Re-posting for visibility, it would be nice to get a few LaGrange folks down for some of this. Guys and Gals, We are aware that CVA SORBA has been fairly dormant for the past year or so, and recognize that the current state of affairs is not satisfactory or even sustainable. This makes us even more excited that IMBA’s Trail Care Crew is coming to Columbus November 14th – 17th. In addition to the normal trail-building classes and activities, we have specifically asked them to give their “Club Care” presentation that addresses how to establish, maintain, and grow an active and productive SORBA Chapter. A tentative schedule is as follows: - Thursday Evening (Nov 14th): Club Care Meeting at 7:00PM. Tentative location is River Valley Regional Commission (near downtown). - Friday Late Afternoon (Nov. 15th): Small group ride and trail consultation at Fort Benning. - Saturday (Nov 16th): Trail workshop and building sessions. All day. - Sunday (Nov 17th): Widely publicized group ride for all skill levels at Flat Rock. We truly hope everyone will attend with an open mind and refreshed enthusiasm. The remainder of this email lays out our thoughts on what may specifically be discussed and some lingering issues that need to be addressed. Of course, what we actually do will be decided by the group under the guidance of the TCC. First, we do believe that the folks regularly riding a trail and doing a lot of the trail work (i.e., removing downed trees) need to be empowered to manage the trail system. However, the counterbalancing concern has always been that those folks need to have a base level of trail-building knowledge (which does not come from merely riding a lot). On Saturday, the TCC will teach a morning classroom session on trail-building and then provide demonstrations in the field on Saturday afternoon. In our minds, everyone who attends will be a potential future leader of a trail system. Second, we are aware of the tension surrounding the amount of attention given to various trail systems. We’d like to discuss these openly and have the TCC advise us on these issues. Specifically, Fort Benning is a challenge since we do not have a Memorandum of Understanding. We realize this may seem nitpicky and bureaucratic, but it is a very real issue. In fact, when we inquired about holding the afternoon trail work session at Benning, we were told that was not possible without an MOU in place. However, we are going to make every effort have some sort of TCC group ride and consulting session out at Benning. Third, as of early this year we envisioned going forward by having Blake continue to serve as corporate secretary/chief administrative officer/etc. He would file tax returns, help with any MOU issues, keep the bank account open, organize things like the TCC weekend, and generally provide legal/paper-pushing skills and support. Everything else like work days, group rides, initiating MOU’s, etc. would be up to the individual trail directors. This model is obviously not working very well, so we’d like to revisit at the TCC weekend. Finally, we are very aware of the need for new leadership at Flat Rock. We want everyone to know that (i) Paul is moving to Colorado sometime in the near future, (ii) Barry has picked up a “second job” in the form of a house renovation project (and has been taking care of Flat Rock a long, long time), and (iii) Blake’s second child is due in November, his Father has had a stroke and is likely to get a kidney transplant in the near future, and his Father-in-Law is struggling mightily with a rare autoimmune disease. We’re not looking for sympathy, condolences, or affirmation of our reasons/excuses. Rather, we share all of this simply and solely to emphasize the following. First, this SORBA Chapter belongs to all of you. If you want something to happen, you need to make it happen. The TCC weekend is an open invitation to show up and start that process. Second, we are very, very serious about our desire to install new leadership at Flat Rock in the near future. If you want to be a part of that discussion, you need to attend the TCC weekend. In conclusion, we are very sincere in our desire to use the TCC visit as a chance to wipe the slate clean, renew our enthusiasm, and discuss what our chapter should look like and how it should function. We truly hope you will attend. If you have any thoughts or ideas on the schedule for the weekend, please let us know.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 10:36:00 +0000
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