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Midwest Rugby Football Union

Annual General Meeting

February 2, 2013

Courtyard Marriott – Chicago, IL

I. Welcome

President Jeremiah Johnson welcomed the group.

Those in attendance were:

Tom Manion – Midwest Youth Secretary- Allegheny LAU

Bob Cronquist – Midwest Youth Rugby

Adrian Gannon – CARFU

Gary Lobaugh – Secretary – Allegheny LAU

Steve Murra – Iowa LAU

Matthew Dawes – Indiana LAU

Jeremiah Johnson – Midwest President

Ted Paine – Midwest Discipline

Kevin Wornham – Michigan LAU

Vic Drover – Wisconsin LAU

Brendan O’Connor – Ohio LAU

Dan Franklin – Minnesota LAU

Becky Reynolds – Minnesota LAU

Al Klemp – Midwest Referee Society

Shawn McKinney Illinois LAU

Tim Harn – Midwest Treasurer

Tom Rooney – VP of Collegiate Youth

Lou Raymond – CARFU

Dave Carter – Midwest Referee Rugby

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II. Call to Order- Roll Call

LAU Votes were determined as follows:

Allegheny - 36

CARFU - 37

Illinois - 12

Indiana - 7

Iowa- 23

Michigan- 26

Minnesota- 55

Ohio- 48

Wisconsin- 34

III. Approval of Winter AGM Minutes from January 28, 2012

Jeremiah Johnson clarified that the minutes presented were not from the Summer Conference Calls, but were the combination minutes from last year’s Winter AGM. He asked if there were any changes needed to be made.

 Shawn McKinney questioned the Roll Call, whether any of the LAUs that already had their AGMs were the same now that many colleges dropped out. Jeremiah Johnson stated that the votes may need to be re-calculated.

 There was a discrepancy of whether Wisconsin’s votes are 34 or 38. The decision was tabled for later.

 Bob Cronquist motioned that the AGM minutes be approved. Tom Manion seconded the motion. The motion was accepted.

IV. Approval of Agenda

Jeremiah Johnson asked if there were any additions that needed to be made to ‘New Business’ items.

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 Ted Paine mentioned that Midwest Disciplinary Policies are not listed in the agenda. Jeremiah Johnson stated that it would be added to New Business as ‘item g’, before ‘Admission of New Clubs’.

 Vic Drover mentioned that a Wisconsin club had not requested to be a member and that he currently had the request. Jeremiah Johnson stated that the topic would be discussed as a subset of ‘Admission of New Clubs.’

 Vic Drover suggested that MW 7s Series should be discussed under Officer Reports due to time constraints. It was decided that MW 7s Series would be moved up to ‘item a’ on the list of New Business.

 Tom Manion motioned that the agenda be approved. Tom Rooney seconded the motion. The motion was accepted.

V. Officer Reports:

a. President- Jeremiah Johnson stated the following:

 The President’s report this year would be in combination with the Congress Report.

 Things are going well in the Midwest, but not on a national level. Financially, the Midwest is strong. There is a ‘stockpile’ of money, a surplus of $100,000. In the budget discussion, it should be decided how to allocate those funds. The money might be used to develop referees or coaches.

 Competition had a strong year. Midwest continues to have clubs finishing in the top four, or going on to win national championships. The Midwest has been providing its teams with the right level of competition, and it’s been successful in 15s and 7s.

 In the national scene, it was discussed last year in a presentation on the LAU/TU Review whether the present structure was the right way to serve members. The Geographical Union (GU) proposal creates just one level of governance.

 In the most recent congress, “The Mighty Midwest” abstained from voting for a GU structure as the benefits are yet to be seen.

b. VP of Competition- Adrian Gannon stated the following:

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 Competitions have been relatively successful. In Women’sD-1, they came up slightly short of repeating their national champion from the year before. In D-2 Pittsburgh Angels are national Champions.

 15s- Two teams won in the national Top Four: Palmer and Metro.

 Wisconsin D-2 made it to national Championship.

 7s- Seven, 7s club participated in the national championship

 Men’s- Chicago Lions made it to the national championship.

 There was an issue this year with the D-1 Mens competition: The South failed to meet the D-1 competition requirements and did not meet mandatory six game criteria. It then lost a seed to the Midwest.

 Women’s’ Rugby will go back to the same schedule as Men’s: Fall/Spring with a championship on May 31.

 Men’sD-1: Top four teams are playing against each other on April 6th in the ‘Quad Cities’. Men’sD-2: Four play-off games will be played in four venues and finals will be played in Lamont on April 27th. Men’sD-3 championship also will be playing in Lamont on April 27th.

c. VP of Collegiate and Youth- Tom Rooney stated the following:

 Collegiate is being affected by the restructuring into a Geographical Union in regard to the leadership of leagues. Within the leagues, there is internal strife.

 In the Midwest, the D-1A is a national league run by USA Rugby. There are 36 teams across the country in the D1-A, the Midwest has 10. In D- 1AA, there are 15 leagues across the country, 150 teams. The Midwest has 1 league, 9 teams. In D-2 Men, there are 14 leagues across the country, 181 teams. The Midwest has 3 leagues, 41 teams. Women’sD-1 has 2 leagues, The Big Ten with 8 teams, and the Midwest with 6 teams. Women’sD-2 has 137 teams, The Midwest has 4 leagues with 32 teams.

 Seasonality is the biggest issue the Midwest runs into as a territory in the restructuring of leagues.

 In Collegiate 7s, the Midwest is entertaining the idea that 15s are played all the way through the fall and determine the 15s champions and running 7s circuits in the spring.

4 DRAFT 1 d. Treasurer- Tim Harn stated the following:

 As stated in the Midwest RFU Financial Report, the ‘2012 Actual’ totaled at $85,725.

 The biggest expense at the end of the year was referees: $22,000 for referees, $10,000 for referee development.

 Select Side Expenses: Men’s7s- $3,000. Womens select side- $7,400.

Women’sU23 Select Side $7,900. Women’s7s Select Side- $3,000.

 Midwest Budget started with $46,501. $85,725 was brought in. $67,000 was spent. The balance is $64, 275 with a CD valued at $36,031. There is $100,307 going into the 2013 Budget.

e. Secretary- Gary Lobaugh stated the following:

 In terms of competitions and the restructure of the Union, not enough information is being distributed by leadership in a timely manner. This could be helped with posting information on social networks (Facebook, twitter, et al.) and the website.

 In Congress, there was some defeat in the LAU/TU/GU restructuring, however the appointment of Jim Snyder should be a big help to the Midwest getting its voice out in the national office.

 There seems to be political maneuvering within Congress to change by- laws that would bolster the representation of collegiate members and SBROs. Jeremiah Johnson mentioned he was attempting to get on the By-law Re-write Committee, so that the Midwest is represented.

 College teams will be receiving a survey from the Collegiate Management Council asking about seasonality. The Midwest had less than 40% response the last time the survey was distributed.

f. Youth Chairman- Bob Cronquist stated the following:

 2012 was a good year for Midwest Youth Rugby. At the national events, the teams were in every championshipgame.

 SRO Select sides were successful in tournaments. Ohio Girls won the Midwest and Pittsburgh tournaments.

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 Events for 2013, as well as updates, are all on the website- www.midwestyouthrugby.com

 Both national NITs are going to be in the territories. The Girls NIT will be in Milwaukee (subject to change to Racine) The Boys NIT will be in Elkhart.

 There has been a dues reduction: Dues are now $2.50/club.

 The relationship with USA Rugby has been strained. There has been disagreement about the championship. Midwest Youth Rugby as an entity is strong.

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VI. Committee & Sub-Committee Reports

a. Management Committee

No Management Committee Report

b. Disciplinary Committee

 Ted Paine stated that there were a total of 34 disciplinary reports in 2012- between 3 and 4 times the number of reports received in 2011.

 There were 19 yellow cards reported to him, no action was taken as there were no repeat offenders.

 There were 7 red cards reported to him, 3 were referred to CARFU, partly because of a misunderstanding in communication. One of the red cards was referred to USA Rugby, because it was a match between two territories. Of the three that Ted ruled on- one was a 1-match suspension, one was a 2-match suspension, and one was a 9-game suspension due to a kick to the head.

 One report of a broken fixture.

 There were several reports of misconduct toward a referee, some characterized as ‘referee abuse,’ although Ted would not describe all of them as such. Some of the reports lacked specific information such as names of referees or offenders.

 There was one incident where a coach entered the pitch and yelled at the referee. The coach was admonished.

 One report of post-match abuse where the player involved was following the referee around and yelling at her.

 Jeremiah Johnson added that all referees need to report any instance of referee abuse. Al Klemp mentioned that starting next year, there will be a website where the referees have to fill out all yellows and reds, so the gap in reporting should be filled.

c. Referee Society

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 Al Klemp reported that there were 150 appointments last year.

 Four 15s tournaments were appointed, Six 7s tournaments were appointed.

 There are currently 13 B-panel referees

 In development, there were 11 referees nominated in 2012, 4 were shortlisted, 1 was promoted to the B-panel. There are 3 B-panel referees at the national level.

 This is the first year that we’ve done full 7s funding, four events for the Midwest and two events for collegiate. 8 Midwest referees were used throughout the season, and 3 exchange referees.

 On the referee budget: D1 clubs have not been billed this fall. There were problems with the volunteer treasurer neglecting his duties. $11,300 was spent on the D-1 Men’s, and took in $9,000.

 Next season, there is a proposal to bill out traveling expenses and referee stipends: $80 stipend per game, and a $50 developmental fee per game.

 There was discussion of the referee development costs. Dave Carter helped explain the specifics of the referee development budget and where all the funds would be allocated. There was further discussion of referee costs.

 Jeremiah Johnson mentioned that in the proposed budget, the line item for referees and select sides would be taken out. Both compose a large percentage of the budget, and with that money, he suggested to pay some dues, carve off the administration, and use the remainder as grants for referee clinics or work with referees to decide which local referee organizations need help.

d. Senior College & Youth Select sides

 Steve Murra stated that the Midwest competed in Boulder, and played well but lost to the West. He is going to start an invitation-only Barbarian -style team.

 There will be a select side tournament: April 20th -21st, in Gavin port, Iowa. Six Teams: Great Plains, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, CARFU and Illinois. Then a team will be selected and play in Columbus in June, then to Wales for 10 days in August. Then the hope is to take the team to Florida. Then two 7s teams will be selected to play in Las Vegas.

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VII. Old Business

a. Reduction in Midwest Dues (Jeremiah Johnson)

Tabled until budget discussion under ‘New Business’

b. LA/TU structure to Geographical Unions (Jeremiah Johnson)

 Jeremiah Johnson stated that according to the map displayed, the Midwest is the only area that hasn’t split up outside of the original territorial lines .

 Jeremiah stated that the administrative structure needs to mimic the competitive structure. If the Midwest is going to operate within the administrative structure, there needs to be some sort of contingency plan wherein each GU gets a vote.

 It is expressed that hiring a full-time administrator for each GU may not be technically or economically feasible.

 Jeremiah Johnson proposed that an Ad Hoc committee be assembled within the next two weeks to create a new Midwest administrative structure. Vic Drover volunteered to be on the committee. Steve Murra also volunteered.

 Vic Drover expressed his worry with dissolving the body. By dissolving the TUs, it goes down to the local level, which sets the example, which then trickles down to just a bunch of clubs all paying their money directly to USA Rugby. There has to be some administrative body to manage discipline and competitive structure.

c. Competitions restructuring update (Adrian Gannon/Gary Lobaugh)

 Shawn McKinney asked how USA Rugby figured the GU into the competition structure. Adrian Gannon explained how the CR and the GU mixed- he essentially ignored the GU situation, because they were told that the GU had nothing to do with competitions. So he decided to mold it on the current system.

 Gary Lobaugh stated that when the Competition Regional committee is put together, they are going to look at things in terms of representation. They’re going to pull some D-3 people from around the country in order to

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get equal representation from across the Midwest to govern, or have input in the direction they are headed.

 Adrian added that it will be regionalized, so that the number of representatives of a region will be proportionate to its size. There will be a D-1 Coordinator. Two D-2 coordinators (East and West). D-3 will have a commissioner, plus two people for each region.

 Gary mentioned that for B-side and D-2 competitions, they’ll look at things like D-4 in working out a schedule.

 Adrian stated that he’s been receiving many petitions from clubs that are trying to change their division standing. He’d review them, but the decision most likely won’t change.

VIII. New Business

a. MW 7s Series (Vic Drover)

Vic Drover stated the following:

 In last years 7s series, with the restructure they tried to move away from a championship format. This would encourage teams to play in every event, instead of not showing up to some games having not played the top- seated teams and still take a national spot. It utilized a points-based system and it worked exceptionally well. In the Men’scompetition a dozen teams attended three more events.

 In the Women’scompetition it was the first year there was a qualifier. They struggled to send as many teams into the qualifying brackets. Compliance was at about 60%, however the women enjoyed themselves.

 For 2013, they tried to tweak the model without too many changes. There was talk of re-implementing the championship weekend. For the men, there’ll be 5 events, for the women there’ll be 4.

 The men’s qualifying bracket will be a qualifying-only bracket, and teams will commit to the entire qualifying series the way they commit to 15s now. However the women’s don’t have the numbers for that so there’ll be more of a traditional qualifying bracket for them.

 This year, brackets will be randomly selected for qualifying teams to compete against each other.

 The requirements for referees will be published for view.

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b. Budget (Tim Harn)

 Jeremiah Johnson stated that the 2013 budget didn’t carry over some of the expenses including select sides and referees so if the dues structure remains the same, they’d have $86,000 going in and $12,000 going out.

 Tom Manion motioned to accept the budget as is proposed. The motion was not accepted.

 Jeremiah Johnson proposed that the Midwest not collect club-based dues this year, pay operating expenses out of existing cash flow in reserves, then as of September 1st, tack on a player-based member level due.

 Jeremiah Johnson suggested having a $12,000 line-item to fund the referees of the 7s series events in the fall. The question of a ‘referee administrator’ in that situation was brought up.

 Jeremiah Johnson motioned to table the budget discussion until the last item of ‘New Business.’ The motion was seconded by Becky Reynolds. The motion is accepted.

c. Election of Midwest Officers (President, VP of Collegiate & Youth, and Treasurer)

 President: Becky Reynolds nominated Jeremiah Johnson. Steve Murra seconded the nomination. Jeremiah Johnson was elected unopposed.

 VP of Collegiate & Youth: Tom Manion nominated Tom Rooney. Bob Cronquist seconded the nomination. Tom Rooney was elected unopposed.

 Treasurer: Adrian Gannon nominated Tim Harn. Lou Raymond seconded the nomination. Tim Harn was elected unopposed.

d. Bylaw Change (Shawn McKinney)

 Shawn McKinney proposed deleting Item 3 in the by-laws. He suggested that Jeremiah appoint a committee to decide and get back to him.

e. Return of Select Side (Gary Lobaugh/Adrian Gannon)

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 Gary Lobaugh discussed select side and representative rugby on senior men and women side.

 One reason not to do it was time constraints. Another reason was that interest levels in most clubs from last year were low.

 Adrian Gannon suggested looking into the interest levels and maybe developing a touring team.

 Vic Drover suggested having a skills-development camp. Brynn Chivers and Becky Reynolds agreed on the idea of a camp.

 Brynn Chivers mentioned that Steve Murra was in charge of the equivalent of an LAU tournament, and suggested that funding continue for women’s select sides.

 Becky Reynolds motioned to add in a line-item of $7500-$8,000 to fund women’sUnder-23 Under-19 Select sides. The motion was tabled until the budget discussion continued.

f. Development Grant (Jeremiah Johnson)

 Jeremiah Johnson suggested that in the event of an excess of funds, those funds be spent on the development in the areas that need referees, areas that need qualified coaches, and also funding player development camps.

 Adrian Gannon discussed the topic of Olympic Development Programs, and whether they would be a conflict.

g. Midwest Disciplinary Policy- Ted Paine discussed his proposed Midwest Disciplinary Policies:

 There ought to be dual reports of yellow cards in Midwest matches. One report should go to Ted and one should go to the local area union of the player involved.

 There should be a set disciplinary report form that is sent to Ted. That form could be put on the website and used throughout the union.

 Clubs should designate a person in charge of club discipline who can communicate with, and be contacted by Ted.

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 Disciplinarians should be able to decide whether he or she will hear a case, or assign it to another disciplinarian on the committee. If there is a conflict with all three, a separate disciplinarian who is not involved could be assigned.

 It is the duty of the club to impose sanctions on multiple yellow card recipients.

 Appeals should go through the usual procedure for a red card, appeals made to the decision of a disciplinarian will go through the procedure outlined in the USA Rugby rules and procedures.

 There should be a certain distance (at least a meter) that coaches and medics are allowed to stand near the pitch site.

Dan Franklin motioned to adopt the new disciplinary policies. Becky Reynolds seconded the motion. The motion was accepted.

h. Budget (Cont.)- Amendments

 Jeremiah Johnson proposed that senior side should have member-level dues of $10 for each player. It would give the Midwest roughly $60,000 from the senior players alone.

 The Midwest and SoCal are the only unions that don’t use the individual- based dues structure.

 Lou Raymond Motioned that no dues be collected from January until August- at which point, for the budget’s sake, $5 will be collected from each person. That amount could be amended in the summer meeting. Brendan O’Connor seconded the motion. The motion was discussed.

A roll call was required. It was determined that a quorum was present:

Allegheny- YEY

CARFU- YEY

Illinois- YEY

Indiana- NAY

Iowa- YEY

Michigan- (ABSENT)

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Minnesota- NAY

Ohio- YEY

Wisconsin- NAY

The motion was accepted.

 Jeremiah Johnson proposed to change line item 89 to $8,000 instead of $4,000

 Jeremiah Johnson proposed to change line 114 from tournament leagues and referees to 7s qualifiers- that would be a line item of $13,000.

 Lou Raymond proposed $1500 as a subsidy for each LAU to put out a developmental clinic of their choice. Jeremiah Johnson stated that line 105 will be an $18,000 line item for LAU development.

 Jeremiah Johnson suggested that select side have a representative budget for men, and a representative budget for women, and the coaches decide what gets allocated where.

 Vic Drover proposed a $50-per-match Midwest referee stipend. A $4,000 referee development line item to offset Midwest reassignments.

 Becky Reynolds motioned to include two line items of $8000 each, one for men’sselect side, one for women’sselect side. Senior select sides were tabled.

 Jeremiah Johnson suggested that since 7s qualifiers was being subsidized as $13,000, then senior 7s collegiate should be listed as $6500/$6500. So then under women’s: line item 188 will be $3250, line item 200 will be $3250, under men’scollegiate and youth: line item 162 will be $3250, and under men’s collegiate and 7s , line item 174 will be $3250.

 Tom Manion motioned to approve the amendments to the budget. Tom Rooney seconded the motion. The motion was accepted.

i. Admission of New Clubs

 Kevin Wornham submitted 2 clubs: The Eastside Anchormen’sClub- D-4, and the Detroit Tradesmen- women D-2/3

 Dan Franklin submitted Westside Black Swamp- D-3

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 Becky Reynolds submitted Augustana College- women’s, Burnsville Blizzard- senior men’s, and Sauk Falls Crow- senior men’s.

 Lou Raymond submitted the Clarks Family Vixens- D-2

 Shawn McKinney submitted Bloomington Crash- D-4, and Okonomowak- women.

 The admissions of The Eastside Anchormen’s Club- D-4, the Detroit Tradesmen- women D-2/3, the Augustana College- women’s, the Burnsville Blizzard- senior men’s, the Sauk Falls Crow- senior men’s, and the Clarks Family Vixens- D-2 were approved. The admissions of Black Swamp and Bloomington Crash were tabled.

j. Calender

 The Summer Meeting was scheduled for June 23rd in Chicago.

IX. Announcements

 Volunteers are needed for the By-law committee and the Restructure committee.

X. Meeting Adjourned

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