Message from the President by Kathy Wright
We are halfway through the year and I hope that you are meeting your cycling goals for the year and, most importantly, having fun doing it. Amidst all our activities so far, what I see is there are more rides than ever before and more club members than ever before. So, what does that mean to you and me? It means there are more choices to make about when, where and how we cycle.
The when and where is the fun part. Due to the generosity of you stepping up to be ride leaders, our members have more options than ever before to ride with friends in a club environment. Both at the Bike Fest and on a recent ride, people picked up the Ride Schedule and commented how much more was in it than they expected and, as members, you see that as well. How lucky we are to be in the situation where we not only need to decide if we want to ride but which ride we want to do on some days.
The how part asks a little more of us. It touches on how we represent both the cycling community and the club. Each time we ride, we have the opportunity to influence the perception of the non-cycling world. An easy starting point is to do our half of being good traffic partners by taking turns at a fourway, observing the right of people in crosswalks, waiting for the red light to change, and riding in the bike lane. Isn’t always the fastest way to ride but we have the opportunity to display there are traffic laws, we are aware of them and we
expect motorists, in return, to also be aware of those relating to cycling.
That how rolls over to participation in the club. To new members we are, many times, their introduction to a broader cycling world and the Bike Hikers specifically. I asked at the beginning of the year for each of us to step out of our comfort zone of the familiar and reach out to new members. Thinking back to those who did that for you when you joined and how much it was appreciated, I hope you’ve done that. And, since a club, by definition, is a group of people with a common interest, it is how the group supports that interest. So I ask that you continue to give that support whenever and wherever you can – leading rides or tours, mentoring a new ride leader, stepping up when a Chairperson is needed or supporting that Chair by knocking on their door first with an offer of help. After a very successful Awards Banquet, Spring Blitz and Party Pardee, we have a full Summer and Fall on the schedule with multiple tours on our menu of choices, the Picnic and Eppie’s. Thanks for making these events possible and, more importantly, successful.
(The Above article was excerpted from the 2008 Third Quarter Ride Schedule)