September Meeting Minutes

Monthly Meeting: September

Date: Thursday September 24th at 7pm on Zoom

Attendees: James Thompson, Todd Backes, Drew Scott

Topics Discussed

2026 Race Attendance

• Our attendance at club races significantly improved compared to 2025 and 2024.
• An average of 26 riders per Sunday Series and 25 riders per Fireball, a vast improvement over 2025 and 2024.  Take out the Corfu rainy outlier and that goes up to 29 riders per Sunday in 2026.
• Club TT and RR championship events moving back to regular club races instead of being part of USAC race were a hit.  Both TT’s were our best attended events this year.
• Strava segment group rides also well attended
• We had 88 unique riders try at least one club race, a notable increase from 76-78 each from 2024-2025
• Thanks to everyone’s consistent efforts, revised winter base building, consistent communication and outreach.  Riders kept coming back and making these events great.  Early season pre-fireball skills workshops and Peter’s clinic meant an improved focus on skills development throughout the season.  The new jersey rejuvenated the club’s image

Membership highlights

• The push for 2026 to make the group ride membership free was a big success, gaining 62 free group ride members and pushing total membership to 196 (so far and up from 159-167 in 2024-2025).  The number of paid full members was down about 10 but still within margins.  The goal of the free group ride membership was to get more people in the fold, participate in the group rides offered by Northstar, NFBC, Wayland, Campus, EA Tuesdays, etc, and also be able to do our TT’s and Strava Segment rides to get on the scoreboard.  The goal is to move some of the group ride members up to full members in the coming years.

USAC Race Highlights

• The decision to reduce races to Freedom Run and the TTT was great for attendance, logistics, and finances.  More focus and participation in the club races.  These races were also generally our better attended and lower cost events, allowing us to make about $1000 on the USAC races instead of lose money.  This goes back to supplementing club membership dollars.  It was also easier to have a full complement of staff and club volunteers on site for smooth and safe events.  Full treasury report at the next meeting.

• Todd Backes will run for the currently vacant VP role for 2027.
• Alison Merner will come on as an advisor for skills workshops.  She will run pre-fireball skills workshops and post-race debriefs next year to help with skills, race craft, and tactics.  Also some off-week Thursday skills workshops during the season like the one before Two Days this year.
• There is currently an open position for club secretary for 2027.

Other ideas for 2027:

• Erin suggested a club vs club event with one of the clubs from Ontario next year.  Example could be inviting the St Catharine’s cycling club to Grand Island since that club leans heavily into weekly time trials
• Not brought up at this meeting, but some members have brought up the idea recently of a new course for the Thursday Night Fireball.  Some members want a course that has some or all of the following: more corners per lap / shorter laps, left turns, and closed roads.  The logistical nightmare is finding all of this for free and requiring minimal marshals.  Current fireball course only needs one marshal, no potty, no venue setup, no cost.  Venues we have approached in the past will not allow us to use their property for a closed circuit, and others would require more marshals/security, a potty, and a significant venue fee.

Some next steps

• We are finalizing Sunday October 18th for our awards banquet ride at Wayland Brewing Company.  Waiting to hear back from them.
• Erin and Drew will create some end-of-season surveys for all members and for group-ride members
• The Adam Garlapow Memorial Ride is on the calendar for October 4th.  Jim Costello and others are leading it but cross promoted on our website and media
• In general for next season, we have some strong foundations and consistency that were realized this year and will look to build on that momentum.  Further discussions in our next meetings.