The DSSF Board met on February 25, 2006. Present were Bill Bir, Jerome Thomere, David Gaus, Dave Glidden, Michael Schmucki.
Update on the Saddle Challenge. March is Saddle Challenge month. Tina S. will work on the website for people to track their miles. One again the saddle challenge will be run as a benefit for the Ron Wilmot ride sponsored by Project Inform. Scott has agreed to collect the pledges as the end of the month.
Dave Glidden’s Note: this year the Wilmot ride will not conflict with the Wine Country Century. We would like to encourage participation. Would it be possible for people to show up after the Jersey ride which will be the same day?
The board discussed setting a date for the club picnic. The suggestion was made by Dave to change the venue to China Camp State park. It is easy to reach — no White’s Hill for riders up. There is excellent mountain biking and even nice riding for those who would like to do a road ride up. Plus, it is beautiful.
The date for the club picnic was set to be Sunday July 2nd, 2006.
We discussed the River weekend. Some complications were clear. The Willow’s was not universally embraced. Fife’s has been sold. The Highlands was mentioned as a possibility. Another possibility was to rent a house or two for people to stay at. However, we may take a break from the River weekend to sponsor a Santa Cruz weekend.
Santa Cruz weekend. The idea was floated at a previous meeting for the club to sponsor a weekend ride. The idea would be to ride south (70-80 miles). Overnight with camping and motel options and then head back up the next day. Some possible routes were discussed and the possible destination would be Henry Coe park. We discussed the amount of work and planning involved. A route would have to be developed. We would need to determine the overnight site, make reservation, and plan for someone to haul people’s stuff and provide some level for SAG support (given the distance and the rural routes). A tentative date was set for August 26-27th, 2006. Dave volunteered to coordinate this effort.
Tahoe weekend. A date was set for the Tahoe weekend. October 7-8th, 2006. Right after Castro Street fair and not conflicting with the Jersey ride.
The newsletter. The newsletter editorship remains vacant and it is quite a task to format the beast. We would like to reduce the burden and frequency of the newsletter. The board is interested in transitioning to the blog at http://blog.dssf.org. It has the possibility of being more up-to-date. The board decided to continue to support and add content to the blog. The newsletter will eventually only contain information which has already appeared on the blog. This will get people in the habit of looking to the blog for the most up to date information. We will also send a monthly or twice monthly message to the group. Pointing out new content posted to the blog. We also want to get people in the habit of posting to the blog.
Non-paying members. Michael reported that some people did not renew their membership for 2006 and they have not yet been purged. The current plan is to spam them into submission.
Bill brought up a number of new venues for advertising. The Bike Coalition newsletter, the Gay/Lesbian Sierran’s newsletter, Bay Times, Cycle California and maybe the newsletters for the Frontrunners. In addition, we will pursue free coverage will Jim Provenzano at the BAR.
Women’s participation was also raised. The idea was floated that perhaps a monthly ride in the East Bay might increase women’s participation.
The board is looking to meet again in April. Dave will poll the date April 15th, 2006.
Action
- Dave will reserve the campsite for the picnic.
- We will look into ways to promote participation in the Wilmot
ride. - We will gauge interest in the club for the Santa Cruz weekend as a possible one-time replacement for the River weekend
- Michael will go after non-paying members.
- Bill will look into new places for club ads
- Dave will ask some Easy Bay members about developing a monthly ride
The Chain Letter 