To All Clubs:
Based on prior years of experiences and feedback received from all parties, the TRRA and TRU have agreed that there needs to be a restructure of all Social Tournaments in general.
The consensus opinion is that all Social Tournaments will be run independent of the TRRA and TRU.
Tournaments have repeatedly stated that they are Cost First which continually leads to over use of the assigned TRRA Referees / Match Officials.
There has been repeated issues with Match Officials being required or pressured to work an inordinate amount of matches for extended periods of time in difficult conditions for free or nominal compensation.
Several proposals have been trialed in order to cut down on Tourney Costs and Referee over usage. To date no solutions have turned out to the be the magic bullet to lower costs and stop referee over use.
Therefore the following will be the published protocol for all Social Fifteens and Sevens tournaments in the Texas GU:
- Tournaments are to submit a request form at least 30 days prior to the event per normal via the website
- Tournaments are required to obtain USA Tournament Sanctioning prior to the event AND prior to TRU request
- Once approved by USA, the event will be added to the TRU Tournament Calendar as a Social Event Only
- The TRU will not sanction any of these events and as we can not ensure CIPP compliance
- Clubs are encouraged to individually contact and contract TRRA match officials for services per event
- Referees that have the desire to work Summer Social Sevens Tournaments can be found here. Otherwise all referee contact information can be found on the full Referee Contact List.
- Payment / Compensation can be individually negotiated, however, all payments shall be due and payable on day of the event
- TRRA and TRU will focus on Competitive Events and Matches that promote organized competition and CIPP compliance
In connection with this announcement, The TRU will be creating a Texas Sevens Series aka “TSS” this summer that will effectively replace the TOLA series. Details on the Sevens Circuit will be published to the TRU Website shortly.
Tournaments that are all ready in process and have been approved will be serviced per the existing guidelines and policies.
Regards,
TRRA and TRU