At this past Wednesday’s Different Spokes board meeting David Gaus announced that this is his last year as president of the club. It wasn’t a big surprise, as he’s been running the ship for five years now and that’s a long time by any standard. We’ve been extremely fortunate to have his good nature, hard work, and leadership for this long and it’s certainly made being a fellow board member an easier and pleasant task. Having the same president for an extended time has led to a very comfortable continuity in the direction of the club, how the club does business, and getting long term projects accomplished. In David’s tenure we’ve seen an increase in the membership of the club, a stronger connection built with ALC, a marked increase in the number of rides offered every month, and greater participation in our social events. Behind the scenes David has worked on a plethora of projects which keep the club humming but which don’t have a lot of flash or publicity such as handling the mountain of communication which comes to the club, uploading material to the website, and running meetings. While doing all that, he has continued to lead numerous rides, participated on other members’ rides, helped publish our newsletter, and staffed tables at events innumerable. The board gave him heartfelt kudos and appreciation for his vast contribution to the club.
The heart of the club is volunteerism and the willingness to give back to the whole organization. Without volunteers we would not have rides, as no one would lead them. Without volunteers we would not have a newsletter, a website, a blog, or any other means of communication or publicity. And, without volunteers we would have no one to maintain the club by managing its resources, arranging our social events, or have club jerseys, hats, or any other accessories! Without volunteers we would not have made it for 30 years, nor had the Bike-A-Thon or even our contribution to the AIDS LifeCycle events.
If you’ve enjoyed being a member of the club and would like to give something back, please consider becoming a club officer. In addition to the presidency we will need someone to be the club secretary, as that position was just currently vacated. In addition, in 2013 we will need volunteers to take over producing the club newsletter, the ChainLetter. Besides the karmic goodwill generated by giving something back to the club, in return you will have fabulous dining experiences all on the club’s dollar and have your email inbox flooded with messages from a host of secret admirers from throughout the world! Well, I am exaggerating a little bit: you’ll be able to eat pizza and Cokes at the board meetings and sidle up to that new face at the Jersey Ride and say, “Hey, I’m on the board. Wanna enjoy some perks of leadership?” Seriously, David is leaving some big shoes to fill (you know what they say about men with big feet…) but they are eminently fillable. All you have to do is step forward and say “Moi! Moi!”, roll up your sleeves, and then bask in the endless glory and love from your ever-appreciative fellow members.
In all seriousness, if you want to learn more about the responsibilities of the club officers, feel free to speak to any of them in person or by email. You can also download the list of official board member responsibilities at the Different Spokes Yahoo! group site in the Files section, entitled “Board Duties 2012-01-31.pdf”. When you are ready to join the leadership team, please contact the nominations committee. We will need nominations no later than December in order to have our usual election in January 2013.
The Chain Letter 