Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

As many of you are aware, Cam Russell our Referee Manager resigned at the end of March to move his whanau to Quebec, Canada where his lovely wife is from. Isabelle and their gorgeous girls departed our shores in March and left Cam behind to sell their house and belongings, which Cam has now done.

Cam’s last day for us was originally meant to be Friday 28th April 2023 and his last physical day in the office was in fact Thursday 20th April.  He has been working remotely since, and this week departed our shores.

I am excited to announce however, that Cam and the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union have agreed to terms that sees Cam continue in his role as Referee Manager, remotely from Canada for a period of at least 4 months.  Club members will pick up the slack of delivery of any face-to-face education and training at Baywide meetings.  During that time, Cam will continue to perform the role remotely on a part time (20 hrs per week) basis while we recruit his replacement.  The role is currently advertised at https://www.boprugby.co.nz/ABOUT-US-1/Vacancies-1/referee-manager, with applications closing 12th May. Please feel free to share this far and wide.

Cam has also agreed to perform a hand over to his replacement when that person comes on board and he will then transition out of the Referee Manager role, but continue working for us working on a number of projects for the BOPRU including build some online courses for the referee space as well as the BOPRU office.  In the meantime, it’s business as usual for the Bay of Plenty Rugby Referees Club, and Cam remains the primary staff contact for Referees, for now.

On a personal note, thanks to Mike, Neil, Scott and the board for being courageous to do things differently.

If you have any questions or queries, feel free to reach out.

Nga mihi,

Pat Rae (he/him)

GM Community Rugby & Match Day Manager for Bunnings Warehouse NPC

Bay of Plenty Rugby Union

UoW Adams Centre for High Performance

52 Miro Street Mount Maunganui 3116

P: 07-547-4684

M: 029 487 8429

E: pat@boprugby.co.nz

W: www.boprugby.co.nz/community-rugby

Article added: Saturday 29 April 2023