board Meeting Notes – 8/19/24

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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:

  1. Roll Call
    1. McPhail
    2. Ozzie
    3. Dodge
    4. Hiller
    5. Kurylas
    6. Tomsak
    7. Ohmann-Wilson
    8. T. Young
    9. W. Young
    10. Hansen
  2. RX Registration
    1. USAR has announced that Registration is open but there is some work on our end that is required before we recommend anyone register. Please note that your current registration is good until August 31, 2024. The registration window officially opens September 1 and RX will be ready before then.
      1. Clubs are created and Club Admins are retained but Team Admins (ability to update RX) will need to be re-added by Clubs. Please DO NOT create Teams, Hansel will do that for us and then you can request Team Admin. We do also recommend that you update your Club Info and Address as that drives the USA Rugby Find a Club app.
      2. New and Transfer clubs do need to wait for USAR to create their Clubs and/or transfer them until players can register. We have requested this be done and are waiting on USAR Membership to complete.
    2. Chris Hanson is loading the matches into RX. Announcements will be made as soon as completed.
    3. As noted last month’s minutes: “Reminder – Players to see a $5 CIPP increase from last year. Not an increase in cost but the impact of the SCC no longer lowering the players’ costs via prior subsidy.”
    4. Dues – The cost remains the same but the subsidy that USAR SCC was covering has expired. It appears that USAR SCC dues went up.
    5. CMS Standings Reference
  3. Summit
    1. Young: We’ve seen a strong response since opening registration on June 19, and as of Monday morning, all World Rugby courses are sold out and at capacity. The Referee L1 course is especially popular, with 30 participants and we’ve brought in a third instructor! Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Rugby Talent Development course due to low interest. We’ll be reassessing its future offerings if we can’t secure adequate support from TRRA. The Summit Weekend kicks off with the Welcome Social on Friday night at the Hilton Austin Airport. Join us at Creeks Lounge from 8-10 PM for a night of networking, appetizers, and complimentary drinks—all on the TRU!
      1. Young: The Rugby Knowledge Pathways (RKP) course has seen fewer sign-ups compared to last year, although it’s still the second most attended course next to Referee Level 1. This portion of the Summit is a significant investment in TIME and funds from the TRU, created specifically to benefit our members. Based on overwhelming feedback from last year, we added a Player Track this year to cater directly to your needs and we expanded the Coaching and Administrator tracks with rugby experts and non-rugby experts. We’re eager to know if this offering is meeting your expectations. Have we missed the mark? Are we not reaching the right audience? We value your feedback as we strive to provide the most relevant and impactful resources to our members. Note that there’s still room to register for RKP until the day of the event, Saturday, August 24.
      2. Sending out a list to RRRC and Board members as reminders to check the list for missing names/teams that have no representation at the Courses (only Pathways are open).
  4. HOF
    1. Young: We’ve sold 290+ tickets and this will be our biggest event yet! We can’t wait to celebrate this year’s class along with the Alan Sharpley Award and Honor Team. Ticket sales are closed at this time.
  5. National Club Sevens
    1. Men represented by Austin Huns (RRRC 1 / # 8 seed) and Dallas RFC (RRRC 2 / # 11 seed).
      1. Dallas finished 8th and Huns 12th.
    2. Women represent by HEB Hurricanes (RRRC 1 / # 7 seed and Dallas Harlequins (RRRC 2 / #15 seed).
      1. Harlequins finished 8th and HEB 12th.
    1. RRRC went through numerous revisions of the Men’s schedule. Women’s schedule also went through several revisions including making sure that Little Rock wasn’t traveling large distances back to back.
    2. Men’s “Version 4” was ratified and based on some late arriving feedback, there has been a few flip flopping of home or away matches in order to maintain equity. Namely this relates to the D1-C3 clubs. 2024-25 Schedule 
    3. Notable changes are the elimination of RRRC Semi-Final matches. Goal is to have Qtrs and/or Semis hosted at higher seed. Finals will be held in a single day event this year. Intent is to less burden on Clubs / Players by reducing competitive matches / minutes as well as travel costs (hotel nights, meals, transportation, etc.).
    4. GSCR Agreement – document has been internally approved; pending signatures.
    5. Division One – Pathway discussions have been on-going. Hope to have a final decision by Wednesday’s SCC call (8/21).
  7. Elections
    1. We received the below nominations:
      1. RRRC
        1. MD1: Incumbent Michael Norton was the only nominee
        2. MD2: Incumbent Blake Horn was the only nominee
        3. MD3: Incumbent Travis Hughes was the only nominee
        4. Womens: Incumbent KC Curl was renominated and April Armstrong was nominated as well
      2. TRU
        1. MD2: incumbent Zach Hiller was the only nominee
        2. MD3: Nominations were received for Hal Struckman and Louis Gaitan, Kurylas is not running again and we thank him for his service on this committee
      3. In summary, the only elections we need to have are for RRRC Women’s and TRU Men’s D3. Norton, Horn, and Hughes remain in their RRRC seats, while Hiller continues for TRU.
  8. ​​Staff Updates
    1. Rob Walker – has been added to RRRC as “RX Super User” to support TRU / RRRC club rugby on a volunteer / non-voting basis. Rob will work with Chris Hanson as our lead RX administrator.
    2. Michael Norton – elected to a two year term as Secretary to SCC.
    3. USA Senior Club Council Nominations (deadline Sept-1st) – Dodge (SCC Treasurer / Exec Comm Rep)
      1. Sevens Committee
        1. David McPhail – Sevens (existing)
      2. Fifteens Committee
        1. Wendy Young – Fifteens (existing)
      3. Diversity
      4. Governance
      5. Fifteens Competition Chair
  9. Discipline – Hiller
    1. Sevens Eligibility – Huns
    2. Choctaw Sevens – Shreveport
    3. Riverboat Sevens – Shreveport
  10. TRRA
    1. As part of the RX rollout noted above, we have gotten permission to have the TRRA be a test Society for the upcoming competition cycle and the TRRA will start doing assignments in RX. We are hopeful that this will mean one stop shopping for match schedules, assignments, roster input, scoring, standings, etc. Ozzie to have an online meeting with Elaine at USAR SCC for meeting / initial training on Thursday 8/22.
    2. TRRA to hold their annual elections at The Summit.
    3. All TRU related (15s & 7s) expenses for the year have been paid in full. 
    4. Thanks to TRRA and TRU Treasurer for timely resolution and great working relationship.
  11. AGM on Aug-24, 2024 at Hilton – Austin Airport from 10am to Noon.
  12. New Business
    1. Draft Financial
      1. Total Operational Revenue: $106K
      2. Total Operational Expense: $106-110K plus remaining Operating Expenses from National Sevens Team Grants: TBC. Net result will be negative CF for the year. 
      3. Net Income / Expense from Summit: TBC 
    2. Mary Graham All Stars – Grand Prairie (host)
    3. Nominations for USA Rugby Senior Club Council Committee Members – due by Sep 1 (see 8c)
  13. Adjournment – Dodge / John