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