An open letter to the members of Murfreesboro Bicycle Club

As everyone is aware, there has been a lot of controversy in the last week over the decision to drop the Two County Metric. First of all, I’d like to ask everyone to step back and take a deep breath. A lot of charges are being made and a lot of friendships are being placed at risk. To my way of thinking, the damage to personal relationships and loss of friendships is far more tragic than the loss of a ride.

Many of the charges and accusations are being made by people who have not been involved with the issues and have not been involved in club leadership. On the other hand, from the very beginning I asked the officers to refrain from making the situation worse by getting involved in a forum or email shooting match. As a result, there has generally been only one side expressed on this forum.

There are actually two related issues in this controversy. One is the future of the Two County Metric (TCM) and the other is general governance of the Murfreesboro Bicycle Club (MBC) I would like to briefly address each issue, then present my short term plan.

I would like to address club governance first, because that bears a direct influence on how the TCM decision was arrived at.

Over the last several years, when it came time to elect new officers, requests for nominations or volunteers have been published on this forum, in the club newsletter, and in emails distributed to the entire club membership. The lack of response to these requests has, of necessity, resulted in officers tending to serve extended terms until they could finally recruit their own replacement, with those replacements confirmed by acclimation at the Chili Ride. I have worked with several volunteer organizations over the years and observed that while this method of getting organizational leadership is not ideal, it is not all that uncommon. The same situation has existed in finding leadership for the TCM and the HOT. Again, requests for volunteers are posted on this forum, published in the newsletter, and distributed in mass emails. The result has been that we find barely enough volunteers to work the day of the rides, and finding people to fill mid- and top level leadership has been so difficult that the officers and their family members have ended up filling those positions themselves just to get the job done.

It has never been the desire of present or past officers to do the club business in isolation. The one recurring topic of discussion at nearly every meeting has been how to effectively involve the club membership. Various methods have been tried over the last few years, but the end result has been that the decision making process has been left to the sitting officers.

Regarding the TCM itself, at the conclusion of the 2007 HOT-100 the officers reviewed the results of the two rides for 2007 and noted several negative items concerning the TCM:
- Loss of Event Director
- Competing events resulting in a loss of ridership.
- Eroding cooperation from the partner organization
- We took a financial loss on the ride.

While each and every one of these and other factors could be addressed, taken in their totality they would have required an increased effort on the part of what was a dwindling base of committed volunteers. Coupled with those issues were the facts that the Chamber of Commerce had expressed an interest in helping promote the HOT-100 and, separately, we were presented with an opportunity to renew the advocacy effort to push toward achieving the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) certification as a “Bike Friendly City”. As a result of all of these factors it was felt that growing the HOT, involving the Chamber of Commerce, and pushing for LAB certification were complementary activities and that trying to sustain the TCM would be a distraction from these goals. While not fully explained, this decision was announced in the next newsletter. The immediate aftermath of that announcement was that a few questions were asked regarding why, and a few people expressed that they were disappointed, but no real objections or requests for reconsideration were raised at that time.

Could the decision have been more widely discussed? Absolutely. Every officer recognizes that. I have publicly and privately stated that I accept personal responsibility for that. Were we within our rights to make that decision? Yes, the bylaws clearly give that authority to the officers.

With that said, here is how I would like to proceed. I am arranging a meeting for this weekend between myself and Dwight Bond. It is our common intent at that meeting to clear up any fundamental misunderstandings that have driven us to this point. Based on the outcome of that meeting, it is my intent to call a meeting of the general membership to discuss club governance as well as the future of the TCM. This meeting will be strictly business and not tacked on at the end of a ride. At this time I envision that meeting as having two parts. First will be a time for anyone who wishes to express their opinion or ask questions to do so. I envision this as being modeled after city and county government’s ‘public comment’ period. I will do my best to grant anyone who wishes to express an opinion to be able to do so in a non-threatening environment. During this period we can more fully discuss the details of the issues I have outlined above. After the public comment period I will entertain motions for club action.

In closing, I would like to ask everyone to remember that we are all volunteers working out of a labor of love, doing the best we can with the hand that is dealt us. Charges that the officers are liars or that we have some still hidden agenda are scurrilous and totally without merit. I firmly believe that honorable people can have honest disagreements without making personal attacks or assuming the worst intentions on the part of others. MBC is on the verge of being able to do some great things for the bicycling community in Rutherford County and there have been some wonderful friendships develop through participation in MBC. It would be a shame to loose all that as a result of a few ill-advised and ill-informed personal attacks.

I am stunned by the content of Ed's post, and mystified by how such hard feelings could occur between members of the MBC. The pain I feel is like the pain of being betrayed by a loved one. I, as a charter member of the MBC (read OLD), beg you to set aside personal interests and TALK to one another--re-establish the kind of trust required to ride paceline at 25 mph! Get back to the pure joy of cycling!