June 15, 2015
Dear Members, sponsors and stakeholders of the BCRU,
I am writing to provide you with the President’s Report for our 2015 AGM. An incredible amount of positive activity has occurred over the past year. In my view it is critical that over the course of the AGM proceedings, some of which will no doubt be contentious, we don’t lose sight of what has been achieved in fiscal 2015. With that in mind, I have broken my report into 3 sections:
a) Highlights from the past year;
b) The board’s focus for 2016; and
c) Some commentary on the Board’s proposed motions for this AGM
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST YEAR
The board and staff continue to be guided by the strategic plan that was adopted last year. In the Plan we set out specific milestones that we wanted to achieve in furtherance of our stated objectives. The board recently engaged in a review of our progress to date, and I am pleased to report that we are on track with the Plan.
Here are some of the key highlights from the past year.
Rep Rugby:
• Coming off their victory over the Canada Selects, the B.C. Bears notched a historic 21-20 win over Uruguay in Montevideo.
• The B.C. Bears played their first Kelowna-based home fixture in several years, facing the Prairie Wolfpack in CRC action last August.
• The B.C. Elite Youth 7s boys captured titles in Victoria, Las Vegas and Hong Kong. The team also traveled to Germany for the Heidelberg 7s.
• B.C. captured national titles in Calgary in the following categories:
o Male under-18, u-17, u-16
o Female u-18
Club Rugby:
• Over 1,500 people attended club finals day at Brockton Oval and Klahanie Park. UBC captured their first Rounsefell Cup since 1947. Velox Valkyries claimed the Gordon Harris Memorial Cup by defeating rivals Burnaby Lake. Seattle edged Meraloma to win the Okanagan Spring Brewery Division 1 title.
Broadcasting:
• B.C. Rugby launched its weekly streaming rugby initiative, connecting fans across the province and indeed the world to our on-field product. We have produced three B.C. Bears broadcasts, 26 club rugby broadcasts - including men’s, women’s and age-grade teams - three days of high school 7s coverage, added dozens of hours of footage and highlights to our YouTube channel and surpassed the media coverage of nearly all the PSO’s in BC.
• Mike James and Brendan Munro led the first season of B.C. Rugby Club, the first live rugby news and highlight show in North America. This platform enabled us to promote B.C. Rugby initiatives, foster our partnership with Library Square, support the Canada 7s announcement and showcase rugby in B.C.
• B.C. Rugby will also be broadcasting four days of PRC coverage, the Victoria 7s and the upcoming B.C. provincial competitions in Kelowna.
Events:
• We celebrated our 125th Anniversary with a dinner in Kelowna in August, followed by a gala dinner in Vancouver in September.
• The B.C. Rugby Hall of Fame Dinner was held this April in Burnaby and six new members were inducted into the Hall.
• We once again hosted the boy’s and girl’s high school 7s championships - both of which were huge successes.
• B.C. Rugby was a strong supporter in the launch of the Canada Sevens, at which it was announced that Vancouver would be added to the World Rugby 7s circuit. This event will provide a spectacular platform for B.C. Rugby to host complementary events. To that end, we have been selected to host the inaugural national age grade 7s championships next March (in the days leading up to the Canada 7s). We are also working directly with the City of Vancouver, Tourism B.C. and the Vancouver Hotel Association to host an Invitational 7s tourney in conjunction with the Canada 7s event.
Coaching/Program Development:
• Mick Byrne, skills coach of the New Zealand All Blacks, led the 2015 coaching conference at St. George’s in Vancouver.
• Ken Goodland and Shane Thompson shared the Gerald McGavin Coaching Award and were flown to Wellington where they were embedded with the Hurricanes Super Rugby Club.
• Dean Murten has done an excellent job in leading the revamp of our age-grade development programs. Key provincial themes and skill matrices have been identified and established for all provincial coaches and players. An open and transparent process has been adopted for the selection of B.C. carded athletes. Participants now engage in customized strength and conditioning programs, and through a daily tracking system, their performance is tested and monitored. A new regional development center has been successfully established in Abbotsford. We plan on establishing comparable centers on the Island, greater Vancouver and hopefully metro Vancouver this fall.
New Sponsors
• B.C. Rugby was pleased to announce new partnerships with the Donnelly Group and the Onni Group, while strengthening its commitment to X-Treme Rugby Wear. We have also secured sponsors for the rollout of Rookie Rugby for the upcoming year.
New Programs
• Only weeks ago, B.C. Rugby announced the launch of a new high-performance female 7s rugby program, to be built on the template of the B.C. Elite Youth 7s.
• B.C. Rugby, in partnership with Rugby Canada, is overhauling its website and registration system to enhance its processes and make administration more efficient for clubs and cost effective for the Union.
Rookie Rugby
• The objective of this grass-roots development program is to introduce the game of rugby to primary school students and then transition the participants from “Try Rugby” to club engagement. Our goal is to roll the program out across the province with a view to substantially increasing our playing numbers
• We completed Phase 1 of the rollout over the past year with pilot programs in Comox (six schools and Comox Valley Kickers) and Tri-Cities (one school and United). Over 900 kids attended in total.
• Phase 2: Funding has been secured for the upcoming year
• We will expand the rollout in the coming year to six new communities starting in June (Cowichan, Campbell River, Langford, South Surrey, Abbotsford and Burnaby)
• Broader expansion to follow in 2016 and we hope to secure a province wide sponsor for the program in the coming year.
THE BOARD’S FOCUS FOR 2016
Since Jim Dixon’s hiring I think it is fair to say that the board’s focus has been on the development of the strategic plan and our “on-field activities” i.e. strengthening our development/representative programs and broadening of our grass-roots programs. We believe that we now have programs and strategies to address these areas and feel that the area which now needs additional attention is our governance model. To that end, we have established a Governance Committee (chaired by Doug Manning) to undertake a review of how we manage our activities and make recommendations for improvement to the board. As a starting point for the review process, the committee has scheduled/held meetings with the sub-union presidents. The following is a brief description of the contemplated process:
A. Governance Project Purpose – Discussing the concept of a more functionally structured board and a 'best practice' constitution and set of by-laws.
B. Project Timeline – Outlining the process of our governance committee's project:
(a) Upgrading ViaSport 'best practice' template to suit rugby development needs. (July/August)
(b) Comparing our constitution, by-laws, structure, and any other governance processes with best practice template. (September/February)
(c) Bringing a governance report and set of recommendations to the board. (March)
(d) Reviewing the approved recommendations with clubs and sub-unions. (April/May)
(d) Bringing a set of recommendations to the 2016 AGM. (June)
C. Questions to Sub-Unions
(a) Is "rugby development in B.C." the prime focus for the B.C. Rugby board?
(b) Who does the B.C. Rugby board serve – individuals (players, coaches, referees, volunteers), clubs, and/or the national rugby body? Who does it NOT serve?
(c) What services are required from the B.C. Rugby board to those entities they serve?
(d) How does the B.C. Rugby board rugby development role/responsibilities differ from a B.C. sub-union or a B.C. rugby club?
(e) How do we make the sub-unions more accountable from both a governance and performance perspective.
THE BOARD'S PROPOSED MOTIONS FOR THE AGM
Over the course of the 2015 season the BCRU held a series of town hall meetings, as part of a competitions review, to consult on the competition structure to be adopted for the 2015/2016 season. At the conclusion of the competitions review, a number of structural amendments were made to the B.C. Rugby club pathway. These mostly related to the qualification process for the men’s premier division, but also impacted B.C. Rugby’s competitive leagues (CDI Men’s Premier, Library Square Div. 1, Okanagan Spring Brewery Division 1 and 2 and premier women). As part of that consultation process a large number of clubs raised concerns about the participation of U.S.-based clubs in BCRU competitive leagues. The challenges of travel, monitoring of players’ status, and the BCRU’s underlying mission were the most notable issues raised. In particular, there was a significant divergence of opinion on whether, given the changing landscape, the current "Seattle Saracens club" should participate and an even bigger divergence between the opinions expressed by certain clubs and the course of action that they choose to follow. Over the past couple of years, the BCRU staff has spent an inordinate and excessive amount time trying to navigate issues arising in respect of the “status” of the Seattle Saracens. A large component of the issues raised in relation to Seattle are not exclusive to that particular club and would be present in relation to any U.S.-based club that sought to compete in our top leagues. An increased presence of non-Canadian clubs in our top competition, by definition, should correspond to a decrease in the number of Canadian clubs/players that would be competing. The balancing factor, of course, could be a stronger competition for those clubs that were able to qualify for the competition.
There is no debate that historically Seattle has proved to be valued member of the BCRU and that strong competitors make for strong competition. That said, our members have stressed the importance of maintaining an even playing field within our competitive structures. The changing landscape within the Pacific Northwest in relation to both the “merger” of clubs based in the Seattle area and the close nexus between the “merged group” and U.S.A. Rugby are concerns that a number of our members have repeatedly raised with our executive. In the board’s view these concerns, together with others regarding the “role” of the BCRU, compel the members to re-examine the competitive structure that should be adopted by the BCRU
As a consequence of these concerns, the BCRU board of directors unanimously agreed to present a motion at the 2015 Annual General Meeting for consideration by the members which directly affects the potential participation of non-Canadian clubs in BCRU competitions. The motion was put forth to compel our members to address the difficulties we have experienced over the last few seasons trying to fit the changing Seattle landscape into our competitions.
This is a matter that our membership, as opposed to the board, needs to resolve and the motion is designed to put the matter front and centre for our members to decide.
There are significant consequences to both possible outcomes.
If the motion passes, Seattle, in its present form, and any other U.S.-based club, would not be able to compete in our top leagues. As noted in the motion material, the BCRU would invite Seattle to participate in a four-team regional Super Cup competition, which would take place following our club championships.
If the motion does not pass, Seattle will be able to compete in our top leagues - including seeking to qualify for premier. In these circumstances, should they fail to qualify for the premier league (which, notwithstanding the strength they have displayed over the past few seasons, could occur given the expected roster depletion they will suffer with the departure of U.S.A. Eagle players to RWC 2015), they would be slotted into the Okanagan Spring Brewery league and teams that fail to meet their scheduled commitments in that league will be subject to material sanction. It is important to note that the board has no vested interest in whether the proposed resolution passes or fails. It is up to the membership to decide - clarity is definitely required. Our staff’s experience in dealing with this issue over the past two seasons has clearly shown that the current situation is not one that will work in the future.
The board, when considering how to bring this issue before membership, deliberately chose to pursue this matter through special resolution proceeding (as opposed to a change in the ROC ) in order to ensure the highest threshold for passage is required.
A number of questions have been raised about the continued participation of other U.S. clubs in BCRU competitions (for example, the NOBs in the PNW over-40s league and the Chuckanut junior program). The board has no desire to curtail these clubs participating in BCRU-sanctioned competitions and would move to exempt these clubs/teams from the B.C.-based field/host requirements in the proposed amendments by making them “associate members” of the BCRU and thereby qualifying them under 6.2 of the ROC for BCRU competitions.
Given the material consequences associated with both possible outcomes of the proposed motion, it is critical that all members give due consideration to the issue and attend at the AGM to cast their vote.
ROWER’S PROPOSED MOTION FOR THE AGM
The Vancouver Rowing Club has proposed an amendment to the by-laws that would introduce the presidents from the VRU, the FVRU and the VIRRU as directors of the BCRU. The BCRU Board does not believe that the presidents of the sub-unions should be voting directors of the BCRU. In our view, the presidents of the sub-unions are mandated to advocate the positions of their members, which, by definition can conflict with each other and with the broader provincial mandate of the BCRU. As noted above, the role, responsibilities and accountability of the sub-unions and the BCRU will be examined by our governance committee, in collaboration with the sub-unions, over the course of the next year. It is expected that recommendations for structural change will be brought forward to our members at next year’s AGM. With that in mind, it might be preferable if this matter was tabled for future consideration.
CLOSING REMARK
In closing, I would like to thank the BCRU board of directors for their work over the past year. I would also like to thank the staff of the BCRU, who put in an exceptional effort every day and countless extra hours to develop, administer and promote the game of rugby in B.C. Finally, I would like to thank our sponsors for their financial support and most importantly all of the volunteers (whether coaches, managers, officials, administrators, trainers etc.), who give so much time and effort to further the interests in rugby in British Columbia.
Regards,
Steve Cook
President
BCRU
