Referee Society Federations – an RFU initiative – were established a number of years ago, and SRUSR is partnered with NMSRFR (North Midlands) to form the West Midlands Federation of Rugby Union Referees.
Aims:
According to the constitution (revised in 2023), “its core aims are to develop match officials, to meet the needs of the game within the West Midlands and to maximise the strengths and skills within the member Societies”.
Key Functions:
In practice, its main functions are to arrange exchanges, to appoint referees to most matches at Level 6 and to identify and support those match officials with the potential to progress to L5 (Midlands Division) and beyond. Some training events are likely to be arranged across the Federation (or at least be open to members of both Societies) and a Federation development squad is also a possibility.
The Committee is comprised of:
Chair – Dave Thomas (N. Mids)
Vice Chair – Neil Pow (Staffs)
Hon Secretary – Steve Barr (Staffs)
Hon Treasurer – Mike Jones (N Mids)
Appointments/Exchange Secretary – Mike Spencer (N Mids)
RFRU Representative – Dave Thomas
Midlands Representative – Steve Barr
The Federation Appointments Committee is comprised of:
Appointments/Exchange Secretary – Mike Spencer (N Mids)
Federation Performance Reviewer – Leigh Davenport (Staffs)
Federation Coach – Neil Reid-Warrilow (N Mids)
The Federation Appointments Policy (adopted in October 2020), which sets out the appointments process at Level 6 is available here.