January 21, 2026

Call to order – Al – 8:00 PM CST

Roll Call – Michael

• 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 12 17 Agenda and Minutes – USA Club Rugby 
  • Motion: MidWest. Second: Texas. Approved

Chairs’/Officers’ Reports

Secretary – Michael

• • Tracking action Items
    • Completed items are there just filtered out
  • Tracking website updates
    • As above, completed items are there just filtered out
  • Action Item from EXCO 25 01 06: Looking at potentially sharing via Website and Social Media a list of USAR sanctioned club events.
    • USA Club Rugby Tournament Marketing Process
    • USA Club Rugby Tournament Schedule – USA Club Rugby
    • It’s live!
  • Club Competition Recaps
    • MD1- Men’s Division 1 – December 2025 Recap – USA Club Rugby 
    • MD2- Men’s Division 2 – December 2025 Recap – USA Club Rugby 
    • MD3- Men’s Division 3 – December 2025 Recap – USA Club Rugby 
    • WD1- Women’s Division 1 – December 2025 Recap – USA Club Rugby 
    • WD2- Women’s Division 2 – December 2025 Recap – USA Club Rugby 
    • 

Admin – Nicole

• • • Refund processing
      • 6
      • Refund policy USA Club Rugby Refund Policy 
    • Web Contact form responses
      • 1
    • Outstanding Club Pays Invoices
      • USAR/RX has provided a partial solution to allow GUs better control
        • GU configuration of Club or Player Pays Registration 
      • Note: Club Pays Invoice Policy  
    • Other
      • Action Item from EXCO 26 01 05: Contact all GU presidents and request permission to turn off club pays invoices for all clubs in their GU. Remind them that outstanding Club Pays Invoices will be their responsibility
        • Presidents and/or Exec Directors received email

USAR Liaison – Elaine

• • • Dec 25 SCC Report.png

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
      • NCS Championship Hosting Standards
    • Report
      • Atlantic D1 format – Email sent on Nov-24th.  Needs Email confirmation.
      • RX Admin access for Committee Members to be sent to Norton for routing & approval.
      • Promotion & Relegation Policy will be shared with EXCO this week.
      • NorCal Women’s Hybrid format confirmation.
      • Discussion of Carolina & True South D2 league.

7’s Comp – David Fee

• • • No Report

Eligibility – Tam

• • • No Report

Treasurer – Tim

• • • StatementofActivitybyClass.pdf
    • StatementofFinancialPosition.pdf

Discipline – Megan

• • • No Report

Governance – KJ

• • • Working on onboarding slides – SCC Onboarding Slides
    • Developing resources for new clubs

DEI – Robert

• • • First committee meeting 1st February

Vice Chair – Wes

• • • No Report

USAR Director – Rick

• • • No December Board Meeting.
      • January meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, January 22 – will report next month
    • Pathways
      • Continuing to review High Performance player/coach/match official pathway planning
      • Working to broaden from focus to building a pathway to lifelong participation 
        • Need to solve our high attrition between age grades
        • A key will be inter-council cooperation
    • Vertical Integration
      • A goal must be vertically integrated programming – clubs and development entities that include, or work closely with, youth, high schools and colleges
      • We need to foster member participation in clubs and programs that operate across age grade/council jurisdictions
      • Member registration is a looming issue: currently, in one registration year, members are required to register with multiple councils if they participate at more than one level

USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman

• • • The USAR Tech Zone Materials Working Group chaired by Rosalind Anderson has not had discussions since before the holidays. I’ll give this a little longer before I forge ahead for senior clubs.
    • I started initial discussions regarding the 12-interchange policy with Mark (Tigg) Handel (Chair of the USAR Law Application Working Group) and Jamie McGregor. Looking for any gotchas or needed fixes, although we (Capital) have been using these guidelines since the 2023-2024 competitions cycle. As a reminder: this is just to standardize and publish a voluntary system that is allowed within law by World Rugby. There may be a slight push to spread this to the other communities.
      • Replacements – Fifteens

Chair report – Al

• • • Welcome to Nicole (SCC) and Tim (Competitions) 
    • Community Agreement – Discussion in process

New Business

• • • Strategic Growth Consultant
      • The Strategic Growth Consultant will help turn high-level growth goals into clear, data-informed plans that volunteer leaders, Geographic Unions, Conferences, and clubs can realistically implement within existing governance structures and available capacity.
      • USA Club Rugby – Strategic Growth Consultant – Scope of Work
        • SCC will review and vote via email vote by next Wednesday
    • SoCal (Kevin) via Eligibility for ExCo/SCC Discussion.
      • How to handle situations where a military club, full member of a local union/NCS pathway competitions, plays on base. The base allows non-military members to enter but only on presenting ID (passport, REAL ID).
        • Per Counsel David Dodge any policy would have to be implemented at the Union level, not SCC
    • Carolinas (Scott): 
      • Metrics
        • Working on a live metrics scorecard.  
          • USA Club Metrics
        • So far includes:
          • Club Compliance by Union – Discussed at last SCC call.  Numbers are not good at only 78%, and only 6 of 27 unions at 90%+.  Unions were given the opportunity to respond (many didn’t).
          • New Club Creation Requests – Working with Elaine with a target of 3 business days.  We are not there now but the process is in place to get us there going forward.  Also insightful to see that there have only been 7 new clubs since August (2 are all-star).  That is not going to get us to triple membership numbers by ’28.
          • Clearance Requests by Union – Improving numbers by quarter over 2025.  Potentially need training for union’s admins, and greater oversight of clubs by union admins. Need a plan.
        • Will include:
          • Refund Requests – Working with USAR to develop a report for entity accuracy.  SCC Admin had failing numbers in ’24 so we need greater accountability here.  Need a policy in place as to what that turnaround time should be at every level.
          • Insurance Claims – Working with Elaine to get that data integrated.
          • Additional metrics TBA

Adjourned

• • Motion: _Texas_. Second: _RMR_
    • Meeting adjourned at 9:37 PM CST