The 2009 Cycling Season is just around the corner with preparation time fast approaching us. For the Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday rides we expect to have an ever-growing requirement for Group Leaders. As new members continue to come on board, we will also have a continuing need for Clinic Instructors for our Group Riding Clinics.
- If you are a current group leader or clinic instructor, we would love to see you back again this year.
- If you are a past group leader or clinic instructor and have been away from it for a while, we could really use your services again.
- If you have ever thought about volunteering for either of these roles, we encourage you to talk to us about it. It's not really that difficult and you will have all of the club's resources available to you.
- Being a Group Leader is also a great way to get to know your fellow OBC cyclists.
Mark your calendars for Wednesday April 1st for 7:00 pm for the downstairs meeting room at the Club office on Booth Street. We will be having our annual meeting for both Group Leaders and Clinic Instructors at this time. Remember that while many members do both, it is not necessary to be a Group Leader in order to be a Clinic Instructor or vice versa. While we will have a separate agenda for each, both agendas will hopefully include a guest from the Ottawa Police Services again this year. We continue to experience incidents with irate motorists, motorist rage as well as minor communication issues with the police. Last year, with the assistance of OBC and OPS member Graydon Patterson, we drafted a written protocol for dealing with problem motorists as well as uninformed
police officers. Hopefully, Graydon will attend again and assist us in fine tuning this document after one year of practical use. Graydon is also very helpful in addressing many additional items such as our rights and responsibilities as cyclists, the roles of Group Leaders, the rules of the road and many more issues that concern our members. Graydon is usually also available for a question & answer session.
The purpose of this meeting is to assist our members in fulfilling and improving your roles as Group Leaders and Clinic Instructors and to provide the tools that will make you successful at both. The meeting will be followed by a practical session on Saturday April 4th at 10:00 am at the Experimental Farm for Clinic Instructors as well as for Group Leaders who feel they could use a refresher course. I honestly believe that a refresher session would be good for most of us. Remember, we can't run our programs without you and I look forward to seeing many of you there.
PS: We will need Group Leaders as early as Sunday April 5th (our first club ride) and Clinic Instructors will be required every Saturday from April 11th to July 4th with the exception of June 6th (our RLCT weekend). We plan to have a few alternate Sunday clinics in April and May again this season.
Ron Stoneham
Touring Director
