December 18, 2024
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 24 11 20 Agenda and Minutes – USA Club Rugby
- Motion: Midwest. Second: Pac NorthWest. Approved
Chairs’/Officers’ Reports
Secretary – Michael
- NDA signing status?
- NDA Tracker
- Michael had asked Nick to call those outstanding.
- Website and Social Media report USACR Stats 2024.pdf
- Highlights
| 2023 | 2024
(Does not include December) |
Percent Increase | Note | |
| Website views | 2,842 | 34,376 | 1,210% | |
| Website visitors | 985 | 16,941 | 1,720% | |
| Facebook Reach | 40,800 | 78,600 | 193% | Jeremy had no access until July |
| Instagram Reach | 22,100 | 138,200 | 625% | Jeremy had no access until March |
15’s Comp – Andrew/David McPhail
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- Andrew
- On Jan 1, Dave McPhail will officially step in as chair of the XVs Committee. He will be presenting his slate of candidates, which I support, especially the 3 remaining from my committee. I will keep short as you will be on tap to approve his slate of candidates.
- I wanted to take a brief moment and thank everyone for the last two years. It has been a privilege to work with many of you and I looking forward to finding other ways to stay involved in community rugby after taking some time to focus on work and family.
- You all received emails on December 1 outlining the current divisions that I have your union sending teams to super regionals. Additionally, we are in the final stages of working through any remaining changes to the structure. That should be finalized by the January meeting of the SCC. You all should be aware of your individual regions based upon prior email and conversations as the unions have the final say of the structure of your region with oversight and input from the XVs committee. So we will save from restating here.
- There have been some minor adjustments in Men’s d1 and women’s d1 structures based upon changes at the Union levels with no expected changes in any other divisions.
- McPhail and I have had a productive call with the planned host for the 2025 Nationals and hope to finalize the contract in the coming weeks.
- David
- 2025 Fifteens Comp Comm Nominations.pdf
- Motion: Carolinas. Second: Texas. Approved
- 15s Committee Vote
- 2025 Fifteens Comp Comm Nominations.pdf
- Andrew
7’s Comp – David Fee
- No Report
Treasurer – David Dodge
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- Informational Items:
- Nov. 2024 Stmt. Activity
- Nov. 2024 Stmt. Fin. Cond.
- Nov. 30 YOY Membership Comparison:
- 2024-11-30 – YOY Comparison of Membership Registrations (to SCC) – 2023-24 v. 2024-25
- Treasurer Handover Items:
- Transfer of seat on USA Rugby A&R Committee to Tim – Complete
- Bank of America Access – Complete
- StoneCastle Access – Complete
- RX Access – Complete
- BofA Debit Card for Tim – Pending
- Venmo Turnover – Pending Nick Davies research
- Transfer of Physical Checkbook – By EOY
- Square Account Access – By EOY
- Stripe Account Access – By EOY
- PayPal Access – By EOY
- USACRATreasurer@gmail.com Access – By EOY
- Treasurer@USAClub.Rugby Access – By EOY
- Universe Ticket Sales Platform Access – By EOY
- .RUGBY Domain Access – By EOY
- Delaware Registered Agent online account access – By EOY
- Filing 2024 Annual Report with Delaware SOS – By EOY
- Informational Items:
- Action Items:
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- Proposed Uniform Refund Policy (VOTE REQUESTED): 2024-11-03 – Proposed Refund Policy
- Only received comments from Florida (Kerri) who wanted to maintain Union-Level flexibility to grant / deny refunds on other grounds.
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- Motion: NorCal. Second: MidWest. Approved.
- Universal Refund Policy Vote
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- Thank You: This is my last SCC meeting as Treasurer. It’s been a pleasure working with everyone, and I appreciate all the support you have given me during my time as Treasurer. The organization has grown a ton since I started in the role almost 3 years ago, and I know it’s only upward and onward from here. I’ll still be around and working on contract / legal matters as “General Counsel” to USA Club Rugby, but will only be on SCC and EXCO calls as needed / requested. Thank you!
Discipline – Megan
- No Report
Governance – KJ
- No Report
Eligibility – Tam
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- Regulations Review – Senior Club Sevens.
Discussions with the sevens competition and eligibility committees will continue, updated Regulations will be provided to the SCC to review/approve on the January 2025 meeting
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- Eligibility Pre-Screening – Clubs advancing to NCS out of Fall Competitions.
Basic eligibility screening has begun of the clubs and players which have qualified for the NCS: Name Withheld, domestic clearances requiring a waiver, etc.
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- WER (https://www.womenseliterugby.us/).
The eligibility and fifteens competition committees had their second discussion with WER officials to discuss the new women’s professional competition. A brief recap from the call:
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Schedule.
Six clubs, 30 players, 10 league matches (home/away), championship weekends (Semis, Finals).
Starts late March, concludes by end of June (dates tbd).Player Pool.
385 players declared interest in the league: domestic and abroad, college and club.
Draft is ongoing, full rosters released early 2025 once confirmed.
Players: Five-month Contracts: 16 hours/week (training, travel, games).
Focus on domestic players, not arranging Visas for players from abroad.
With Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) schedule ending (mid-March due to RWC, a few WNT players put in for draft in event they are available around WNT’s April/May Pac 4 schedule (PWR has had a Nov-June schedule in previous years).CMS.
Specific system tbd – RX or other.
Rosters, match details will be public (starters/subs) which will address eligibility committee needs.
Each”player” in a 2025 WER match counts as professional for 2025 and 2026 on 7s/D1/D2 rosters.Contractual Obligations.
Players on contract can not play outside rugby (7s, D1/D2) until their WER club’s season is finished
DEI – Holly
- No Report
Vice Chair – Wes
- No Report
Board Report – Rick
USAR Liaison – Elaine
- Nov SCC Report 2024.png
- Action Item from ExCo 24 12 02: Elaine to remind GU presidents on timeline for COIs
- Sanctioning outlines should be with Al and Rick early next week.
USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman
- Full report USAR SCC RLC notes 2024 12 03
- Highlights
- RLC Zoom call was held on Tuesday, December 3.
- Referee costs for events will go up in 2025; amount was not specified. The RLC will contact the various council treasurers about this for discussion/negotiation.
- The topic of the Super Regional locations came up
- World Rugby Law Changes set to implement on January 1
Chair report – Al
New Business
- Action Item from SCC 24 21 08: ExCo to look into covering players even when non registered players are involved
- Al spoke with Bill Goren and it will be worked into next insurance negotiations and community agreement. If implemented will cause an increase in premiums. We will get an update in Spring
- RX Development Call notes
- The pay over time feature (partnered with Affirm) is currently in the sandbox being tested.
- While a individual may pay over time, the entities will receive funds as if paid in full (weekly deposits)
- Goal is to promote all rugby payments through 1 portal…Registration, referee fees, club dues, etc.
- Need to show clubs the benefit of adding their club dues to RX
- Working on Union admin guide phase 2 for in-season actions (Comp cases, reg clearances, refunds, etc.)
- Working on playoff structure for GU playoffs and then super regionals. Need to streamline to improve eligibility efficiency (multiple comps means additional reports to cross-reference).
- Currently there is only a competition case report for red cards. Will be looking at an incident report for yellow cards to help highlight repeat offenders.
- Still working on referee integration for assignments, but it is complicated by multiple entities (One society serving club/CRAA/NCR/HS/etc) or unwillingness to leave an effective system such as WTR.
- Possible to make referee payments through RX.
- Discussion on intl touring sides – What does/doesn’t go into RX. Currently not planning to add touring players to RX, but we can add the team so that it can be added to tournament schedules or a friendly match.
- The pay over time feature (partnered with Affirm) is currently in the sandbox being tested.
Adjourned
- Motion: Texas. Second: Midwest
- Meeting adjourned at 9:21 PM CST
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