NERFU Conference CallNotes

October 9th, 2013

Attendees:Caro Ruiz, Lori Staples, Kira Watkins, Jim Hurley, Chris Reed, Mark Colebrook

Meeting Called to Order at 6:40pm

Discussion / Action Items
  1. Senior Clubs Men’s DI: No updates

  1. Senior Men’s DII:No updates

  1. Senior Men’s DIII:No updates

  1. Senior Men’s DIV:
  2. Excellent Referee service
  3. Berkshire is on first place. Some teams hurting for numbers
  4. Berkshire will be hosting the Men’s DIV Championship
  5. Looking for NERFU to sponsor a portion to the championship
  6. Clean Fall season, no issues so far. No cards so far.
/ Caro/Shannon to share the amount allocated for Division championships
  1. Senior Women’s DI: (Update sent via email by Tracy)
Boston #1 and Albany #2 with a match between [us] next Saturday in Albany.
D1 teams seem content with structure and are fairly evenly matched with exception of Morris (Empire) who is struggling to put points up.
An issue to be discussed is Bside: both Albany and Boston have experienced other clubs from both Empire and NERFU who have either not been able to provide a Bside period of play of any sort even when they are the Home club or flat out refused citing low numbers (specifically Providence and Monmouth).
While it is true that there are merits to both sides of this debate (to mandate a Bside or not), what seems essential is that a policy is established and that it is adhered to. With new CR structure, we must include Empire in this discussion.
Also, a decision concerning location of 1st round of playoffs for Spring should be made sooner rather than later. I followed up on Action Item and have asked Mike Martin to find out cost etc for Newport Ft Adams location for May 3rd & 4th. Mike should be able to speak more to this
  1. Senior Women’s DII: (Update sent via email by Tracy)
Standings to date:
Beantown B #1 with Burlington, Charles River and North Shore very competitive against each other. Brooklyn has strung together 2 weeks of impressive wins while Seacoast, Hartford and Portland continue to struggle.
Knock on wood, since sending out a Match Checklist for each remaining match with Brooklyn that contained items such as "field secured", "ref requested", etc that needed to be done, things seem to be running much more smoothly.
The postponed Portland v Brooklyn match will occur Nov 9th in Worcester -provided that Portland Match Sec requests field etc etc ( I am in contact with her)
The Charles Rv v Brooklyn match will be played in the Spring- date still to be determined.
  1. Senior Women’s DIII:
  • Issues with Springfield and Saratoga rosters
  • Forfeit games issue: The score gets allocated to 7-0. Based on the standing, the team that refuses to play is getting an extra point. Feedback/suggestion:
We noticed that teams who forfeit are being rewarded 1 point for "losing by 7 or less". The issue here is, these teams didn't lose by 7 or less playing a hard game. They lost by forfeit, they didn't have to do anything to get that point.
Based on the current application of the point system, Amoskeag would have benefitted from a strategic forfeit with Springfield rather then play the game. Springfield received 5 points for scoring more than 4 tries. By usforfeiting they would have received 4. We would have received a point for the forfeit, but seeing as we lost by 17 points we received nothing. This extra point would put us in first place. Based on these facts, if a team knows they are going up against a potentially stronger team, why wouldn't that team just take the forfeit and get the guaranteed point, rather than risk receiving nothing. Thisseems a violation of the spirit of the law and the game, as teams who play against one another get the same credit as those who did nothing.
It is also curious that in the college section the law states "0 points will be awarded for forfeits" However, it is not mentioned in the Club section.
It has been suggested that a point betaken away for a forfeit or at the very least have the same zero pointrule apply for college and club divisions of rugby. This may or may not help with the prevention of thenumbers of forfeits like we are seeing this season. /
  • Lori to update standing scoring in the website
  • Caro to revisit the Handbook so that the team that forfeits does not get an extra point

  1. Women’s Colleges
The Southern conference only has two teams – Wesleyan and Connecticut College. Teams moved to other conferences. Both teams are playing best of three matches.
Issues with the forfeit. Lori researching.
North Conference is going well.
A few issues with CIPP registration
Steve Cohen looking for NERFU to host the quarterfinals for the NSCRO National Championship. Chris reaching out to clubs (senior and colleges) to find out who might be interested.
Looking for a replacement for next year. / Chris to draft an email looking for host. Lori will share it with the Union
  1. Men’s Colleges:
NERFU’S NSCRO division is doing fairly well. Some teams had issues with CIPP and referee payment, but I believe all teams are now compliant, with the usual suspects (Lyndon) being the last to shore things up. They are in the non-NSCRO playoff-eligible subdivision, and still failing to do things right. Seems to be a tradition there. Franklin Pierce, MCLA, Champlain and Curry are all up and running, congrats to Curry for coming back to Men’s rugby.
Univ. of New Haven and Salem State have been competitive in their respective inaugural seasons as well, although both are still looking for their first win.
NEC is annihilating teams, scoring 147 pts and conceding 10 in their first 2 matches.
EastConn is also 2-0 in dominant fashion, and also was the subject of an excellent article in a local Willimantic newspaper about their charitable acts. I’ll forward this to Caro for dissemination to all of NERFU, they are a shining example of what is going right in rugby.
In Maine, Bowdoin and UMFare both 2-0, in Mass, Babson is dominating the competition in the first 2 matches.
On the less happy end of things, Nichols College has been suspended indefinitely by their school for an infraction they are currently not revealing to me. More on that when I hear from them, but I’ll be surprised if they play again this season.
Williams, as of 20 minutes ago, has also been suspended by their school for several parties this weekend. So, they will forfeit this weekend to Framingham. The team President had to develop a plan to curb this from happening in the future, apparently this is going to be done in time for next week. In short, Mass. Rugby is a shit show.
Also, Framingham has been absorbed by their Athletic Department, resulting in closed rosters, NCAA clearinghouse paperwork, and a general Gong Show that is hurting the team tremendously. I can give more details as needed. See aforementioned shit show comment.
NERFU final 4 will be held @ the top seed, if they can host, we’ll go on down from there. Looks like NEC at this point.
  1. Referees
Remind their clubs to provide feedback to the referee through the NERSS site / Lori will send an email/social media on giving feedback back to the referees.
Every Director to share this with their teams.
  1. Marketing/Social Media Specialist
Updating the scores as she receives them
Lori assessing the text messages features with Sports Management. The clubs or the referees can send the text messages. Confirming if the text message will be charged for international.
Assessing entering the rosters between Empire and NERFU
No additional feedback on the USA Rugby CMS system
Received an internship request. Lori can utilize him for administrative tasks so she can focus more on the videos/social media aspect of her role. The intern is looking to cover 480 hours required for him to graduate from college. / Caro will reach out to USA Rugby and provide feedback on the CMS System
Caro will touch base with Neil and Lori on the internship request.

Meeting concluded at 7:26pm