To: CB Honorary Secretaries, Council Members

cc: John Steele, Nick Bunting, Terry Burwell, Nick Eastwood, Andrew Scoular, Rosie Williams, Peter Thomas

From: Carole Thelwall-Jones

Date: October 22, 2010

Message from John Steele

Hi,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to drop you a personal note on my first few weeks in the role. I have been on the road with Martyn Thomas and completed visits to Cornwall, Somerset, Yorkshire, Eastern Counties for mini roadshows and Dorset and Wilts for the traditional roadshow weekend. Today I start on the Hertfordshire roadshow at Old Albanians and hope to be in your CB over the coming months once all the dates are fixed.

These visits to the very heart of our game and the chance to meet various representatives in your CBs and of course many clubs in the region are very important to me. I am keen to put rugby at the heart of our business and your input to that is vital.

I have been heartened by the passion and commitment shown by so many people and also to find that the values of our sport are alive and well in the community game. The question and answer sessions have been very valuable and I appreciate the honesty and openness of many volunteers who have given me a lot of food for thought.

It is interesting to see the common themes emerging as I go around the country but already I can see the need to ensure that as an organisation we at the RFU support all volunteers by streamlining and minimising the amount of regulatory and administrative demands placed upon you.

This supports you in your important job of maximising the enjoyment of the game for everyone involved. I know it seems obvious but rugby is there for all our enjoyment and if we ensure that people are having fun this will go a long way to dealing with any retention issues and developing and growing the game at all levels.

I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Kind regards

There are 10 items of importance that I would like to tell you about

Planning, Funding and Reporting Many thanks to the 24 County Constituent Bodies who have submitted their 2010-11 plans as part of the pilot PFR process. Regional Rugby Managers are working with CBs to ensure that toolkit funding requests have been identified both by all CBs. County CBs not taking part in the pilot will be sent the CB self certification form for completion by October 31, 2010 as communicated in August.

Vetting & Barring and Criminal Records Bureau checks The Government today (22.10.10) announced the terms of reference for a full review of the Vetting & Barring Scheme, which was halted earlier this year, together with a review of how CRB checks are carried out. With the aim of creating a ‘less-burdensome’, common sense approach to vetting staff and volunteers, the review should be complete early in the new year with a set of recommendations for a way forward. Until then it is business as usual with CRB checks for people in rugby who are in close contact with children and vulnerable adults. For the more detailed press release visit www.crb.homeoffice.gov.uk.

Barclays Community Sports Award Your clubs could get a £1,000 cash award every month, with a potential £5,000 award at the end of the year by completing a simple nomination form. Many football clubs have benefitted but not many rugby clubs yet! To apply on line visit www.barclayscommunitysportsaward.com

Seal of Approval The number of clubs with seal of approval continues to rise with 46 whole club and 551 mini & youth accreditations. The table below shows how each CB is doing.

CB IT shopping list As you know we have moved to a sustainable system where each CB has the opportunity to renew its IT equipment every four years on a rotational basis. The Honorary Secretaries and Treasurers of the eleven CBs who are eligible for equipment in 2010/11 have been contacted and are able to order equipment from the IT Shopping List to the value of £3,000. They may purchase extra items using their own funds. The scheme details are available on request from carolethelwall-jones@rfu.com

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero 2010 The BBC are looking for a very special person working in sport. 15 regional winners will be named with an overall winner at the Sports Personality of the Year event in Birmingham on December 19, 2010. Do you know someone who helps others take part in rugby within your community? Someone who goes that extra mile to make a difference to our sport? If so, please nominate them for the BBC's Sports Unsung Hero 2010 award at www.bbc.co.uk/sportsunsunghero or use the attached form and post or email as directed to sportsunsunghero@bbc.co.uk Nominations must be returned by Friday, October 29

Regulations Manager [from Terry Burwell] As you may already know, Andrew Rogers is leaving the RFU after 11 years to join Premiership Rugby as their Salary Cap and Regulations Manager. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing Andrew all the best in his new role and thank him for his contribution and support to the game over the past 11 years. Andrew’s final day is Wednesday, October 27 and in preparation for his departure we have already begun the process of assigning his various duties. At the moment there will be no direct replacement for Andrew and as such the main RFU contact for those duties is shown on the attached one page document.

Administration & Resources Team [from Nick Bunting] There have been a number of changes in the team following Jessica Mills’ decision not to return from maternity leave:

Administration & Resources Administrator - Martine Richardson will be moving from the Referee Department on 8 November as maternity cover for Katharine Bessent.

Kit & Resources Administrator - Helen Cook will be joining us on November 1 from Anglia Ruskin University to replace Emma Kennedy who has transferred to the Communications team

Publications & Resources Administration - Aileen Smith continues to provide an excellent service on behalf of the team and I would ask for your consideration over the next few weeks whilst she is covering the work of the team on her own.

CB Orientation Day A big thank you to the 44 delegates and 36 staff members who took part in the 2010 event on 13 October at Twickenham. Once again the feedback was very positive, with all delegates saying they would recommend the event to others.

Share some Christmas spirit with the RFU Injured Players Foundation What better way can there be to give back to the game this festive season than to buy the IPF's charity Christmas cards? There is a large selection of many different styles available and 15p from each card sold will go directly to the Foundation which supports people who sustain a catastrophic injury (CI) whilst playing rugby. Available from November 7, simply go to www.rfuipf.org.uk to browse and order online in plenty of time for the last posting dates. Also available are customisable cards and calendars so that you can choose your own image and greeting to spread your personal seasonal message.

If you have any 'hot topics', queries or feedback about this communication, please contact me.

Kind regards

Carole

Delivering the programmes of the Rugby Football Foundation and the Rugby Football Union

cid:170355812@26042010-0A2A

Constituent Body	M&Y Sections	M&Y SoA Clubs	Percentage	Whole Club SoA
Berkshire	10	8	80%	3
Buckinghamshire	13	13	100%
Cheshire	41	30	73%	3
Cornwall	22	12	55%
Cumbria	19	18	95%	1
Devon	30	13	43%
Dorset & Wilts	29	20	69%	2
Durham	25	17	68%	1
East Midlands	30	24	80%	4
Eastern Counties	36	20	56%	1
Essex	29	13	45%	1
Gloucestershire	51	19	37%
Hampshire	26	18	69%	5
Hertfordshire	19	18	95%
Kent	41	18	44%	2
Lancashire	46	38	83%	3
Leicestershire	19	15	79%	1
Middlesex	28	10	36%	1
North Midlands	42	33	79%	2
Northumberland	17	13	76%	3
Notts, Lincs & Derby	36	29	81%	4
Oxfordshire	14	14	100%
Somerset	36	20	56%	1
Staffordshire	21	14	67%	2
Surrey	36	19	53%
Sussex	22	22	100%
Warwickshire	25	12	48%	2
Yorkshire	71	51	72%	4

END