(btw, good props to your group in this morning's paper, did you see it in the Voice section?)
Sorry if some of this is redundant to our conversation yesterday. Take or leave what you like.

BH, a subject near and dear to my heart... having founded a bike club partially based on listening to what others want out of a group, and my own experiences...

- Everyone in the group must be on the same page about ride philosophy, and if they aren't, it needs to be discussed why not, and what to do about it. If anyone cares. They may not. They may want to have their own private little club, and not really be interested in doing what it takes to grow the organization. And yes, it takes energy and commitment!!

- for the middle group that doesn't' know if they are fast or slow, this is what we are going to try at our next ride as we ran into this. We always divide into fast/slow but you end up with faster and fastest in the fast group. My idea for our next ride is to have TWO leaders and TWO sweepers. A mile or two into the thing, you can see how the middle group ( the ones that can't keep up with the fast ones) is going to shake out, and have the second leader and second sweeper break off with the middle riders to form the third group. Then the fastest ones can go off.

-ride rules for the club. Our club has a no- drop policy. Period. It can suck if someone misplaces themselves in the wrong group, but your newcomers won't feel forgotten, dropped or left off. We advertise certain rides as no-drop, social rides, with the intent that everyone have fun and want to come back for more. We host rides that specifically cater to beginners. I’ve been known to take a lap or two to get the workout in before the ride. Also, we have a "tag" policy for mountain bike rides, where each riders makes sure the one behind them makes a turn.

Consider “event based” rides. Hosting weekly rides can be a real burnout. But an ‘event’ can create a little more enthusiasm.

Make sure your board meetings are open to the public and advertised to the group. Feeling like the board has secret meetings where outsider input is not welcome will not help your organization.

If someone has an idea, create an environment where they’ll feel welcome to pursue it, and get supported. I was actually told once, “our club doesn’t do that” when asked certain things. Its not like I was asking THEM to do it, it was something I wanted to do.

I think friendliness is really, really important. Of course newcomers aren't going to want to come back if they feel like they are on the outside of an established clique.

um, that's all I can think of for now.