“A valuable meeting to wrap up the year, it was great to have the fully reformed board settled into their roles and spend the time with quality dialogue,” noted USA Rugby CEO, Ross Young, “We’re feeling confident for an active spring of rugby in the coming months, with the Board focused on membership.”Budget and finance updates began the meeting with Denis Shanagher of the Audit & Risk Committee reviewing current financials and projected budgets for 2021. With membership registration slowed by COVID-19 and High Performance activities the same, Audit & Risk continue to review operation financials with the Board.
Al Lucas, Michele Yarbrough and Bill Stevens updated on Senior Club, College and Youth & High School matters respectively, where membership and club registration in SportLomo remain top priority. Each discussed regions within their communities that have organized rugby activities this fall, with context on best practices to expand upon for updated spring return to play guidelines. Senior Club has also recently seated all committees and terms of reference.
Moving forward through committee discussion, further progress was made on terms of reference for bylaw required Audit & Risk, Discipline & Grievance and Rules & Laws committees. These reference documents are expected ahead of the Q1 Board meeting in March.
USA Rugby High Performance presented following recent team assemblies with notable updates on criteria learned from the Women’s Eagles Daily Training Environment, where the isolated players with positive COVID-19 cases experienced a full recovery. Similar to the sevens programs having been in residency and hosting intrasquad competition in early December, protocol reviews will provide further insight and best practice as all teams look ahead to assemblies in 2021.
On the world stage. Jim Brown communicated most recent data from the Rugby World Cup feasibility study, where positive responses from cities and sports markets have come from initial outreach. Finalized data and recommendations are expected to be presented with the Board in early January. World Rugby updates concluded the meeting with potential global calendars for 2021 as presented by World Rugby Executive Committee representative, Bob Latham.
