As USA Rugby goes through its bankruptcy process, the heads of Local Referee Organizations (LROs) across the country have been meeting as an “interim committee” to try to determine the path forward for referees organizationally. You may have seen the email from a couple of weeks ago talking about how this process has been started. Below, I’m posting a message from this interim committee looking for volunteers who are interested in helping us shape the future of rugby refereeing in the USA. If you’re interested, please let me know!
The interim committee has been working hard over the past two months to craft a "Terms of Reference"(TOR) for the proposed Referee and Laws (R&L) committee that outlines its structure, election process, and general duties. The draft TOR has the following highlights:
Mission statement: The Referees and Laws committee is a standing committee of USA Rugby that represents the interests of Referee Organizations and Match Officials to USA Rugby and the wider USA rugby community. Its major goal is to enhance match officiating across the country by increasing cooperation and consistency between referee organizations and providing common solutions to shared interests such as match official development, performance pathways, recruitment and retention, match official training, laws interpretations, governance and administration. The R&L will ensure transparent processes that are clearly communicated to stakeholders and is committed to building a diverse and inclusive match official community that is welcoming for all, and allowing each referee to reach their potential.
Focus: The main focus of the R&L committee will be to establish and manage sub committees that will focus on problems and solutions and include the following:
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Referee Development
Training and Education
Organization, Governance and Discipline
Technical Group
Membership of the sub-committees will seek to include representation from as broad a spectrum of referees as possible based on interest, location, background, etc. and will focus on diversity and inclusion. Nominations will be sought from LROs and referee groups from around the country.
A draft TOR for the new R&L is currently with your LRO administration for review.
Questions can be directed to your LRO Chairperson or to refereeandlaws@gmail.com