VIRGINIA RUGBY UNION

Executive Committee Meeting

2 February, 1997, U.Va. Medical Center, Charlottesville, Va (10 a.m.) Directions

Roll Call

Present: President Carl Schmitt; Vice-president Bob Urban; Secretary Bob Underwood; Treasurer David Chapman; MARFU/USARFU Rep. Reyn Kinzey; Men's Club Coord. Reid McClure; College Men's Club Coord. Kris Kabza; ; Disciplinary Chair Jon Stanley; Newsletter editor, Jeffrey Anderson; RSV Rep. John Andrews

Absent: Women's Club Coord. Jodi Cohen; College Women's Club Coord. Erika Nussen; High School Club Coord. Lynne Stefanik (Attending a meeting for high school clubs)

Also Attending: Bill Lucas

Approval of minutes from Nov. meeting

Treasurer's Report

• Dues. Other than VCU, Longwood Men, and Radford Men, dues are up-to-date. Longwood still owes for the fall, while VCU is several seasons behind. Radford still owes $37.50 for the fall via a minor error.
• Paid first installment of MARFU dues $6000.
• Youth tapes purchased for each region of the VRU: east, central, and west.
• Purchase of Select Side Jerseys. The following sets of jerseys will be purchased this year:
• Men's: two set, one navy blue, one white
• Collegiate Men: one set of blue/white hoops
• Collegiate Women: one set of navy blue

Secretary Report

• The online directory is as up-to-date as possible. There are still a few clubs not reporting resulting in a delay of getting the 1997 VRU directory in the mail.
• The secretary will be mailing a flyer to remind everyone about the VRU home page (www.infi.net/~vru/)
• The online calendar will be updated shortly in the future.
• An email was sent to Rugby Magazine for their published directory with information for clubs not reporting directly to Rugby

Grants to Clubs

• Virginia Tech Women submitted a request for a $500 grant to help defer cost to attend the National Championships in May.
• Motion (President) to accept the grant request by the Virginia Tech Women. Seconded. Motion carried.

Status of Clubs

• 1997 CIPP Registration and Insurance Compliance
• Only four clubs were entered in the USARFU database as fully compliant. Many clubs are still waiting for their data to entered
• Clubs whose status was unknown, were assigned to an Executive Committee member who will contact the club to check on the status of the club
• Motion (President) Clubs not on USARFU list of CIPP registered and insured (or exempt), will be suspended on Friday 21 February 1997, unless they can show sufficient proof of compliance to their respective divisional coordinator. Seconded. After some discussion, the motion was adopted. Note: Suspension means a club is ineligible to play at all, home or away.
• Motion (Vice-president) for players to be eligible to play in Ed & Sandy Lee Cup must be on the national list, have a valid CIPP card, or a copy of the CIPP registration form. Seconded. After discussion, the motion carried 8-2.
• VCU
• VCU is now suspended. The club is several season behind in dues and has made no effort to contact the VRU on their status.
• The College Men's Coordinator will write VCU to inform them of the suspension.

Report from RSV on ERRR Meeting (Eastern Region Rugby Referees)

• Referees will be certified in the future.
• Two new referees for the spring, and two injured members will also return in the spring
• Clubs have the new laws taking effect in January. The changes were included in the AGM minutes and the last newsletter.
• Sanctioned tournaments (except for last on list):
• Porter Cup (Hosted by United) 22-23 March
• Virginia Women's Invitational Tournament 5-6 April
• Sorenson Cup (William & Mary Women) 19-20 April
• Pending approval: Kevin Coffey Memorial Tournament (Radford Men) 12 April
• CIPP registration for referees will be done at the 23 February meeting of the RSV.

MARFU Report (items from AGM in December)

• Reyn Kinzey is President, David Chapman Treasurer, Kris Kabza VRU at-large rep, Carl Schmitt by being the VRU President
• Amy Russet discussed NIRSA (National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association)
• MARFU at-large rep is on an ad hoc committee to review the seeding process of clubs in MARFU college events
• MARFU will have four 7s qualifiers: Norfolk, PAC, Bethlehem, fourth to be determined
• MARFU meetings on: 9 March, 8 June, 7 September, AGM on 13 December.
• The Vice-president said Virginia Tech has expressed great interest in placing a bid to host MARFU tournaments.
• The MARFU Men's Div I/II/III Promotion/Relegation plan was discussed. It is a regional based plan.

USARFU Report

• Board of Directors met in November. Several items came from this meeting.
• National Technical Panel was resurrected. The panel reinstated the ITTs (Inter-Territorial Tournament)
• National disciplinary policies. Does not mean the national office will adjudicate cases, but means all areas will use one national policy in determining punishments.
• There was January meeting used as a preliminary to the 14 March BOD meeting.
• USARFU is facing major financial problems.
• Premier League to start up.
• Possible increase in CIPP dues.
• NIRSA regulates club sports on campuses and wants to administer college rugby. They are not use to organizations, such as rugby, where clubs pay dues to intermediary levels of administration such as the LAU and territory.

Collegiate Division I/II format

College Men's Coord. discussed new collegiate Div I/II format. Here is the condensed version:

• Divisions:
• Four teams primary division - A1, A2, A3, A4
• Four teams west secondary - W1, W2, W3, W4
• Four teams east secondary - E1, E2, E3, E4

The weekend before Ed Lee this will happen:

Ed Lee seedings will be:

• #1 - A1
• #2 - A2
• #3 - A3
• #4 - A4
• #5 - winner W1 v E1
• #6 - loser W1 v E1
• #7 - winner W2 v E2
• #8 - loser W2 v E2

If there are any problems with the top four secondary division teams (drops, not CIPP/insurance compliant, etc.), the teams seeded below the problem team move up a seed and the winner of W3 v E3 moves into the top four secondary division teams. If no W4 or E4 exists, the other fourth place team has a bye the weekend before Ed Lee.

There was a suggestion to have college league games setup by a pre-determined format, thus avoiding a team possibly having to play all three matrix matches at an away venue. For the present, no action is being taken, but it will be discussed more in the future.

William & Mary/Playoffs

William & Mary Men, who placed second in Ed Lee had to travel to Penn State the following weekend. Even they lost this first round game, they were expected to travel to Princeton NJ the weekend after that. The club decided not to travel to Princeton for a variety of reasons. Some clubs were upset William & Mary did not go to Princeton. After some discussion, it was decided no further action will be taken. Everyone has learned something from this event. In the future, clubs will be better informed of their playoff obligations. This does not exempt clubs from actions that back out of the playoffs in the future.

VRU Collegiate Women Select Sides

• Tryouts on 9 March in the east and west. Mary Washington will host the east tryouts, while Virginia Tech host the west. The select side coaches are looking for a senior side and a developmental side
• Mary Washington will host on 23 March, east vs. west with the senior and developmental sides playing a game. The final senior and developmental sides will be chosen from this game.
• The two sides will play the PRU sides in Annapolis on 13 April

Woodberry Forest Prep (Orange County)

• Terry Whelan has expressed an interest in helping developing a new club at the school.
• President, High School Coord., Nigel, Terry will make contact with the school.

Youth Rugby

• A youth version of rugby is played in the summer in the Baltimore area. The game is modified non-contact 7s version of the game.
• There is the possibility of a startup in the Norfolk area.
• The group this represents is 5-14 years of age.

Publishing suspended players and clubs in newsletter

Motion (Newsletter Editor) to publish the names of suspended players, as reported by the RSV to the Disciplinary Chairman in writing, in the VRU newsletter starting in the fall. Seconded. After some discussion the motion passed.

Ed & Sandy Lee Cup Bids

• Received two bids to host the Ed & Sandy Lee Cup.
• Both bids had some pluses and minuses.
• Motion (President) to reject both bids and give both parities 14 days to respond to make definitive entry fees, sum to the VRU, and with a minimum of $500 for the Don Bridges Fund. Seconded. After some discussion, the motion carried 7-2, 1 abstention.

Tours

• Keynsham RFC of England is looking for four games around 8 August.
• Yes, they know it's hot that time year from a tour they did to Texas a couple of years ago.
• United expressed an interest in hosting a game.
• The VRU has received word that the level of play is probably a step above of where most of our clubs, so we should be able to give a touring side a good game

1997 AGM date. For now the 7 December date will remain.