Board Notes – 10/27/16

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:

10/17/16

• Roll Call (8:05pm)

• James
• Butch
• Yeoman (Guest)
• Dodge
• Parker
• Tomsak
• Tate
• Turner
• Approve minutes from last call
  • Tomsak: Motion to approve the minutes from last meeting.
  • Dodge: I have a question about them first. Did we decide that the Austin Blacks would be assessed the RRRC 7s administrative fee?
  • Tate: No, it’s a separate issue as the Austin Blacks technically never showed up. This follows our normal forfeit procedures in the TRU Operating Procedures. The other clubs committed to attending all of the RRRC 7s tournaments but failed to show up. They were accessed the RRRC 7s Administrative fee.
  • Dodge: Perhaps we can update the notes below?
  • Young: What if we just reference the meeting notes from 8/15/16? That is where we went into in-depth conversation.
  • Tate: Yes.
  • Young: Ok, I’ll include that note.
  • Tate: Any objection to the amended minutes? None. APPROVED.
• Follow Ups from last call
  • RRRC 7s Administrative Fees
    • Bonobo didn’t attend 7/23 – sent notices 9/9, 9/21 and 10/5.
      • Teshay finally replied 10/10 and payment should be on the way. They understand that referees may be pulled until this is paid in full.
    • HEB didn’t attend 7/23 – sent notices 9/9, 9/21 and 10/5.
      • Young: Payment is in the mail. They understand that referees may be pulled until this is paid in full.
    • Ft Hood didn’t attend 6/25 or 7/23 – sent notice 9/9, 9/21 and 10/5.
      • Young: Payment is in the mail. They understand that referees may be pulled until this is paid in full.
    • HARC (W) didn’t attend 6/25 – sent notice 9/9
      • Young: PAID as of 9/25/16.
  • CMS Logins
    • Young: Erik at USA has loaded the teams, just waiting on logins and matches.
    • Tate: Ok, we have matches starting 10/29, so we need those soon.
    • Young: I will follow-up.
  • U21 Pilot Program
    • Tate: Last call we had approved a budget line item for this program. I’ve had several conversations with Alan and Bill Taute about this program and they are still trying to get it off the ground. Essentially it may become a revised program as the turnout has been pretty low. So Bill will be providing me with an updated budget that requests less funds due to not needing jerseys and such for now.
  • Coaching L200 Course at UTSA – FULL
  • TRU Non Profit Foundation
    • Tate: I talked to the lawyer about this further and he is sending me an invoice and statement of work. Then we will get together and get this going.
  • Summit
    • Dodge: I opened some conversations with Shayne and the LSC and they are interested in co-hosting. More details to come.
  • Compliance
    • Parker: How are we doing with compliance, particularly the D3 clubs?
      • Tate: Good question, we have 42 clubs that are all compliant, but we have 5 teams that need more players or a L200 coach. BUT the bigger concern is the lapsed clubs (8) as that means they haven’t registered, aren’t CIPPing players, etc. The reps need to reach out to these ASAP.
• New Business
  • TRRA Grant Request
    • Tate: Scott Green and I had lunch the other day and proposed that the TRU support two young up and coming referees; Joey Swatzell and Cole Jones. The TRRA would like to send them to South Africa so they can attend the Stellenbosch Referee Academy. The entire program is $12,000 but they aren’t requesting that we cover all of it. They are requesting that we help cover the tuition portion, $4,300. They have also requested help from Rugby Texas (youth rugby). Butch, anything to add?
    • Butch: This academy is the premier academy out there and even very few USA referees have been lucky enough to go. They will go down there, eat, sleep, drink and learn refereeing. They have the potential to do 5-6 matches a week and have immediate feedback. On the back end we’ve asked for a three year commitment from Joey and Cole so that our investment is passed back onto the TRU teams.
    • Tate: Thoughts and discussion?
      • Dodge: I like the idea of the back-end agreement, but will this also help them be able to referee coach?
      • Butch: Great question, let me expand on that. This past weekend we held a referee coaching course with the USA Rugby Referee High Performance Manager. USAR is rolling out a new coaching course, including software to support it and we got the first look. So we are addressing that on our own. Stellenbosch won’t necessarily help with the referee coaching, it’s more focused on becoming better referees. Of course they will have lots of knowledge, but not certified trainers.
      • Tomsak: Is the total money $4,300?
      • Tate: Yes, we’d essentially be splitting it with Rugby Texas or the TRRA will cover as part of their development fund.
      • Tomsak: I think the education is incredibly important and this is a great opportunity that we should support. I think this is really similar to an educational grant at work.
      • Tate: Yes, when talking to Scott if these young men come back and it works, we can continue to support this endeavor (new 501c3 TRU Foundation). I think that we make an agreement with TRRA that if these guys bail, that it’s on the TRRA to reimburse. We don’t want to discourage these young men from not attending. Butch, what are your thoughts?
      • Butch: Yes, I think that is totally fair and we agree.
      • Tate: The proposal is that we would approve a $4,300 grant to TRRA to help fund this referee development program. Each of these two referees are expected to return to Texas and referee for 3 years. The reimbursement value if they leave before that time is up, it’s $700 per year. Do we want to take that as a motion or someone can restate if they’d like.
      • Tomsak: I second that motion.
      • Tate: Any discussion? None. Any objections? None. APPROVED.
  • Coach Training with Darren Morris
    • Tate: I’ve been talking with Darren Morris about developing coaching in the TRU. He’s a former international prop and if you played the Griffins last year, you know that he can coach the front row. I’ve proposed that we offer some courses that would focus on advanced scrummaging for coaches and referees. Rather than bringing someone in like we’ve done in the past, this would be a TRU Scrummaging Master Class featuring Darren Morris. We would charge fees and then pay Darren a flat fee to conduct X number of clinics. This could bolster the All Star weekend event, The Summit, etc. Creating another product that the TRU could offer to the rugby community.
      • Tomsak: Is Darren still coaching with the Griffins?
      • Tate: No, he is not.
      • Dodge: What kind of entry fee would you be looking at?
      • Tate: Good question, with the first one it would have to be pretty low. Maybe $100 bucks? Then the next clinic could be a bit more after we’ve had one clinic? I don’t know that we could recoup the entire fee that Darren has requested on the first go round. It may take a bit of work. Thoughts?
      • Turner: I’d like more details including proposed dates, formats, pricing and reimbursement to Darren.
      • Dodge: I agree, I’d like more details.
      • Tate: Drew, would you like to work on this with me?
      • Tomsak: I can try, I’ve got two big projects on my plate right now.
      • Tate: Ok, I will get some details together and have a proposal together for our next call.
  • Budget
    • Dodge: Is the budget in works or are we working off an existing one?
    • Tate: It’s in progress as we’ve had a topic that has impacted the budget every call so far. This call should help button it up though.
• Adjourned (9:58pm)