Delivering our Strategic Objectives - Some Changes in Community Rugby Dear All, Further to my note in December requesting the refocus of the development staff, I wanted to keep you all up to speed on the further changes that are being made to support the work of the Department in meeting our challenging objectives. As you know, we have refocused the RDOs Job Descriptions and working practices to ensure a more equitable size of area, to allow more time to focus on our clubs. The next phase is to ensure that the management structures are in place to support the team and work more closely to support our partner CBs. To this end we have significantly changed the role of the Regional Rugby Development Manager and this role will now be replaced by a Club and CB Services Manager, working very closely with CBs and other regional partners to develop a strong CB delivery plan.  As a result we have created 8 new positions and the existing RRDMs will be invited to apply. However, this will only take place following the appointment of a new Head of Club and CB Services position which will be advertised shortly and will report directly to myself.  The current post of National Clubs Manager will be replaced by this post and Andy Lees will be invited to apply for this new position. The timescales for these changes are important and it will call for the Head of Club and CB Services to be interviewed first, and it is hoped that this is done by the end of March. Following this, the regional management structure will be interviewed and appointed and we would aim to have everything in place by the end of the financial year in June. In the meantime we will continue to work with our CBs over the consultation process on the RDO / CSO deployment which takes place in the first 3 weeks in February.  Other changes in the Department sees the retirement of Will Feebery and Des Diamond, both of whom have been long servants of the Community game of almost 40 years of rugby work between them, and I am sure you wish to join me in thanking them for their support, contribution and service to the game. In addition, the Coaching Department will now become Coach and Player Development with Gary Townsend continuing to focus on Player Development as Player Development Manager.  This means we will be recruiting  2 Coach Development Managers and the adverts for these are already out. In Refereeing, the 4 Referee Development Officers will become Referee Development Managers, thus creating 8 Referee Development Managers to cover the country more effectively. I realise these are significant changes in some areas and we need to support those involved in the process, but it is important that we have a focussed and effective team for the new challenges of the new Strategic Plan going forward. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this further on 07740 565 062 or at andrewscoular@rfu.com. Regards, Andrew Scoular Community Rugby Director