1. If you are involved in a club, how long has it been established?

I am the current president of our club. It is the longest running (oldest) bicycle club in the Northeast, and we celebrated our 50th anniversary two years ago. The club typically has over 300 members, with one third being women. While the focus is on racing development, only approx. 1/3 of our membership are active racers.

2. Do you have insurance?
Any club/team registered with USA Cycling is covered by USAC insurance. The only additional insurance that we carry as a club is for our BOD in the case of a lawsuit. All members sign waivers as part of their membership, and for any of our rides/events, non-members must sign waivers for those specific events.

3. How do you acquire new members?

Club rides, outreach at races, website, etc. I, personally, will try to recruit new members by letting them know the benefits of joining such a large and established club.

4. Do you have fund raisers? If so, what are they?

Membership and sponsorship are our primary incomes for the year. We also host other events where we may make a small, or even significant profit. Some of these are clinics and race series that we are required by USAC to host.

5. What advice can you give me?
Quote Originally Posted by shootingstar View Post
[B]If you don't know already, there is always a small handful of dedicated board members and volunteers. Make sure you have events that draw across your communities..to get new blood in. Necessary for long-term club sustainability/growth. Survival of a cycling group isn't the budget..it's the people who are willing to carry onward consistently to organize events, speak on cycling, etc. I was in a bike group for women...it wasn't the budget that was our downfall, it was the lack of new volunteer blood 5 yrs. later. In fact our budget was less than $5,000 but we had the support /attendance of 300 women over a wide provincial region. But the core volunteer work was done by 8-10 people in 1 city. There was no other way to handle the coordination efficiently.
Shootingstar hit this one on the head. I have been a BOD member in other [non-cycling] clubs, and all of them suffer from STP syndrome (same ten people). It is important to understand what your membership wants, and to try to provide it to them. Do they want team rides? Put together team rides. Training plans? Find a way to get them.

A successful club/BOD member will search out a successor. I am always looking at the club to see who may be a good replacement for the time when I step out of my role.

Hope this helps.

SheFly (http://nebc.us)