Appointments and Grading Committee Update
The Society’s Appointments & Grading committee met for the first time this season on Monday 8th October.
We confirmed the promotions of several members of the South East region from Level 9 to Level 8, following strong starts to the season.
The Committee also recognised the new members of the Training & Development team, namely Lee West (SE) and Terry Russell (W) who have stepped into the void after Simon Dodd moved overseas at the end of last season. Thanks to Simon for all his work over the last couple of years, and we are looking forward to working closely with Lee and Terry.
The committee would like to recognise the efforts so far this season from all involved with the appointment of Match Observers; despite being only 5 weeks into the season we have already managed to observe 86 referees between Level 12 - 8 across the 4 regions. To all those who have watched a referee - thank you.
Secondly, we would like to thank the appointments and reappointments teams from each region for keeping the show on the road, in particular Hannah Everitt on Premier List reappointments for her sterling efforts over the weekend of 6th/7th October, our busiest weekend of the season so far. Finally, we would like to thank Gloucestershire Society for to saving the day on a Level 6 exchange fixture on a Thursday night!
Looking forwards, October sees the Society providing 12 referees and 6 coaches to the National Schools Rugby Festival at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich which is the premier 15-a-side schoolboy rugby tournament in the country. Good luck to all involved. November sees 13 Society members going on International exchanges to Dubai, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand, whilst we will also be hosting a Japanese referee and coach from Fukuoka as our Japanese exchange enters its’ third year thanks to the outstanding work of Richard Gourlay. November also sees our first Central Meeting of the year on 8th November at University of Westminster; further details will be provided in due course.
Finally, we are delighted that Louis Biggs, Nikki O’Donnell & Sam Phillips have been selected for opportunities at Level 4 already and we wish them all the best with their games.