Local Bike Club in Questionable status...A bit long

[Red Rock]

This was a bit of potential sad news that is happening in my area. The local bike club is having an organizational meeting to figure out what is going to happen with itself. Keep going in a new direction or disband. I must admit, I have been one of the no shows of the group. The rides are mostly guys and times have never seemed to jive with my life for one reason or another. I currently hold an officership with my only other organization to which I belong.

We as a community are getting more and more traffic, so I think it is critical to have someone speak on behalf of cyclists. I have noticed that other cities seem to have a better organized group, in addition to, bike shops that have things going on and doing things with their customers. I do not see any of that taking place here where I live. Running Mommy seems to have a great thing going at here place. I would love to have her shop where I am (or I go there). I also do not know how much of this might be the male/female interaction and needs from each group that come through in these shops.

I was just wondering if you all had suggestions that I might bring up. Or if I should attend and see what happens when I get there.

Thank you for your input.

Red Rock

[shootingstar]

It's not healthy for survival of a local cycling organization/group to be primarily men, particularily if it's the only cycling-focused organization in your area. They should then rename themselves as Men's xxxxxxxx, or whatever name.

If you as an individual care strongly to do something differently:
a) Partner with someone within the group who may be receptive and more driven to expand the direction of the group and its membership.

b) Keep in mind that cycling advocacy is different from just riding in groups or group learning on bike maintenance, cycling technique,etc. It does mean getting off the bike and meeting with municpal folks in council, engineering dept. to do something concrete

c) Explore with a bike shop owner who would be interested in partnering with you plus 1-2 other cyclists to meet up, organize rides, etc.

I have volunteered for 2 organizations, where each organization sadly had to die after 5 years of existence for each organization. One of them was a women's cycling group where we organized rides, had large conference every 2 yrs. on various topics, workshops, etc. We had a membership of 250+ women from southern Ontario. It was heartbreaking to disband the group but we could not find enough dedicated volunteers to take the reins from 5 of us who were passionate, but abit burnt out.

Often I tend to believe, that lack of budget is not truly the problem. We had a (small) budget, tons of T-shirts, water bottles leftover .. It is ongoing, sustained PASSION, hard hands-on volunteer work to organize things and willingness to meet a broad range of people to help them.

I'm saying this because if alot of those guys just want ride/hammer away, then they may be the wrong folks to be open to broadening the future direction of the cycling group. Particularily if the suggestion is to make it more flexible to attract more women cyclists.

[bikerHen]

I joined the local womens group six years ago. My first impression was not good. They were a group of mostly fast riders that were not friendly to new riders. If you didn't have a fast road bike, you weren't much of a rider. For some reason I continued with the club mostly because it was the only game in town, for women. I saw potential and hoped for change. Those that were in charge were not interested in being actively involved but did not want to give up their control and were very resistent to any change. The club had a membership of over 100 women, but there were never more than a handful of riders and rarely a board member, at the one and only monthly ride.

Two years ago, after most of the orginial board members had faded away I was invited to join the board. I asked the remaining board members about additional new board members and the reply was, "we don't know any of the current members, so you decide who to ask to join the board." So I did!

So last year, we basically took over the club. We made changes, became more user friendly and pi$$ed off the old members who tried to channel their disaproval and flex their might through the last old board member. She decided she wasn't going to play their game and sadly decided to quit the board and the club.

The dynamics of the club has entirely changed. We are now a group of mostly new recreational riders. There are a handful of us that ride a lot but we aren't fast and we help and encourage new riders. We have fewer members but had a much better turnout at our monthly rides last year. We still don't know quite what we're doing, but fortunetly at this point the members don't expect too much. Some of last years ideas fell flat, others were met with real approval. We are currently planning for the coming year, have added another board member and have high hopes. Will the club continue? I hope so. Only a few of us are really excited about cycling, as in we have no life without our bikes, so doing anything to intense is hard. But you never know, one by one we have more women showing up to functions and joining the club.

I guess the moral to my story is don't write off your club just yet. Go to the meeting and see where things stands. There maybe someone in the wings ready to help the club move foward in a better direction. Who knows, maybe your one of them! bikerHen

[Red Rock]

Thank you for your variety of input here. I would like to be more of an advocate of cycling but I have not found the "right" of "correct" way of channeling this intrest. I did go to a recent transportation expo and voiced cycling as much as possible where and to whom I could.

It will be intresting to see who comes and who is there. I am sure the hardcore guys will be there. There is one woman who was the first to get the group going but I think she has retired a bit now. She just wants to ride.

Red Rock