Hertfordshire Rugby Football Union
County Championship – Bill Beaumont Cup – Champions 2012
U20’s Championship – The Jason Leonard Trophy – Champions 2012
President: Graham Walker
Executive Meeting Minutes from Monday 3rd February 2015
At St Albans RFC
PRESENT:
Graham Walker, President
Peter Baines, RFU Rep
John Gregory, Hon Treasurer
Jon Clapham, Competitions
David Roberts, Hon Secretary
Martyn Kirk, Vice President
Colin Haslam, Marketing
Mel Liley, RFU Rugby Development Officer
Gavin Williams – RFU Area 2 Manager
Simon Winman – RFU Head of Club Development
ACTION1. / SIMON WINMAN – HEAD OF RFU CLUB DEVELOPMENT
Simon was welcomed to the meeting, following an overview of the work that Simon and his team perform discussion then focused on two main areas of concern that the Herts CB have, these being the inflexibility of club players who if they are members of the PRL academies systems not being able to play in CB Grading games and then being exited without any community club to play for playing for. It was agreed that Gavin would talk to one of the player development managers to talk about this subject at a forthcoming executive meeting.
The second area of concern was around the player retention policy and that in some instances 2nd team games are bring cancelled and that is having an effect on player leaving the game. The appropriate level of competiotn was discussed for second and third team games, it appears that other CB’s are overcoming this issue with an improved competition structure it was agreed that this best practice should be shared in Herts, Again Gavin will share this best practice at a forthcoming executive meeting / Gavin W
2. / APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
2.1 / Richard Milnes, Chris Rainbow,
3. / MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING HELD ON 6th January 2015
3.1 / The previous minutes were proposed by Colin Haslam and seconded by Jon Clapham as being at true and accurate record of that meeting.
4. / MATTERS ARISING
1.6 / Daryl to be approached for the membership database so that members can be informed when the website is launched – Action Ongoing, / RM
9.2 / The RWC Trophy will be visiting Herts for at least a day in mid/late Aug 2015, Bishops Stortford and Hailerbury have submitted formal bids decision to be made public in Jan 2015. Action ongoing / DR/CH
4.2 / PFR Discussion took place around the input to the Qtr. 2 report, Successful meeting held with further quarter funding secured and paid into Herts Action Closed
10.2 / The CB have been granted £3000 for IT provision. All hardware obtained, however John G has had problems installing Adpde software, Gavin will chase RFU IT Support for assistance / Gavin W
14.1 / Herts Rugby branding to be developed. Pitch side pop up banners to be developed and used at all events in the CB, Delivery due on 9th Feb / ML/CH
16.2 / Amanda’s replacement will need to sourced, Tim will recruit her replacement – Action Ongoing / TB
5.1 / It was agreed that Herts will feed into the RFU their views on the County Championship. Peter has fed all comments into the RFU working group, Action Closed / PB
14.2 / Due to work commitments Chris will stand down from chair of Representative Rugby, The role specification has been agreed and sent out to all clubs and CB managers, Other candidates within Herts are being approached to gauge their interest. Action Ongoing / GW
14.3 / The under 18’s boys are seeing a large number of players being withdrawn from the squad and being kept as part of the Saracens/Wasps academy sides to the effect that the under 18’s are in danger of not being able to field a competitive side. A paper has been written with a response obtained from the RFU Academy Manager which has proposed some changes to reflect the concerns flagged up. Tim was nominated and agreed to the role of CB Transition Manager working with the Herts clubs and Saracens, Harry Harrison would assist Tim in this task / TB
21.2 / There is a concern that a number of second and third team fixtures are being cancelled late. Herts clubs views to be collected, Action ongoing as part of the Forum meeting / GW
4.1 / Some England v South Africa tickets where posted on a tickets web-site that was identified by the RFU. An investigation has now concluded, the output of which has been discussed at the executive. A Letter has been received from the RFU Legal team which has asked for responses in terms of publishing the tickets conditions which Peter and Daryl are working on. Action Ongoing. Also ticketing best practice to be obtained from Tring and OA’s so that best practice can be shared with the clubs within Herts / DR/PB
RM/MK
8.1 / Web site under construction, all executive members to supply content for the web-site. Action Ongoing / All Exec
18.1 / Due to the success of the current Under 15’s and under 18’s it is essential that a pathway for the current girls is identified as it is vital these girls are kept in the pathway. Mel and Tim to own this action, this action will be reported on as part of the Women’s and girls update. / ML/TB
5. / RWC LEAD UP AND LEGACY ACTIVITIES
5.1 / Action recorded as part of action 8.1 below / All exec
6. / RDO REPORT
6.1 / As part of the update, it was felt that the consistency of engagement with clubs is varied throughout the CB, and in some instances, especially in some of the larger clubs, there was a lack of understating of the work that the RFU could assist the clubs in i.e. club accreditation etc. / TB/ML
6.2 / Since Chris Rainbow has now stepped down from the executive, his partner clubs need to be re-allocated / RM
7 / FINANCE
7.1 / Finance reports received prior to the meeting. All monies received as part of the PFR, bank balance is in a healthy condition, but we are now entering the part of the season where we spend money.
8. / SECRETARY’S BUSINESS
8.1 / Report issued prior to the meeting, discussion then took place around the RWC Lead Up and Legacy CB funding grant of £500 it was agreed that a letter would be sent to all club Hon Sec’s about the funding and that all clubs should apply for the amount, also the RWC readiness assessment should be sent out to all clubs as well. All decisions about approving the grants would be made by the executive. Executive liaison contacts would work with their clubs to ensure the clubs know about this grant. / DR and all exec members
8.2 / It was agreed that a vital component of turning out second and third team sides is the role of the captain, discussion then took place regarding the training of club captains, it was agreed that Mel and that the delivery team would design and deliver this training. This would be funded from the 2014/15 PFR. / ML
8.3 / The PFR for 2015/16 needs to be planned within the next three months, it was agreed that a special meeting with members of the executive would be held, to discuss and agree the main focus areas of the plan and then the RFU professional staff would be involved in further developing the plan. It was agreed that Richard should set this meeting up / RM
8.4 / Herts Baa-Baa’s and London Romanians have enquired about becoming members of the CB. David to send information to both sides / DR
9. / RFU REPORT
9.1 / Report given at the meeting. More discussion is now taking place in regards to the 15 side game. / PB
9.2 / Peter announced that since he is the RFU Vice President for this season, Work is on-going regarding the nomination and voting procedure this process being overseen by Richard and Peter / PB/RM
9.3 / The competitions review is still under discussion at all levels of the RFU and the divisional organising committees.
10. / REP RUGBY REPORT
10.1 / Report issued before the meeting. Update as part of normal actions.
11. / COMMUNITY REPORT
11.1 / Report issued prior to the meeting
11.2 / The countdown to kick off event was seen as a big success, thanks to all who took part in the organising and delivery
11.3 / The reward and recognition initiative as part of the six nations was discussed, it was agreed that a panel of Tim, Mel and Graham would approve all nominations from across Herts / TB/ML/GW
12. / MARKETING REPORT
12.1 / Report has been issued
12.2 / The Herts annual dinner is proceeding to plan, all executive members were asked to contribute the raffle in terms of supplying prizes. David enquired if Vicki Cogger and Syd Gregion would be invited to the dinner as they have received England under 20 honours, David will discuss this with David Williams / All exec
DR
13. / COMPETITIONS
13.1 / Report has been circulated
13.2 / A draft structure to the lower level competitions was discussed, however it did not have any clubs positions on the paper, also discussed was the consultation process that the paper. It was agreed that a paper would be obtained that showed the Herts clubs position so that clubs can be consulted on the proposed structure / JC
14 / WOMENS AND GIRLS UPDATE
14.1 / The Women’s Rugby World Cup will be at Tabard on the 20th Feb, All Exec members welcome to attend this event / All exec
15. / ANY OTHER BUSINESS
There was no further business
16. / DATE OF NEXT MEETING
16.1 / Exec Meetings for this year (all Mondays):
2 March 2015
11 May 2015
16.2 / Forum Meetings at Welwyn RFC
13 April 2015
22 June 2015 (inc AGM)