2011 was a year of growth. Our Club grew larger, with the highest membership since it’s first year. Our youth race was larger than the year before, and went off without a hitch. Our cyclocross race nearly doubled in size, but also went off without a hitch. Thanks in large part to our friends from the City of Barrie. Our Monday night MTB rides had a lot more participants than in 2010 as well.

One thing we would have liked to see grow some more, is the club TT series, organized, and hosted by Mike & Judy Doble. Year over year numbers were pretty flat, though hosting our first Interclub TT on the new Ingram Rd. course did push our numbers higher than in years past.

Tuesday nights continue to be the most popular ride of the week, the dual start locations worked well this year, and our downtown ride leaders, Brad & Barb Watts worked all season to ensure that everyone enjoyed their time riding. Our learn to ride program was well attended, and a great success judging by the number of club rides attended by it’s graduates. Much thanks to Marc Brouillette for his time to lead the course.

The Club continues to be involved locally, participating as a member of Barrie’s Active Transportation Working Group. Recently planning has begun for Cycling Safety Week 2012. Plans will include a car free day downtown, and possibly the City will host a bike summit, lead by Share the Road Coalition leader, Eleanor McMahon.

The Club has also forged a partnership with the Town of Innisfil, and the Innisfil Rotary Club, and are helping to create and build a ‘Rotary Trail’ at the Innisfil Recreation Complex. It will include a multi-use trail, with XC MTB trails cut into some treed land at the complex.

In 2012, the Club will be offering expanded Learn to Ride programming, to be offered in the City of Barrie’s Spring/Summer leisure guide. We’ll be offering both learn to road, and learn to MTB programs, for youth & adults. In the spring, the Club cleaned and adopted a stretch of Ridge Road through the town of Shanty Bay. Following our clean-up, the County put a sign up, letting everyone know the Barrie Cycling Club is helping to keep the area clean. We look forward to the support of everyone, when it’s time to clean up again next spring. It took all of 2 hours to get it done this year.

Our interclub series with the Eagles, Mountainview and Owen Sound continues to be a great introduction to racing for many people. Next year we, along with Newmarket will work to add in a youth component for younger racers, who might like to become involved. The OCA is adding a skills component to the youth race series, it might be fun to add a skills component to one of the interclub races as well. This is something we’ll investigate and share with the club as details become available from the OCA.

One thing that never materialized in 2011, was a Club clothing order. We tried to get this off the ground a couple of times, but hadn’t seen enough interest to cover the minimum orders required by Sugoi. Some of you have placed an order, and left a deposit with me, I apologize it’s taken so long, but tonight I would like to Club to vote on whether they support the club investing some if it’s own money to ensure we meet Sugoi’s minimums. Provided that there is support, we’d like to place an order for January 2, 2012.

Looking towards next year, some things that I’d like to see us focus on are, expanding our Time Trial series. Perhaps partnering with the Barrie Baydogs Tri club, could see us have a TT each week, and share the burden of organizing and hosting amongst other people. As with most club events, we have a core group of volunteers that enable these events to happen, we need to see more members offer to help, and volunteer through the year, in order to ensure we can continue to provide all the events and rides that we do.

I’d like to see the club support a women’s only weekly ride, lead and organized by women. I have heard many times this year from women, who would simply prefer to ride with other women, and no men. We have tried these in the past with mixed success, but I believe if we can provide a regular ride, and get the word out, it will be successful in 2012.

We’ve recently sat at a table with the man behind Centurion Cycling, and the Subaru Ironman Series. They have a long term goal of creating an all women’s ride, that would start & finish in Barrie, and have at least 1500 participants. We’d like to work collaboratively with them to see this become a reality.

We’ve also been working to develop a proper, five year strategic plan for the club, that covers all aspects of what we could, or would like to see accomplished in that time. It’s something that has been underway for several months, and we should have something to show everyone early in January. This represents a big step forward in the growth and development of the Barrie Cycling Club.

I’d also like to see us continue to grow our weekly MTB rides, and of course the more people riding on Tuesday nights, the better. Next year may see us realize the addition of a third ride, catering to more recreational riders, who just want to get out for a cruise with some friends. Definitely let us hear your thoughts on these things tonight through the course of our meeting.

The Club has already submitted an expression of interest form to the OCA for our youth race, which will hopefully be held on Saturday, May 21. We’ll also be submitting an expression of interest form to host another Ontario Cup Cyclocross race as well.

Thank you to all of you. Our members, and executive, who have made 2011 such a great year of growth. Now let’s get into the discussion of how we can make 2012 an even bigger, and better season!

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Barrie Cycling Club
Annual General Meeting
Dec 6, 2011 – 7:00 PM
Location: Liberty North Barrie

AGENDA
Welcome & approval of agenda

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Attended:
Copeland Stewardship Stakeholders Meeting
City of Barrie Active Transportation Working Group

Reviewed:
Active Transportation Master Strategy – City of Barrie (preparing a response on behalf of BCC)

Actioned:
City of Barrie Learn to Ride Programming
Youth Race Expression of interest
Rotary Trail Construction in Innisfil with Town & Rotary
Bike week 2012, last week of May in Barrie. Will include car free day, possible Bike Summit with Eleanor McMahon

TREASURER’S REPORT

2011 Financial Statement

RACE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

2011 Race/Event Summary

 NEW BUSINESS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

Weekly Rides: How to grow the MTB ride? How to grow the Sunday touring rides? Add a Saturday touring ride?
TT Series: Should we connect with the Baydogs, and collaboratively run them? Possibility of an Inter-Club Time Trial series? Newmarket, Barrie & Mountainview to host 1 each at their home course?
Interclubs: Add a youth component, possible skills competition?
Women’s only ride: Can the BCC facilitate and support a regular weekly ride lead & organized by women in the club/community?
Clothing order: Spend club money to place an order on Jan 2? Vote.
Membership fees: Proposing an increase of $5/yr, to cope with rising insurance costs. Vote.
Youth Race: How to ensure we have enough volunteers for a safe race?
Leisure Guide Programs: Club to hire part-time coaching staff to facilitate this courses. Vote.
Initial Discussions with Centurion Cycling: Goal of a 1500 all female ride starting and finishing in Barrie. Looking to support youth programming and masters racing with the club.
HSF Spark Grant: BCC Submitting for funding to help develop ‘safe routes to schools’ and walking school bus programming within the City of Barrie.
Canada Summer Games: Enter a team from Barrie Cycling

Possible Grant opportunities:

Ontario Trillium Foundation – Possible Submission, March 2012
$5000 TD Friends of the Environment – investigating for next submission date.
Home Depot Canada Foundation (up to 5K for neighborhood improvements)
MEC – Up to $15,000 funding for community projects

ELECTIONS:

President, Secretary, Treasurer, Communications Director, Race Director & Youth Development Director

NEXT ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: November 13, 2012

cheers,
robb

I hope that each of you has had a wonderful holiday spent with family and loved ones.

As we enter into a new year, we thought it would be a great time to get together, reflect on the season we’ve had, dream of the season to come. Order some club clothing, and enjoy some delicious wood fired pizza.

So, we’re going to have a Club Pizza/Social night on Tuesday January 11th beginning around 6:30, or 7pm, whenever you can arrive!

Our friends at Pie have offered to feed us all night long, for a flat rate of $15/person not including beverages. I think this is a pretty great deal, and intend on eating my fair share!

I hope to see logs of you there, feel free to shoot me an email to let us know you’re coming, so we have some idea of numbers beforehand.

Wishing all of you happiness, success & luck in 2011, see you then!

cheers,
robb

2010 was a year of firsts. Our first youth cup race, our first weekly club MTB rides, our first weekly learn to ride program, our first attempt at 2 Tuesday night rides with differing start points, and our first baseball cross race!

One event we had committed to take part in, a charity ride for the local MS Society, was put off until 2011, as a result of our contact at the MS Society getting married. Hopefully we can see this ride through to fruition next summer.

In 2010, the club also became political. Becoming involved and taking part in several committees focussed on road safety, and active transportation. Through these initiatives, Barrie held it’s first ever cycling safety week. A tradition which we hope to make yearly. The opening event featured almost 40 riders of all types cruising down the lakeshore together. Good times. We’re also part of the City of Barrie’s active transportation committee, adding input, and keeping up to date on local policy and potential infrastructure improvements.

The club grew it’s membership in 2010, for the first time in a couple of years. this is encouraging, even more so, is the number of youth members who joined. We would like to make youth participation a priority in 2011, potentially beginning by creating a youth development director tonight. Our 1st annual youth race was a huge success, with 55 riders, and their parents in attendance. The town of Oro, and the OPP were key players in helping us to promote a safe event, it’s great to have community partners so willing to work with us.

Speaking of community partners, the level of support, and encouragement from City Staff involved with the recent Baseball Cross held at the Barrie Sports Complex are truly second to none. The City moved dirt, rocks & fences to make a better race course, and they’ve already expressed interest in helping make it even better for next year! I will let Andrew Watson comment on this year’s event in his recap, but suffice to say we put on a great event, one that the racers, and spectators truly seemed to enjoy.

Our Time Trial series saw many riders out, but the numbers are down a bit from the year before. I am sure that Mike Doble will express some thoughts of his own, but we are looking at pairing up with the Barrie TC Baydogs for a joint time trial series that would run every week next summer, at a location that’s closer to town. Hopefully this is enough to see some more people come out to challenge themselves. I know for me personally, not being able to TT all summer was probably the worst punishment to take. I look forward to having more opportunity to ride them next season.

Our first attempt at splitting up the Tuesday night group ride seems to have really been enjoyed by most everyone. The hammerheads got to enjoy ripping each others’ legs off each week from Sunnidale park, and those less concerned with paceline riding got to enjoy a wonderful social ride each week from Fred Grant Square. We look forward to continuing this new tradition next year, it’s important that we keep a Tuesday night ride that is open and accessible to both newer, and or younger riders, encouraging them to come back each week. This is essential to ensure the club keeps growing, and people feel comfortable coming out. Brad & Barb Watts have offered to be the leaders for the downtown social ride in 2011, which I am very thankful for!

For those riders who were so new to cycling that the Tuesday night ride was too intimidating we launched our first learn to ride program in the spring. We introduced several new people to group riding via these sessions. Most everyone went on to enjoy a Sunday cruise, or a Tuesday night ride with the rest of the club. For next season, we really want to ramp this program up. Marc B. has already offered to lead a 6 to 8 week learn to group ride course, beginning in May. I’m really excited that we can offer this, and hope that it can lead to some more rider development initiatives by club.

Our participation in the Interclub Road Race series remained strong this season, with BCC members making up a substantial portion of the series. This year Mountainview Cycling Club from Midland joined the series, and special provisions were made with the OCA to keep Owen Sound’s riders involved also. This year brought some new, and great race courses to the calendar, that were enjoyed by all. The interclub races are a great way for people to get introduced to road bike racing in an environment that’s not terrifying like an O-Cup race. I hope that we continue to participate in this series through 2011 & beyond.

We did not make a clothing order in 2010, but our supplies are virtually non-existent, so tonight we will begin preliminary discussions, with the intention of making an order by Jan 10, 2011. I expect we will order from Sugoi again, as our last order from them seems to have been well received by everyone. Perhaps this year we’ll look at getting Jackets, or leg/arm warmers made for the first time if there’s enough interest.

For 2011, the Barrie Cycling Club intends to file expression of interest forms for a Youth Cup Road race, and a Southern Ontario Cup Cyclocross race, these will be submitted tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for making 2010 the Barrie Cycling Club’s best yet, now’s your chance to have input into what we do for 2011!
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I’d like to thank Steve Homenuk for unexpectedly deciding to return to the executive next year. He will return as Secretary, but will also serve as our Director of Club Communications & Volunteers.

New to the executive, I’d like to welcome Shane Hollingshead to the role of Treasurer, replacing Orrin Bowser.

In some newly created executive positions, I’d like to first welcome Cliff Lilley, as our Director of Racing Events, he’ll help ensure that next year’s Youth Cup, and Cyclocross race are even better than the ones held this year. Additionally Cliff will help ensure our interclub continues in the safe fashion it’s always been run.

We are also welcoming Brad Watts to the executive for 2011, Brad will be our Director of Social Rides. He’ll be taking on the downtown Tuesday night rides all year, along with his wife Barb. Together they will ensure the Tuesday ride remains welcoming to newer riders, and still enjoyable for the advanced recreational riders among us. They will also help to see the club provide a monthly long touring ride, from 100-180km from May-Sept.

Finally, we welcome Andrew Watson to the executive as Director of Youth Development. We are really excited to have an athlete of Andrew’s calibre as a club member, and now he’s going to help shape the future direction of our young rider development efforts from a grassroots, community level, but also the experience of competing at a World Cup level. I personally am thrilled to have Andrew aboard as we seek new directions to grow the sport and share our passion in 2011.

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting tonight, and thanks to everyone who rode with us in 2010. 2011 is going to be even better!

cheers,
robb

Today the BCC put on our 4th annual Cyclocross race, the 1st annual Baseball Cross. We had a spectacular day of racing, and possibly the best prize baskets all year from Garden Fresh!

Tomorrow, we meet to discuss the future of the club. Orrin Bowser, our long-standing treasurer, is taking on a new, entrepreneurial challenge, and as such, he needs every moment he can get, so he will not be seeking re-election next year.

Steve Homenuk, our valuable club secretary is also feeling tight on time, and has indicated his intention to step back from the executive.

We require a minimum of three executive members as part of our corporate requirements, so we will need to fill 2 positions tomorrow. Make sure to speak up if you’ve ever wanted to have a little bit more input into the club’s direction.

See everybody tomorrow at Michael & Marion’s, at 7pm.

cheers,
robb

As most of you may know, we had a crash during one of last week’s Tuesday night group rides. One of our club members was seriously injured, and ended up in Toronto after an Air Ambulance ride.

I am very happy to let you all know that Dave Smallwood is now back at home with his wife. His physical recovery has been nothing short of amazing thus far. Goes to show what kind of advantages being in shape can have on recovery. (right Dr. Bailey?)

We are going to hold an on open meeting/round-table discussion tomorrow, Monday night at 8pm. This will be held downtown at Second Cup, or elsewhere if we need more space.

If you want to be part of the discussion about how we can prevent something like this from ever happening again, please join us on Monday evening.

cheers,
robb

I haven’t made an update here since last year? Well, LOTS has been going on. I guess it’s time for an update.

Our 2010 OCA affiliation forms have been filled out and submitted, this means we will have membership cards in hand very soon. We also will provide all the local shops with forms & some club brochures in the next couple of weeks.

We have a whole bunch of great things that are set for the year ahead.

Saturday, May 22, we’ll be hosting an OCA Youth Cup Road Race & TT for riders ages 10-16. More info on the series is available on the OCA Website.

We will of course be participating in the Interclub road race series as we always have, however this year instead of Owen Sound being the third club, our friends from the Mountainview Cycling Club of Midland will join ourselves & the Newmarket Eagles in the series. The schedule is close to complete, and will be posted this week.

Mike Doble has again volunteered to run the club Time Trial series on alternate Thursdays through the summer, we’re very lucky to have his help!

We have joined a coalition along with the OPP, the County of Simcoe, the towns of Oro-Medonte, Innisfil, Springwater, Vespra & the Blue Mountains to create a rural road safety initiative/education program. After just two meetings a lot of progress has been made. The County has agreed to add a 1m strip of pavement to all new construction and re-pave jobs from herein. Oro-Medonte has agreed to something similar, but with the upcoming Pan-Am games, there is also potential to create an actual network of cycling routes through the area.

We have volunteered to adopt a section of Ridge Rd. The County responded to our request by granting us the section from Range Rd, through the town of Shanty Bay to the 3rd line of Oro. Our responsibility is to spend two days per year cleaning the shoulders of that section of litter & debris. For this, we get a sign along the side of Ridge Road with the Club’s name on it!

We’ve been hard at work to put together a program of rides designed to appeal to people who just like to ride bikes, as opposed to the ‘cyclist’ style rides we’ve typically focussed on.
These rides will be taking place every Saturday through the summer, and we’re really excited to teach new people what it’s like to change a tire, or ride in a group properly!

Hopefully some of the riders who attend these new Saturday rides will aspire to ride in our Charity event for the Barrie M.S. Society on Sunday September 18th. This will be a fully supported, exciting ride of multiple distances up to a full Imperial Century, or 160km! We’re really excited to showcase some of the challenging and picturesque terrain in our backyard.

I am sure that I’ve forgotten some things, but the gold medal game is almost on! I can’t believe it’s been so long since an update went out, apologies for that, but the Barrie Cycling Club is looking for 2010 to be the best year yet!

One last thing. We never had an end of year dinner last year, so I think perhaps a club meeting/pizza night is in order for this month, does this sound like a good idea?

Based on indicated support, a meeting of initial stakeholders to promote rural road safety will be held on Monday, December 14th at 1 p.m. The OPP has kindly offered the use of its boardroom at the Barrie detachment headquarters.

This will be a brainstorming session to begin the process of establishing programs that can be used to educate motorists and groups such as cyclists, equestrians, farm equipment operators, and pedestrians on safe practices when encountering one another on our roads.

Several groups have already expressed interest in participating in this process including the OPP, the towns of Oro-Medonte & Innisfil, The Town of the Blue Mountains, the Share the Road Coalition, the Ontario Equestrian Federation, the Ontario Trails Council, the Ontario Trail Riding Association, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Barrie Cycling Club.

During the process we may identify additional stakeholder groups locally and throughout the province who share our common vision of improved public safety on our rural roads. From our preliminary discussions you have already suggested and pointed to other programs that we may be able to connect with to advance our mutual interests. It would be helpful if you could bring information on these programs to the meeting.

Please contact me ASAP if you are interested in attending and if there are any other organizations that could also benefit by being in attendance.

Cheers,
robb

7pm, Upstairs at Michael & Marion’s Restaurant, 89 Bayfield St.

See you there.

With winter fast approaching, and the cycling season winding down, we’ve decided to hold our Annual General Meeting right after this year’s Barrie Cross race.

The race is Sunday November 8, and our AGM will be held on Tuesday November 10th at 7pm.

This years meeting is being held at Michael & Marion’s restaurant in downtown Barrie. Kent Smith, the owner was kind enough to offer us a free space in his private dining room upstairs.
The location also provides us an opportunity for some socializing after the meeting has finished and in advance of our year end dinner.

We strongly encourage all members of the club to come out to the meeting, as it is an opportunity to not only elect executive members for next year, but it also enables everyone to have direct input into the club’s direction heading forward.

In addition to selecting next years executive, we will be discussing things like whether or not we can commit to a charity event next year for the MS Society. Potential changes to the Interclub race series, both clubs involved and race courses used. Along with anything else YOU want to see discussed.

It’s been a great year, lets ensure next season is even better. See everyone on Tuesday November 10th @7pm.