President's Report for 2011

Club News and Announcements
Eleri
Posts: 1753
Joined: 31 Dec 2009, 08:43
Location: Erskineville

Postby Eleri » 30 Sep 2012, 20:48

I've just re-found Simon's report to the AGM in May and am posting it for the record. Apologies for not posting it earlier.

President’s Report- Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club AGM 2011
Simon Llewellyn

The year of 2011/12 could best be described as a year of consolidation and the progression of change for the club. Whilst membership continues to grow new challenges have begun to face the club in maintaining contact with all members through a variety of different activities.
Our Stated Club Goals: (from last year, currently under development with the construction of the new constitution)

• Capitalise on building our membership base especially juniors and women
• Build upon the fellowship the club offers and social cycling, and not solely focused on competition
• To build a stronger training and racing culture for our competitive riders, including track, road and penny-farthing events
• To build a juniors program
• Manage club finances to ensure health surplus to achieve strategic objectives
• Enhance links with and contribute to the community and be advocates for cycling
• Attract female cyclists
• Grow club membership and participation faster than the CNSW average of 12%

Membership

At present DHC has 255 financial members which is representative of continual and rapid growth of the club from 195 last year and 117 the year before. One noticeable positive change however is the span of age groups membership has attracted all the way from under 11 years of age to the oldest masters 10 category. This can be broken down into:
Membership is as follows: (Financial)

Category Members
Elite 24
U11 1
U13 3
U15 2
U17 3
U19 0
M1 13
M2 16
M3 10
M4 10
M5 10
M6 3
M7 2
M8 1
M9 0
M10 2
Platinum 2
Ride Adult 139

Training

DHBC continues to focus road training on the weekends and track training mid week. On Saturday we continue to run the ever popular Saturday Slowies which has been important ride of the club for many years, offering a social experience for long term members of the club and a good starting point for beginners. On Sunday mornings we offer 4 levels of speed for our waterfall rides; Cruisers 25s, Cruisers 28, Middies and Fasties. I big thankyou must be given to the ride leaders who volunteer their time once a month to continue to make these rides safe and enjoyable.

In 2011 we sadly saw the closure of Mick Mazza’s bike shop which had been a long term starting point for waterfall rides and a place where many people were introduced to the club. A number of new starting points were debated however club sponsor Marrickville Road cafe put forward an attractive offer to have the starting location at their cafe. Whilst the majority of this proposal has yet to be introduced, the new starting location has been working without too many issues.

On the velodrome there too have been a number of changes to training. After many years of having one structure for both Mondays and Wednesday nights, the transition of availability of different members has seen Wednesday night to be motorbike night and Monday night innovation night. After many years of fantastic service as derny driver Southern Cross bike club president, Phil Kelly has slowly been stepping down from the role providing opportunity for others to obtain a derny license and offered Monday nights with a flavour of variety. DHBC was able to recruit four new derny riders which has not only given Phil a break but also given the club more versatility in managing training.

Racing
For the third year running DHBC was able to win the club championship at RAW track, making our club the first club in the history of this event to do so and show the strength of the club on the velodrome. Racing has been an integral part of the club for a number of years and will likely be so for a number of years to come. On an individual level much success was obtained at club, state and national level, for which the club should be very proud.
The clubs racing program continued to expand also. This included the trial of a seven part criterium series at Dunc Gray Criterium circuit. Whilst the event was heavily hit by rain, causing the cancellation of nearly half the event, it was felt that the challenges facing running events so far from Dulwich Hill were too great for the event to be successful. In the future it is felt that either a closer circuit will need to be found or events should be run less frequently to increase attendance. On the velodrome an omnium event was run each month of the year with a different theme. Proving much more successful and at the heart of the club the omnium calender has been brought forward to be re-run over the year ahead. Much thanks must be given to Bernard Beer who have been a big supporter and sponsor of this event supplying beer to all but month of the year in which the club forgot to obtain a fresh supply.
Juniors

This year the juniors have continued to be a big success for the club with as can be seen from the membership, more and more younger riders have decided to give cycling a go and joined the club. It has been exciting to see 10 plus attending juniors training at the Velodrome each week on Wednesday nights and in particular recently lots of young girls joining the club which represents the sustainability of women’s cycling in our local area. A big thank you must go to Collin and Lizanne who have been running this training as they have been doing a fantastic job.

Also a big thank you once again must go to Michelle Brown, who, with the support of Phil Kelly from the Southern Cross Cycling Club, and many of the parents, have developed and run a sustainable junior’s program. Michelle this year will hand over this role to Collin who I am sure will continue to develop an exciting program for the future.
Social, Community, media, advertising & sponsorship

As can be seen from the club membership, non racing members make up a large portion of the club which have always been an important facet of the club in aiming to be the most friendly bicycle club in Sydney. A good example of this was the Sydney to Gong ride last year in which DHBC was able to raise an exceptional amount of money for MS and get some good positive publicity. Another example is the adventure rides which take place on a monthly basis; these have given different riders the opportunity to design an exciting new route to put to the test. Whilst promoting fitness and social involvement, the adventure rides have proven very popular and successful thanks to the efforts of Mike who maintains the forum thread.

In line with the rapid growth of the club, DHBC has seen a continual growth of the profile of the club in social and written media. Whilst providing a voice upon important issues such as the recent proposed changes to the Centennial Park cycleway, it has been exciting to see how much positive publicity the club has obtained this year. Whilst we have had numerous articles published in local newspapers thanks to the hard work of Simon Sharwood the club’s publicity officer, it was particularly exciting to get a write up in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Sydney Magazine. This put the club down as one of the leading promoter’s of exercise and cycling in the Sydney area, leading to more people making the choice to get on their bike and counteract any negative publicity towards cycling which may have been printed at the time.

Based on this positive reputation DHBC has had no trouble attracting sponsorship this year. Many thanks must go to Ondrej Slezak of Bernard Beer, a current member of the club who has got on board with sponsoring the club over the past year. Bernard Beer has been fantastic in continually promoting the social side of DHBC track racing, giving us the opportunity to continue the DHBC ethos of low price racing, no prize money and the best bbq in NSW cycling. Bernard beer was also pivotal in ensuring that DHBC were able to run a very popular Christmas Carnival event on the calendar and taking all the hassle out of finding sponsorship for the event.

DHBC’s other primary sponsor and now sponsor for a number of years Marrickville road café continues to do a fantastic job in providing coffee post Saturday and Sunday Morning rides. In return for providing custom, Marrickville road café have agreed to offer the club a percentage of this income back to the club. Whilst this arrangement at times requires work from the club to chase this income, it is an ongoing arrangement for the future. Though it has yet to happen Marrickville road café also agreed to supply the club with storage box in which jerseys for sale can be stored, a track pump and spare tubes. Making this happen will be a job for the incoming executive.

In closing

while I am to be leaving this role this year, I feel it is an exciting time for the club with much change on the horizon. However thinking back on the past year, I must thank all those who put in hard work to keep the club running smoothly and continually growing. To all the members keep on riding!

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