Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bicycle and Icicle, the difference is the B...rrrrr

The radio said it was 35*F this morning as Team Bison headed out for a Desert Foothills Chapter ride. A few puddles were observed to have ice in them. My feet felt like riding in the Canadian Rockies, only a lot drier. If you're looking to test you're cold weather riding gear, I have good news for you.


Sunday, December 21, 2008

Zoolights



As I mentioned in an earlier post, the winter solstice has passed and daylight riding will become commonplace again. Marking the turn of the seasons with an evening ride to the Phoenix Zoo for Zoolights seems appropriate. Tom Adams coordinated a dinner and led an evening ride through Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale.

The Next Generation


My daughter Carol, Kasidy and I rode the Bison with the Coyotes. We did 26 miles roundtrip. It was cool to start out, but it is December.

Actually, today is the winter solstice. The solstice is traditionally a pagan holiday celebrating that there will be more daylight hours for cycling for the next half a year. It is my belief that an appreciation for this celestial event is universally appreciated by modern cyclists, except for a few oddballs who seem to enjoy riding in the dark.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Coolest Bike I Saw This Weekend

Have you seen this bike around town?
It's a destination.


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Introducing the ABC virtual office

Thanks to everyone for their survey responses. The number of responses was much higher than I would have predicted. It proves to me that people really care about the club. That fills me with enthusiasm for bringing a new vitality to ABC and doing some really cool stuff. But I know that I can't hog all the fun! There is a dedicated group of individuals who have been tirelessly working for the betterment of the club. In some cases, these folks have decades of loyal service. I applaud that service and I trust that I can count on them for continued support. But, based on the survey results, it seems clear that there are plenty of additional people willing to lend a hand. Thanks! We just need to be coordinated so that we're all pedaling in the same direction. In order to help communicate my vision for the club, I have started a blog and already created a few posts. Please check it out at: http://azbikeclubrides.blogspot.com/ Feel free to leave comments on the blog or email me directly.


One of my first goals is to make the club's business much more efficient so that portion of the monthly meeting is very quick and easy. That will leave time to do other more fun stuff. We need to lay all the groundwork between the meetings so that at the meetings we can quickly bring things to a vote when necessary and easily report progress. To kick off the fun stuff, I'm planning to put together a presentation on route mapping technology for next month's board meeting. I hope you can attend.


But the business of the club isn't just about board (bored?) meetings, minutes, agendas, etc. There's the riding. That's what we're about! Putting on a major ride is work. There's no doubt about it. And we're going to put on several major rides in 2009. But it can be fun work if it's done well. In addition to rides, there are numerous other volunteer opportunities that could also be very satisfying and rewarding. Having functioning committees is critical to getting things done well, and having fun doing it. To be effective, the committees must manage themselves, get guidance and direction from the board, and actively report results. I will have an acting chairperson for each committee before the next board meeting. I will work with each committee to consider the survey results and develop goals for the coming year.


But to make this work, we need new tools for communicating and collaborating. Our new Ride Coordinator, Kristi Felts Moore, has been burning the midnight oil setting up just such an environment on the Internet using software available from Google. This software is free for the club because of our non-profit designation. More importantly, this software is designed so that you don't have to be a computer nerd to use it. If you're able to surf the web, you're more than half way there. I think this software has great promise for helping us in many ways. The survey is just one example of what can be done with Google's offerings. I think that the response demonstrates its potential. Getting over 150 responses is incredible!


Please check out what's going on at AZBikeClub.org. Even though there are public portions of this domain, it is intended as a collaborative workspace for managing the business of the club. Dennis MacLeod and Terry Mickelson's work on the AZBikeClub.com site is independent of this and still vital. But these new tools can help coordinate and manage any project that the club undertakes. In the public portion of the new .org site, there is:


  • a form for submitting agenda items for board meetings
  • a form for volunteering to work on our major rides for 2009
  • a form for volunteering to work on committees
  • an online calendar
  • a report of survey results
As we add registered users to this site, I look forward to:
  • publishing meeting minutes there
  • managing the work of the committees in sites they control
  • finalizing the draft of a strategic plan and other documents
  • creating a project management system
  • and much more.
Because this software can do so much, there is a bit of a learning curve and some people will be initially intimidated and perhaps even frustrated as we acclimate to a new way of doing business which maximizes our productivity. I've been in the Information Technology industry since the '70s and I sometimes feel overwhelmed in this environment. I suspect that it's because I'm being asked to think outside the box. When I take my time and open my mind, I see the value and am sure that we can put it to good use. The dizzying array of tools and features all need to be evaluated, tied together, documented, and rolled out. Right now, that effort is in its infancy. I'm confident that with patience, dedication, and feedback, we can create a powerful and user-friendly environment for achieving the club's goals.


I value your opinion. Let me know what you think.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Hoof prints on the roof

Kristi, Kasidy and I rode our tandem (AKA "The Bison") this past Saturday morning with the Desert Foothills Chapter. We rode pretty hard, particularly chasing down one of the other bikes who got out in front of us on the ten mile run down New River Road headed toward Lake Pleasant. A traffic accident on Carefree Highway detoured us a couple of additional miles before we wrapped up our 44 mile jaunt. We were frankly too tired to get the Bison off the roof of the car when we got home. So, a few hours later, when the time came to leave for the ABC holiday party, the Bison was still there and thus accompanied us to Paradise Valley. I announced myself to the guard at the gate saying I was there for the bike club party. The gentleman nodded toward the roof of my car and said, "Yeah, I kinda figured." The gate swung open and we made our way to the clubhouse for a wonderful and festive evening. From it's perch in the parking lot, the Bison had a wonderful view of the city lights with the silhouette of Camelback Mountain rising sharply and majestically behind us into the night sky.



In the meantime, Kristi and I shared fine food, drink and conversation with other club members before herding the Bison back north to Anthem. Pulling into the driveway at home, I noted, "At least we won't have to put the bike up on the car in the morning to go ride with the Coyotes!"

Thanks to all for a wonderful evening.

Friday, December 5, 2008

As the world turns...

If you haven't ever seen Google Earth, you should! Google Earth is a free application available at http://earth.google.com/.



Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others.

It's that "sharing with others" that really makes Google Earth cool. Just to get a better feel for the geographical distribution of the ABC chapters, I pinpointed them in Google Earth as placemarks. The file attached in the link below should load in Google Earth (assuming you have it installed on your computer) and show placemarks for all nine current ABC chapters.

All Chapter Start Locations

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Cycling it forward

For me, bicycling is all about fun… the wind in my face with the endorphins coursing through my veins. I just want to go ride my bike! While riding alone is fun, I also enjoy riding with a group. Sometimes new riders tell me that they want to get in shape before coming out to ride with the group. I say, "Come out to ride with the group to get in shape!" I find that group riding helps build and maintain skills better than almost anything else a rider can do. For more than 30 years, ABC has strived to improve the quality of life in Arizona by supporting bicycling. Throughout those years, the club has depended on volunteers and that need never changes. I would like to challenge every member to perform at least one volunteer activity for the club in the coming year. For example, slice up bananas at a SAG stop or help clean-up after the Christmas party. If every member would do just one thing for the club every year, I think we'd do amazing things. By this time next year I hope that everyone will have an answer to the question, "What did you do to help the club in 2009?"



But I feel the club has a responsibility to its volunteers. The club has to treat volunteers with respect. The club has to plan ahead enough to provide ample notice and clear directions. If everybody understands what is expected, then things will go a lot smoother. I'm hoping that if the club can clearly and very specifically communicate what it needs, it will be much easier to find people willing to step up. For the club to be able to do this, it needs to have a clear and well communicated vision of where it wants to go in the future. Therefore, we are developing a questionnaire designed to help the board develop a long range strategic plan. Additionally, this survey will establish a baseline against which we will be able to measure progress towards meeting the goals we set for ourselves. Please look for a link to this survey in your email and please take 5 minutes out of your busy day to fill out the survey. This is your club and it depends on your input to succeed.



In addition to the regular chapter rides which happen weekly, we are planning for the Gila Bend Tour, The Desert Classic, The Grand Canyon Ride and The McDowell Mountain Century. In addition to our Holiday Party, we are planning on hosting a presentation by touring cyclists and authors, Tim and Cindie Travis this Spring. I think this is going to be a great year of riding but we need your help to make it happen. If you have ideas or comments, please email me at President@AZBikeClub.org.