June 7, 2003 Florida
Rugby Union Meeting Minutes
10 AM- meeting called to order
Roll call –21- quarum
Absent: Miami Trident, Eckerd Men, FAU Men
Items Voted
Upon:
Second: Palm Beach
Discussion-no reduction in CIPP for club players
Unanimous approval of
minutes
·
Motion to accept
associate membership application of Gainesville Men: FTL
Second: Orlando
Discussion: Gainesville
Men-developed from UF Mens clubs graduates & faculty. Have a committed
certified coach, commitment from Knockout Sportswear, and are hitting people up
for sponsorships. Have club by-laws. Have a board of directors to help guide and
direct the team. Currently have 25 players.
Vote in favor of
acceptance: unanimous
·
Motion to accept
associate membership application of Ocala Mens Clubs: FTL
Second:
Orlando
Discussion: Eric is team
president. Had some scrimmages in last season. Have 20 at practice, 30 on
roster. Have uniforms sending 2-3 to clinic. Have by-laws. Have financial
backing. Have fields. Asking for Associate Membership in Fall and to compete in
Florida Cup
Vote in favor of
acceptance: unanimous
·
Motion to accept
associate membership application of Exiles Sport Club:Daytona
Second: UF
Mens
Discussion: Would like to begin
new club in Sarasota. Have an executive board-former players from Washington
Irish. Asking for Associate Membership in Fall and to compete. Pelicans-#s from Sarasota going to play
with St. Pete. It is difficult to promote rugby without games. Mark-would like
to promote. Asking for Associate Membership in Fall and to compete in Florida
Cup
Vote in favor of
acceptance: unanimous
·
Motion to accept
membership of Tampa Bay Titans: Krewe
Second: Orlando
second
Discussion: Team represented
byLarry Grant-University South Florida-South Florida Mens RFC. Will recruit in
Area of North quadrant of Tampa. Roster of 23 (most ex-players of USF). Have a
charter, have 3 board members, have certified coaches. Will practice with USF
Men and use their fields. Asking for Associate Membership in Fall and to compete
in Florida Cup
Vote in favor of
acceptance: unanimous
·
For or against dues raising in
the South: Programs need to be funded. But since we don’t see the details, don’t
see any fundraising done. Unless we can see the real benefit-want to see the
details of the programs. Gerrard-have we done any bids to reduce travel? Have
seen some improvement
Question is-at the next south
agm, do you want a florida to vote yes for a dues increase.
In favor:
1-FTL
Opposed-20
majority
Abstain-none
Additions to the
Reports/Highlights of Reports distributed at the meeting:
Mark Etue-Presidents Welcome
We had 6 youth teams at NAWIRA
Select Side-U-19 Men won game at Eagles match vs. GA
Round of applause for Boca Raton making it to the final four
Need to work on talk back on field, need more teams so that we can see rugby grow and decrease dues
No one from Florida bid events is the reason why we travel, why we had four teams go to Greenville when Eagles were in Florida.
Board will help teams bid for events
Bids for South are due OCTOBER 30 for 2004 Events
Main evaluation of the bid is with regard to see if referees are taken care of and that there is medical coverage.
Union will help with event as much as possible to save travel expenses for Florida teams.
There will be a list of events to bid for which Ken will send out via an e-mail out with dates and events.
Please send Ken a copy of application so he can help fill out application and/or beef it up
Bids will be awarded by end of November
Orlando noted a need for help from the administration to help bring events here by contacting local field administrations.
All Florida Day # belongs to Mens Select Side.
$1900 Expense for U-19 was mostly cost of transportation since the U-19s can’t drive
$25 per Club Side, $5 per Collegiate Side
CIPP registration-half due now, half due August
If you have money issues see report-income report
Held February 18-23rd-teams from England, Wales, Canada, New York
8 teams non-contact from Florida
Jamaica men played FRU U-19 Men, Womens Side from Jamaica unavailable
FRU U-23 Women vs. U-19 Canada and US
Technical Sessions-Adrian Skeggs coaching
Referee training classes as well
Will be held again next year in Florida, USA would like to be a co-sponsor to help pay for event. Problems with timing at Cocoa Facility due to Cocoa being booked during spring break.
Mark Etue Liability reminder-90% of teams with disciplinary issues DO NOT have a certified coach
Try to work out $ to get things certified-also helps with potential lawsuit liability
Treasure Chest Men’s 2003-youth part of tournament will be the youth state championship
Trying to get structure formed to have a league in spring of 2004. Try little different than current club/collegiate league system-have mini-leagues in each area-difficult for individual high-schools to travel each weekend. Try to form small pockets of teams in each particular area. Almost like pop warner football, each have a high school league championship, then move into regionals then state. Available for municipal or city-based league for 8-12 range. Concept is similar to that in England. Need more youth educated referees and more youth coordinators. Participation is the key to getting this program to flourish. If funds are short, can help with trying to do temporary jerseys, can get some balls through USARugby Foundation. There are resources out there. Mark thanks to Moe-Moe began this from nothing and has really done a good job.
Game count thus far
Jan-35
Feb-58
Mar-53
April-27
May-9
Total 182 games in first half of year
12 florida refs to NAWIRA
refs from USA into country-west indies, Canada
Level 1 clinic planned-anyone can come-need a referee representative for each club-who would you rather have referee? Priority given to team with a referee.
At FTL Ruggerfest the entire A panel from US attended which is an opportunity for A panel to get together for annual meeting-had top evaluators-all referees were evaluated. Ran touch for top refs, got a lot of input. Subsequent to Ruggerfest, since march did teams of three on all D1 games since March. In FRU there are 17 full time refs, 8 part-time refs-lost a few refs to bleep test. No one refs a league or division game unless bleep test certified
Exchanges-sent 3 players –require a report back to FRRA-are subjective, but now have national system of objective evaluation
USA-Spain-Pablo DeLuca-got an excellent evaluation-2 Scottish refs, Bob Toomy was #5, REF FROM Cali did #4. USA told us two days before. Officiated every league and championship game in the Bahamas-done clinics to get them certified. Ongoing pursuit to Bahamas pays the entire thing, gives ref perspective on different styles of games. Work exchanges for incoming referees to Florida. Mini-clinic-coaches and players invited, one coach attended-need better effort to attend higher level referee
Every club should have one referee-larger clubs should have two-
Law changes-binding-up to hip
Team from Canada looking for a tour in November in South Florida
In two years, opportunity to bid golden oldies, add in some old boys tours to Florida week before or week after
Ken needs conflicts with schedule as early as possible
6 games for each clubs-bonus point if you beat a club at a higher level than you
Schedule is fairly even-women set up with three games, one home, one away, one at all Florida Day
Bids-all florida day-one bid from cocoa expo, florida cup-cocoa expo; FTL
9 weekends with 6 games-no travel more than 2 hours-teams that have not been approved yet have been tentatively scheduled for Florida Cup Games
Only 3 suspensions-all for retaliation-sin bin reports are being sent in-3 yellow cards in one season is an automatic suspension-most sin bins are for reported infringement
South is requiring all incidents to be forwarded from Florida
Major selections will be done at All Florida Day-developmental squad-trying to coordinate U-23 women with other LAUs
Select Side Programs-teams benefit from participation-$113 to print tickets
1 in 50 chance of winning money. If each club bought 5, could get to 15, 000.
Less money from dues go to Select Side. Distribute-see Toby afterward-any money goes back to Toby-Drawing before championship game of Florida Cup. For sale at various 7s tournaments and all other FRU events. Full funding at Select Side Venue. Easy thing to do is to raise dues. Not a tax deduction.
Monitor websites-if there a pictures that are not in good taste-links will be removed-change so that it is a members only area-trying to improve the image of rugby
Martin-80% of money goes to All-Star program-how to adequately fund the All-Stars-more players would come to South if thought was more competitive-
Elections-Mike Foust stepping down-
Jason
Heffelmire-Collegiate Report
South camps no longer
open-must be on your own LAU select side before you get
invited!
Collegiate Select Side-should
try to sponsor a player-funding issues can hold people
back
November 1-dates for
Spring unavailability must be given to Jason
Jim
Millar-Orlando-Field Size-
Agreement amongst teams to
submit field dimensions to be posted on the web so teams can plan accordingly
Championships have to be a full
field-years ago
Orlando-request to not play St.
Patty’s weekend in March
Sevens
Qualifiers-Attendance at three-
Open
divisions may be weaker-need to better prepare teams to compete if they move on
to National Championship-must go to three in order to acquire adequate
points-
All
the information and dates are on the USARugbySouth Website
How
many choose is not yet determined.
We supported this decision.
National Office
Moving?
So
Cal, Texas, and Florida are the three places they are interested in setting up
the National Office. Looking to move the office, current Eagles team is located
out of Berkely, ball park contract is up. Want to combine both forces into one
location.
Want
to bring Eagles into top 10.
Boca Raton-follow-up
report on games
Written reports available on
usarugby.org
Thanked Union for support and
referees for consistency.
More
details available on Boca’s website.
Terry
Day added that Riverside was recently a division 1 team and moved
down.
Roath Cup-
Brevard nominated to be newest
contender
Established in 97, first awarded
to Tamarac
Meeting ended at 2:15
PM followed by a Social Event.