MEETING MINUTES

Minutes from Sunday, December 12, 1999 (approved):

MARFU Board of Directors and Annual General Meeting

The meeting began at 1155 on 12/12/99 at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria, VA.

Roll call:

Officers present: President (Reyn Kinzey), Vice President (Eric Pittelkau), Secretary (David Chapman), Treasurer (Jamie Jisa), Director-at-Large (Nigel Willis; arrived at 1308). LAU Reps present: VRU (2): Kinzey, Kris Kabza. PRU (3): Jisa, Pittelkau, Tom Walsh. EPRU (3): Dana Bateman, Elaine Recchiuti, Dawn White (substitute for Carl Ostermann). Non-Voting Member present: Mark Koiwai (MARR). Guests at the meeting were Jack Clark (General Manager of USA Rugby National Teams), Dan LeBlanc (Coach, MARFU U-23 Women), John Redmond (Coach, MARFU 7s), Mitch Bernstein (Coach, MARFU 15s), Jason Maloni (MARFU 7s Committee; arrived at 1211). LAU rep absent: Carl Schmitt (VRU).

Presentation by Jack Clark, General Manager of USA Rugby National Teams

For about an hour, Clark presented an overview of his new role with the National teams, as well as some insight on the future.

Of note:

For the Men's 15s as well as other sides, he believes we need to look for overachievement in our teams; we have a big talent pool gap with the other nations and that's not going away in the near term.

Clark believes we're seeing (and will need to see) a turnaround in the High School kids playing rugby (vice the quality of players from 10 years ago).

He discussed the pool of candidates for the Men's 15 coaching position; he said there are sufficient applications for the recruitment action. Clark stated that the new coach needs to be flexible and to be involved in more than just Eagle coaching (must work year-round; however, this may depend on the final candidate).

The board thanked Clark for his presentation.

Minutes of the February Meeting.

The 9/99 minutes were approved by voice vote in the form as they were distributed/on-line.

Annual General Meeting.

All votes during the AGM were weighted; the VRU had 31 votes, the PRU had 42 and the EPRU had 66.

Jamie handed out the 1999 report and went over the items that were over budget. It was noted that this was not final (some expenses and credits were still outstanding; for example, one overage that was reported was due to a credit not having been applied). A final report will be given at the February 2000 meeting.

Jamie presented a plan that would necessitate an increase in dues. Although we had discussed this in September, there were quite a few concerns and the group split up for a few minutes to caucus within their LAU sub-groups. When meeting re-commenced, the vote was held and the budget was defeated; the vote against the increase was 80-59 (VRU - all 31 for the increase; PRU - 28 for/14 against; EPRU - all 66 against). Therefore, no change in funding levels in 2000. It was pointed out that several programs were finally due for comparable funding, which meant that several long-standing programs would require a funding cut.

Dana made a motion (seconded by Nigel) that would have no dues increase in 2000, but would implement a $50 increase for full members in 2001 and a $25 increase in 2001. After some discussion, Dana withdrew the motion.

In the dues process, $1250 was taken out of the proposed budget ($350 for the National Championship Fee and $900 for Trainers). A motion was made and approved (via voice vote) to re-distribute this sum to several line items ($100 each to HS, Men's Club, Men's Colleges, Women's Club, Women's Colleges and Youth coordinators; $650 will be split between the select sides).

Tom made a motion (Jamie seconded) to take $500 from the National Event grant line item and redistribute that to other programs. Motion failed on a hand vote.

We will discuss the dues increase in 2001 at the next MARFU meeting.

Annual reports from various programs were given with the majority done in advance. Of note: John Redmond said he'd like to set up a 7s Coaching Clinic this summer; several comments were made from various speakers about the cut in funding.

Elections: the slate (status quo) was accepted as presented.

Initial 2000 club counts were provided to Jamie and David for planning purposes; the final lock-in date for declarations is 4/1/2000.

1999 count: EPRU 66/8/6, PRU 42/3/3, VRU 31/0/0

2000 count (projected): EPRU 68/9/4, PRU 42/1/2, VRU 31/0/0

Men's 15s League Reorganization

The Men's clubs had a meeting in Fredericksburg, VA on 12/5/99. No conclusion was reached, but Eric was happy with the meeting and said that he thinks we are close to a change in systems. This meeting was the first time that clubs had gotten together. The group was split off into an ad hoc committee that hopes to have a final recommendation ready by 1/15/2000 for the clubs and to have a plan ready to submit to the MARFU BOD for the February meeting. Eric noted that 7 BOD members were at the meeting (including those without a Men's club affiliation).

Bid/Awards for 2000

The following were approved:

3/25-26 - MARFU Women's Clubs Final 4 - No bid yet

4/1-2 - MARFU College Men and Women Div I Final Four and MARFU College Men Div I Consolations - Penn State

4/1-2 - MARFU College Men and Women Div II Final Four - Mt St Mary's

4/29-30 - MARFU Men's Clubs Division II Final 4 - No bid yet

4/29-30 - MARFU Men's Clubs Division III Final 8 tournament - Schuykill River

7/29 - MARFU 7s Championship - No bid yet

Men's 7s Qualifiers:

6/10 - Lehigh Valley

6/17 - Severn River (date is tentative)

7/8 - Norfolk Blues

Notes:

Bids on "no bids yet" will be due by 2/1/2000 and will be examined at the February BOD meeting.

Need two fields for most championship events.

The Champion of the Men's Club Division III is eligible for the 2000 USA Rugby Division III Invitational.

Meeting Dates in 2000

It was determined that meeting dates in 2000 would be on 2/5, 5/13, 9/24, 12/9 (AGM).

CIPP

MARFU was 2^nd (as of 12/2/1999) in total number of CIPP enrollees.

Men's College LAU Allstars

Kris mentioned that a number of players at the event were not happy that current All Stars did not attend the trials. However, the question of whether we should interfere with how the coach does his selections was discussed. For example, the coach may want to see other people, but, on the other hand, are the players that attend getting an accurate assessment based on weaker opposition? No action was taken on this item.

College LAU Allstars

In 2000, the College Selects LAU event will be held one week later (for player rest and preparation); it will be held on 11/18-19.

Men's Division I Collegiate Playoffs

There is some concern about the #5 and #7 seedings and the way the current system is set up, particularly with the number of national seeds we have as will as the yearly potential loss of seeds due to underperformance. A different seeding arrangement was accepted by a voice vote (with one dissension): James Madison will play the PRU #3 team (TBD); the winner/loser as well as East Stroudsburg will be slotted depending on the outcome of that seeding playoff match.

Overdue Accounting

A motion was made to suspend the Media RFC from all play within the Mid-Atlantic area unless they show the MARFU BOD by 1/15/2000 a final accounting of the April 1999 Men's Club Division II/III event in order to determine if they owe MARFU any of their originally promised bid submission. The motion passed 7-3-1.

Player Development Clinics

Eric would like MARFU to do something about player development clinics. Reyn and Kris suggested that Eric develop a plan.

Discipline

FYI: The coach (John Moore) and the thirteen players of the Ohio State Women's RFC who were involved in the recent incident in DC have been banned from the PRU for 3 years.

Villanova

The USA Rugby BOD members were reminded that Villanova has not received an official letter yet from USA Rugby for their collegiate petition.

Next Meeting and adjournment:

The next BOD session will be on February 5. The meeting was adjourned at 1700.