At the AGM last month, I orally presented a summary of the activities of the PSRFR for the past year. In doing so, I highlighted both our successes and the challenges we face for next year for even greater success. For those who could not make it to the meeting, I thought I would, briefly, summarize my presentation.

• Successes

  1. We had the first successful exchange with East Midlands. In April we hosted two guests, Paul Rogers and Paul Dickens who, by all accounts, enjoyed their visit. In November, two PSRFR members, Jason Wallach and Jack Way, returned the favor and though reports are not yet complete, by all accounts they found the trip amazingly worthwhile. This was a huge effort by many members of the Society and its success reflects well on us.

  2. Other exchanges -- We also sent referees out of Union on exchanges to Florida, Colorado, Saranac, Savannah (for their St. Pats tourney) and Allegheny. Every exchange like this gives our refs exposure to new clubs and evaluations by new assessors. We, in turn, host incoming refs and learn from them. Though records are slim, this level of exchange equals or exceeds past years.

  3. We took a big step towards favorably resolving the Patton lawsuit which has been dismissed. Though an appeal is pending, all indications are favorable.

  4. After much contentious discussion we resolved the ongoing discussions within the Society on whether or not to change our payment system. I am particularly proud that we did so without rancor.

  5. We promoted a new C1 referee (Steve Shilling) and welcomed at least 5 new referees to the Society. I am confident that this was the best recruiting year – by far – in the past 5 years.

  6. One of our members, Mark Koiwai, was honored with appointment as the Chair of the USARRA Evaluations Committee. 7 We resolved an ongoing discussion with USARRA on the funding of the COG last year on amicable and favorable terms.

  7. We provided charitable contributions to the MARFU 7s and PRU HS select sides. ($500 each).

  8. Our Ironman winners for 2003 --

     1. Rick Sims (Gold) 21 games

     2. Jeff Jurin (Silver) 20 games

     3. David Mildner (Bronze) 19 games

  9. And best of all, we enjoyed some great rugby, including the Cherry Blossom, the MARFU 7s championship, and the Ambassador’s Cup.

• Challenges

  Still some areas can be improved upon. Among the goals I have for the next year.

  1. We have not promoted a new B panelist from the society in several years. We should strive to change that.

  2. We continue to have too few evaluator/assessors and do not provide enough feedback to our refs. We will have training this winter as a partial remedy. As a corrolary, we also need to provide more mentoring and feedback to new refs. Again, the training should be a good remedy.

  3. The new allocations system was not perfect. When combined with the horrific weather, we let some games slip through the cracks.

  4. We had a slow down in attendance at meetings – especially among referees. We need a system to encourage attendance more regularly.

  5. Finally, we lost our pub at My Brother’s Place and the new venue at Gordon Biersch was less than satisfactory. We need to find a better one.

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