Bike Clubs

Jiffer,
CC is about 15 years old, and yeah, it was moribund until about 2005(like when moi showed up from the east coast).
We do have Insurance through the LAB. One of the things I pressed real hard on when I was on the board. The waiver forms are required by the insurance company. I would definitely not organize any thing without it.
A couple of other words: what are trying to do? as a club , you're open to the public - you have no idea if the guy who just bought a huffy from walmart yesterday is going to show up on the 20+mph paceline. If you want to go for the big tent - which is what we did - beware that you might spend a fair amount of toddling along. about 10 years ago , I was the Secretary for RABA (tulip's club) - back when the heart of Virginia was the Lake Anna Century. I think i rode to Ashland and back at a 10mph pace at least once every 3 months:cool: but it will push you outside the usual circle.
A lot of work - but of a lot of rewards - the question is it worth it to you?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my questions. It has been a great help. In fact, I'm thinking about going to Milwaukee in April.

There's been a thread on our club forum that I made me think of your new club. Someone was asking about changing up a couple of the routes they do consistently the same way each week. While there is nothing wrong with that idea, and suggestions like that are how new things are born, which could be great for the club ... someone replied that one of the things that seemed to help the growth of the club was having consistent weekly rides. People know what to expect. There's no guessing game. I know for me, I used to be pretty intimidated by rides that I wasn't familiar with. On the Sunday rides, which change, if I wasn't sure about the route and my ability to keep up with the club on a longer distance or more climbing, I wouldn't go. The Wed/Thu morning rides are completely flexible. The route isn't decided until the people show up, a decision is made and they go. Sometimes I like that. Mixes things up and you discover new roads or routes that other people take you. But sometimes I need to know I'm getting a specific kind of training ride in that might not work with their "lets decide the day of the ride" plan. It's nice to have both options. The consistent rides on the same day of the week, and the variation on other days.

But like I said, the Sunday rides change weekly, with a schedule made at the beginning of the month and a separate list of all the routes to look up a description of what a particular route is like.

I alwayd liked how RAB organized the Ashland Breakfast club rides:
You started out by riding 10 flat miles and then had breakfast. after that, several groups formed based on distance and diffculty - anywhere from straight back to 50 hilly miles - sorta of the "best of both worlds" approach of course you do have to put with breakfast at Hardee's every Saturday:)