Cycling BC AGM - the state of racing in BC

I am not going to argue with you Mike, but I am going to try to keep things accurate.
Michelle has no association with the Langley track at all, she has no children in the sport.

Remember…80% of the BMX racers in BC hold ABA licenses. Right now, 80% are being ignored. You want to bring the two parties together because you want those kids all under the CBC development system. So, Tom, I'd encourage you to ask more questions, and seek answers to the situation if indeed you are attending and have a vote.

I am asking questions. I've been asking them since this thread started. Way back when I asked where I could see who candidates for the positions were. Now I have been able to read what some of them say.

You make some excellent points about the ABA tracks, and I can see why people see the value in being affiliated with ABA vs. CBC.

I have a vote, but unfortunately won't be able to attend due to a very important family event that day.

I guess since this is a mountain biking website…we should steer the discussion back to mountain biking. Although the VP of mountain biking position is not up for election this year…what would the position of this slate of candidates be in regards to MTB?

just got this tonight:

CYCLING BRITISH COLUMBIA
2012.11.16

For Immediate Release

Confirmation of Prize Purse for Grand Prix Cyclo-cross

(November 16, 2012 - Vancouver, BC) Cycling BC is committed to developing all cycling disciplines in an equitable manner for both female and male riders. Our strategic plan identified the development of youth, para-cyclists, and female riders as the #1 priority of our 2009-2013 strategic plan. Opinion has has recently expressed by members of the cyclo-cross community that this is not our intention and we are pleased to offer the following clarifications.

In spring 2011, Cycling BC submitted a bid to host the 2012 National Cyclo-cross Championship. As part of the bid, Cycling BC offered to host a cyclo-cross event on the international cyclo-cross calendar on the day following the national cyclo-cross championships. Our bid to Cycling Canada and the awarding of the national cyclo-cross championship to Cycling BC gave life to the inaugural BC Grand Prix of Cyclocross.

The prize money for this event was established based on the anticipated registration of riders in each gender as well as the UCI requirements. The UCI's minimum requirements expect that the 15 highest placed women receive prize money and the technical guide for this event met this requirement. Initially there were only 13 women registered in the BC Grand Prix of Cyclo-cross, the number of female registrants grew to 18 riders by Wednesday 14th and at close of registration the number of women's entries has risen to 24 female riders. With this increase in mind, Cycling BC will invest these additional registration revenues into prize money for the women's category. This decision will result in the top 15 female riders out of 24 riders each receiving the same prize money as the top 15 male riders our of 40 riders.

Concerning the prize money fund that was raised by members of the BC Cyclo-cross community in order to "equalize" the prize money, Cycling BC maintains that as the organizing committee, we have the right to decide how any funds donated to our event should be used, and also maintain that we have the right to refuse to accept such donations if we can't come to an agreement with the donor over its use.

Subject to Cycling Canada evaluation of the 2012 event, Cycling BC has secured the rights to the 2013 Cyclo-cross Nationals and also intends to organize the 2013 Grand Prix of Cyclo-cross. With this in mind, Cycling BC will create a charitable fund from any surpluses from the 2012 event. These funds will be specifically be offered as travel and assistance grants to young BC women wishing to race at the 2013 BC Grand Prix of Cyclo-cross.

Cycling BC wishes all participants an enjoyable experience at our event, and also the best of luck.

i'm not sure what to think

just got this tonight:

i'm not sure what to think

you mean other than the fact they sound like a bunch of twats?

I am asking questions. I've been asking them since this thread started. Way back when I asked where I could see who candidates for the positions were. Now I have been able to read what some of them say.

You make some excellent points about the ABA tracks, and I can see why people see the value in being affiliated with ABA vs. CBC.

I have a vote, but unfortunately won't be able to attend due to a very important family event that day.

I guess since this is a mountain biking website…we should steer the discussion back to mountain biking. Although the VP of mountain biking position is not up for election this year…what would the position of this slate of candidates be in regards to MTB?

Excellent point, Tom. I saw this as more of a general Cycling BC thread, but you're right, NSMB is still a MBT focused website, so I'm deffinitely good to move on to that…

check this out…CBC trying to lease Cypress to reopen MTB park?? http://pedalmag.com/?p=177342[HTML_REMOVED]c

wtf?

I am not going to argue with you Mike, but I am going to try to keep things accurate.
Michelle has no association with the Langley track at all, she has no children in the sport.

OK Andy, if you are going to set me straight, at least give all the info.

Michelle is, I presume, Darien’s aunt? Fair enough. That family races at Langley BMX. Quite a bit, in fact.

My point being, the general public has no idea how often the paths cross, and it makes the whole anti ABA stance at CBC that much more ridiculous. You may be the only track director or former track director of all the CBC tracks that does not have his child racing ABA. The fact that pretty much every expert level family races ABA seems to be ignored in this debate.

Jeff Clarke is a member of Action BMX, or Abby, one of the two. He races both tracks. I support him because the BMX community needs fair representation of ALL BMXers in BC, not just the small minority- like you- that race only CBC.

I have a really high level of respect for you Andy, for all the hard work you have put in as a volunteer. The last thing I want is for this to get into a pissing match. Let's just agree we both want the same thing- progression- but we want to go about it in entirely different ways.

Sorry…now I'm going to try and move on. Change is important to me on a MBT scale, too…

http://pedalmag.com/?p=177342[HTML_REMOVED]c

I seem to recall seeing the top part but not the Cypress part at the bottom. The comments seem to explain it.

Thanks for the props above Dude. I figured a new account name easily associated with me IRL was warranted for this purpose. If anyone has any questions, fire away.

Although my proposed nomination is for the CX side, I hope we'll see a board that is very involved in a cross-discipline fashion instead of all retreating to our own bunkers, creating a right hand / left hand situation with the overall operations and governance. Although I have no first hand experience with the BMX, I consider it a requirement to learn more so that - along with the rest of the board members - we can all lend a bit of support to each discipline of the sport. I met Jeff for the first time earlier this week, and in response to some pointed he gave a very compelling summary describing how the adversarial situation is keeping the BMX community from reaching the level of participation and success it could potentially have under a functional partnership arrangement.

As a general rule of thumb, I always start with the approach that there's more to be gained by working together than having sides tear each other down.

Ya, for some reason this post was sent to the mod queue. No idea why. Just released it.

check this out…CBC trying to lease Cypress to reopen MTB park?? http://pedalmag.com/?p=177342[HTML_REMOVED]c

wtf?

Todd.. expect this to become a bigger fiasco then the Pan Am games BMX and Velodrome soap opera.

and then there is the even bigger fiasco brewing with richard wooles filing a wrongfull dismissal suit against cbc

https://eservice.ag.gov.bc.ca/cso/esearch/civil/searchPartyResult.do?serviceId=14925382

is the link to the filing. it cost $12 to read the notice of claim (which i have) but if it goes richards way i can not imagine it being cheap for cycling b.c.

in any event the agm sure will be a bit more exciting this year than years gone by anyways

http://pedalmag.com/?p=177768

in other news my home town in Ontario is getting a velodrome??!! didn't know any roadies or track stars back in the day, but we got a strong bike community….oh yeah, the BMX thing is dumb, just work together with the US behemoth, bring back more BC cups that are easy to get to and fun to race for MTB and I don't care what the roadies and track addicts want….

Aidan has raced ABA Mike, I let him race whatever he wants.
It was not his cup of tea, which is why you don't see him out there, nothing to do with me.