Minutes of the Committee Meeting of NORWIRUL
28th November 2021 @ 5:00pm

Present: - Committee Fred Swarbrick, John Powell, Greg King, Ian Cosens, Paul Riordan, Tommy Hughes, Andy Thompson, Craig Ross, Mark Ashley, Craig Hine, Peter Rhodes, Sara Shackleton and Peter Harrison
FS opened the meeting stating this was the first “live” meeting in 2 years
Minutes: Of the meeting held on the 28th September 2021 agreed as a true record

Leagues: The number of concedes is down but this is mainly due the fact that teams, league managers and JP are working hard to arrange postponements to keep teams in the league rather than showing them as concedes. Since start of the season, 2 teams left before the first games and a further 9 have left since.
There have been 85 concedes from 615 games =13%. Considering the situation in a lot of clubs we are happy with this considering other leagues throughout the country are showing up to 50%. There have been 37 COVID postponements, 4 for no referee, 217 fixture changes to accommodate clubs. Still 7 outstanding postponed games to be re-arranged, if no date then these will go to pools panel. To date the pools panel has not had to meet.
There are 4 teams on their last concede and openly admit they are struggling to field sides.
Paul R asked about fixtures for free teams – link on website to Game Finder where teams can find games in the North West including ADM teams and North Wales. Team secretaries are aware.
On COVID postponement we agreed to allow lower teams to play if higher teams had COVID as long as the lower team confirmed that no players from the higher team would be included in the squad.
JP requested that from the 11th December no postponements will be allowed unless both teams agree a date either midweek/ free Saturday before the league manager agree to the postponement. If the game doesn’t take place on the agreed date then the game goes to the Pools panel and will be recorded as a loss to the team requesting the postponement - Passed

Finance: GK reported a £5 loss as 30th May 2021. This was due mainly to the fact that no RFU monies received, no team fees and no sponsorship, but we still had outgoings. GK to go to Lancashire RFU for 1st tranche of RFU monies for this season. A discussion took place regarding team fees for the 22/23 season. Agreed to keep it at £50 but stop the £100 bond for teams that have had to leave our leagues this year.

Sponsorship: All divisions now sponsored. Still need another sponsor for the Sedgley Park finals – Robinsons? We need to decide which cups are at which venue. Agreed to wait until after a couple of rounds have been played. Potential media story
Halbro agreement still in place. Suggestions needed on how to use the leagues allocation of kit(funding) going forward

Cups: Next round 5th February and Semi Finals are on the 26th March

Dinner: Need to meet the new catering manager with regards to agreeing a menu and costings. It is hoped that we could keep the costs to the players the same/very similar. Suggested to be arranged the same date as the meeting with Sedgley Park re cup finals.

Press: MA said there was a degree of interest from the local press, but this was limited. He suggested more publicity itesm, e.g. people stories, specific club stories like the one he did for Lostock, referee stories, unusual score or try scorers. We need to supply MA with snippets from our leagues

A.O.B:

Structured Season – There had been some reports regarding team loading as because teams had higher team were without games when lower teams played. JP agreed it was difficult to marry up everything especially when teams drop out of leagues, which leaves a free Saturday. This not only involved ADM teams, but also clubs within our own league structure. League managers to stress that team loading was not acceptable and the message to be also put on the website.

Succession JP – Fixture Secretary. We need to train 1 or 2 more people to help with the fixture setting, and to understand the process and software involved
Stage 1 – who is in each league and what leagues are higher level teams in 1st home – 2nds away
Stage 2 - Barry’s model – the software
Stage 3 – GMS RFU fixture listing
It was suggested the a fixtures committee is set up with JP as chair so that he can pass on his 20 years of experience and knowledge

1st & 2nd Teams to National Leagues – ADM teams have said no to RFU leagues, but would they be able to operate outside RFU umbrella. With regards to 2nd teams it would depend on what they go in at and at what level they can achieve (promotion) e.g. our top premiership 2nd teams if they were only allowed to go in and up to level 7

Bowden – Have requested permission to drop their 3rd and that their 2nd move down to their 3rd team league. Permission was refused as it was too late in the season

Meeting closed at 18:25