In the IMBA Summit’s final block of sessions, SORBA‘s regional director, Tom Sauret, shared his experiences with establishing a regional conglomeration of local clubs in the late 90s to provide greater resources to locals and act as a liaison to bicycle industry vendors. They merged with IMBA to manage the Southern region of the US, which I speculate might have possibly influenced the creation of IMBA regional directors and leadership committees, as opposed to numerous salaried state representatives.
Some ideas that were shared by the various club representatives at the summit, included:
- Create a map including parks, trailheads and local bike shops, printed by the club.
- Have a Board of Directors at various locations, if expanding regionally
- Include land managers, local businesses, lbs, race promoters, schools in your pool of Directors
- Commit to a monthly trail day, if weather permits
- Advertise your club at the trailhead, not just in your current email lists
- Use IMBA.com: Club Development for resources, membership benefits, guidelines
- Have a volunteer service trade in lieu of money donations, as long as it doesn’t cost you extra in insurance
- Get the free Clif Bars for Trail Days through IMBA
- Have a prizetable for volunteer service hours (any service)
Snapshot Recap 3: Diversity Builds Strength; Women and Mountain Biking @ IMBA Mid-Atlantic Summit
After lunch, I grew quite nervous since the nature of the session had changed several times over and hadn’t really settled into a solid focus nor had time to prepare a power point presentation – and I had doubts that I was the right person to be leading the charge. Leading the “Diversity Builds Strength: Women and Mountain Biking” session on behalf of Velomuse, I was thankfully joined by such strong, experienced panelists as Morgan Lommele from the IMBA Trail Care Crew and professional mountain biker Sue Haywood.
Morgan put me at ease, by suggesting that we pose some workshop questions and share everyone’s experiences in break out groups, after priming the audience with examples and success stories. The primary questions were “What is diversity?”, “How can your club benefit from it?” and “What are your success stories, ideas or plans to support diversity and inclusion of women in your club?”.
Diversity was defined as inclusion of extremes; different levels of skill, non-cyclists, age, ethnicity, and different types of riding/mountain bikers.
Clubs benefit from diversity because it makes the club more politically powerful, represents the mountain bike community better, defies stereotypes, increases club membership, builds trust in the club, allows it to reach wider audiences, and ultimately builds capacity to change the community for the better.
Success Stories, Ideas and Plans for increasing women in mountain biking clubs:
- More women on Board of Directors (and not just administrative roles) – trickle down effect.
- MTB gear/repair clinic for women
- Women-only events (ex: Sue’s Wine and Cheese ride)
- Take a Woman Mountain Biking Day
- Bring a woman/girl-friend to a non-riding social event
- Reach women in non-cycling, familiar settings (e.g. church)
- Reach out to women who don’t consider themselves athletes
- Meetup.com (type) groups
- Join races together, emphasizing social aspect
- Trips to bike parks (ex: Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park)
- What you don’t want your husband/boyfriend/dudefriend to tell you/duo women’s instructional video
- Women “ride free” days at mountains or resort parks
- Women teachers for skills clinic, repair and gear clinics
- Bob trailer demo days
- Baby-sitting co-ops, switch off/group parenting at rides
- Fun for the whole family trails and events
- Emphasizing gender-specific technique (“Chick-technique”)
- Weekly women’s rides
- “Log-therapy” session/make obstacles entertaining not intimidating.
- Chicks-only race (ex: Little Red Riding Hood)
- Advertise in Women’s publications
- Better signage on trails, for solo exploration and independence
- Foster future women ride leaders
- Promote group ride guidelines (Morgan also provided a take home handout: Organizing Women’s Riding Groups)
- Inclusive marketing language (don’t assume women=beginner)
- Partnering with recreation centers
- More women at public meetings
The second timeslot afforded me to attend the Youth Mountain Biking Opportunities, which I have vested interest in – as I have been trying to fulfill the past experience I had coaching with the NorCal High School Mountain Bike Racing League, and have been trying to foster momentum in Pittsburgh for a similar program. One of our obstacles has been outreach paired with infrastructure support – namely, finding a way to get young riders that are interested, physically on bikes, and then trails, while navigating “the complicated minefield that is public academia.” as one friend put it. If there was one consistent theme amongst the speakers, it was that all the youth cycling organizations have some kind of parent organization which provides structure, insurance or other resources to accommodate necessary logistics. I’ll add that liability insurance is almost as volatile, and the speakers offered a temporary solution of using local advocacy club insurance’s umbrella to get things under way while a local bike shop organizes and supports the logistics (bikes, helmets, leadership).
Ann Meder spoke to her experience as a bike shop owner and group ride leader that providing a pro rider as an additional mentor brought further expertise and legitimacy for the expanding group, while another facilitator added that older youth who leveraged their experience got the most respect from the youngest riders. Julie Childers and her partner Patrick Childers, started a Trips for Kids chapter in DC which branched out into Trails for Youth. Julie’s take on youth mountain biking, was to make rides to the trails happen regularly, taking the trails to the kids whenever possible. The local Parks and Rec in Harrisonburg also had a program for youth mountain biking, which includes a growing fleet of bikes and older helmets, with professional staff. Certifications ranged from Physical Education degrees to CPR/First Aid and IMBA Bike Patrol and background checks; however, none mentioned coach licensing, which is promoted by NICA, which is the new NorCal for the rest of the country. I have often (and especially recently) pondered whether my coach education was being put to good use, or even necessary – and I considered a primary difference between these programs and NICA/NorCal was the race series. Is NICA a race organization, in its ultimate definition? As a former coach for the League, I think it is a valid question (rhetorical, unless you’re NICA staff and want to comment). It remains clear that NorCal/NICA offers the most extensive training and education for leadership in the youth mountain biking community. An additional community-oriented aspect of NorCal I appreciated and brought up as an example that I felt was relevant to IMBA, was having required trail maintenance (“Environmental Stewardship”) hours of the young riders. After all, wasn’t this summit about bringing more volunteers into the fold?
Saturday July 23, 2011 IMBA Trail Care Crew: Club Care
After the Pedal Driven film showing at the local theatre on Friday night, the first IMBA Mid Atlantic Regional Summit kicked into full swing Saturday morning with the IMBA Trail Care Crew’s Presentation on “Club Care”. I had gone to this with another TCC in California a few years ago as well as the World Summit in 2008, and took away the concept that other regions shared similar problems – but could also share solutions. This time, I was in a new geographical riding community (Pittsburgh, PA), and faced with a question of volunteer identity as we don’t really have a Mountain Bike Advocacy Organization. Instead, Pgh has the Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group which leverages “shared use” strategy and includes various trail user types, and then a slew of mtb clubs, like PORC which promote rides and races. This provides unique opportunities and challenges which I hadn’t experienced in California. Some of these include the ability to develop more neutral relationships with land managers and achieve buy-in for new trail projects. However, the cohesion of the local mountain bike community seems to be fragile, at best, which is troubling to me as a lifelong cyclist.
The Club Care presentation revealed a statement that I think helps me get some sort of direction on where we need to go as a community, “One unified voice is louder than a crowd.” I think we need a mountain bike advocacy club to voice MTB concerns. Or at least a MTB committee based from the other orgs, akin to benefiting from having interns in the City offices helping to establish relationships, or on land managers’ Boards of Directors. MTBers need to be on the radar, explicitly, if we are going to retain access to the trails – and ultimately, our sport.
I don’t know if we have enough cohesion to get the ball rolling for this concept, but humor me. If this were to happen, IMBA recommends 501c3 incorporation status to allow for fund-raising, getting 8-12 Directors for a Board, each with a 2 year commitment, and marketing with friend-raisers, a club map, outreach to ALL local bike shops (not just some), Press, and regular communication through forums (fb, g+, meetup, BBpress, etc.) and email lists. I was glad to hear that they encouraged clubs to publish their agenda and minutes, which I think lends itself to legitimacy and good record-keeping of club successes – that makes everyone more interested in contributing. Another useful rubric was the Community Outreach triangle, asking clubs to balance: Political, Physical and Social Events for volunteers. Examples: council meetings, demonstration of successful trails, and regular rides and other social events.
Recruitment efforts don’t have to come just from your email contact list; a poster or hydration handout at the trailhead goes a long way, as well as giving the race community series points for volunteer hours, and getting non-cycling friends and family to provide food and entertainment. I snapped up one of the free Bring the Riding to the People DVDs, which we can hopefully share with the mountain bike community in a screening opportunity in the coming days. Lastly, any IMBA club can make a Club Care presentation or TrailCare Crew workshop request. Grant applications being accepted now.
There’s something very unique about educating oneself in trail design at these conferences. It’s a great blend of altruist volunteers, professional land managers and the humble curious – with plenty of time for hands-on (mtb) trail exploration. I like to travel sometimes for these events, make a mini “work” vacation out of it. But it doesn’t feel very much like work with all the beer drinking and riding going on, which also acts as a great ice-breaker for the various types of participants.
Being fortunate to carpool with my partner-in-crime, we tag-teamed the sessions so we wouldn’t miss any valuable information. Here’s a sneak peek some riding fun, video courtesy of Justin Scheifflee:
There’s a snapshot recap of each session in the summit, if you click the double chevron arrows below.
Exploring the Ghost Town Trail
Last weekend a good friend and I decided quite suddenly to investigate and explore the Ghost Town Trail near Johnstown, PA. In our preparation, we searched the web for information about the trail, and it sparked some interest. The unique red color of the Blacklick Creek had us wondering if it was safe to bathe in, post ride, while the potential to explore abandoned villages had our creative minds getting carried away. Even the mileage confused us, with online directions, maps, and bulletin boards all having different lengths of measurement for various sections. We used a bike computer to pace ourselves, although we stopped frequently and weren’t really out for a training workout.
It turns out that the trail follows a former coal mining railway, which ran through clusters of towns housing coal miners from over 50 countries, from 1820s through 1970. After the coal mining industry died; a few floods and fires changed the landscape – and what was once a thriving county is now restored to its natural woodsy environ, accommodating only passersby on bicycle or foot. Throughout the entire section of trail we saw from Dilltown to Nanty Glo, there were a few piles of coals every now and again but the only original piece of history which remained fully intact was the Eliza Furnace, a carefully assembled pile of rocks which I attempted to summit. In Vintondale, there were plaques and a memorial, but no coal mines, no abandoned houses from the 1800s. Indeed, it is in its absence it is remembered and documented.
