An Update from the USA Congress meeting

To members of the Midwest Rugby Union
From Tom Schmitt Congressional Rep-Midwest
November 23, 2009

A special joint meeting of the USA Board and Congress was held this weekend in Florida. Adrian Gannon attended in person, I was able to attend via teleconference.

The purpose of the meeting was to bring together 5 workgroups made up of congress reps, board of directors and USA Rugby staff. The intended result was to assist in defining 5 key areas of USA Rugby's strategic growth plan. This plan will guide USA Rugby decision making and goal setting for 3-5 years. Those areas are: High Performance, College and High School, Governance/Finance and International Relations, Events Marketing and Communication, and finally Game Development. The groups were formed in September and will stay together until each section of USA Rugby's 3-5 year strategic plan is in place. The purpose of this meeting was to benchmark issues that need to be addressed in the Strategic Plan.

The meeting started at 8:30 EST and ended approximately at 3:00 EST. After a brief introduction, the five groups went to work. At the end of the workshop, the 5 groups reported.

Adrian may add to my notes as I lost the connection for the last 15 minutes of the wrap up, but the following are key issues raised, some proposed solutions and some overall feedback. Since I spent 5 hours with the Events, Marketing and Communication group, I can report on that groups work in greater detail. Our group will be meeting on November 30, 2009, via teleconference, so any feedback from this report is appreciated.

Communication: The group was in agreement that communication, while better, continues to be problematic, especially in terms of getting information down to individual members. The current web site design was cited as somewhat flawed, in so much that it is not very interactive. As the goal of the group was to form a baseline/benchmark, not necessarily to solve the problem, the group will seek out all opinions/methods to improve. Budget constraints continue to hamper some of the efforts/solutions, but all ideas are welcome

Marketing/Branding. The USA Rugby product is our National teams and Championships. Numerous issues about problems with branding/product/image were discussed. An issue that was brought up in our group as well as at least two others is that to properly market rugby, USA Rugby may need to develop two tracks. A "commercial"track which will focus on promoting the best and most appropriate parts of our game (Men's National team, Super League, Collegiate Championships) which media and sponsors will embrace, and then a members services track which would include events that may not have marketing appeal (lower divisions) As part of the discussion, several groups put forth the suggestion that the number of national championships (currently 11) be reduced. As part of the discussion, it was asserted, that the television broadcasts of events actually hurt rugby's image if there are no spectators in the stands. A discussion was had to bring back "rugby in a box" where by local and regional events could be held with a consistent and appropriate USA Rugby presentation element. A discussion was had to promote rugby in a consistent and positive manner by having rugby presented as "USA Rugby" at local or regional celebrations, other sporting events, fairs and similar venues. Upshot is that public sees a consistent presentation of our positive sport. Downside is that there is no revenue generated.

Promotion. The inclusion of Rugby Seven's into the Olympics has generated a lot of buzz within the rugby community, but how is that going to get out to the public? After the top 5 sports, rugby is fighting for time with Hockey, major league soccer and boxing. To get the media's attention, we have to have a winning product. It was discussed that to have a winning product, we have to put "appropriate" energy into our products versus gender specific or strata specific "equal" energy. This may cause some factions of rugby to feel cheated. Suggested that at a national level, with limited funds, the best products have to be funded to a greater degree then a segment of the sport that may be best served at a local or regional level.

New Rugby Movie directed by Clint Eastwood about the 1995 South African World Cup team. How can USA Rugby capitalize on this high profile, top star quality production? Local and regionally there should be tie ins. What are they? All ideas are welcome. I am waiting on summary reports from the other 4 group leaders and will forward as I receive them. This process to design a 3-5 strategic plan really will be formed by every bodies input.

Please take the time to forward all ideas, comments and observations. We are still in the define problems stage. If you see problems in anything USA Rugby does, what are those problems? If you see something positive and would to see it continue, what is it? We are putting together a plan to guide USA Rugby for 3-5 years. It will include measurables and metrics. At the end of the day, it is our sport and needs our imput. The more the better.

Send your feedback to wirugby@aol.com. If you wish to discuss, send me your phone number and I'll call you Best Regards,

Tom Schmitt