Things To Do

Recruiting - This should be one of the top, if not THE top priority.

• Word of mouth: Tell everyone you know, and tell them to tell everyone they know.
  • I ordered some business cards to hand out when I run into someone who is interested. I have 1000, so if you'd like some to give out let me know.
  • Jeff mentioned that wearing rugby jerseys, jackets, or other apparel out to bars and around town might get an interested potential rugby player to start up a conversation with you. Very good advice, and half the thinking behind the bar crawl.
  • Petey Pablo (Pete Geres) is going to work on some of the graduating UMW guys to find out if they'll be in the area and interested in playing.
• Fliers: We need to start putting up fliers to promote team functions, practices, games, etc.. This should continue throughout the season.
  • Suggested places: Bars, Gyms, Grocery Stores, and any other place you can get permission to put them up. The more visibility we can get, the better.
  • I made a few fliers to generally advertise that there is a team, and I'll try to make fliers each time we have an event to promote. Here are some:
    Team Flier 1
    Team Flier 2
    Team Flier 3
    Team Flier 4
    Meeting Flier 1
    Meeting Flier 2
  • If you can, keep track of where you're posting them so we can update, and/or replenish any we put out.
• Rugby Interest meetings: Holding the interest meetings should help get the word out, but people have to know we're having one.
  
  • Our next one is Wednesday, January 25th, at 7:00pm at Covington's Food & Spirits.
  • We will also be setting up some bar crawls for recruiting and fundraising purposes.
• Newspaper listings: We need to advertise interest meetings, games, practices, and any other team functions we have.
  
  • Pete has already made the right contacts at the Free Lance Star, and will act as our POC for them. (Hopefully, we can get a mention for the next interest meeting.)
  • Jeff has volunteered to check into information on getting an ad or plug in the VRE newsletter for future events.
  • There is a VRU newsletter that goes out once every few months. It would be good for someone to contact the editor to let him know that we're trying to start a team. If you don't want to give your own name and e-mail address out, use mine: Joey Pendergrast, info1@fredrugby.com
  • There are also a variety of rugby related web sites that have team listing and information. It would help to have the name thrown in with some of them.
• Radio Spots: Radio stations will give free radio spots to advertise community events, so we need to research this.
  • Here's the PSA (Public Service Announcement) I've been sending to the radio stations for the interest meetings (with the appropriate date, of course):
    "The Rappahannock Rugby Club is hosting a general interest meeting at the Colonial Tavern in downtown Fredericksburg on Thursday, January 6th, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Anyone interested in playing rugby in the Fredericksburg area should stop in. For more information, go to www.fredrugby.com."
    In addition, they require contact information with the person's name, email, and phone number.
  • The following is a list of the local radio stations I have contacted (or will) about a PSA for the next interest meeting, along with some contact information:
    93.3 FM WFLS - www.wfls.com - email Mike Vincent at mvincent@wfls.com with the information and the subject psa. (Owned by the Free Lance Star.)
    95.9 WGRQ - www.oldies959.com - Fax 540-891- 1656 with the information.
    96.9 WWVZ - www.classicrock969.com - I'll be calling for PSA contact information. (Owned by the Free Lance Star.)
    99.3 WYSK - www.wysk.com - email Mike Vincent at mvincent@wfls.com with the information and the subject 99-3 PSA. (I believe this is also owned by the Free Lance Star
    101.5 WBQB - www.wbqb.com - email Lee Johnson at leejohnson@wbqb.com with the information.
    104.5 WGRX - www.thunder1045.com - email Stephanie Taylor at staylor@thunder1045.com with the information.
    AM 1230 - WFVA - www.am1230wfva.com - email wfva@newstalk1230.net with the information. No contact information was listed for PSAs. In fact, they weren't mentioned at all.
• Internet Propaganda: There are a lot of rugby related web sites out there. Let's get our name on some of them.
  • Some rugby sites have lists of teams. It couldn't hurt to get ours mentioned in as many of them as we can. Search for rugby news sites or just rugby sites, see what comes up, and try to find out if they have a list of teams we can be added to.
  • Message Boards of other teams. Try to find out if any teams local to the area have message boards we can post to. If people are commuting to DC or Richmond to play, we want them to stay here. (Richmond has two teams, and the DC area has a whole flock of them.)
  • Jamie posted some information to an in-house web forum at his work. If anyone else has something similar they can do, please do.
  • Kyle has a listing of all the e-mails of Stafford(?) teachers through his work e-mail. He's going to send out an informational e-mail to promote the team and the meeting as well.

• Practice Pitch: We need to find a practice pitch for the spring season. Preferably one with lights, as practice will most likely start at around 7:00pm in late February. Somewhere relatively close to downtown Fredericksburg seems ideal since that is a fairly central location for all of us. But, we'll take what we can get.
  • I contacted the Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania Parks and Rec. departments, and none of them seem to keen on scheduling or renting fields to an adult team. There is, apparently, already an overload on the fields due to youth sports. Feel free to make your own inquiries.
  • At some point, I'm going to try to contact the middle and High Schools in Spotsylvania. According to the school board, the individual schools can make the decision whether or not to allow a youth or adult team to practice on their fields. If anyone has some contacts that could help us out in this area, please let me know so we can use them.
  • Anyone got any other leads on fields????
• Alternate/Indoor Pitch for weather: A pitch we can use if/when weather prevents us of the normal practice pitch or until we can find one with outdoor lights. I recently found out about the Fredericksburg Field House. They have games scheduled on their web site now. It's in Spotsylvania, near Shannon Airport, and is an indoor artificial turf field. Their web site, fredfredfieldhouse.com , is now active. I haven't tried calling yet, the number is (540) 372-4565. It looks like they host their own intramural sports, (soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, flag football, and ultimate) but we may be able to work it out so that the team can practice there in case of bad weather.
• Game Pitch: We need to find one that we can line for rugby, that we can put up goal posts for, and that we can play on consistently.
• Anyone got any ideas? Anyone....?
• Social Pitch: Right now, Colonial Tavern seems to be a good social location for post games and meetings, but it never hurts to have a backup.

• Sponsors: Assuming we can get a full team together, we will definitely need some sponsors to help alleviate the costs of running a team.
  • Colonial Tavern is being worked on now. We have a meeting with the manager on December 9th, the same night as the general interest meeting.
  • Find out if the company you work for will donate money to the team. Giving back to the community is considered the right thing to do by many companies. Let me know if you have any leads on this.
  • Josh Turner is working on his company as a sponsor.
  • I am working on a promising $2000 donation from a health consulting company.
  • Anyone else got a lead?
• Club Dues: Although I don't know how much we'll need, it seems hard to imagine that we'll raise enough funds to get by without charging dues of some sort. Dues would cover CIPP fees, socials, interest meetings, a Law Book for each player, some team equipment, referees dues, pitch fees, and anything else our fundraising efforts can't.
• 50/50 raffles at meetings, socials, games, etc.
• Door checking/begging at bars during happy hours, etc.: We may be able to ask for donations at some bars during Happy Hours or on weekends. The busier the bar, the better. We will definitely need to ask permission before doing this. We may be able to schedule these so the whole team can show up.

• Player Kits: Purchased by the player - Shorts, socks, boots, jerseys - white and dark, mouthpiece, tape
• Team set of jerseys: It would be nice to have a team set of jerseys as well....
• Practice Equipment: Balls, Kicking tees, Cones, Ruck Pads, Tackle Pads, Whistles, Scrum Machine, Med Kit
• Field Equipment: Lining Equipment, Goal Posts and Pads, Field Flags and Markers, Touch Flags, 5 Gallon Cooler, Tent/Palisade, etc.

• 1/22/05: Annual General Meeting (Richmond)
• 2/01/05: Spring Schedules are due
• 4/01/05: Deadlines for dues to the VRU
• 8/01/05: Deadline for the Fall schedules
• 10/01/05: Fall Dues Deadline

• Need to set up scrimmages/games: Jeff has volunteered to act as a Match Secretary, as he performed the duties for a prior team.
• Find deadlines for registration for spring tournaments
• Practice times/days: Tues, Thurs - 7:00 until, starting 2/22/05. (My thoughts on the days and times, anyway.)

• Team Handbook
• Team Playbook: Lineouts, Scrum plays, back plays, kickoff calls, etc.
• 501(c)3 status: Is it in our best interest to try to go non-profit, and is it worth the time and effort right now?
• Club officers: Eventually, we'll need to elect club officers. For the time being, this may be a moot point. I do have some documentation on typical club officer duties taken from the VRU web site.
• VRU or PRU?: At some point, we need to find out if we are going to be competing in the VRU or the PRU, or if we can take our pick. This is probably also a low priority for now, but information is always good.

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