September 17, 2025

Call to order – Al – 8:00 PM CST

Roll Call – Michael

• • SCC 25 09 17 Meeting Attendance.pdf and Conflict of Interest statements 

• Reminder on time management

• • Periodic announcement of running time 
  • Off topic items tabled to end of call

Approval of past SCC minutes – Michael

• Last Meeting Minutes – SCC 25 08 20 Agenda and Minutes – USA Club Rugby 
  • Motion: MW. Second: RMR. Approved

Chairs’/Officers’ Reports

Secretary – Michael

• Tracking action Items in Action Item tracker 
  • Completed items are there just filtered out
• Action Item from Other 25 07 27: Track potential changes to Community Agreement
• Committee member volunteers
  • Nomination Form 
  • Nomination Form responses
• Club Competition Recaps
  • Kat has in process while officiating at Women’s Rugby World cup
  • For those GUs that haven’t loaded schedules into RX, she is using the 2026 NCS 15s Divisional Declarations as a backup. 
    • If you haven’t filled out that sheet please do so otherwise there will be nothing to write about your GU.

Admin – Nick

• Refund processing
  • 21
• Web Contact form responses
  • 9
• Outstanding Club Pays Invoices
  • GUs were contacted
  • Scott Conway POC for RX technical explanations
• 2026 15s Declarations Outstanding
  • Alaska, Hawaii, New England, Northern California, Southern California, Southwest
  • More in 15s section

USAR Liaison – Elaine

• Aug 2025 SCC Report.png
• RX Comp Admin in testing
• Elaine’s Contract renewed

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.
  • In process
• MOU’s
  • Pacific –  Allison Truong
  • Northern – Lou Raymond
  • Atlantic – Dan Burr / Kristin Aliberto
  • Gulf Coast – Kaleb Nelson
• RFP for Nationals 2026-2029 (15s & 7s) due Sept-26th
  • No new applications have been rec’d since distribution
• 2025-26 Competitions Declaration – 2026 NCS 15s Divisional Declarations 
  • The deadline was Sept 10th.
  • GUs determine the final divisional champions
  • This is informational only for 15s to know what they are working with.
  • The following are blank
    • Alaska
    • Hawaii
    • Northeast
    • NorCal
    • SoCal
    • Southwest
• Re-write of NCS Forfeit Policy in process by Committee
• Promotion & Relegation Policy – Up / Down vote on creating?
• Follow up request to schedule meeting with Treasurer on Budgets for 2026 SR’s & NCS

7’s Comp – David Fee

• No Report

Eligibility – Tam

• Action Item from EXCO 25 08 04: SCC wants to know why we have an SCC At Large registration for players?
  • Had served a purpose but might be made obsolete by upcoming RX “events” features
• No Report

Treasurer – Tim

• Statement of Financial Position
• Statement of Activity

Discipline – Megan

• Final training session in California in October 

Governance – KJ

• Action Item from SCC 25 08 20: KJ (Governance) develop standard policy for tournament grants approval requirements 
  • Al has in process
• Most items in new business
• Gathering recommendation on new polices

DEI – Robert

• Established relations with counterparts in England and IGR
• Any questions or ideas please reach out

Vice Chair – Wes

• No Report

Board Report – Rick

• 250917 – SCC Director Council Report.pdf
• Highlights
  • Eagles National Teams:
    • Womxn’s RWC campaign drew lots of attention – wound up 1-1-1.
    • Men qualified for 27 Men’s RWC with win over Samoa.
  • USAR “Grow the Game’ Planning
    • World Rugby Council meeting next week 
    • WR grant money hopefully $50 million
  • Senior Club Council contribution to Growth?
    • SCC has not yet put together a working group to lead the effort toward SCC “Reach “Goal.
    • Possible efforts (see full report)
  • Transgender policy – working to address USA Administration directives to USOPC

USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman

• 2025 USA Club Rugby 7s National Championship Summary_of_Comments
• Highlights
  • Referee Performance and Assignments
  • Site Logistics (related to referees)
  • Fourth Officials (#4s)
  • Referee Assignments.
  • Costs
  • Better partnering across the SCC, RLC, and regional/local referees.
  • The following are not related to the referees.
    • Tournament Operations and Systems
    • Rugby Xplorer (RX) is inadequate for real-time tournament management

Chair report – Al

• Working with USAR and WR to better coordinate working together for events
• Working on grant process
• Had long group call with USAR regarding issues with RX

New Business

• From Florida (Kerri): I would like to amend the TOR as follows. 
  • Current text “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.”
  • Replacement text “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. A union may designate one alternate that serves in the capacity of a Union’s Representative if the primary representative is unavailable. The requirements for this alternate should also be designated by the Union’s by-laws or operating procedures with the term for the alternate being no less than a year. There will be no proxy voting.”
  • Motion: NorCal Second: True South Approved by acclamation
    • Approval of TOR change to allow permanent alternates to be designated
    • Amended to exclude alternate from financial votes. 
      • Action Item: Al will be in touch with Dodge about potentially including in financial votes
• From RMR (Anthony): Aspen Ruggerfest Funding request
  • I would like to add an item to discuss a funding request from the Gentlemen and Ladies of Aspen to put on Ruggerfest. 
  • Grant Application_ Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club.docx
  • Ruggerfest P&L
  • Teams – 2024 to 2025.xlsx
  • Motion: RMR Second: MW  Denied
    • Approval of grant request
    • SCC 25 09 17 Meeting Voting – Aspen Ruggerfest grant request.pdf
• From Carolinas (Scott): Requested ExCo come up with a policy for outstanding Clubs Pays Invoices that includes enforcement
  • Working within the limitations of the TORs ExCo have formulated the following:
  • Club Rugby’s Senior Club Council (SCC) Executive Committee (ExCo) strongly recommends that Geographic Unions (GUs) do not allow clubs to use the Club Pays Invoice option for member registration due to ongoing issues with invoice collection. If a GU chooses to permit this option, the GU is fully responsible for ensuring all invoices are paid accurately and on time. The SCC administrator will monitor outstanding Club Pays invoices and notify ExCo, the club, and the GU when balances become past due. GU is responsible for any outstanding invoices and the administration of consequences for non-compliant clubs. GUs with recidivist offenders are subject to SCC sanctions including, but not limited to, being deemed ineligible for the National Championship Series (NCS).
  • Extended discussion on 
    • The difficulty of GUs tracking these with limited resources
    • Lack of notification from RX to GUs on outstanding invoices
    • Having RX add configuration to allow GUs to turn off for their GU or control which clubs can use

Adjourned

• Motion: MW. Second: NERFU
  • Meeting adjourned at 10:06 PM CST