June 18, 2025
Call to order – Al – 8:00 PM CST
Roll Call – Michael
- Meeting Attendance – 25 06 18.pdf and Conflict of Interest statements
Approval of past SCC minutes – Michael
- Last Meeting Minutes – SCC 25 5 21 Agenda and Minutes – USA Club Rugby
- Motion: Midwest. Second: NorCal. Approved
Chairs’/Officers’ Reports
USAR Liaison – Elaine
- May 2025 SCC Report.png
- SCC Compliance Mar-June 25.png
- Compliance
- Improvement of 12% across the board (overall improvement from 68% > 80% compliance)
- Discussion on a date for when compliance will be determined for TORs – my suggestion is March – ahead of teams going to qualifiers but after teams not playing till spring are getting up and going?
- Disciplinary
- Still waiting on uptake for free places – can each union message me in chat who deals with discipline in their area while we are on call OR can you prompt to send through in advance
- Incoming tours – process and onus on hosting club/union – Al/Tam/Megan may want to lead on this but I think we need to raise
Secretary – Michael
- Reminder on time management
- Tracking action Items
- Action Item from SCC 25 05 21: Put in a request for a plugin or feed for the Website from live RX
- Done. See screen shot RX Feed
- Created and sent form for Nomination Form for Committee Chairs
- Got thumbs up from KJ on time frame, form fields, etc. Sent May 29. Closes June 29.
- ExCo will review then will present candidates at next meeting
- Club Competition Recap
- 7s – In process
- 15s – working on the plan for Fall.
- FYI, 15s match count over time from RX 2025_Fixture Report (Senior Club Council)_2025-05-27.pdf
- Intend to have something to vote on by next call
Admin – Nick
- Refund processing
- June: 8 requests
- May: 13 requests
- April: 16 requests
- March: 35 requests
- Web Contact form responses
- June: 4 contact forms
- May: 14 contact forms
- Emailed GU presidents about outstanding club pay invoices.
15’s Comp – David McPhail
- Action Item from SCC 24 02 19: 15s committee to create document with minimum Super Regional standards to go with budget increase.
- Recommend working with Tim to go over the most recent SR expenses as it relates to the previously approved increase. Recommend reviewing next year’s budget (Event, Staff, Media, Referees) with Tim.
- The committee has been working with Eligibility to sort through next season’s regulations.
- Discussion regarding the three upcoming Super Regional dates.
- Recommended Scheduling Windows for Regionals:
| Union Playoffs
(No Later than) |
Super Regionals | National Championship | |
| 2026 | April 12 or
April 19 |
April 24–26 or
May 1-3 |
May 15–17 |
| 2027 | April 18 or
April 25 |
April 30-May 2 or
May 7-9 |
May 21-23 |
| 2028 | April 16 or
April 23 |
April 28–30 or
May 5-7 |
May 19-21 |
- Early week: Pacific always. GCSR for 2026. Atlantic and North to take the other two years.
- Working on revising the Bid Packet for 2026 and beyond. One bid rec’d to date. Plan to have out in the next few weeks and the deadline would be 8/31/25.
- Turn focus towards work on MOU’s – Atlantic has been the leading group so far.
- Indy – wrapping up the final accounting with Tim. Expected gross $17.4K from ticket sales.
7’s Comp – David Fee
- 29 Men’s Teams, 22 Women’s Teams have filled out the intent to compete form
- Recognized Competitive Events & Qualifier Events – RX Must be used.
- Unions to build the events – Teams to input rosters
- Backup form can be used
- NC Enhancements
- Signage
- VIP area
- WIFI
- Hotel Links
- Kat 7s Previews (Ginty & Lance show?)
- Build up to Madison
- 2021-2024 Historical Info up on Website along with some of the following information included in:
- 7s Structural Doc – USA Club Rugby 7s National Championship Structure & Scheduling Proposal (2026–2028).docx
- Action Item: SCC to review and vote on next call
- 7s Committee actively meeting regarding eligibility reviews coming in.
Eligibility – Tam
- Eligibility Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQ)
- Eligibility: 2025-26 Eligibility Regulations.
- In process
Treasurer – Tim
- 2025 05 May USA Club Rugby Assoc Statement of Activity
- 2025 05 May USA Club Rugby Assoc Statement of Financial Position
Discipline – Megan
- The USA Rugby Community Judicial Officer (CJO) course was recently held on June 7-8, 2025 in New Orleans, LA.
- Upcoming CJO Courses for 2025:
- July 12-13, 2025 – Charlotte, NC (includes attendance at USA Eagles vs Spain)
- October 11-12, 2025 – Moraga, CA (held at NorCal Summit)
Governance – KJ
-
- Action Item from SCC 25 04 16: KJ (Governance) to send info to Michael (Secretary) to post a request for nominations
- Completed. Discussed in Michael’s section
- The one item I have outstanding is the recommended clarifying language for proxies.
- For Discussion/Approval- Proxy Language for Union Representation
- Action Item from SCC 25 04 16: KJ (Governance) to send info to Michael (Secretary) to post a request for nominations
- Current Language- March 2025
The Council will be composed of the recognized Senior Club Rugby Unions meeting the requirements of Article III of the USAR Bylaws. Each Union’s representative is the Union’s President unless otherwise designated by the Union’s bylaws or operating rules. No alternate may serve in the capacity of a Union’s Representative. There will be no proxy voting.
- Recommended Clarification Language
The Union determines the election of a Union representative to the SCC. Each Union’s representative holds a non-transferable SCC membership, contingent on completing all required paperwork and procedures as defined by the SCC. Membership is renewed annually in alignment with the Community Agreement cycle.
With prior approval, the SCC allows “guests” to attend meetings; however, they may be excluded from certain discussions and are not permitted to vote, even if attending as a temporary replacement for an elected SCC representative. The SCC does not permit proxy voting, which is defined as the temporary selection or appointment of a stand-in representative.
- Motion: MidAmerica Second: Norcal Approved
- Approval of language by unanimous consent
DEI – vacant
- No Report
Vice Chair – Wes
- No Report
Board Report – Rick
- Board Meeting June 5.
- Chair’s report
- Report to World Rugby council in September reporting on USA venue visitations.
- WR/WER Connected finally
- Discussed impact of NCAA settlement on Rugby NCAA project.
- CEO report
- USAR 50th anniversary celebration in Washington DC July 17-20.
- July 17 Gala Dozen tables sold.
- July 18 Board and Stakeholders meeting.
- July 18 evening US Rugby Foundation Hall of Fame event.
- July 19 – match day
- July 20 – WXV function
- USAR 50th anniversary celebration in Washington DC July 17-20.
- Finance report
- No material change in forecast since last update. Still on track to meet the budget for the year.
- Discussed projection of shortfall in out years and need for future member dues increases.
- Chair’s report
- Referee & Laws
- CEO and Directors met with several R&L committee members to discuss purpose and future
- Nominations and Governance committee.
- “At-large/independent” Director recruitment open. 150 applications received to date.
- 30 or so candidates have been asked to complete a competency self-assessment. Will be reviewed to identify potential interviewees
- Other
- Is Hi-Performance focus in our championships and other SCC programs detracting from community based rugby – what is our future?
USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman
- After the discussions regarding the Super Regionals and the National Championships, Tam Breckenridge and I edited the CRAA’s #4 official guidelines (which needed editing and corrections). It could take a while for training to be developed by the RLC and/or Competitions, so we decided to get this done particularly given that there were no clear directions available.
- We had several competitions folks and RLC/referees review. Subsequently, Jeremy Swick posted this for us at http://usaclub.rugby/resources in 15s and 7s versions (there’s a slight difference in each).
- I have already received several good comments and will edit it in July to prep for the National 7s, as well as the coming 15s season.
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
- Transfers in RX are up to 98. GU presidents please address
- 7s, lets get as much details for referee budgets as possible
- SCC SANCTIONING 06-18-25.pptx
New Business
- TV commercials
- From Georgia (Julie): Hi Michael. We would like to discuss creating a couple multi-use (tv/cable/OTT/CTV) commercials that would be generic “join your local team”, “check rugby out”. That would be :25 with space for a :05 tag for a local union or club to add a tag. Spreading production cost amongst the entire SCC makes commercials more affordable but also keeps the messaging on brand.
- Michael forwarded to Jeremy for feedback and he put together two Proof of Concepts and 5 more suggestions on a storyboard
- Jeremy also suggested:
- A few other thoughts I had – it would be cool to see if we could have some teams participate and give them a “shot list” – While the stock video is great, I think it gives more of an organic feel. I do have the national games but that’s much more game play with some celebration than the other moments. I’m open to using those I just wanted to get feedback as clipping takes quite a while.
- From Julie “How to use ads after creation” Recruiting Commercials USARugby.pptx
- Proposed cost for approval for 5 commercials
- Motion: NorCal Second: Carolinas Approved
- Approval to create commercials by unanimous consent
- RX Notes – Scott Conway
- Item 1 – New Club Requests
- Elaine might have this already but we’re revamping the club request process into a form so that the required info is gathered from the union admin. Then it will get processed more efficiently. I’m creating the form at the SCC level and should have a link for the website before the meeting.
- Item 2 – 7s
- There is now a database of all qualified 7’s players/coaches based upon club qualifiers as well as player qualifiers. I’m working with the 7s committee to ensure we get the data but everything so far has worked well from a data perspective. Next step is to integrate a list of pro’s and non-residents as well as those with waivers once we determine the data source for that.
- 2024-25 Waivers (15s)
- International Clearances
- https://www.itsrugbv.co.uk/players/competitions/majorleaguerugby.html
- Special Guest
- Q & A with Bill Goren
Adjourned
- Motion: NorCal. Second: Texas
- Meeting adjourned at 10:28 PM CST
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