Council met for the last time this season on Friday, 8th
June. This was followed by the RFU AGM. Both are reported on below.
The next meeting of Council is Friday, October 5th. This
is preceded by Community Game Board will meet at Twickenham in Wednesday, 29th
August.
England Counties - As many will be aware Ted Atkinson accompanied the England Counties XV as RFU Representative on their
successful tour of Romania. The side finished unbeaten and also did outreach
work in the local community. This
followed another successful England Counties U20s tour to Georgia. Again the
side was unbeaten and, again, they did some well received outreach work in the
local community. Next season the tours
will be reversed with the Senior XV visiting Georgia and the U20s touring
Romania.
Holidays ! – I’m sure everyone is ready for a
break from rugby and some time in the sun !!
Ted Atkinson will be away until the 10th July, whilst Jim
Chapman is shortly due to go away returning on 4th July. Apologies
that both of us will be unavailable for this period.
Business Planning/Staff Consultation – as many of you will be aware this
has taken up some column inches in the Press recently and, as ever, some of the
reporting has been rather sensational
and does not reflect reality. It also highlights a problem of
confidentiality which has (again) raised its head at the RFU with confidential
matters being leaked to the Press. We
will both be attending District Meetings at which we can (and will) explain
some of these matters in more detail. It would be wrong at this point in time
to go into details and we hope that the below will allow you to have some
understanding of current situation without breaking any confidences :
·
The RFU, along
with many businesses is finding the current economic situation very difficult.
Renewals of sponsorship are, in particular, proving to be difficult. This has
meant that the RFU budget is not growing at anticipated rates. England’s poor
showing in the 6 Nations has also meant reduced income from this source. Whilst
the budget for 2018/19 is reduced it is anticipated that 2019/20 (where we get
no income from Autumn Internationals due to the RWC) will be difficult and
planning is already underway. Having said that the budget figure of Community
rugby is £34.3m for 2018/19, this compares with £36.1 investment in the current
year.
·
A significant amount
of budget is spent on staff costs and, to this effect, the RFU has begun a
Staff Consultation which will review all aspects of RFU staffing. Despite reports in the Press this group has
not yet made any proposals and will not make any proposals until the end of
June. The staff consultation is a legal
process and will remain confidential until any affected members of staff have
been informed. Council has also
initiated a “sounding board” group that contains members of both Council and
the Board. This group will conduct an
overview of any proposals from the consultation group and will examine their
likely impact on Rugby Development. As
stated above because this is a legal process neither Ted or Jim are able to
give any more details at the present time.
East Stand – again, as you may have seen reported in
the press the costs for the East Stand Development are higher than expected.
Again, detail will be provided at District Meetings but the Stand is due to
open on 28th September in order that it can be used during the
Autumn Internationals.
RFU Council Nominations – the RFU Nominations sub-committee presented
it’s report to Council which also contained proposals for the coming season.
These were accepted by Council.
Ted
Atkinson Member, Playing Development
Sub-Committee
Member, Education &
Age-Grade Sub-Committee
Jim
Chapman Chairman, Competitions Development
Sub-Committee
Member, Community Game Board
RFU Representative to
Board of England Colleges RFU
RFU AGM – Immediately following the Council
Meeting the RFU AGM took place.
The
meeting received reports from both then CEO and the CFO before electing the
following as officers for the 2018/19 season. Note that under revised rules the
following take effect from 1st August.
President Chris Kelly (ESRFU)
Senior V-P Peter Wheeler (Co-Opted)
Junior V-P HHJ Jeff Blackett (Co-Opted)
Immediate PP John Spencer (Yorkshire)
Congratulations
are offered to all of the above.
Activities in June
(Jim Chapman)
|
Date
|
|
|
05
|
YRFU Competitions Sub-Committee (County Office)
|
|
06
|
Community Game Board (Twickenham)
|
|
08
|
RFU Council Meeting and AGM (Cowdray Hall, London)
|
Ted Atkinson & Jim Chapman
June 2018
