After filling the role of Group Ride Secretary for several years, Barrie Cracknell is stepping aside and a new Group Ride Secretary for the club is needed. Someone with a passion to "Ride Beautifully" and to coach and lead others in doing the same and leave their imprint on the club! Details below!
I asked Barrie Cracknellto try and write out a job description for the role and to list any concerns he has plus the next steps to take us to the next level. With his permission his notes are below. I am sure Barrie would be happy to answer any questions you might have as would I. Don't be afraid to bring your own ideas to the table though. No idea is off the table and don't be afraid to think outside the bike box.
Job Description: there are two aspects here.
Pre-season planning
In-Season operation.
Pre-Season Planning:
Oversee preparation of the weekly Saturday A, B+, B, and C, plus Sunday short/long routes and edit them to ensure correct start/end points and safety, notably the egress from and return to Newmarket.
Ensure that routes on MapMyRide are accessible to and downloadable by the club membership.
Identify and recruit group leaders for weekend group rides.
Support the adoption of the Eagles' group ride practices during club rides and enforce them if necessary.
Route-Planning (the routes per se and the weekly scheduling of them). Michael Chong and Dave Hammond have done this exceptionally well for the past two or three years. We have a reasonable library of routes now, so maybe their workload is reduced as putting together the season's schedule. More copy/paste, perhaps?
We have reviewed every one for a safe route out of and back in to Newmarket. For example, we use Towercrest/William Rowe/Clearmeadow/Plantation Gate/Mulock to get out to Bathurst/19th Ave and go west. For 2020, the routes can go all the way along Clearmeadow to Bathurst as there is now a light and bike line to protect the riders on Bathurst.
Dave Hammond often creates routes using his personal MMR account. They are sometimes not publicly viewable or maybe not downloadable. That might mean copying the ride in Dave's account and saving it under the Eagles' and editing it.
Takes about an 8 hr day to do them all.
Pass the set of rides to whoever will be uploading the file to the Eagles' website.
In-Season Operation:
I have chosen to ping the group of prospective ride leaders on the Weds/Thurs before the weekend. The group is really very responsive. I've found this to be quite effective. Doesn't take long each week and allows us to capture the leaders' fluctuating schedules.
Other clubs have tried setting up an online roster (like the one you used to get Tour de Speed volunteers to sign up). In theory it reduces the workload. After all, all a leader has to do is open the file, sign up and save it. From my interaction with other clubs, this has not worked. Much the same way that you struggled to get people to commit to sign up online to help with the Tour de Speed.
On the day, it really is about applying the OCA guidelines. Define the groups, introduce the leaders, quickly summarise the routes, discuss any topics du jour. And off you go...
The Next Steps in “The Role.” This is where it starts to get difficult.
Recruit more ride leaders. The club could do with more.
At the last AGM, I noted how the group ride programme was showing success in terms of the number of active participants on the weekend rides.
I also noted that discipline and etiquette had been eroded and this was something to address in the 2019 season. Sadly, both were further undermined.
How to address that?
We have the Group Ride Practices that everyone signups to and are widely disregarded.
So, either the document needs to be rewritten to reflect how the club actually rides or the rules need to be enforced.
If the latter, this extends far beyond the ride leaders. It has to come from the rank and file in calling out bad practices when it occurs.
As the adage goes: "See something, say something."
The three biggest issues I see are:
Riders doing things that are outright illegal or otherwise dangerous. Crossing yellow lines. Running lights. Failure to yield at roundabouts.
Riders not riding in the appropriate group.
Numbers in a group.
On the latter...
Our rules state a hard cap at 12. The verbiage used makes this non-negotiable. Enforce it or change it.
I think that 12 is too low, by the way.
Victor came up with 18, albeit at the last Saturday ride I did which was late August, I think.
I think that's too high. And riders drop in en route which swells the numbers.
My view. 15 is the hard cap. 16 becomes 2 x 8.
And having a ride leader say, it's OK, we'll split in the parking lot but join upon the road. Erm...
I'd take a look at the A group too.
It seems to be a widely held belief that the A group riders know what they're doing and are self–policing. Hmm.
How many incidents? How many people ended up in hospital? How many came from the A group?
I don't know the answers to those questions. My guess 6+ in hospital. We run a 5 month season. If my sense is correct, once or twice a month, someone from the A group is going to Emergency and having surgery.
Now, what was I saying about people not riding in the right groups and group sizes?
