SCC 25 3 19 Agenda and Minutes

March 19, 2025

Call to order – Al – 8:00 PM CST

Roll Call – Michael

• Meeting Attendance – 2024 / 2025 Season and Conflict of Interest statements 

Approval of past SCC minutes – Michael

• Last Meeting Minutes – SCC 25 2 19 Agenda and Minutes – USA Club Rugby
  • Motion: Mid America. Second: Midwest. Approved

Chairs’/Officers’ Reports

USAR Liaison – Elaine

• ExCo chose to move this section to first
• Action Item from SCC 25 01 15: Write up an explanation for each report and how to interpret.  Specifically on claims paid or not and why
  • See below
• Feb 2025 SCC Report.png
  • 31 claims processed (ie moved to approved or denial status) 
  • 2 of these were duplicates
  • Leaving 29 actual claims
  • 1 of these ineligible as it was an NCR claim 
  • Reduced to 28 actual claims
  • 27 approved
  • 1 requested further evidence as couldn’t verify their membership and had no reply, so moved to denial
  • Of valid/verified eligible claims that’s a 100% approval rate
• March 25 Club Compliance – Accredited Coach By Union.png
• March 25 Club Compliance 8+ registered Players by Union.png
• March 25 Club Fee Compliance By Union.png
• March 25 Overall Compliance By Union .png

Secretary – Michael

• Tracking action Items via the Action Item Tracker
• All Comp Recaps available at this link Club Comp Recaps Archives – USA Club Rugby 
• 
• Keep an eye out for a bot called Read.AI that has been attempting to interject itself into our meetings.

15’s Comp – David McPhail

• Action Item from SCC 24 02 19: Confirm with Jeremy on status of Sponsorship deck. If no changes it can go out. If changed will need to be SCC approved.
  • No changes required
  • USA Club Rugby Sponsorship Deck
• Action Item from SCC 24 02 19: 15s committee to create document with minimum Super Regional standards to go with budget increase
  • Long story short is that each Region has different resources,  Each host is different and costs are not equitable across the board.  Suggestion is that each submit a budget targeted below max $ for review in year one.  Set an allotment for next year once the Committee and Treasurer have quantitative data to review.
  • Max is still on a $25k budget. $20k is a suggested target to allow for unexpected issues.
  • Motion: Reimbursements to be processed only after event completed
    • Motion: NorCal . Second: Mid America  Approved
  • SCC Consensus is that host clubs shouldn’t be carrying the costs. It should be carried by the GUs that are part of the SR.
• 15s Report
• Highlights
  • Review and approval of 3.4.3 match requests have been completed to March 12
  • Super Regionals 
    • Referees in process, Need info from Atlantic
  • Fifteens Nationals will May 16-18th at Kuntz Soccer & Sports Complex – Indy Parks & Recreation Indianapolis
  • Terms of Reference were reviewed and approved.  Sent to SCC / Governance.
  • On-going items:
    • Future date for Nationals – consensus to continue 3rd week of May.
    • 2025-26 Pathways (Sept-1st): All regions to have a Memorandum Of Understanding
  • RFP for 2026 to go out this Summer for 2026/2027 season.
  • Discussed future vision of WD1 league.
    • Women’s Competition Proposal – Informational. For discussion only at this time. 
    • Timeline
      • Present to SCC 3/19/25. 
      • RX blast is anticipated to be sent out in late March with a period for comments of two weeks. 
      • Consensus that 2025 implementation is ambitious and unlikely. 
      • This would have to be voted on and approved in the future before it would go into effect

7’s Comp – David Fee

• 7s Report
• Highlights
  • Inter-Territorial Tournament (ITT) and Regional 7s Championship Concept:
    • Committee believes ITT/Regional Concept is good thing
    • Timing Issues
    • Coaches set in each region
    • Would not impact Club eligibility 
    • May 3rd and 4th
    • Looking at 8 regions with a team per each. Only Men this year
    • Not SCC funded
    • Action Item: David to take feedback and look at adjustments
  • Working together with other bodies (USAR, MLR, CRAA, etc)
  • Other
    • NorCal – Will not be its own outright qualifying regional for Nationals
    • MidAmerica – Will compete with Denver as “Former Frontier Region”
    • The need for MOU’s 
    • Sponsorship for 7s Nationals (Athlete Village)
    • Above approval of structure changes. Moving from 9 automatic bids to 8.
      • Motion: Midwest. Second: Texas Approved
        • SCC 25 03 19 Meeting Voting – 7s structure change. Moving from 9 automatic bids to 8.pdf

Eligibility – Tam

• Key Playoff Eligibility Details
  • Registration Deadline: Tuesday, April 1. Applies to new players and transfers (club/club and college/club).
  • CMS: Check clubs to confirm matches entered are complete: rosters, substitutions, scoring. This is required!
  • Name Withheld: Check clubs heading to the playoffs to confirm player profiles are set to “Public.”
  • Waivers: Notify clubs  that players needing a waiver should submit their request as early as possible.
  • Regulation 3.4.3. Player Eligibility Matches: Submit requests to the 15s competitions committee (request form: https://forms.gle/utGuaccu6gbzR8if7)

Treasurer – Tim

• Action Item from SCC 24 02 19: Discuss how to use surplus at next ExCo
  • Cutting into surplus to fund super regionals and nationals, Tim running numbers
  • Grants, education and training 
• 2025 02 Feb USA Club Rugby Assoc Statement of Activity.pdf
• 2025 02 Feb USA Club Rugby Assoc Statement of Financial Position.pdf
• Senior Club Reporting for 2024 Actuals and 2025 Budget.pdf
• Super Regional Expense Process
  • Discussed above

Discipline – Megan

• Held multiple hearings since last call
• A number of issues forwarded to Safe Sport
• Processed grievances 
• Getting moving on SRs

Governance – KJ

• Chair Election in New Business section
• Discussing altering ExCo term to 4 years
• TOR reviews

DEI – Holly

• No Report

Vice Chair – Wes

• No Report

Board Report – Rick

• Board Meeting no board meeting since last report.  Next meeting is tomorrow March 20.
• Nominations and Governance committee.
  • Reminder: Nominating committee now Governance and Nominating – structure changed: now 5 members consisting of current BOD members elected by councils rather than non-board members.  
  • Working on 2025 recruitment for 2 vacant Director (1 independent and 1 affiliate) positions.
• WER Sanctioning completed creating a WER/USAR partnership.
  • Player contracts seem to suggest that players are permitted/encouraged to participate in rugby activities not provided by WER.  In practice this seems to be intended to only apply to USAR HP programs.

USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman

• No recent meetings
• 15s working with Olivia
• Action Item: Get appointments list for SRs and Nationals

Chair report – Al

• Action Item from SCC 24 08 21: ExCo to look into covering players even when non registered players are involved
  • In process
• Board meeting tomorrow
• Committee chairs doing lots of hard work

New Business

• Nomination Form for Executive Committee Chair
  • Al Lucas the only nominee
  • Timeline reminder
    • Call for Applications February 4.
    • Initial application closes March 1. 
    • Candidates screened and selected by March Executive Committee meeting and at which time they are presented for review.
    • Voted on by the full council at the following Senior Club Council meeting.
  • Motion: Midwest. Second: RMR Approved
    • SCC 25 03 19 Meeting Voting – Election of Chair.pdf
• Parking lot
  • New time management tool

Adjourned

• Motion: NorCal. Second: SouthWest
  • Meeting adjourned at 10:40 PM CST