Topic Title

..and this one's a chance to say what you'd like to see the club doing next year. More of anything? Less of anything? Any intiatives you'd like to see us getting involved in? Types of people you'd like to see us encouraging? Even better... ...anything you'd like to get involved in organising?

Come on someone.. kick it off...

I think we need to pull together the off-road side better. The mid week stuff has been getting more popular and there's quite a few riding off-road at other times to, but, apart from Wednesdays, its a bit ad-hoc. We need someone pulling everyone together for some organised rides up in the real mountains at weekends. It can't be me to do this as the clubruns are my priority so we need a willing volunteer....... The next step may then be to encourage more into off-road competition, but I guess we need to see where it goes....

And the other big area we are lacking is some qualified and structured coaching.

I'd also like to see if we can get some people on a (cycling specific) first aid training course - Mark didn't you say that you had a contact for that?

I'd like to see a chaingang which isn't just a burn out by the strongest riders on the day and which would encourage newer members.

I'd also like the Saturday morning training rides to go back to the format we had 2 years ago which was a standard route via Leavening/Kirkham/Sheriff Hutton and then through-and-off back to York.
I liked the consistency so you could gauge how your fitness improved and you could always count on being home by 12.30ish so you could make arrangements for the afternoon.

I agree with the above comments although I do think the standard saturday loop is best started after XMas. It would get too much doing the same thing week in week out now.
A weekend MTB would be easy to plan through the winter. Perhaps alternate saturdays or Sundays. Whos interested?
I would like to see teams with similar interests/objectives forming within the club, for instance those doing local 3rds racing could support one another by training together on a regular basis. I empahsise training and not simply riding together. When time is limited, we need to go out with a purpose, to train effectively. Having others with the same plans to do this may help. This could even be turboing or cross training together through the winter? Opinions?
There are a lot of keen riders here, and already I think there is good communication and rapport amongst everyone. It not to early to plan next year, and by doing this now we can work out how everyones objectives fit toghether and help each other out to acheive them.
It would be great to see more of the club competing off road. It is great fun and there is a completely different vibe compared to the road scene. Courses arent as technical as you might imagine, and a few trips off road during the winter and youll be sorted! This discipline is surely the way to attract younger members into the club too.

What would i like to see the club do next year?
I think the answer is "grow"
In a city like York i see no reason why our membership shouldn't be up in the hundreds!
Long term i would like to see people join Clifton because "all" they do is ride their bikes to work or enjoy doing charity rides or even just enjoy riding their bikes with their families full stop
Absolutely nothing wrong with that
Equally if people "only" want to ride off road thats brilliant

In the last 12 months we have come a long way towards establishing ourselves as "the" place to turn to if you are interested in cycling in York
This is not to say that other cycling clubs and groups in town and nationally are not also doing an excellent job
We need to think about how we relate to other organisations to avoid "duplicating" effort.
Also how we can all help each other in times or crisis: like when we desperately need assistance organising events etc.

But the benefit of growth i would see as two fold
Bringing in new ideas and new interests
And those new members themselves expanding the range of existing activities and events we organise

I think we are close to the limit now on what we can do with the number of people we have willing or able to take on responsibilities: no one person can actually take on any more

Charlie is spot on when he says members with common interests should get together
This already happens to an extent supported by such things as this bulletin board but i am sure we could do better
Also once a few people get together they make more "noise" and other people in the club get to hear about what they are up to

Some of the concrete suggestions in this thread have been along the lines of "if a few of us want to achieve [i]x[/i]" what do we need to do.
I agree "stabilising" the Sat rides - at least after Christmas - would suit my own ambitions down to the ground.
Also useful is the discussion around how people can make best use of limited time to achieve personal targets
To me this is an example of why it is good to be in a club - you can share info and motivate each other
More of this sort of thing please

I do think that the change of club kit is certainly a positive development in attracting new members. To capitalise on this further we to gain more active members we simply need to continue entering races/events with a united team, as we have been doing. Further coordination with events/racing and training will enhance this further...

..the fiver's in the post, Charlie...!

Things I'd like to see the club doing? Well...

I think if the club's going to be more than just a bunch of people who prefer company to riding alone (and I'd emphasise that I think the club already IS more than that) then I think it needs to have ways of helping people to develop - so they can do more adventurous stuff and feel satisfied and encouraged by their progress.

There are maybe two ways of doing that; one is to organise activities and events, which we already do. I'd like to see us organising an even broader range of stuff, so we look at the margins of what we currently do and we expand the range. So.. ..MTB stuff - great. The Monday night pub ride - let's publicise it more, by word of mouth or whatever. The TLI SPOCO series was excellent but we failed to attract ANY women or juniors - let's ask why, and see what we can do to make next year different.

A second way of helping people develop would be to look at bringing in coaching expertise in some way. We've had a couple of really good young people in racing this year but we've had no structured way as a club to help them. And what about the rest of us? I got up to a certain level of ability fairly quickly but have just stuck there; I'd love help with getting further, and answers to why I have bad weeks (or months!). It's been interesting seeing how as a club we're topping the regional road race rankings, but entirely due to the individual abilities and motivation of the riders who've won the points. Imagine the buzz if - as a club - we had the resources so we *knew* we could help bring people on, if they wanted to.

Other slightly more random thoughts are...

-I think as a club it would be good to talk about how we attract young members, otherwise in ten years time the club will have the best vets racing squad in the country and the longest beards on the Audax circuit but nothing else. Go Ride seems like too much of a commitment (at the moment) but maybe we can look at less formal stuff (again maybe through MTBing). And see below..

-I think we need to involve more members in organisational stuff. I appreciate that some people just want to ride their bikes but - as I said above - being in a club is about more than that and it all takes organisation. Which works better with more people! (and maybe then we *would* have enough people to think about Go Ride or similar stuff..)

-I agree with Steve about the chaingang. I know for some people it's the one chance between weekly races to top up the speed, but it would be good to maybe make it more inclusive, to make it easier for people coming into racing to be more able to use it as a training tool - to learn through and off, close riding, doing sprints, etc. Maybe ride out as one group, split into faster and slower, faster does two laps of the triangle and slower does one, both ride back with faster trying to catch slower. Slower group always to have one experienced racer who helps it all work as a group at the fastest pace they can collectively manage (vary length of turns, etc). Maybe?

-I also agree about the Saturday rides. No knocking Tony who led us all off around some great bits of Yorkshire last winter - some good rides - but it would be helpful to have a more regular route and a more predictable timescale. Perhaps alternate Leavening / Kirkham with Malton / Terrington so we don't go completely cuckoo. More regular route might tie in with the coaching possibilities...?

That's it for now..

I got the following through on email from Andy Smith:

In making these comments I am aware that I am very new to the club and therefore you must feel free to delete them and certainly not feel the need to respond. Here goes:-

1. I found the club Time Trials very rewarding and hope that the club will offer the same or even an extended programme next year. I found these races open, inclusive, friendly and what amateur sport should be about. I know at times that numbers were a little low but hope the club will agree that for the limited effort in putting them on they are a great way of attracting new members and meeting the needs of a wide ability range.

2. I think your website and these update emails are brilliant and worth the membership fee alone.

3. I found volunteering for the Road Race marshalling very enjoyable and would respond to a January mail out asking members to volunteer through a 12 month roster. The more notice the more I would do.

4. Because of my work and family commitments I (like other members?) can not commit to training rides with the club preferring to train on my own at times that fit my diary and which do not annoy my PA to much. However I hope that this does not make me count as an inactive member as my participation is defined, in my terms, by taking part in the TT series and the odd event like the audax and this Sundays ride. (The Audax was a real highlight for me by the way).

5. I have no idea what you think is the critical mass of membership needed to sustain a club or indeed how many members we have. However my advice would be not to turn this into a simple exercise in numbers but rather having a sense of the spirit within the club. As a new member I have found the club to be energetic, friendly and helpful which in my book is more important then how many members there are or to be honest if we are top, middle or at the bottom of a league. (that said I would prefer to take the moral high ground whilst winning)

6. I know a little about sport sponsorship but nothing about the specifics of our deal with Cycle Heaven although I have always found the shop to be very helpful when I have spent money there. What I would point out, but am sure you already know, is that there are other sources of money in addition to sponsorship. I am not just talking about the Lottery here but Trusts, Foundations and Corporate Donors that make grants to clubs who are inclusive and health promoting. If the club needs money (and I am not sure it does - better a good spirit then a bank account) perhaps these areas could be explored.

7. Being married to a former Olympic athlete I have spent a lot of time around running clubs with which Clifton CC compares very favourable in terms of the way it attempts to look after all its members and I sense staying true to the tradition of the sport.

I hope none of that was to boring and let me take this opportunity to thank the Club for helping me find enjoyment through riding as fast as I can if not as fast as I would like.

Finally I plan ride on Sunday but will meet you all at Easingwold as 75 miles is far enough for me.

....and these notes through on email from Chris Cuckson:

So far with the club; basically going on the saturday and sunday social rides with the club and a couple of the mtb evening rides.

I would like to get fitter and stronger so that i can have a crack at racing, probably on the road but possibly enter some marathon type mtb events. So i think i should start to go on the saturday training rides and maybe do some spinning/turbobike stuff and some more running. I also want to be able to ride up things like boltby bank and rosedale chimney without running out of steam and falling off! you did not even seem to notice that boltby bank was there!

I think it would be cool to do some mtb rides over the weekend as i saw suggested in the discussion link. i know a few routes and so would be happy to help with the running of that. I would also like to do something like a coast to coast ride possibly in the highlands for some challenging terrain, either on road or off. Also i am interested in weekend trips and maybe even a cheeky long weekend somewhere.

As another new member I've been impressed with the spirit existing in the club, the regular updates of activities, and this web site. The Saturday rides during the winter were good and I think the idea of turning the last hour into a robust training ride would be of benefit to all who intend to ride competitively. However I don't think there is any need to do this until mid January at earliest. Are there any closed circuits in York area that could be used to put on a few races during the summer? I did an event round a military driving ciruit near Aldershot and an event on an airfield in Summerset, and both were great for a mid-week blow out. Plus it was possible to put on events for kids/first timers in a safe environment, and local racers had the opportunity to score points on a regular basis!!! Lastly if the club does get any chance of sponsorship, I think it would be a great way to take the club further forward. We all know cycling is an expensive sport, so if we can offer reduced price kit, use of equipment to beginners, additional prize money at events, etc, it will certainly help promoting us.

"Are there any closed circuits in York area that could be used to put on a few races during the summer?"

There are a number of airfields, one currently has some epic skid marks after a notorious 280mph crash! We used to run mid week club events 10 or so years ago.

There are some brilliant circuits in the area

http://www.auto66.com/circuits.htm

Any thoughts?

Why not a jointly promoted circuit series with a club in the Hull area?