VIRGINIA RUGBY UNION

1998 Annual General Meeting

(10:00 a.m., Saturday, 24 January 1998, University of Richmond)

Men's Clubs:
Present: James River, Newport News, Norfolk, Raleigh, Roanoke, United, Virginia (7/9 represented) Absent: Blacksburg, Va. Beach, Quantico disbanded and not included in count

Women's Clubs: BRATS, Tidewater (2/2 represented)

College Men's Clubs:
Present: Hampden-Sydney, JMU Men, Longwood Men (on suspension), Mary Wash Men, ODU Men, Radford Men, U of R, VMI, Va Tech Men, W & L (10/11 represented)
Absent: W & M Men

College Women's Clubs:
Present: JMU Women, Longwood Women, Mary Wash Women, ODU Women, Radford Women, Virginia Women, Va Tech Women, W & M Women (8/8 represented)

High School Clubs: Rappahannock (1/1)

• The VRU is one of the best run LAU (Local Area Union) in the US
• The VRU has excellent CIPP (Club and Individual Participation Program) compliance and few discipline problems
• New clubs applying for membership:
• Blackwater (Lynchburg) in the men's division
• Randolph-Macon Womans College (also from Lynchburg) in the college women's division
• Rappahanock RFC first high school club in Virginia to play.
• Virginia Tech men and women represented the college clubs in the fall playoffs.
• Raleigh, Norfolk, Virginia in playoffs for the spring.
• Collegiate Division II created.
• Longwood Men reapplying for admission after being suspended last season.
• All star teams did well.
• Seven collegiate men made the MARFU (Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union).
• Virginia Tech Men hosted the MARFU men's and women's division I and II playoffs in November.
  

• Requested bids for the Ed & Sandy Lee Cup. Received one bid.
• Tournaments
• Virginia Women's Invitational Tournament (VWIT) hosted by Virginia women 4-5April.
• Porter Cup hosted by United 28-29 March.
• Sorenson Colonial Cup hosted by William & Mary women (7s format) 18-19 April
• Mountain Cup hosted by Blacksburg 5-6 Sept
• Turkey Trot 7s hosted by Virginia Tech women and Radford U. women. Provided application is submitted by 1 May 1998.
• Monk Vaughn 7s hosted by United 23 May
• Virginia State Games hosted by United TBA
• High school tournament hosted by Hampden-Sydney 25-26 April
• Kevin Coffey Cup hosted by Radford U. men 11 April.
• Curtler Cup (Christmas 7s) hosted by James River
• $6740 in Don Bridges Fund. $600 from Roanoke for the Ed & Sandy Lee Cup. Clubs sponsoring tournaments are strongly urged to donate $100 of profit to the fund. Don, a James River club member, was injured in 1987. The fund is set up to help defer costs for any future catastrophic injury which we hope never comes, but we want to be prepared to help for the immediate needs
• CIPP compliance
• 1337 players total, 119%. 7th in the US of 38 LAUs.
• 5095 players total for MARFU, 126%.
• 32/32 clubs CIPP registered.
• 29/32 clubs insured or exempt. Not bad, but we need and will insist on 100% compliance.
• CIPP update (Treasurer reporting)
• US Board of Directors increased CIPP dues
• By 1 March 1998, all clubs must be CIPP compliant
• MARFU must be 85% compliant by 30 September or lose a slot for playoffs.
• Request by Hampden-Sydney coach for availability of liability insurance for rugby coaches. Need to contact Neil Brendel at the National Office for information regarding liability insurance.
• CIPP packets distributed. Club CIPP forms filled out and submitted by board members. Only clubs not to submit were: Blacksburg, Va. Beach, W&M Men, ODU Women. These clubs will have their packets distributed.
  

• Handed out 1997 proposed budget and dues sheets.
• Coaching coordinator over budget due to clinic fees during the summer.
• $7200 in bank, but actually have $2800 after bills which will come in are paid.
• Emergent fees
• Motion (president) to accept proposed budget. Seconded. After some discussion, the motion was adopted by hand vote.
• Handbooks distributed.

• Reiterated the importance of keeping the directory information up-to-date.
• Any changes to the directory should be submitted the secretary as soon as possible.
• Request for confirmation of directory information will be sent at the beginning and end of each season.
• Clubs are submitting changes, but are doing it long after it was requested.
• The VRU calendar and minutes are also posted online.

Pat Walsh the National Director for Youth Rugby presented the board a brief overview of youth rugby. He covered how to get a tape covering youth rugby, the laws for youth, and how to get started. (More to follow, I haven't listened to the tape yet)

• Two new clubs starting up: Ashland, and Woodbury
• Clubs need help from higher level clubs and pointed in the importance of high school programs as feeder programs for colleges and senior clubs.
• Wants colleges to take a closer look at the clubs as a possible source of recruits.
• Thanked Kevin Kilgore of James River for hosting Rappahannock at the Christmas 7s in December.
• Discussed some general differences when working with high school clubs
• Having to work with parents
• Competing with other sports
• Transportation to games
• Requested help from other clubs for transportation. Even one day from a few players would be a great help
• Has had some interested from high school girls in playing
• Chris a former Rappahannock player also urged the clubs to take a look at the high school players.
• Games are played mostly on Friday afternoons in April. Coaches meet in late January to discuss the upcoming season.
  

Report on USA Rugby

• A significant number of good things have happened in American rugby over the past two years, several of which USA Rugby directly, caused including:
• The Strategic Planning Conference,
• The restoration of the National Technical Panel,
• The coaching and referees clinics,
• The application to the USA Olympic Committee,
• The return of the ITT's, and
• The hiring of Executive Director Paul Montville.
• Other positive developments have occurred without the direct involvement of USA Rugby, including:
• The increased number of games for the men's national team,
• The greater exposure of rugby on television, and
• The development of the premier league.
• Some other developments need to be evaluated, such as:
• The revival of the Collegiate Committee (which seems to be a good thing to me) and
• The development of a pilot collegiate program in the South (which might or not eventually prove to be a good thing).
• USARFU has made significant changes in CIPP.
• There have been dues increases.
• All clubs must register with their LAU's, TU's, and USARFU by February 15.
• All clubs must be CIPP registered by March 1 (they must pay their $10 club registration). (Note: provisions have been made for the formation of new clubs after March 1).
• All players must be CIPP registered before playing in any game leading to a national championship.
• All LAU's and TU's must be 85% compliant by September 30. TU's not compliant will lose one seed in national championship competition, if they have more than one seed.
• USARFU has elected a new Management Committee: Anne Barry, President; Neal Brendel, Executive Vice President; Tristan Lewis, Vice President; Pat O'Connor, Secretary; and Barb Fugate, Treasurer.
• The most vexing problem for USA Rugby is money.
• We are currently at about a $130,000 deficit.
• No sufficient explanation of the shortage has yet been offered
• The finance committee is preparing an internal audit.
• The generosity of the men's National Team is currently maintaining the solvency of the organization.

• Reminded board member if a club member is ejected in a game, it's an automatic one game suspension or one week, which ever is longer. If next week is a tournament, the player is suspended for the entire tournament (it's treated as one game).
• Told clubs that it's not only referees who can have a player suspended. At one game two VRU officers observed foul play that the referee missed. The incident was reported resulting in a suspension of one week.

• The RSV has had many successes in 1997. They include:
• Covered 63 of 68 scheduled matches in the spring
• Could not cover 4 "alumni" matches
• Could not cover 1 late add
• Covered 3 tournaments in the spring 97
• Covered 84 of 88 matches in the autumn
• Late change to Thursday - 1
• Ref. family emergency - 1
• Over tasked - 2
• In house society training session
• National Level I certification
• RSV challenges for 1998:
• Recruiting more referees (RSV action)
• Timely submission of schedules (some clubs) · 1 Feb / 1 Aug
• Timely payment (again only some clubs) · Several spring 98 dues outstanding
• Weekly confirmation of the match with referee on Tuesday or Wednesday (again some, but not all)
• Clubs are urged to check their schedules online to make sure there are no mistakes. Report any errors found right away.
• Goals for 98:
• Recruit more referees
• Improve standard of training.
• The RSV wants to thank the president for the his support of the Society over the last year.

• The editor enjoys doing the newsletter and want to continue in the position.
• Publication dates for 1998 are mid-February, late spring, early fall, and winter.

• The VRU web site is: http://www.rugby.org
• Clubs are strongly encouraged to use the web site as most documentation is online.
• Changed internet providers for better service with only a nominal cost increase.
• A commercial web site is maintained for better continuity of service. The first VRU web site was maintained at Virginia Tech, but wasn't usable after the previous webmaster (L.J. Lumburner) graduated from Tech since we did not have direct access to update the site.

• Awards
• Division I
• First place: Virginia Tech
• Runner up: James Madison University
• Division II
• East: ODU
• West: VMI
• Motion (College Men's Coordinator) to re-admit Longwood to the VRU. Seconded.
• It was requested Longwood present information on why they should be readmitted to the Union. Jim Earnst, the current LW president, stated that Longwood has:
• Worked hard with the Longwood administration to set things right
• Is in good standing with the school
• Conducted a fund raiser to pay for past dues and fees owed
• Longwood has been practicing to stay active
• The VRU president said he and others have met with Longwood school administrators to make sure the Longwood men are on the right path and recommends approval of the motion.
• After this and more discussion, the motion was adopted provided Longwood submitted the required paperwork.

• Motion (president) to accept Randolph-Macon Woman's College as a full member of the VRU. Seconded. After some discussion the motion was adopted. RMWC had the required paperwork which will be handed over to the new Vice-president.
• Motion (president) to change Randolph-Macon Woman's College membership to associate. Seconded. After some discussion which centered on whether RMWC played enough games in the fall to have used up its associated membership, the general thought of the board was that it had not and was entitled to associate membership for the spring. The motion was adopted. Note: this motion was discussed after Blackwater was accepted as an associate member.
• Awards
• First place: Virginia Tech
• Runner up: William and Mary

• Motion (president) to accept Blackwater (Lynchburg) as an associate member of the VRU. Seconded. After some discussion the motion was adopted. Blackwater had the required paperwork which will be handed over to the new Vice-president.
• Good CIPP compliance.
• Sideline demeanor sometimes less than exemplary.
• Awards
• VRU Premier Division
• First place: Raleigh Vipers
• Runner up: Norfolk City Blues
• Senior Division
• First place: Blacksburg
• Runner up: Roanoke
• Men's club coordinator wants the clubs know he is there to help in any possible. Just let him know.

• Wants colleges to remember the two current women's clubs after graduation.
• Awards
• First place: Tidewater Storm
• Runner up: Blue Ridge Area Training Side (BRATS)

• Had two All Star sides: Senior side consisting of juniors and seniors and a developmental side consisting mostly of freshmen and sophomores.
• The VRU played the PRU with the Senior side winning while the developmental side played well but lost to the PRU.
• Looking at a possible practice between the two college women's tournaments in April.

• Seven players selected for MARFU All Star side playing in Colorado last June (Aaron Beuhring, Jeff Donlon, Matt Lenihan, Sean Meehan, Mike Roche, Dan Roller, Sean Witte all from Virginia Tech)
• Tryouts on 22 March at Mary Washington College
• All Star round robin 4-5 April

• Made a plea for finding a women's All Star coach
• Played Philly in the fall

• Had a winning season
• Working on defense, and attack.
• Raising game tempo through better fitness.
• Had 8 players out of 30 play for the MARFU All Stars in tryouts
• Four players selected to play in the ITTs (Inter-Territorial Tournament) in Tampa in December (Phil Bassett (United), Mark Fowler (James River), Jeff Hollier (Virginia), Dominic Tracey (Roanoke))
• Looking to step down from the position of coaching Coordinator, but will help new coach
• Urged all board members to take advantage of the coaching clinic.
• Looking to host the US Foundation level class which is eight hours for one day instead of the two and a half day commitment of the level I and II clinics.
• Hampden-Sydney's coach wanted to know if there will be any CE (continuing education) component to the coaching certification. Not at this time.
• VRU will be hosting level I and II this year, but the date isn't known since the usual date is unavailable due to prior commitments of the US coaching staff.
• VRU has hosted coaching clinics for three years.

• The award is determined by the RSV. The award is $150 off VRU dues, and $100 off RSV fees. Any ties result in the award being split.
• The biggest difference in the scores were the medical requirements.
• Awards:
• Men: Raleigh, Virginia
• College Men: University of Richmond
• College Women: Mary Washington College, Virginia Tech

• President nominations: Kris Kabza. Elected by acclamation.
• Vice-president nominations: Jay Borkowski. Elected by acclamation.
• Secretary nominations: Bob Underwood. Elected by acclamation.
• Treasurer nominations: David Chapman. Elected by acclamation.
• MARFU/USARFU representative nominations: Reyn Kinzey. Elected by acclamation.
• Women's College Club Coordinator nominations: Jon Blatt. Elected by acclamation.
• College Men's Club Coordinator nominations: Carl Schmitt. Elected by acclamation.
• Men's Club coordinator nominations: Reid McClure. Elected by acclamation.
• Women's Club Coordinator nominations: Kambeth Kelly. Elected by acclamation.
• High School Coordinator nominations: Lynne Stefanik. Elected by acclamation.
• Disciplinary Chair nominations: Jon Stanley. Elected by acclamation.
• Newsletter editor nominations: Jeffrey Anderson. Elected by acclamation.