Annual Meeting and Winter Banquet

A spring-like evening in late February brought out a great group for the BBC annual meeting and banquet. About 65 members and guests were in attendance and there was not an empty seat to be found.

Gathering

The evening began with fruits and veggies and mingling at 6 pm at the Convention Center. 


Business


Then we had the business meeting required by our by-laws, chaired by club president Jim Schroeder. This included (re-)election of President Jim Schroeder and Secretary Kathy Cummins to new two-year terms. 

Brett Nelson, chair of our small grants committee, announced this year’s awards to regional groups for the promotion of biking and/or bike safety: Becky’s Place (Lawrence County), Boys and Girls Clubs of Bloomington, deCycles, Bloomington High School South Solar Bike Team, IU Police Department, Hoosier Mountain Bike Association (HMBA), and the Columbus Bike Co-op. In addition to these we also donate to towns or counties along the route of the Ride Across Indiana and to the statewide advocacy group Bicycle Indiana.

Treasurer John Kalill reported on our finances. Short version: Healthy, maybe even robust. 

RAIN chair John Connell reported on planning for the Ride Across Indiana in July (check it out at www.rainride.org). It’s our 30th anniversary of the ride! A special registration deal of $30 during the first 30 days of January brought in almost a thousand registrants. We’re now at approximately 1,050 riders. Last year we didn’t hit that mark until sometime in May. Merchandise sales are proceeding similarly apace. It’s both exciting and scary!

Ride Coordinator John Bassett reported on plans for the upcoming riding season.

Dinner


Once the business meeting was concluded we queued up for a nice buffet dinner. A special thanks to Tammy Berger, membership chair, for making all banquet arrangements!

Awards and Presentations


After dinner we finished out the evening with a round of “Razzies”; presentations of special awards; a presentation by past president Paul Arlinghaus of HMBA; and a slideshow about RAGBRAI, part of an effort to recruit a substantial BBC contingent for this famous week-long party on wheels in Iowa.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the formal awards. The board has created this new program of awards to recognize a range of club members for their various contributions. Yusuf Nur, chair of the Awards Committee, oversaw development of the awards. The following club members received an engraved desk-top plaque for their achievements: 

  • Lifetime Biking Achievement Award presented to Joe Anderson (in absentia) by Dana Marsh.
  • Most Improved Cyclist Award presented to Judy Akhras by Tammy Thompson.
  • Outreach/Advocacy Award presented to Ron Brown by Jim Schroeder.
  • Volunteer Award presented to Susan Bassett by Sylvia Schroeder.
  • Service Award presented to Jennifer Miers by Ben Ekloff.
  • Good Samaritan Award presented to Steve Galvin (in absentia) by Gail Morell.
  • Mileage Maximus award presented to Dave Tanner by Warren Smith.


These “serious” awards were preceded by “Razzie” awards presented by Jim Schroeder, which were more than slightly tongue-in-cheek. The “Hostess-with-the-Mostest Award” to outgoing membership chair Tammy Berger deserves special mention as being more serious than the others. The more in-fun awards included “Best-Dressed Award” to Stan Ellis, “n+1 Award” to Warren Smith (for owning the most bikes), “Yellow Pages Award” to secretary Kathy Cummins (for fingers walking across a keyboard). Other Razzies included the “AlkaSeltzer I Can’t Believe I Hit the Whole Thing Award” (for unfortunately getting all of a trail ballast) to John Boshears; the “Lance Armstrong Livestrong Award” (for coming back strong from illness) to Mike Finger; the “Moses Award” (for literally riding through water) to Yusuf Nur; and the “Persistent Bike Award” to Yusuf’s bike. You really needed to be there!

Thanks to Kathy Cummins for help with this report.