- Congress elect new USA Rugby Representative to Board of Directors, Michael Crafton, replacing Jeremiah Johnson
- Meeting highlights include State of the Union from USA Rugby CEO Ross Young and Chair Barbara O’Brien, review of 2018 financials and discussion around organizational dues and fees.
- Presentation of 10-year Strategic Roadmap as developed by USA Rugby and Principal Partner, EY.
- In tandem, USA Rugby GU and SRO representatives met alongside Congress for their annual gathering.
DENVER, CO – During the weekend of July 26-28, the USA Rugby Congress convened in Denver, Colorado to receive annual updates and presentations from the Board and National Office. As the only elected representative body in USA Rugby, Congress must approve the placement of directors on the USA Rugby Board, amend the bylaws that govern USA Rugby, and ratify any changes to the member dues structure; all material on the assembly agenda.
The Assembly ran from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, with the majority of discussion and activity on Saturday ahead of the Men’s Eagles match against Canada that evening.
Activities started with presentations from USA Rugby Chair Barbara O’Brien and CEO Ross Young giving State of the Union updates. Young alluded to the positives over the past year and closed with recognition of a challenging year organizationally, and the need to set reasonable goals in 2019-20 season to bring the union back to stabilization. With the fully seated board, Congress requested description around each board member’s role and responsibility to their seat respectively.
CFO Eric Gleason and Board Member Julie Lau followed with a financial update focused on the 2018 full year results and 2019 Year to Date financials; as well as the budgeting process and plan to move to a 3-year rolling forecast model. Gleason presented unaudited 2018 financials to the group with an expectation for a completed audit and public posting of this report after USAR Board approval, which is expected at the upcoming meeting in early September.
A legal update on current USA Rugby litigation followed with insight on the latest from lawsuits involving PRO Rugby and United World Sports.
Members from the National Office also presented to the group, mainly from departments that have been reorganized over the last 12 months. Calder Cahill presented on the newly integrated Marketing and Communications department with insight on the current communications model and goals to improve organizational operations in that respect. Mark Griffin spoke on USA Rugby Partners updates, including insight on kit supplier Canterbury; where operational contacts for the partnership have shifted from 210 Brands to Canterbury’s global owner, Pentland. Sharon Moskowitz and Chance Doyle provided some context on the newly formed Mass Participation department where youth development and improved connectivity with the Regional Development Officers will become priority. Lastly, an introduction of Johnathan Atkieson followed, Atkieson is the recently recruited Sr. Scholastic Manager to oversee and develop the High School and Collegiate sector.
Bylaw changes next went to a vote where Congress voted on the following; centralizing core standing committees, addition of a Diversity & Inclusion Committee, renaming the Audit Committee to Audit & Risk. Additionally, codifying the community rugby committees to ensure proper review and approval of any proposals are brought to the Rugby Committee before being formerly presented to the CEO for ratification. All passed by majority vote, while the proposal for less votes to approve future changes and use of proxies and alternates for congress member responsibilities did not pass.
New membership categories were then placed on the table of discussion with several proposals coming from the assembly along with increasing the access of members to stakeholders of the organization. After discussion, it was decided that no new membership categories would be added until further review and discussion, which will be ongoing in September. In the same class, changes to dues structure were examined where Congress similarly decided to hold on voting due to limited time available for the group to consider with their constituencies. Importantly, changes to the dues structure are not to increase dues but to create different categories of membership.
As current Board of Directors Congress Representative Jeremiah Johnson’s term on the board comes to an end, Congress then voted on Johnson’s replacement. With eight candidates presenting to the group over the course of Friday and Saturday, Michael Crafton out of Cypress, Texas was elected by Congress to the leadership group to a two-year term effective immediately. With years of experience in the community, Crafton has been involved with rugby as a coach and administrator since 2006 and served Empire Geographic Union with Congress since 2012.
On Sunday, Kurt Weaver presented updates to the group on current trends in membership; where 2018 saw a decline in registrations and 2019 is projected to do the same. Weaver proposed tactics for the organization to implement retention procedures and get USA Rugby back on a pattern of growth. This centered around the National Office’s increased focus on mass participation and member retention, discussing with Congress how their roles and other administrators can support the effort. Much discussion evolved from this portion of the assembly with input and strategy suggested to Weaver and Young from Congress; a majority pertaining to new Principal Partner, EY.
The last item on agenda was a presentation from Eric Gleason and Ross Young on the submitted 10-year strategic road map; which was the result of research and review of the organization and its key stakeholders by EY over the last 2 months. From the ground up, EY appraised each level of USA Rugby to fully vet what the union’s best purpose is to the game of rugby. From there, EY charted out a road map for the union and its constituents to follow with ambition for operational stability, fan engagement and regaining the above-mentioned growth pattern. Following the presentation; Congress, GUs and SROs all broke out into working groups to review and provide input on the presented strategic plan. A public edition of the finalized strategy will soon be available on the USA Rugby website.
In closing, the group thanked the USA Rugby Board and presenters along with departing Congress members attending their last meeting. Those members being David Yeoman, Heather Harley, Jenn Heinrich and Frank Lentz. Replacing the individuals is Hannah Harper, Wayne Eells, Marques Plumer, Tom Ren and Steve Daniels.
With some departing individuals making up the Congress Leadership Group, new representatives were appointed.
The current leadership group as stands;
- Justin Whitton – President
- Ed Matteo – Vice President
- Shayne Roberson – Finance Officer
- Audrey Billingsley – Secretary
- Kevin Brown – Communications Officer
While the above is a general review of the Congress assembly, the official minutes from the meeting will be posted to the USA Rugby website by the end of August. As mentioned, USA Rugby Congress is the elected body meant to represent diverse regions and categories in USA Rugby. To learn who your Congress representative is, visit the Congress page on usarugby.org.
