starting a group cycle

podgec10

A question from a group starting. This will be a fitness/leisure group of cycling and running (I know why would anyone run??)

Some of our group will be 'experienced' cyclists (tri's and sportives, not real racing ones) but most will be leisure cyclists. We are rural based (nearest cycle club about 40 miles away) and are wondering what are the advantages to the group/club of joining cycling Ireland as a club? For us this will be an additional €300 (Munster and Ireland fees, increasing by €50 as the months pass) We will all join as individuals so we will have the private and public liability insurance benefits.

What do cycling Ireland and cycling Munster do for a leisure club that we wont get by being individual members? is there any reason why being individual members and riding together will be a problem?

outfox

Are you at liberty to say what part of Munster/Cork the group will be based?

podgec10

outfox wrote: »

Are you at liberty to say what part of Munster/Cork the group will be based?

West Cork. I know there is the wc cycle crew but we're a bit away from their usual base/starting place.

I don't like the idea of loading car, driving to start, unload car, cycle, load car, drive home, unload car. As opposed to go cycling.

outfox

I've just sent you a PM.

podgec10

outfox wrote: »

I've just sent you a PM.

Thanks for your message outfox. I replied to you.

podgec10

Separate joining an existing cycling club, what are the benefits of setting up a club with cycling Ireland rather than 15-20 people being individual members?

Beasty

A club can organise events. You can have your own club gear. There is though quite a bit of hassle involved and you need 3 "club" officers plus a child protection officer

One financial factor that goes some way towards alleviating the CI affiliation costs is unattached members do pay more to CI (can't remember how much off the top of my head)

If you are talking an area without an existing club I think around 20 is probably a number when it's worth thinking about a club but equally there's probably no particularly compelling reason to set one up.

podgec10

Beasty wrote: »

A club can organise events. You can have your own club gear. There is though quite a bit of hassle involved and you need 3 "club" officers plus a child protection officer

One financial factor that goes some way towards alleviating the CI affiliation costs is unattached members do pay more to CI (can't remember how much off the top of my head)

If you are talking an area without an existing club I think around 20 is probably a number when it's worth thinking about a club but equally there's probably no particularly compelling reason to set one up.

We have a committee set-up to make things formal for ourselves.

It looks to be €5 paid to munster cycling if joining cycling Ireland as a non club member

Insurance for a club event might be worth the joining fee but at the moment we have no group money so easier said then done and no set plans to organise any cycling events/sportive but we might put on a sportive or short cycle as a means to raise money for club for next year and for charity/community.

thanks for your reply and information.

Beasty

I think you're probably looking at this the right way. A lot of clubs are established with minimal numbers (current lower limit is 6) in areas where clubs that can cater for their needs already exist.

I can understand it for specialist disciplines. However there are probably way too many registered clubs already and some are set up to promote single events then disappear.

The set up process was mentioned at the recent CI AGM and there may well be proposals to change how new clubs may be formed going forward.

podgec10

We will have members who run only, cycle only and there's even talk of a few swimmers in this fit4life group and we will have people like me who have a go (and be rubbish!!) at everything they can (tri/adventure races/10k and HM with a couple of local sportives thrown in)

I think it will be mostly runners (beginners and local runners) but a few will be mainly cycling (the Chairman and Treasurer) so cycling will get some focus!!

There are a lot of clubs when you consider cycling and triathlon clubs, but I suppose geographically an area will want its own local club rather an existing club miles away.

On the minimum members, I think 6 seems too few. A club with 6 members could go out of existance very easily after a year or 2, I wouldn't like that to happen to our group. I'd rather we built up to a larger group before becoming an official club but the rest of the committee might not see things the same way.

Allabaah

podgec10 wrote: »

We will have members who run only, cycle only and there's even talk of a few swimmers in this fit4life group and we will have people like me who have a go (and be rubbish!!) at everything they can (tri/adventure races/10k and HM with a couple of local sportives thrown in)

I think it will be mostly runners (beginners and local runners) but a few will be mainly cycling (the Chairman and Treasurer) so cycling will get some focus!!

There are a lot of clubs when you consider cycling and triathlon clubs, but I suppose geographically an area will want its own local club rather an existing club miles away.

On the minimum members, I think 6 seems too few. A club with 6 members could go out of existance very easily after a year or 2, I wouldn't like that to happen to our group. I'd rather we built up to a larger group before becoming an official club but the rest of the committee might not see things the same way.

We had the same dilemma last year as we were a group of lads cycling rather than a cycling group. Amid much debate we formed an official club as most riders had the CI leisure license anyway for insurance purposes.

For 2016 the CI individual membership is 40 Euro (35 for CI & 5 for Leinster Federation) where the club affiliation is 280 euro in total made up of 130 Euro for CI & 150 Euro for Leinster Federation.

Therefore we are charging 50 Euros in total foe the Club membership which covers 40 for CI & 10 for the annual club affiliation fees. We will need 28 riders x 10 to cover the affiliation fees.

The nice thing about affiliating to CI is the insurance really for events and also they cover non members for the first 3 spins. Also the portal they have to handle payment whilst clunky does the job nicely and takes that hassle away. Also it provides financial transparency on membership fees.

However I have written to the Provincial Federation asking them from a Leisure perspective how are they justifying their additional fee ..... still waiting for an answer there.

@Beasty, you mentioned the CI AGM, where there was an acknowledgement that the Leisure sector, whilst being the biggest contributor of funds to CI, is under-served. Not sure what the plans if any to address that.

Allabaah

@podgec10 Drop me a PM if you wish!

jamesd

Allabaah wrote: »

We had the same dilemma last year as we were a group of lads cycling rather than a cycling group. Amid much debate we formed an official club as most riders had the CI leisure license anyway for insurance purposes.

For 2016 the CI individual membership is 40 Euro (35 for CI & 5 for Leinster Federation) where the club affiliation is 280 euro in total made up of 130 Euro for CI & 150 Euro for Leinster Federation.

Therefore we are charging 50 Euros in total foe the Club membership which covers 40 for CI & 10 for the annual club affiliation fees. We will need 28 riders x 10 to cover the affiliation fees.

The nice thing about affiliating to CI is the insurance really for events and also they cover non members for the first 3 spins. Also the portal they have to handle payment whilst clunky does the job nicely and takes that hassle away. Also it provides financial transparency on membership fees.

However I have written to the Provincial Federation asking them from a Leisure perspective how are they justifying their additional fee ..... still waiting for an answer there.

@Beasty, you mentioned the CI AGM, where there was an acknowledgement that the Leisure sector, whilst being the biggest contributor of funds to CI, is under-served. Not sure what the plans if any to address that.

"and also they cover non members for the first 3 spins"
Never knew this - Any link to this for me as it would be good to be able to bring people that are interested in joining and to know they are insured

jamesd

Our club started off 2 years ago and going into our 3rd year now and the club started off with about 12 members and now it is up to 45 members.

I think since it is a club this helped with people joining, we charge €20 club membership yearly and operate good comm's / meetings / get together's and members seem to be happy with the value they get.

This year we organized our first charity cycle and used the CI event insurance and said if we have an event per year then CI is good value too. (We had 390 cyclists at the event).

uck51js9zml2yt

Am I right in thinking a leisure cyclist , not affiliated to a club has insurance cover?

jamesd

London Wooden Surfboard wrote: »

Am I right in thinking a leisure cyclist , not affiliated to a club has insurance cover?

If joined cycling Ireland yes

uck51js9zml2yt

jamesd wrote: »

If joined cycling Ireland yes

Great value, thanks

Allabaah

jamesd wrote: »

"and also they cover non members for the first 3 spins"
Never knew this - Any link to this for me as it would be good to be able to bring people that are interested in joining and to know they are insured

That was a good question on the 3 Spins as I looked to see where it is on the CI website. I couldn't find any reference to it but I contacted them via their prompt Q&A facility.

The response was "It is not in any document but I can confirm that guest members are covered for three training spins once they sign the One Day License sheet. (used for races and sportives, except this is used for non-members going on club training rides/ spins)"

CI kindly sent me the document and I have uploaded it here as well for your perusal as a registered/affiliated CI club only.

jamesd

Allabaah wrote: »

That was a good question on the 3 Spins as I looked to see where it is on the CI website. I couldn't find any reference to it but I contacted them via their prompt Q&A facility.

The response was "It is not in any document but I can confirm that guest members are covered for three training spins once they sign the One Day License sheet. (used for races and sportives, except this is used for non-members going on club training rides/ spins)"

CI kindly sent me the document and I have uploaded it here as well for your perusal as a registered/affiliated CI club only.

Thank you - excellent to know that. Will make use of it now for recruiting members.