The Gents held their first Annual General Meeting and resolved to keep the team moving forward. The schedule is also listed at the end of the meeting report...

Minutes of the First Gentlemen of New York Annual General Meeting

A respectable group of Gents met up on Thursday, Jan. 28^th for the

first ever Gents AGM.

We had several lively discussions and made a few new rules.

The spring schedule is below, you gotta read thru this to get there.

First the election results:

David Martin – vice-president, Old Boys Division of the New York Rugby Club – the job involves the overall running of the club. Scheduling, liaison with the NYRC, making sure there is a field and any of the other myriad issues that pop up all season long.

Mike Delano – captain. It was decided that the captain will be responsible for all game day functions including making sure we have a full side and selections for the game.

Kevin McManus – treasurer. He will collect game fees and make sure dues are paid.

Dues

As old boys we agreed that the old boys should contribute to the NYRC. It was explained that the NYRC covers field costs, insurance and other benefits that come from being associated with a main club. Therefore we approved a dues and payment structure as follows:

$50 per season (spring and fall) dues.

$20 game fee per game.

It was agreed that as “gentlemen” we would abide by gentlemen's rules and all agree to pay. While we have an “everyone plays” policy, dues paying members will get first consideration. A new player of course will not be obligated to pay up immediately, but we expect that all regular members of the Gents will take care of their dues commitment. The game fees will be collected prior to the game. Anyone failing to pay game fees or dues will have less opportunities to play. In other words, pay your dues and your fees and everything will go much smoother for all of us.

Your new treasurer is working out a way to pay dues and that information will be available well before the first game of the season.

Beer and Food

We agreed to continue the informal nature of GONY rugby and the tradition of post game activities at the field immediately following the game. Therefore: the captain will rotate through the team and each week accept a volunteer.

 We have traditionally only provided food to teams traveling from far away. The Ct Greys and the Poltroons are both teams that get fed. As open flames are an issue, six foot heros are a very good alternative. Two usually are fine for just two teams. They cost about $100 each. Bear in mind, the teams we play all offer us food and drink at a bar near their field. While we aren’t that interested in going to a bar our opponents expect it. Most of the time following our game a NYRC game will take place, usually a NYRC men’s A game. This gives us a chance to interact with our men’s team and gives them a good crowd of supporters. But the Village Lions, Gotham and women’s teams and U19s teams are all sharing field space. One of the selling points is that there is a good rugby game to check out after ours. We want our visiting teams to hang out, enjoy Randall’s and the games.

We will also seek a volunteer to wash the kit and return it for the next game.

A word about the game times – Field space is tight and getting tighter at Randall’s Island. One of the huge advantages of our association with the NYRC is that they have linked us with them for field time. If we had no connection to the NYRC, I am not sure how the field allocation would work, but it would be different. Game times might be as early at 10:30 a.m. We will probably have about 75 minutes total for games this fall. That’s about a 10 minute warm up and the game. We must be ready to go on time and be off on time. It is likely there will be a u-19s game before us and an A-side game after us. BE ON TIME. If we start late, we will simply have shorter game times and that is not fair to the team that traveled here to play us.

Scheduling - We have been lucky in that we have managed, thanks to the match secretary, to convince teams to come to Randall’s to play us. This was done for a variety of reasons. However, as we continue to put out full sides and win, we will have to begin mixing up our schedule and traveling a bit more. White Plains, Morris, Long Island and the Connecticut Greys are all sides that have or will be making repeated trips to Randall’s and will want us to play on their home turf. They helped us out when we had trouble fielding a full side at home, so plan on that.

A few other random items

We have two sets of kit. The current blue horizontal stripes are a one-time free set. We started with 25. When they are gone, they are gone. Return them and keep them together.  Our official multi-colored harlequin blue/green/blue/orange/white/maroon set comes from Rugby Imports. Call them, ask for Bob Hoder and order your own. The club won’t continue to buy kit as someone keeps walking off with jerseys. Really, incredible as it seems, about 15 have been reported missing.