New O2 Touch Ambassadors sought

I've decided to step down as the club's "O2 Touch Ambassador" and leave the role to someone else with some more time than I have at the moment.

Each O2 Touch club is supposed to have at least one "Ambassador", so we're looking for AT LEAST one person to do this (three would be ideal).  Basically you need to manage social media communication (which is a core part of our obligation to O2 Touch).

You'll need to tell players when touch is happening, make sure organisers tell people if they cancel a session, respond to enquiries over social media and post regular selfies and playing shots on instagram, Twitter and the club's public Facebook page using the hashtag #o2touch.

Here's a link to the job description for the role that the O2 Touch office have sent through to me.

If you're interested, please let Matt Bovaird (chairman@millwallrugby.com) or me know, or comment below... whatever you prefer.

Best wishes
Andrew
(andrew@millwallrugby.com)



NB, we're also looking for a new O2 Touch Lead Coordinator.

New O2 Touch Lead Organiser Sought

We're looking for a new Lead Organiser for O2 Touch rugby at Millwall.

The main purpose of the role is

1. to organise a rota of organisers who will turn up with a ball and cones for each session and welcome new members (note, you don't actually need to actually be the session organiser, but it probably does help if you run a few sessions yourself)
2. to liase with the RFU O2 Touch office from time to time.

If you're interested, please contact the club committee by email (via chairman@millwalrugby.com).

We're also looking for new O2 Touch Rugby Ambassadors.

Regards
Andrew

Osea Island Touch Sevens

Hi All,

Hope you are all enjoying the off season.

As a thanks for the clubs work and commitment to growth this year, the RFU have invited us, as one of 8 clubs in Essex, to play some Social Touch Sevens at the inaugural http://www.englandrugby.com/24sevens/ National Finals on Sunday 24th July at Osea Island (http://www.oseaisland.co.uk/).

Time – 10:00 – 19:00 (Playing Times TBC). 

The “Touch Sevens” will be a round robin social festival with a focus on fun and enjoyment. Teams will consist of 10/12 players and will play a maximum of 7 games, no overall winners will be awarded but spot prizes for best fancy dress, team displaying the best core values, flamboyant play etc. will be awarded.

If you are interested and available to play, please email selection@millwallrugby.com ASAP, so we can sort out transport.

Many Thanks,

Matt Watts

Touch rugby roles - your views?

Hello all,

We posted recently about the idea of creating touch rugby positions on the management and playing committees.

Whether or not we actually have volunteers this year to fill them is not necessarily relevant, because we will find a way of managing by other committee members and helpers stepping in. But this is about making sure we have the right "ideal" structure for managing touch rugby at the club going forward.

But I am interested to know in advance of the AGM whether or not you think it's a good idea to create formal committee roles for touch or not.... Please drop me an email or speak to Matt or Nigel about it if you prefer, as there is no point trying to change things if this is not a popular idea.

Andrew
Communications Officer, Touch Rugby Ambassador (...& long term club member!)
andrew@millwallrugby.com

Summer Touch Rugby starts 25th April

It's nearly the end of the season and normal training sessions will stop on Wednesday 20th April.

During the summer months we play Touch Rugby on Millwall Park at the same time, in the same place.   We suggest you arrive anytime from 7pm for a 7.30pm start and we will play until there's no daylight left, finishing usually between 8.30pm and 9pm.

Afterwards, we'll always either go to our clubhouse for a drink or may go to one of the local pubs instead.

To help you plan your summer evenings, we've decided to let you know in advance that club touch rugby will run on:

• Sundays 12.30pm-2.30pm as usual
• Mondays 7pm for 7.30pm start until dark
• Wednesdays 7pm for 7.30pm start until dark

(This summer we are not currently planning on entering any club teams in the In2Touch leagues)

We're still looking for a new coordinator.... read more here.

Interim Touch Rugby Coordinator and new positions of Touch Rugby Chair and Touch Team Manager

It was great to see so many people down at Touch last Sunday; we managed to get two full-games going alongside each other.


Here are a few updates:

1. Nigel Webb Stepping Down

After 2+ years Nigel Webb (Flex) has decided he wants to step down from the O2Touch coordinator role to take a break.  We're very grateful for all Nigel has done to develop and grow O2Touch, including entering (and organising) our first few inter-club tournaments during the year.  I'm sure Nigel will still continue to help out with running the occasional session alongside Darryl, Mike and Scott.

2. URGENT - New Interim Touch Rugby Coordinator Needed ASAP

So this means that we need to find a new Touch Rugby Coordinator to step in right away and get things going for the summer season.  The most important things you need to do in this role are:

• Organise a rota to make sure someone runs every session
• Announce when sessions are and are not taking place
• Be a point of liaison for the club with the RFU O2 Touch team, which provides some sponsorship to the club

Even if you are very new to the club, please still get in touch if you can help with this. It's a great way to get involved and get to know people.

3. Possible new elected touch rugby positions

We are exploring the idea of adding the role of "Touch Chair" as an elected management committee role to sit equally alongside Men's, Ladies' & Youth Chair.  This would recognise the way that touch has grown at Millwall over the past 10 years to the point that it now happens all year round and we are now starting to enter club competitions. Additionally, it is now a key recruitment channel and attracts funding for the club.

Recognising that it can be a lot of work for one person to do alone, and noting the successes Venus has had in having two elected officers who support each other, we are also looking at creating an elected "Touch Team Manager" role whose responsibility it would be to manage competitive teams and fill in the touch rugby team sheet etc and work with the Touch Chair to manage the rota.

• The Touch Chair would be expected to represent touch on the Club Management Committee (CMC) and take an active role in managing the club.  
• The Touch Team Manager would be elected by touch players just like our other team managers, but would not be obliged to attend management committee meetings.

Just like now, we would still depend on a number of additional (unelected) touch session organisers to be on a rota.

We would probably need to find a way of making sure that the position handover happens in March/April each year so that the new people are fully up to speed for the summer season.  This would allow the Club Captain to focus on pre-season training instead of worrying about getting summer touch going.

This change carries the support of myself, Nigel and the current club management committee but we would like to know what you think.  It will require a small change to our constitution and articles of association and will be formally proposed at the AGM for you to vote on.

So...

• if you are interested in standing as Touch Chair,
• or if you are interested in being Touch Team Manager
• or if you would like to volunteer to be an interim coordinator from today onwards
• or if you would like to volunteer to run a few sessions 
• or if you have any views/comments/observations on proposal in 3 above, 

...then please speak to Nigel, Matt Bovaird or me. You can contact us at: andrew@millwallrugby.com, flex@millwallrugby.com or mattbovaird@millwallrugby.com


Regards
Andrew Hesselden
Club Communications Officer & "O2 Touch Rugby Ambassador"

Players needed for touch rugby tournament today (Saturday 12th March)

Flex has asked if anyone who is not playing contact rugby for the club today is available to play touch rugby, please email touch@millwallrugby.com and turn up at the clubhouse at 8am Sat 12th March.

For more infomation about Touch Rugby please visit www.millwallrugby.com/touch

No Touch Rugby this Sunday 13th March

There will be no touch rugby tomorrow (Sunday 13th March) owing to people being involved in a tournament today (Saturday 12th March).

For more infomation about Touch Rugby please visit www.millwallrugby.com/touch

Competitive Touch Rugby Teamsheets

It's great to see how popular our club touch rugby tournaments are becoming!

So we've decided to create an online team sheet for our touch rugby competitions, just like the club's men's rugby works.

When you tell us you're available (by emailing touch@millwallrugby.com), we'll collate names and then publish the team sheet, announcing that it is published via the blog

You can always find the new touch rugby team sheet by visiting the touch rugby section of our website and looking on the left hand side, for "Team Sheet".

More touch news here.

Nigel, Andrew, Darryl, Scott & Mike
Touch Rugby Committee

Over 50s Touch Rugby Tournament

There will be a touch rugby tournament for over 50s held at Allianz Park on 29th April.

If you would like to play please email touch@millwallrugby.com.

Posted by Millwall Rugby Club on Monday, 25 January 2016

No Regular Touch Rugby 31 Jan, 28 Feb and 13 Mar

Just a reminder that we will be playing our regular touch rugby every Sunday, with the exception of

• Sun 31st January
• Sun 28th Feburary
• Sun 13th March

This is because we are playing in a tournament on a nearby date instead.

Read more about the tournament here.

Touch Rugby Tournament

We will be entering a touch rugby competition on the following dates:

• Friday 29th January 2016 at 7pm at Allianz Park  (no regular touch on Sun 31st Jan)
• Saturday 13th February 2016 at 12 noon on Millwall Park (no regular touch on Sun 14th Feb)
• Saturday 12th March 2016 at 10am at Allianz Park (no regular touch on Sun 13th Feb)

Everyone is welcome to take part. Please email touch@millwallrugby.com if you would like to play.

Posted by Millwall Rugby Club on Monday, 18 January 2016

Posted by Millwall Rugby Club on Monday, 18 January 2016

Posted by Millwall Rugby Club on Monday, 18 January 2016

Touch Rugby Refereering Course 13 Feb - POSTPONED TO ANOTHER DATE

There will be a Touch Rugby Refereeing Course at Millwall Rugby Club on 13th February 2016 at 9am.

If you would like to attend, to register, please sign up here: Sign Up Form

For more information please email Nigel Webb at touch@millwallrugby.com.

Posted by Millwall Rugby Club on Monday, 18 January 2016

Changes to our #O2Touch Rugby Sessions

Changes to timings

Our Thursday touch rugby sessions have now stopped for the summer in order to let you all focus on main club training.  We've noticed numbers dropping off, so decided it's time to stop.  The Sunday sessions however will continue, as always, throughout the winter.

We're changing the time of Sunday sessions to bring it half an hour earlier to help organisers who run other sessions in the morning.  The new time will be 12.30pm until 2.30pm.  This is effective from this coming Sunday 15th August.

Changes to session fees

Effective immediately: in the interests of encouraging participation in our Millwall Park sessions we've decided to abolish the £3 fee for non-members to play.  This means that, like all our club training, all Millwall Park sessions are now free of charge.  We will still be taking a register however, as this is a requirement of our O2Touch sponsorship.

Effective from January 2016: recognising the costs of entry into the competitions (which can be upwards of £350), as well as the fact that we now provide shiny kit for you to wear, we've decided to bring our competition/league-sessions in line with the rest of the club.

• This means that you must be a fully paid up and current member of the club to be selected to play and you'll need to pay match day subs to contribute... unless you're a life member. 
• Rather than being £10 as with our full-contact rugby, the subs for touch rugby will be a reduced £5 (unemployed the same).  
• As is usual, regular club volunteers benefit from 50% off what they would otherwise have to pay.
• The same trial rules apply for people who have never been members before (one game with no match subs to pay, and no membership requirement until just prior to third game)

If you've got any questions, please email one of us on the touch rugby committee (Nigel, Darryl, Scott, Mike, Andrew)

touch@millwallrugby.com

www.millwallrugby.com/touch

Touch rugby tournament and quiz afternoon

Coming up soon in just under two weeks time is our first club touch rugby tournament since our sponsorship with #o2touch. 

It's at 1pm on Sunday 16th November. 

The touch tournament will be free to enter and there will be a cash prize for the winning team. 

To play you should email touch@millwallrugby.com before this Saturday 8th Nov. 

You're also welcome to join us just for a pub quiz afterwards in our clubhouse. There is a £10 fee per team (of 5) to enter. 

Here's the Facebook invitation for you to tell us you're coming:

https://m.facebook.com/events/322562617925405

Any questions please email Flex at touch@millwallrugby.com

Changes to Touch Rugby from 1st September

From 1st September our club's touch rugby activities will run under the banner of O2 Touch. This is part of a sponsorship deal between Millwall Rugby, the RFU and O2.

Nigel Webb (Flex) has kindly agreed to manage the club's touch rugby activities for this year and will be present each week to run the sessions.  If you'd like to find out more about Nigel's plans, you can reach him at flex@millwallrugby.com

One of the changes that takes effect from 1st September is that we will be charging £3 per session to play touch rugby; that is unless you're already a member of the club, or you join as a member.  For members it will continue to be free of charge to play.

Membership currently costs £50 per year for adults with discounts for volunteers, students and unwaged people, and entitles you to participate in all the clubs activities and gives you access to our clubhouse.

Posted on behalf of Nigel Webb
Touch Rugby Coordinator
flex@millwallrugby.com