August 19, 2026
Call to order – Al – 8:00 PM CST
Roll Call – Michael
- Meeting Attendance – 260819.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
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- Last Meeting Minutes – SCC 26 07 15 Agenda and Minutes
- Motion: __MidWest___. Second: __Texas___. Approved
Chairs’/Officers’ Reports
Secretary – Michael
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- Tracking action Items here Action Item Tracker and Website here Website Issue Tracker
- Completed items are there. Just filtered out
- USACR Event setup in RX and Promotion
- Tracking action Items here Action Item Tracker and Website here Website Issue Tracker
- A number of tournaments are in process
- Competition Recaps
- 7s Eligibility folders created and managed
- The less than 2 week timeline on sending to clubs is too painful. Next season will either send to all declared teams rather than waiting for winners or some other solution.
- 7s teams renamed after the fact. Next season will need some standard applied on team declaration and acknowledged as part of declaration signup
- Nominations for Referee and Laws Representative
- Call for Applications was May 6, Initial application closed June 3.
- Megan confirmed nominees are in good standing
- Currently on hold for USAR and USOPC R&L restructuring
- Senior Club Council Committee Application/Nomination Form
- Both Competitions chairs and DEI, Governance and Eligibility members
- Closed Aug 12th
- To be presented to and screened at the September Executive Committee meeting.
- Then voted on by the full council at the September Senior Club Council meeting.
- Putting together annual membership numbers for weighted voting calc
- Per Oct 2025 SCC call and vote amended to pull August 1 annually.
- Worked with David Chapman to confirm numbers
- Actual report in New Business
Admin – Nicole
- NDA signing status
- 2
- Refund processing
- 13
- Refund policy USA Club Rugby Refund Policy
- Web Contact form responses
- 4
- Outstanding Club Pays Invoices
- USAR/RX has provided a partial solution to allow GUs better control
- Note: Club Pays Invoice Policy
- Outstanding Clearances
- Note: after a clearance is approved, individual still needs to re-register with target club
USAR Liaison – Elaine
- 2026 July SCC Report
- Inquiries on competitions and getting events into RX
15’s Comp – David McPhail
- 2026-27 Eligibility:
- If it is not in RX…it did not happen.
- Eligibility and 15s will be very tight when it comes to exceptions.
- GU’s and Clubs need to load schedules into RX
- GU’s should reach out to Clubs to confirm proper approval levels
- Most teams have a large admin turnover which will become evident soon
- Can SCC publish updates on a) Changes and b) Training links
- Reminder that all Regions should review their MOU’s
- Address changes to Teams & Structure that may have changed YR over YR
- Confirm new Admins are brought up to speed
- Review SR dates / bid process / location / etc
- Intent to Compete (teams / divisions) for 2026-27
- Action Item: Michael to send out Teams and Divisions Intent to Compete
- Leagues are required to have minimum of four (4x) teams
- Can be single division or hybrid competition
- Goal to achieve minimum number of league matches prior to GU playoffs
- Can be single division or hybrid competition
- Ongoing discussions regarding 15s Nationals
- Expression of interest from PNW club
- Competition Waivers Approved to date:
- MidAmerica – WD2 Comp Structure
- True South – Nashville MD2
- Carolina – Atlanta Old White MD1
- Carolina – Life University WD1
- Capital – WD2 Comp Structure
- Competition Waivers Pending:
- ARP NCS format – pending
- Pacific / NorCal – No call scheduled
- Utah – Need to confirm status for upcoming season
- Key Dates
- First weekend / Second weekend:
- 1st: Pacific & Atlantic
- 2nd: Northern & Gulf Coast
- GU playoffs weekend of April 17th / April 24th
- SR playoffs weekend of May 1st / May 8th
- Club Nationals May 21-23rd
- First weekend / Second weekend:
- 15s Committee working on review of TOR for updates
7’s Comp – David Fee
- Nationals
- Overall strong performance:
- Tournify
- Management Team
- Competition
- Production (many non rugby people said excellent)
- No visibility from USAR
- Strong need for “Central Control” of Qualifiers to be treated like Super Regionals
- Need to recap with Committee (Recommendation to reduce Women’s Comp)
- Difficult to confirm team participation
- Need to recap with Coaches who voiced concerns
- Referees – need to source and look elsewhere
- Biggest source of negative feedback
- Only conversation didn’t hold true
- Need to recap with Tim on financials
- Need to look at future year partners
- Overall strong performance:
Eligibility – Tam
- No Report
Treasurer – Tim
- July 26 SoA.pdf
- July 26 SFP.pdf
- Submit budget request items to Tim
- Discount code in RX for those that had extra charge for player + coach
Discipline – Megan
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- Council review and approval:
- Motion: __MidWest__ Second: __NorCal__ Approved
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- Motion for expanded scope approved with no objection
Governance – KJ
- Working Documents for Review – Vote in September
SCC_Nomination_Ranked_Voting_Procedure.docx
SCC_Electronic_Voting_Policy.docx - Share feedback with KJ and Governance by end of the month
DEI – Robert
- No Report
Vice Chair – David C
- As indicated above, Michael and I have been looking at the 2025-2026 RX data for the yearly re-apportionment of weighted votes. We finished a parallel review of the method so that it is always replicable no matter who does it using differing software or methods. I will do a write-up for documentation. Like a lot of things, the concept is very easy, but implementation isn’t trivial in every step.
USAR Director – Rick
- Board ‘catch-up’ 8/13 – short one
- World Rugby – RWC hosting agreement finalized
- RWC sites reduced to 27. Planning to narrow to 12 based on review of proposals from those 27.
- Recruiting for RWC management positions
- Commercial relationship with Proctor and Gamble in the works
- Continued Effective Financial management, performance establishing solid contingency fund
- Maintaining contingency/reserves
- Governance
- USOPC audit of NGB operations including committee structures and athlete representation requirements.
- Reviewed the agreement with CRAA for staffing support with WR funding.
- Overall, WR host agreement funding for USAR is about $7m per year with most of that supporting HP and pathways. SCC reasonably should seek to justify a proposal under $200k per year in Grow the Game projects.
- World Rugby – RWC hosting agreement finalized
- Continuing discussions about R&L committee structure to comply with USOPC standards and to provide support and oversight for all things match officials.
- Task group formed to guide the work. David Chapman included.
USAR Referee and Laws Committee (RLC) – David Chapman
- I attended the RLC meeting on July 20. The communities had a chance to make a quick talk, so I discussed the strategic plan in-progress, thoughts about retention (a mutual concern), and discipline reporting (both RX and local systems). During the meeting, the chair (Austin Reed) appointed several working group chairs. Next meeting on Sep 21.
- On August 10, Rick Humm and I met with Cusack, Goren, Reed, McGregor, and others for the Ad Hoc Referees Committee to discuss/work on the RLC structure. Most of it was a discussion to get some attendees familiar with referees in the USA. The next meeting is on Aug 24.
- The 2026-2027 Game Management Guidelines (GMG) are out. No major changes, but a number of subtle ones: https://usa.rugby/referee-resources
- A webinar for referees on the new GMG was given by Richard Every on 8/18/2026. This was publicized via the D1A folks and open to all; the recording will be available soon to anyone who wants to review it in the learning portal. Coaches and players should view this, too, as well as read the GMG.
Chair report – Al
- No Report
New Business
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Strategic Growth – Nish
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- NERFU Submission
- USA Volleyball decision on mandatory genetic testing requirements for females and possible effect on USAR policy
- Refer to USAR Compliance
- Senior Club has no plans for formal guidance
- USA Volleyball decision on mandatory genetic testing requirements for females and possible effect on USAR policy
- Weighted voting
- 2027 SCC Membership Stats Calculator.pdf
- 2026 numbers will shift 2023 numbers out of the calculation
- 2027 SCC Membership Stats Calculator.pdf
- NERFU Submission
- Motion: ___New England___ Second: ___MidWest__ Approved
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- Approval of new weighted voting without objection
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- SCC Submission: Dan Houlihan
- Grant proposal for Thunderbird Cup: TBird Grant Proposal 2026.docx
- Reviewed by Officers
- Approved
- SCC Submission: Scott Conway
- Naming structure at national level
- Recommendation, not policy
- Addition of RX field to identify Mens/Womens and 15s/7s
- RX payment options
- Out of scope at national level, up to GUs
- Can reach out to Membership for modifications
- Other items in ExCo review
- Naming structure at national level
Adjourned
- Motion: __Capital___. Second: _New England____
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- Meeting adjourned at _9:34___ PM CST
