Hello BCI Club Members
It has been a while since I have communicated with you all online. I'm not the greatest computer communicator and I get to see most all of you on our Saturday and Tuesday rides so I keep in touch that way. And of course Bill Sellin does such a fantastic job of keeping everyone informed of ongoing events with his bi weekly alerts so everything that needs to be communicated gets out there.
However, today I need to make an announcement to everyone in the club regarding a major change in our statistical membership records.
Effective immediately, we will no longer be maintaining mileage statistics for members. This was decided and voted on at our June 28 Board meeting after discussion at the last two board meetings. Our reasons for this decision are as follows.
First, the maintenance and recording of this information is extremely tedious and time consuming. The statistician must go through every sign in sheet, look up each individual, and record their ride mileage. That can be anywhere from 8-12 sign in sheets a week, including remote and special rides. Each sign in sheet can have up to 25 names on it The number of individual entries could conceivably be close to 200 in a week. Now granted, about 50% of the members opt to not record their mileage and check the no box, so that reduces the number, but still, it has to be close to 100 per week. That's a lot of work for one individual, especially on a strictly volunteer basis.
Secondly, today's technology with bicycle computers, GPS, Strava, Iphones, and the like, makes the ability for individuals to maintain their own mileage records so simple that keeping club mileage records has become an unnecessary duplication of effort. Additionally, many of us do rides other than BCI rides. I ride 3-4 times a week, and usually 1-2 are BCI rides, so my actual accumulated mileage is not going to be anywhere near what BCI records show.
Please make sure you continue to sign up for your rides. That is still a requirement. All the signup sheets will be maintained and kept for insurance purposes. You must sign in to ride.
Now what that also means is that rewards and announcements at our BCI banquet for the most mileage categories will be discontinued. Since about 99. something % of our riders never qualify I don't think that will a significant loss. Not all riders keep track of their mileage and those who do know what they have accomplished in terms of their individual goals, and their personal recognition of their accomplishments is what really counts.
Also, on this subject, we will now be focusing on re-defining the Statistician Board Position. There have been several suggestions and ideas that will be explored and discussed that will improve and add to the offerings of activities to our members, and we will keep you all aware of what we come up with.
Lastly, I want to make everyone aware that our Director at Large, Desiree Mathos, has resigned her position this week. Her work responsibilities as a neo-natal RN, plus her duties as a union rep for the nurses union have made it difficult for her to maintain her attendance at monthly board meetings in addition to being unable to volunteer to help in many BCI activities. She wrote a very touching letter of resignation which at Bill's request she consented to have put on our web site. In her six months on the board, she has contributed much to our board activities with her opinions and insights. I want to include her last comment on her letter here:
"From my perspective, every rider in the club is an unknowing contributor…whether they ride one day a week or five. Green, yellow, or blue. Tandem, or wheels for speed. It is the matrix of these unique riders that shall in some way impact someone else’s riding life…big or small. We throw a stick, we find a teacher. I have learned so much from many. And it is because of these riders who come each time to ride (if even just to ride) that we have such a club. Now isn’t that a wonderful thing?!! :-))"
In that simple statement Desiree described the nature and description of the core of our club. Thank you Desiree for your service. Thank you for your contributions to our board, simply by your presence and your input. Des and I met in BCI ten years ago and have been close friends and biking partners for all of that time. Desiree will still be an active member of our club and will continue riding with us regularly.
Thank you, BCI members for your continuing participation in our club. You insure our survival simply by showing up and riding regularly. You are what we are all about.
See you on a ride.
Mike Farrell
President
