OTAGO RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION Annual Report 2014 134th Annual Report of the Otago Rugby Football Union Otago Rugby Football Union Inc. Notice is hereby given that the 134th Annual General Meeting of the Otago Rugby Football Union Incorporated will be held at the Green Island Rugby Clubrooms, Miller Park, Burnside on Monday 16th March 2015, beginning at 7.00pm. Richard Kinley General Manager Presidents Report To start my report I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the clubs that I visited in the 2014 season for hosting me and for their hospitality. It was great to get round the region and catch up with some of our provinces rugby characters. I saw some fine games of rugby with a couple of highlights being the Dunedin club final and the Central Otago semi-final at Arrowtown. I hope to be able to make a visit to the clubs that I didn’t get to last year in the coming season. I will also make special mention to the members of the Lawrence club that supported me in my travels. I would also like to thank the representative teams from across the province that allowed me to spend some time with them. It was pleasing to see the professional way in which the volunteers that run these teams operate. As will be reported at the AGM Otago has been able to get to a reasonable financial position thanks to the hard work of the staff and Otago board members alike. The Country board have also managed to raise enough funds to run their programmes. Having observed both the Otago and Country board meetings I can assure the rugby public of Otago that there is a dedicated group of men and women that are doing their best to secure the future of our game. Having said that I strongly believe that the volunteers and the countless hours of work they do at ground level are the essence of what will make a province strong. For the work you have done, thank you. To finish I would like to wish all involved in rugby within our province the best for the upcoming season. Willis Paterson President Chairman’s Report Greetings all, As we look back on 2014, we may not have had the success at the ITM Cup level of the previous years, however in many ways this indexes us back to what Rugby is in Otago and the role we need to play to support and develop this great game. Although it is critical to our success and is the window into rugby in the province, we shouldn’t judge our entire year or performance solely by our standing in the ITM Cup. As stated in the constitution, the object of the ORFU “shall be to foster and promote the game of rugby and provide rugby opportunities for all within its own boundaries.” The ITM Cup team is obviously the pinnacle of Rugby for the province, but unless we are strong at all levels across all dimensions, we will never be sustainably strong at the top. Our player numbers were up, referee numbers were up, the representative teams performed admirably at all levels, we had large numbers of players and coaches attain higher honours and we have had the greatest number of Otago players involved with the Highlanders that I can recall. Off the field we have achieved another good result financially - due in no small part to the discipline and focus by all the staff, volunteers, players and Board. Many may think we should have been spending our surplus, but this is something that we need to be very cautious of. In 2015 we face our hardest year yet since the recovery deal we have no test, major sponsorship deals are being renegotiated and we transition to a new venue arrangement. We are still budgeting for a small surplus but acknowledge that we may operate to a deficit if the outcome of the Rugby Delivery Review requires additional funding. Having the surplus from prior years gives us the ability to achieve this. One argument that I do not buy into is that our performance and issues we face are due solely to the lack of finances. In many cases and looking around other Provincial Unions, I see those that are trying to swamp their underlying issues with money creating greater problems and heading into tough times. As I meet different people around the province, many have good ideas and solutions as to what can be done to improve the game. I will be encouraging all board and staff to be receptive to these ideas and to work as a team to be creative and innovative in their outlook to improve. Chairman’s Report Continued I took over the Chair from Doug Harvie back in May, having been on the Board since 2009 and am far happier with where we are now as a Union than I was back then, however I believe there is still a long way to go yet. I would like to thank Doug for his stewardship over his tenure and wish him well with the Highlanders. In 2014 we welcomed the expansion of the Board and the addition of Ross Hanson and Rowena Davenport. We also saw Tony Brown leave as head coach and move to the Highlanders and we welcome Cory Brown home from Ireland to take his place. Two main areas of focus I have for the board in 2015 are to increase the engagement with the entire stakeholder group; and, to take ownership for achieving the strategic aims we have. To this end at the AGM we will present the scorecard of how we performed in 2014 and outline our strategic goals for 2015. To all of you who are involved at any level with Rugby in Otago, we thank you and look forward to working with you again as we get the 2015 season underway. I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank Richard and his team for their efforts during the year and also to thank my fellow Board members who, like all volunteers give up their time willingly to play their part in running this game. Andew Rooney Chairman General Manager’s Report 2014 has been a successful year for rugby across the province, both on and off the paddock. Our community game is strong with registrations overall up 5% to 7689. This growth is mainly attributed to new junior players joining our clubs. The challenge nationally is to retain these players through secondary school and then back into the club system. Retention of teenage and senior players in both rural and urban areas is critical to our future. To assist this New Zealand Rugby has allocated funding from their Contestable Fund for the Union to implement an initiative aimed at retaining teenage players across our Central Otago schools and clubs. While our ITM Cup team didn’t make the play offs, there were some notable performances from a number of our other teams proving that there is talent coming through the age groups. Our Development team went undefeated and the Metropolitan Under 18 and 16 teams both finished as runners up at their respective tournaments. Otago Maori again had a successful campaign and a highlight was the Sassenach Colts lifting the Tiny Hill trophy from Canterbury. A successful representative programme can only occur on the back of a strong club season and again across the region, all competitions at all grades were extremely well managed and delivered by our rugby volunteers. The people behind the scenes that make the game happen are often the unsung heroes of our sport, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved; your commitment is certainly not taken for granted. Our referees deserve a special mention, without them, quite simply, our game would not happen. It is especially pleasing to see the number of people getting involved in officiating has increased with 24 new qualified referees joining the ranks in 2014. Without financial support from our commercial partners the Union would not be able to deliver a number of programmes and services. Their support plays an important part in not just fielding an ITM Cup team but also assists in the delivery of our community rugby initiatives as well as supporting rugby operations based at the ORFU head office. To all our partners thank you for your contribution and we look forward to continuing our association into the future. As a Union, Otago continues to have a good number of players selected for national teams including New Zealand Secondary Schools, New Zealand Barbarians, New Zealand Under 20’s, New Zealand Sevens, Black Ferns and of course Ben Smith in the All Blacks. This reflects the talent that our province consistently produces. General Manager’s Report Continued A highlight personally was undoubtedly attending the annual New Zealand Rugby Awards where Trudie van Leeuwen-Cruthers, Otago’s volunteer of the year, and Sio Tomkinson, NZ Secondary Schools representative, were one of three national finalists in their respective categories. These two people reflect to me what is important to all of us involved in rugby. That is, volunteers are critical to the continued development and delivery of our community game and through their commitment our players are able to participate at whatever level they want and aspire to be the best they can. 2015 will have a number of key focus areas including strengthening our support to coaches and players as well as improving the Union’s communication to all members across the region.