WSRFC Annual Business Meeting 2002
The Fairfax Reds Room of the Firehouse
Grill
Fairfax, Virginia
12 December 2002
Present: Brigham,
Lumberjack, Bardot, Anderson, Devaney, Tull, Corry, O’Donnell, Bucher, Cruz,
Vinny, Laird, Gallagher, Kermit, Jesse, Jesus, Ibach, Gardner, Hill, Motley,
Bighead Todd, Kelly Watkins, Johnny Johnson, Kurt, Princess, West End Brian,
Joe Cardinale (new guy), Joe (another new guy) and about four more new guys. In
all, we had about 34 present.
Meeting called to
order at 7:40 PM.
Kevin Corry passed
out a Spring schedule. It is more than tentative.
Feb 8 – Practice begins,
Dunn Loring
Feb 15 – Practice,
Dunn Loring
Feb 22 Scrimmage
with the Renegades, Washington, D.C.
March 1 – College Recruitment
March 8 – Newport News,
Newport News, VA
March 15 – St. Pat’s
Tournaments at Manassas and Savannah.
March 22 –
Winchester RFC, Winchester, VA
March 29 – Porter Cup,
Richmond, VA
April 5 – Virginia
RFC, Charlottesville, VA
April 12 – Happy Valley/USUHS,
Manassas
April 19 – Easter Weekend
BYE
April 26/27 - Division
III Playoffs for the Fairfax Reds, Site TBD
May 3 – Alumni Match,
Braddock Park
May 10 – Mother’s
Day Weekend ("Always remember Mother" - Corry)
Dues increase: $90/season
for veteran Suburbs guys and those not new to rugby. Pay in full on the first
day of practice and it’s $80. For those of you new to rugby, it’s $45 (I think)
for your first season.
I spoke briefly about
the new Blacks team set of jerseys. Black and white quarters, Barbarians, 50-50
cotton-poly material, paid for by Guinness. I will probably be announcing a
jersey buy for individuals.
Socials: Christmas
party on the 21st. The date for the Winter Banquet will be Saturday 1
February at Mackey’s. Ticket price TBA.
Greg "Jesus" Mull
will be the new recruiting/social chairman. (We're in good hands with Jesus.)
Kermit got up and tearfully
spoke about recruiting 17 year-old girls. (Okay, he wasn’t tearful. He has a
sore throat and it only sounded like he was getting emotional.)
Officer elections:
The current officers are staying on at least through spring season. Freddie Bardot,
however, threw a curve ball (to borrow a phrase from a lesser sport) when he nominated himself as president. He then opened Pandora’s Box by introducing
the subject of a possible merge between Western Suburbs RFC and NOVA; and then withdrew himself from running. Paul Jenkins was sustained as president. A long, sometimes heated discussion was then held about the implications of a possible merge. At one point you could have cut the tension in the air with a knife; just then a barmaid appeared and loudly asked, "Who has the Swiss Mushroom Burger?"
It was decided
that Kevin Gallagher would investigate such a merger and report back to the
officers. He is soliciting the opinions of the members of the club. You may
send him an e-mail with your opinion to his address: kgal4@yahoo.com
Kevin Corry
mentioned how important it is to attend practice.
Brian, a rep from
West End RFC, a local High School rugby side, introduced himself and said that
he was interested in speaking with the officers about possible endorsement of
West End; I spoke to him afterwards and suggested this could take the form of
their attending some practice sessions with us. I encouraged him to get in
touch with our officers and coaches.
Some of our other
new guys got up and introduced themselves. Gents, welcome to Western Suburbs.
If you want to be on our e-mailing list - and why wouldn’t you? – please drop
me a line at wes.clark@uspto.gov and I’ll
make sure you get on.
Kelly Watkins
talked about the stair climb session, which were described as being "no fun." If
this appeals to you, contact him at beowulf33@aol.com
or Cruz at hoffacruz@hotmail.com. Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays, 30 minutes. "Those of you who like this sort of thing
will find that this is the sort of thing you’ll like." - Abe Lincoln
Old Boys: Steve
McNair will not be able to coordinate/plan/schedule Old Boys matches for at
least the Spring season. In his behalf I asked for a volunteer and Kevin Corry
stepped up; so he will be scheduling matches with our usual Old Boy opponents.
If you’re the match secretary of one of our usual Old Boy opponents, you can
contact Kevin at rugb02@yahoo.com - or he
will contact you.
Finally, we voted
on superlatives; that is, "best of’s" for spring and fall season 2002. If you
were not at this meeting you can still vote via the magic of electronic
communications. Simply send an e-mail to Pete Tripi at rugbytripi@yahoo.com. You will be voting
for the following:
--- cut from here
and paste into your e-mail ---
Blacks forward of
the year
Blacks back of the
year
Reds forward of
the year
Reds back of the
year
Blues forward of
the year
Blues back of the
year
Most Valuable
Player (Blacks)
Most Valuable
player (Reds)
Most Improved
Player
Outstanding Rookie
Player (Can be new to rugby or just new to the team)
--- cut to here
and paste into your e-mail ---
Awards will be
given out at the banquet.
The meeting was
concluded at 8:55. A birthday cake was brought in for Kevin Corry, and we all
sang "Happy Birthday To You," recklessly unconcerned with paying royalties to the
owner of this song for a public performance. But hey, we’re rugby players
and used to taking risks.
I then went home
and finished watching my rental DVD, “Raw
Deal” (“Bullets! Women! -- Can't Hold a Man Like This!”), a classic film
noir.
I remain your obedient
servant,
Brigham.
p.s. I know many of you find annual business meetings to be dreary and boring. I, for one, find two-fisted, hairy-arsed rugby players taking up the trappings of Robert's Rules of Order and procedure to be endlessly diverting. Someone will have the floor and be speaking, and somebody else will blurt out (about someone else), "He's a $#$@!-ing wanker!" You just can't rent entertainment like that at Blockbuster.