September 2009
First and foremost, my good wishes to you all as another season
dawns across our beautiful game. I hope you have summered
well, are fit and raring to go, and as I am, looking forward to a
successful and enjoyable season. The Society only exists to
serve its member clubs and officials and regardless of level,
experience (and in my case increasing infirmity), I urge you all to
get involved in your regions' activities and events. Both I and the
Management Committee are always keen to hear from you and any
feedback or ideas you may have are always appreciated. As I
enter the third year of my Presidency, the Society could not be in
better shape at all levels of the game and I for one am so looking
forward to visiting as many clubs as possible during the coming
season.
I am also delighted to welcome members to the refreshed London
Society website. I hope you agree with me that it is now more
user friendly, contains valuable guidance and information for
members as well as providing links to other referee and rugby
related data. As an important principle, it also has
increased the level of transparency across the Society in terms of
match official appointments so that all matches handled by the
Society can be easily viewed by all members. In addition, the
website not only allows members to update their own personal
details, but also facilitates referee availability to the regional
management teams, thus enhancing the efficiency of the appointments
process. This in turn leads to another less visible, but
highly important benefit to the Society. The refreshed
website, together with important upgrades to the Society
appointments database, provides a more efficient management system
to run the Society overall. For example, in addition to on
line referee availability mentioned above, invoicing of annual club
subscriptions is now managed on line, without paper, dramatically
improving the efficiency of the Treasury and hopefully the
workloads of officials in the regions too. Given that we rely
heavily on the willingness of all our officials to run the Society,
anything that can be done to assist them and make life a little
easier, has to be a welcome move. In that vein, I would like to
take the opportunity to thank all the Society's officials, whether
at regional or central levels, for their commitment and sheer hard
work to make the Society function so effectively, it is greatly
appreciated.
Now I'm sure it will not have gone unnoticed that these
improvements have not happened by accident. Some years ago,
the Society reviewed its operations and endorsed the creation of an
IT and communications manager. Regrettably, this has been a
difficult post to fill, but as many of you will be aware, Steve
Hancock has now taken up this position. It is therefore no
co-incidence that the improvements described above have occurred
since Steve's arrival and I would like to take this opportunity of
thanking him for the excellent progress he has made over a
relatively short period of time. I'm sure this is just the
start of a programme of work to ensure that the Society can take
the fullest advantage of its investments in IT infrastructure over
the past few years. Well done Steve!
There are a few important pieces of news to share with
you. First, Standard Chartered Bank has agreed to renew its
sponsorship for another three years which I hope you agree is
excellent news. The Society is extremely grateful for their
support which has seen the expansion of our exchange programme to
now include Korea and India with more destinations to be
forthcoming. Helping 'emerging' rugby nations in the Bank's
geographic footprint is part of the sponsorship agreement and is
taking the Society to a truly international level. Perhaps
most importantly however, is the fact that the sponsorship allows
an exchange programme which is not exclusively focused on the most
senior officials but embraces a broad level of referees. I
believe firmly that we will only remain a successful, if not
pre-eminent referees society, if we are able to offer opportunity
for all our officials and not just those (to coin Dave Broadwell's
phrase) who are upwardly mobile. On a final note, can I ask
you to ensure that at any Society appointment you are wearing the
sponsors kit - no exceptions!!
Second, perhaps the most important showcase for the Society, the
Middlesex Charity Sevens, was held on Saturday 15 August. As
on previous occasions, the standard of officiating was first class
and I would like to thank all the match officials and organisers
for producing a splendid display which drew many complimentary
comments from club officials and blazers alike.
Finally, no Presidential note would be complete with reference
to the forthcoming Annual Dinner to be held on Thursday 26 November
2009 at the RAC Club. It is a great event which I hope you
will support. The guest speaker this year is John Bentley,
England and the British Lions, who has an excellent
reputation. I know you will also be delighted to hear that
the President of the RFU will also be attending to, as last year,
dazzle us with his thoughts on the great English
game.
Once again, good luck for a successful and enjoyable
season. I am honoured and privileged to serve you as
President and words cannot express the fun I am having in the
role!!
Tim