RFU Council met by video-conference on Friday 24th April.
The next Council Meeting and RFU AGM is scheduled for Friday 12th June
(see below)
New Ways of Working !! – who could have predicted the vast changes
that we are currently experiencing ??
The normal diary that usually accompanies this blog is not included this
month but both Jim and Ted have been involved in a number of video-conferenced
meetings throughout April. In general
this has meant 1 local meeting (YRFU), 1 Area Meeting (Area6 = Cumbria, Durham,
Northumberland and Yorkshire) and 1 National Meeting (CGB, Comps Development,
Player Development etc) per. week. This flurry of activity has been centred
around our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and we hope you have been able to
keep up to date with the large amount of information that has been issued. If anyone requires further information then
please do not hesitate to pick up the phone or send an email. We will both help
in anyway that we can.
RFU Council – there have been
two meetings of RFU Council this month, both held via. Skype. The first, on
Tuesday April 7th, was a briefing meeting and outlined how the RFU
was responding to the crisis. A more
formal Council meeting was held on Friday, 24th April and, again,
focussed on how the response to the crisis was progressing. Few decisions were
made at the meeting although David Roberts (Hertfordshire) was confirmed as the
next Chairman of Community Game Board. He takes over from Rob Briers
(Lancashire) who becomes Junior Vice President following the AGM. Some other
matters of note are outlined below.
Payment of Players – a reminder that, despite the current situation, the declaration
needs to be completed by the end of June. At a time when receiving benefits
from the RFU is important it is worth pointing out that the declaration has to
be completed if clubs are to remain eligible for RFU benefits.
Adult Competitions Advisory Group – this group is to be constituted as a task group
answering to both Governance and Community Game Board. Its remit will be to
review and recommend options for delivering rugby in the 20/21 season. Jim Chapman, in his current role as Chairman
of Competitions Development Sub-Committee, is a member of the group. The first
meeting is due on April 30th.
Future Competitions Structures Group – has, currently, suspended its
activities which were to have been a series of meetings to consider the proposals
put forward by the group. The chair of the group (Stephen Pearson (Oxford University))
told Council that the group felt that they still had time to circulate the
proposals to the Game and to receive
feedback on these before taking the matter back to the October Council Meeting.
A meeting of the group is scheduled for Wednesday, 6th May to
discuss how this can be achieved.
RFU AGM – it seems
unlikely that the AGM, currently scheduled for 12th June will be
able to go ahead in the usual way. Plans
are currently being drawn up to make this a “virtual” meeting. The Calling
Papers and means of registration will be available soon. It is also worth
mention that proxy votes will still be available even if the meeting is
conducted on-line.
Webinars – in order to
keep people up to date the RFU have launched a series of Webinars. There have already
been sessions on coaching, refereeing, media and club support. Which have been extremely
well received. The technology is
expanding and it is hoped they will become more interactive as familiarity
grows. Most require registration so keep a look out at http://www.englandrugby.com/coronavirusfor details of
upcoming webinars
Please Stay Safe and protect those closest to you.
Ted
Atkinson & Jim Chapman
April
2020
