TRRA Board Meeting Minutes 1/4/21

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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. Herrera
    3. Johnson
    4. Low
    5. Bayazitoglu
    6. Regrets
      1. O’Gara
  2. Regional Fitness Challenge
    1. Roche: Central won so they still get their event. Do you guys have a date planned for that or no?
    2. Low: We’re going to allow the holiday COVID spikes die down before planning anything.
    3. Herrera: Yep here in San Antonio things are getting pretty bad.
    4. Roche: Awesome, figured, wanted to remind you that’s still there.
  3. USA Rugby Referee Coach Educational Series
    1. Roche: So Rosalind Anderson (RRSNY) reached out to me regarding a three-part series hosted by Jamie McGregor on some Wednesday evenings through March. We have the opportunity to open this up to a FEW TRRA Referee Coaches. I think we should strategically choose our coaches, just because I know we’ll have many that WANT to participate. We have a short window so I don’t want to make a giant application process, but I also don’t want to just hand-pick and leave someone out because we “don’t like them” (which we like everyone but that’s what some people think).
    2. Low: I would think the people who had the most referee coaching assignments should get top pick.
    3. Roche: Do you think that’s too “top-down” of a selection process? So our best Referee Coaches get the most assignments and the best training? How can we level the playing field for everyone?
    4. Johnson: Do you have anyone you are thinking of?
    5. Roche: I’ve got a few names but they’re probably the ones who have already gotten the most training. Do we want to focus on the again and again?
    6. Bayazitoglu: Could this resource be allocated to someone who might be a great future referee coach?
    7. Roche: Yeah that’s what I’m thinking. I also don’t want to gamble it away on people who think they want to do it then decide they don’t. Then no one got this training that stayed around. I want to think about who can attend this course, then take that information and share it around again so everyone gets it.
    8. Low: I think someone who has a solid baseline and has shown us they have referee coached would be a good fit.
    9. Roche: I also want someone who WANTS to do this instead of us just hand-picking who we think is the best.
    10. Johnson: What’s our timeline?
    11. Roche: We have to have people by Friday. Should we do a formal application or just “throw your hand up if you’re interested?”
    12. Low: I think just send an email and ask who is interested.
    13. Bayazitoglu: Also ensure these people are available for the trainings and committed to attending all of them, then people will self-screen.
    14. Roche: Is anyone from this group interested?
    15. Herrera: Me!
      1. O’Gara also indicated interest via email.
  4. USA Y&HS Rugby Committees and Chairs
    1. Roche: Did you get the email I forwarded regarding this? It’s very similar to the Club and R&L committees. I’m thinking of just shooting this out and seeing if anyone is interested. I’m willing to back whoever from TRRA needs some additional assistance in self-nominating. Feel free to share this around your rugby circles.
  5. USA Rugby R&L Nomination
    1. Roche: So the referee organizational body (R&L committee) asked for our nominations/vote on our representative from the Red River. We reached out to Derek Summers who indicated his interest and voted offline unanimously for him. So Derek Summers will be on the National  R&L Committee representing the Red River Region!
    2. Roche: We also get the chance to nominate (and I get the power of voting) for the Chairman of this committee. If you have any ideas of anyone in society that is poised to take over a National Referee Committee, please let me know. 
    3. Bayazitoglu: I don’t know many people on the National level and I don’t know anyone in society that would be prepared for anyone like that. I think you know the National landscape much better than I do.
    4. Roche: That’s fine regarding nominations. I will definitely let you know the formal nominations before it comes time to voting if anyone has additional information they want represented when I’m casting my vote.
  6. Membership Due Refunds
    1. Roche: So we do need to figure out what happens if we don’t have ANY games for the rest of this season. What do we do with membership dues? Should we do full refunds? We’re going to have to take a loss on the NASO membership fee part that we already spent for each member. Maybe if we have 7’s we give all referees who choose to ref 7’s a special 7’s jersey?
    2. Bayazitoglu: I think we should definitely wait and see what happens. By the end of the season we can always ask if someone wants a refund or donate it to the referee development fund.
    3. Low: We can also ask if they want to roll it over to next year.
    4. Roche: Wow never thought of that! This is why we have a TEAM of people thinking. Great call Drew.
  7. New Business
    1. Johnson: I’ve received an email from a member of the Rugby Texas board trying to recruit referees in the north area for Rugby Texas Games.
    2. Roche: That’s alarming as we have a formal contract with Rugby Texas and they should really talk with us before sourcing referees elsewhere.
    3. Roche: Anything else?
    4. Herrera: I have some questions for the High Performance Group but we can chat offline.
  8. Meeting Adjourned: 8:08pm
    1. Next Meeting: Monday Feb 1 – 7:30pm

Edited 1/8/2021 7:28pm. A previous release of these minutes incorrectly identified the Rugby Texas Board member Doug Corrigan of attempting to recruit current TRRA members. This has been deleted as it was discovered he was not specifically targeting TRRA members and rather all trained referees.