TRU Board Meeting Minutes 8.17.26

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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:

  • Attendee’s
    • David McPhail
    • Ross Davies
    • April Armstrong 
    • Ryan Little
    • Zach Hiller
    • Chris Hanson
      • Regrets:
        • Max
  • Compliance
    • Registrations – Club Compliance and Registration Numbers – Texas Rugby Union
      • Total Registration including one day & transfers: Player 147, 
        • 2,840 approximately (activity based)
        • Full YR 2025 total of ~2,560 and 
        • Prior Full YR 2,532
          • Last sub-total prior to rollover of the 2025-26 registration per RX: Players 2,203 / Coach 111 / Admin / 115
      • 2026-27 New Registrations
      • 38 new in first few days
        • Players 21, Coach 7, Admin 5
      • See dues discussion under # 8 Old Business
  • Club Requests & related matters
    • Discussion regarding resources: Human, Capital, Administration, Geography, etc.
      • Action Item: McPhail delegated to Little – to schedule a meeting.
        • Target: update by Sept-1st on initial discussion and feedback
  • Sevens – RRRC Qualifiers
    • SCC is looking at expanding the power of the Nationals 7s Committee.
      • The proposed structure would have the national pathway look and act more similar to Fifteens NCS.
      • Plan likely to include greater inclusion & responsibility of GU’s for structure, monitoring, support, etc.
      • More details to come.
    • 7s Club Results…were outstanding overall.  First time in recent memory that RRRC had 3 teams in the top 8.  
      • HEB W 7th & Dallas Harlequin W 8th.
      • Austin Huns M 7th & Austin Blacks M 15th.
      • Tournify App was a great improvement and more development pending.
      • Thanks for a great sevens season to all involved.  Notably, Fil & April for running the Qualifiers and TOLA series.  
      • Fil, Rob, Michael & David were all serving various Admin roles on behalf of the SCC at Nationals. 
  • Fifteens – 
  • Discipline –
    • Update on Dallas Harlequin Citing
      • Executive Session
    • Updated on Riverboat Sevens Citing
      • Executive Session 
  • Referee – 
    • Discussion regarding standards shown at 7s Nationals.
  • Elections Reminder:  Nominations close Aug-20th
    • Board Positions for D1 and D3 rep (Joe W 2028 & Louis G 2027)
    • RRRC Positions for MD1 Norton, WD1 KC Curl, MD2 Rob Walker, MD3 Travis Hughes, Women at Large Caitlin Robinson
  • Old Business – 
    • Per Board email dated Aug-11th the Board circulated an up/down vote on raising dues for the upcoming cycle.
      • All votings members approved the increase via email.   
        • Player fees from $50 to $75.
          • Monthly cost of $4.17 to $6.25. 
          • Basis to make up for almost a decade of no increases that should have been done to cover inflation, expanded services (referee, medical, team grants, staffing, events, etc).
        • Admin was increased from $25 to $30.
        • Weekend Player was charging $0. This was raised to $40.
          • Basis: Incentive players to register for the full year vs weekend by weekend.
        • No increase to Referees or Coaches.
      • The budget will be presented at AGM for the membership.
  • Hall of Fame & Summit – Embassy Suites in Grapevine TX (North of DFW Airport)
  • New Business – 
    • Discussion regarding the Fine System (amount / collection / tracking document). RL will get with the RRRC to formulate a proposal that will ultimately be presented to the Board for final ratification.
    • Instituting a NDA policy – discussed.
      • DM to get a copy of the SCC document, have it edited for TRU purposes, and circulated for review & final approval. 
    • Tulsa – discussion / update.  Pending further clarification with Tulsa leadership, RL (Board) and JK (RRRC).
    • Powerpoint Presentation – DRAFT to be circulated to Board.
  • Adjournment – RL / AA at 9:33pm