TRRA Board Meeting Minutes 11/23

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As proposed at the TRRA AGM of 2020 – the TRRA Board will explore posting meeting minutes for all members. A record of the meeting minutes can be found here.

  1. Roll Call
    1. Roche
    2. O’Gara
    3. Bayazitoglu
    4. Johnson
    5. Herrera
    6. Low (Treasurer)
  2. Holiday Gifts/Cards
    1. Roche: We agreed on our last call (and over text) to have holiday gifts made, and we discussed kit bags but decided to put a hold on that until we have a better idea of rugby coming back. I have the holiday gifts at my place now. I’ve created a form that we can send out to ensure that we have correct addresses and make sure whoever is receiving our emails is supposed to be.
    2. Roche: So we would need approval for the shipping cost on that, plus envelopes and cards. Anyone opposed? NONE.
  3. HPG Group
    1. Roche: Cesar how is that coming?
    2. Herrera: Derek is interested in assisting with that/heading that up. We are currently trying to set up an in-person training in San Antonio so we can discuss that as well. 
    3. Roche: I’m also saving the information we are receiving from the MLR Ref Trainings so we can use that in trainings as well. Any other thoughts or ideas anyone has right now about the HPG group?
  4. Rugby Texas Contract
    1. Contract 2021
      1. O’Gara: So our contract from last year was created as a two-year contract so it runs through June 2021. We have plenty of time to create a new contract. They also have a new compliance officer and he’s really easy to work with. So we were planning on adding a “referee development section” to that.
      2. Roche: Tim sent me a bunch of great ideas to add into the RT contract, essentially clubs must participate in at least 1 Referee Development Event (have refs come to training, send players to an L1, host an L1, have a training game) and I think its great.
      3. O’Gara: And if clubs can’t even find time to do ONE of these things, they can open the checkbook and pay the applicable fee. We just want to avoid perpetuating the us versus them culture. I mean referees don’t just fall off of trees.
    2. Rugby Texas Liaisons
      1. O’Gara: I also want to invite Chris Hanson (RT Compliance Officer) to one of our board meetings where we discuss RT. We can talk about it in the beginning then he can leave. This was the lines of communication are clear and the message is coming first hand.
      2. Roche: Absolutely. Last year we had Kirk Tate on our board meeting and I think we bored him to tears, but he is always invited to sit in! We are not hiding our communication and would rather have everyone knowing what is happening. Anyone opposed to having Chris Hanson sit in? NONE.
  5. Ref Development Fund (PayPal)
    1. Roche: Something we discussed before. Having the PayPal be the dedicated fund for referee development. Also dedicating a bit more of our (Drew’s) time to move the match fees that members donate to the ref development fund, into that account. I saw Scott’s spreadsheets and he was identifying and tracking all of the match fees that were slated for donations, and I just want to push that a little further and make monthly or weekly deposits into that PayPal account. So Drew, do you have any thoughts on that?
    2. Low: I can definitely do that.
    3. O’Gara: I think it will help us back up the members that donate ALL of their match fees into this fund, we can directly show them that money is in a separate place and is going to what they donated it to.
    4. Roche: I also think something that will come up is that while we have a sum of money in there and anticipate some will be donated by members, I want to ensure that we always have Referee Development in our budget. So every year we may put X amount of money back into that fund and that will be added to match change fees, member donations, etc. Anyone opposed to this? NONE
  6. Integrity
    1. O’Gara: I did a course with USA Rugby this past week called “Integrity”, it takes about 15minutes and it has to deal with insider trading. In rugby we might unknowingly share information. There are probably people gambling on these games and we need to be aware of the information we are sharing that we receive as referees. We sometimes get information before many other people because we are involved in the game before it takes place. So I will send that link out to the group and I think we should all take it.
    2. Roche: Cool, we will look for that link!
  7. Regional Fitness Challenge:
    1. Roche: We all know the Central group won the regional fitness challenge, and I think Drew is hosting that? Just make sure y’all keep the receipts and I can Zelle you the reimbursement. You have $300 to spend on that. Congratulations and I look forward to my invite despite currently residing in Dallas.
  8. New Business
  9. Next Meeting: January 4, 7:30pm