What you all missed... RFUW club conference 2008

Last weekend saw the London & South East club conference at Hatfield. Quite a few familiar faces present and if I have any significant criticism it would be that the major problem with a regional event like this is that you do tend see all the same faces, which maybe limits the value of the networking opportunities. On the other hand the old national conferences were difficult and expensive for everyone to attend so RFUW obviously can't win. Even so turnout was a little disappointing - about 40-50 people registered, and about two thirds attended - but again no fault of the RFUW, more the apathy of many clubs.

To the organisers great credit almost all of the major documents were available electronically (see below), but significant matters of note to us were:

• A talk by the Saracens Women's coach - Lee Adamson - revealed that Saracens have woken up to the idea that attempting to recruit junior players as they graduate from their clubs might be a good idea, so they are "researching" where the junior clubs are (not an onerous task!). Lee, however, did invite any clubs to join them at one of their training sessions, so that might be worth our looking into as the U18s would certainly gain from seeing the best women's team "in Europe" in action.
  
• Lee also said that Saracens are looking for any new players. The rumour that you have o be invited to join the club are untrue. Anyone (aged over 18, obviously) attending midweek training could be picked to play the following weekend, for the 1st or 2nd team.
• Universities and colleges running sports coaching courses are desparate for coaching opportunities for their students.

Also of wider interest was the news that...

• The Nations Cup looks like it will be just three teams - the extra game on each day is likely to be an exhibition game (as with the U20 Nations Cup in Canada next month).
• The RFU website is to be completely overhauled (at last!), and in the meanwhile the RFUW pages now have their own, shorter, address - http://www.rfu.com/women - slightly more memorable than the old http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/rfuhome.community_detail/storyid/5972 !
  

Overall? It was worth attending, and maybe in future the pre-conferences publicity should maybe make it all appear a bit less exclusive. There was probably something for anyone involved in the game - perhaps there will be a better turnout in 2009.

Major papers and presentations:

• Funding for your club: advice and guidance
• Funder-mental Fundraising Trade Secrets
• Refereeing presentation
• National update
• Coaching presentation
• Club development presentation
• There was also county development presentation, but at the moment I can't get it to upload... but it was all about Hertfordshire so chances are you all know it anyway!