Attendees: Mike Record, Emily Carlton, Joel Reyes, Kim Topp, Ali Wilkerson, Cade Flynn, John Flynn, Creed Flynn, Boone Flynne, Justin Flynn (new member!), James Munnerlyn, Gina Hokanson
TM this Saturday; meet at the Lake Bryan boat ramp carpark at 8am! Bring shovels and chain saws. The main focus will be regarding the trails on the east side levee to allow for better water runoff. We will also remove the large tree on Skinny Dip.
James has been cutting new trail on the West side and has plans for laying out trail on the east side – stay tuned!
Mike is cutting a trail off Rat Maze that Kim and I have dubbed “In Record Time”. It’s going to be like a mini Vortex (Waco trail) when it’s done, and will require a couple of bridges. Again, stay tuned!
I rode the University of Western Florida trails over break, and was impressed with their simple but effective trail marking system: colour-coded plastic markers nailed to trees. The markers had arrows on them indicating trail direction, were colour-coded to indicate which loop the rider was on, and may have been made of a reflective material. They were placed about as far apart as Joel’s Night TT markers. I think these would be good options for our trail system. Joel has volunteered to take on the project of looking into similar markers for our trails.
Emily presented business card options for the club. She was asked to make these originally because we discovered unrecognized people at Aggieland claiming to be BVMBA members. At the time, we thought that having ID cards would eliminate this abuse of club membership benefits. Further discussion at the meeting concluded that since the bike stores and Lake Bryan now receive a monthly updated list of current members, perhaps the business cards were no longer needed. The option of using the business cards has been reserved for future use. Thank you for your hard work, Emily!!!
The club instituted a policy a while back of asking applicants to the yahoo group to attend a club ride or a club meeting prior to granting them access to the listserver. This was put in place due to some abuse and spam we had encountered from unknown members of the yahoo group. Since this policy was adopted, we have received a small number of complaints that this policy comes across as exclusionary. Discussion at the meeting resulted in the decision to amend the auto-response for new yahoo applicants to direct them to the club’s Facebook page for ride information. This would allow them to follow posted club activities until they met the requirement of attending a ride or meeting.
Nominations for club officers were presented: Mike Record for president, Ali Wilkerson for vice president, and Kim Topp for Secretary/Treasurer. All nominations were seconded, and with no other nominations presented, the slate was voted in by default. Congrats to the new officers!
John Flynn has made the A&M Consolidated High School Mountain Bike Team official! They are registered with NICA, have a constitution in place, and the students wrote up a mission statement. There are 6 guys and 1 girl on the team, who will participate in 4 races (Warda, Waco, Reveille Peak, and a course in Dallas). There are no tryouts for the team, anyone is welcome to join; everyone on the team participates in every race; and there will be 3 practices per week, on gym-based, one technique-based, and one trail-based. A slate of officers have been elected (Boone Flynn is Pres!), a budget has been outlined, and John is undergoing the requirements for coach. The current sponsors are What’s the Buzz Coffee and Aggieland Cycling; BVMBA, Village Foods, Blue Baker, and HEB are potential sponsors as well. John formally asked BVMBA to also become a sponsor of the club. A brief review of the club’s finances confirmed that we could provide the sponsorship amount requested, and a unanimous vote of all present followed for club sponsorship. A few ride leaders are currently needed for the trail rides; as a sponsor, club members are eligible to become ride leaders. A background check will be required prior to becoming a ride leader, so please contact John to determine if he still needs ride leaders, and for the appropriate procedure for the background check. Club members who undergo the background check can submit a receipt of the fee for the background check ($22) to the club treasurer for reimbursement if they so desire. As part of the team requirements, a Wilderness First Aid course will be conducted for the team; John will check to see if BVMBA members can also attend this course. The cost for the team members is $15, and John will find out if this price would extend to BVMBA members as well.
http://www.desertsportstx.com/mountain-bike-event/ 16-18 February – alright, all BVMBA members!!! This link will give you all the information you want to know for the trip to Lajitas next month! Please note that you MUST REGISTER for this event, you can’t just show up. There are 3 different passes encompassing several events – really, folks, just check out the website. Registration can be done by mail or online through BikeReg.com. There is guaranteed interest so far from 6 club members: Mike, Joel, JP, Gina, James, and Ali. We will be leaving B/CS on Wednesday 15 February in order to be there in time to participate in the Thursday rides. Carpooling is being discussed. If you are interested in joining us, shout out AND REGISTER.
Submitted 10 January 2012
Ali Wilkerson
BVMBA 2011 Sec/Tres