Foot-Dragging at Rugby Ohio Could Be Their Undoing
Foot-Dragging at Rugby Ohio Could Be Their Undoing
The shift on how Rugby Ohio is organized is moving far too slowly for the likes of those calling for change.
Rugby Ohio is currently under a mandate to establish free and open elections to its Board of Directors because that’s a World Rugby rule. USA Youth & High School has insisted that Rugby Ohio hold elections as soon as possible.
But “as soon as possible” seems to mean different things to different people. There is a Rugby Ohio meeting scheduled for tonight. to talk about some of the issues, but GRR is given to understand that the main sticking point is the size of the Board. The current Board wants, going forward, a Board of 15, with five of the existing Board staying on until August.
State HS Organizations Under Pressure to be Election Compliant
This seems, on the face of it, to be an attempt to flood the proceedings with a large number of spots to fill, to make it harder for the change-minded clubs and teams to find candidates for those spots.
There does seem to be a sense of frustration within USA Youth & High School, as well, as they are charged by USA Rugby and World Rugby to get this voting process settled. Unspoken in all of this is the fact that (as written in the Ted Stevens Act), there is no impediment to any rugby organization or league being created. All (or most) of the teams in Ohio could just decide to play amongst themselves in a new organization. If they did that, Rugby Ohio would run out of money really quickly.
In addition, the consensus is that 15 Board seats is too many. Seven would suffice.
“To me the rugby playing members of Ohio have already spoken,” said USA Youth & High School President David Pool, who has attended all of the meetings discussing how SROs should be organized. “The conclusion [from the meetings] was the best board was to have regionally-based directors and the number of directors should be set at seven.”
USA Youth & High School itself has two employees and seven Board members.
Why seven? Because you need an odd number to avoid deadlocks; you need enough for there to be a robust discussion; you also need a number that will meet regularly as volunteers, or at least form a quorum. Having 15 Board seats means you’d need eight to meet to make the meeting legal. That’s asking a lot for an all-volunteer Board. But a seven-seat Board only needs a quorum of four.
So, right now, the current Rugby Ohio Board is running a delaying action to delay the inevitable. Every day they operate without elections is another day they operate in non-compliance with World Rugby. And that, alone, could be grounds to invalidate the entire organization and create a new one.
So the obvious plan would be: four regional Board members and three at-large members. The four regional plus one at-large spot can be up for a vote by Monday, January 20, with two more spots up for a vote in August. The candidates, as far as GRR understands, are ready to go.
