Author: bbcbike

I had some great adventures on my metallic green Schwinn with a banana seat as a kid. Maybe they'll make a come-back?

Keith

Chris Tietz put it nicely at the meeting when he said "the world changed around us." My thanks to everyone for putting their heads together to find solutions. By taking action, I know both the BBC and TRIRI will continue to prosper for many years to come.

Keith V.

well written summary! Jim Schroeder

For over 10 years the only BBC club meetings have consisted of board meetings every month or two or three, and the annual meeting (usually combined with a social event in the off-season), plus the pool party we’ve had in August for several years.

Saturday evening, May 8, at 5:30 pm the membership of the BBC convened in a special meeting called, according to club by-laws, by a petition of members. The meeting took place in the social hall of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church on the By-Pass. Approximately 25 club members were in attendance.

The original purpose of the meeting was to consider how the relationship between the BBC and TRIRI (Touring Ride in Rural Indiana) could or should be maintained into the future. More generally it was to discuss what kinds of events with paid admission the club can sponsor, under what conditions the club can arrange with vendors to manage such events, to discuss the ways such activities further the stated goals of the club, and how the funds of the club should be used in support of such activities.

As it happened, the purpose of the meeting was largely moot because of a decision of the board of directors, meeting the night before. At that meeting there was an amicably-arrived-at decision to move toward severing the historical relationship between the BBC and TRIRI. For now rides already scheduled for this season will continue, but the club and Joe and Barbara Anderson, long-time directors of TRIRI and the related September Escapade and RAINStorm rides, will negotiate a separation, to be concluded no later than December 31, 2010. Joe Anderson will continue to serve as ride director for the Ride Across Indiana this summer.

Issues still to be negotiated involve bank balances, shared equipment, equipment storage, shared publicity, and probably other issues.

In view of the board decision the official petition was withdrawn. Thus the meeting was largely informational. However there was still an extended discussion. In particular Joe Anderson had an opportunity to express his concerns and to educate the club on some of the larger contributions TRIRI has made to furthering the BBC goals of promoting bicycling in Indiana.

As members may have understood from voluminous email exchanges in the last few weeks, the fundamental issue has been the tax exempt status of our organization and whether TRIRI and its associated rides are or can be compatible with increased IRS standards for tax exempt organizations.

Once the board became aware of the potential for being found in violation it became imperative to take some action.

Most club members have also realized that this has been an issue fraught with possibilities for misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and mistrust. Indeed it was seemingly necessary to have a couple of lawyers involved to bring the process to a reasonable conclusion.

The BBC board of directors and Joe and Barbara Anderson as directors of TRIRI still have much work to do to effect the agreed upon separation of these entities but now all parties seem to be on the same page and working toward the same goals.

In the meantime TRIRI and RAIN will continue. And we all can do what we joined the club to do: Ride our bicycles!

From  Joe Anderson

By Jodi Pope-Pfingston

It has been lots of fun meeting and riding with new and returning riders on the Slowspokes rides. Ten to fifteen riders embark each Saturday at 1:30 pm to ride 15-20 miles around Monroe County, many for the first time in their lives. I knew it would be a great venue for attracting and keeping new riders, and it has been exactly that. What I didn’t expect is that it would be a source of inspiration that would get my own family out cycling together every Saturday. But, indeed it has.

Two of my older brothers, a nephew, and my sister-in-law have all joined my husband and I on the last three Saturday rides. In fact, they have all caught the bug so thoroughly that they now indulge my riding whims on multiple nights of the week and bug me to show them new routes.

Last Saturday, along with a few other friends, we all ventured out for a ride to the Waterworks. This was a special event for me and my two brothers because we grew up in a house near the Waterworks. On the ride out we laughed about how many times we had ridden the route from home to Buddy Bills as children on our bicycles tricked out with banana seats and spokes full of playing cards, all for the promise of soft drinks and candy. The banana seats and playing cards are gone, and we have added helmets, but we still love riding bicycles together. Although it will take some time before they share my taste in hills. 🙂

As of May 4th I would consider the bridge to really be out on Rockport. It could be crossed in an emergency by foot, but I would not advise it(I turned around and rode back up those hills).

Glenn Berger

It was a cool spring afternoon for a ride, with temperatures in the 50s. We had a good group of 19 OWLS, including one for whom it was his first ride with the club and a couple others for whom this was their first OWLS ride of the season. We had intended to do a loop south on Victor to Rockport and back to town via Rockport to That Road, and so on. But Rockport is closed somewhere between Victor and Tramway, ostensibly because of a bridge out. Therefore we planned an out-and-back on Victor instead. At the spot where Victor tees into Rockport we tried to persuade a few people to ride down to inspect the bridge situation and report back whether a cyclist, perhaps on foot, could get through. But no one was up for the challenge and the risk of having to retrace a couple of miles of steep hill climb. So we still don’t know the true situation on Rockport.

We had no official leader. Fortunately CE was aware of the bridge outage and went over the options before we left SOCCPL.

Overall it was a typical OWLS ride at an average pace of just under 13 mph, on a route with some substantial hills. Total climb was recorded at around 1300 feet.

From CE Taylor

Club member Ken Dau-Schmidt is in Shenzhen, China for six weeks teaching law. He finally borrowed a bike to go for a ride with the local club (his words not mine). Here is a picture of the group before their ride. This reminds me of Allan who likes to take a group picture before we head out. I guess it is a world wide practice, who knew?

Tom Schroeder, Mike Finger, and Jim Schroeder raced through Nashville and onto Stonehead where we turned west on Bellesville Pike. The newbies enjoyed this new road and scenery. We came upon a group of 20 cyclists going east toward Story Wine Festival, and a few of them were old friends of Jim from Ft Wayne. Small world! We thanked them for stimulating southern Indiana economy and headed to Columbus for lunch at Papa's Deli. Tom told us of another stop downtown, an authentic soda fountain just a block south of Papa's. Mike flatted due to some rough pavement on Hoover Rd as we heard some thunder rumbling. The skies emptied just before Bean Blossom as we rode the last 25 miles in light showers.
I was just thinking, if there were only 10 riders and 3 of us did the century, that's 30%. What a great turnout for the first C ride!