What to look for in a club?

mamba80

I'm a lapsed - almost - current member of YOGi CC in Plymouth.

What should a cycling club offer? especially a big club (450members) with £1000s in membership fees and £10k in Sport England funding - how about Go-Ride? club coaches? a race team or race aimed training rides? youth section? hire out bikes to kids?
OR non of the above? just a selection of road and mtb rides oh and winter turbo sessions which were paid for by grant funding but the club charges for.

Maybe some one from the committee of Yogi would like to come on here and defend their lack of services, especially on the Youth front and the waste of SE funding in only training 2 out of the 6 coaches?

what does your club offer? and what makes it great? or not so great?

giropaul

A cycling club is a group of people who "club" together around a mutual interest.

A club doesn't HAVE to do anything. If all the members want to do is watch videos of races, then that's fine. Clubs do things because members do things, voluntarily - no-one is paid to do them.

Therefore, if you want, say, support for youth riders, my first question would have to be to ask what you have done to develop these within your club?

Joining a club isn't about "buying" a service, it's about joining together to get things done - "Ask not what the club can do for me, but what I can do for the club" to paraphrase.

To answer your question, what makes a club great is a lot of people dedicated to giving their time and commitment.

mamba80

Youth coaching/support can only take place with the leadership of coaches, at the time (2yrs ago) 6 people were funded and only 1 has completed the training and 1 other is 1/2 way through - so no GO Ride coaching.
A committee should lead and promote and support new ideas, its incredible that a city the size of Plymouth has no Youth cycling at all.
It is difficult to progress the club when the committees whole reason to exist is to make the club bigger and nothing else, and do not ever put themselves up for election.
They operate a cartel and as most people just want to ride a bike and nothing else, get away with it.
But what ever you may think GiroPaul, is it reasonable to obtain 10k of funding and then either do nothing with it or just waste it?
As well as critisising my thoughts, i d also like to know what other clubs do.

cougie

What do you do for the club ? Have you volunteered for any positions ?

As Paul says its about people giving up their time. For a lot of clubs money isn't the answer. You need good reliable volunteers and a lot of cyclists are selfish with their time.

BruceG

Easy question to answer. Does the club give you as an individual what you want?
Yes, thats great
No, move on elsewhere that does

Lookyhere

cougie wrote:

What do you do for the club ? Have you volunteered for any positions ?

As Paul says its about people giving up their time. For a lot of clubs money isn't the answer. You need good reliable volunteers and a lot of cyclists are selfish with their time.

It is about money here, a club with 450 members gets in £4.5k in membership and then obtains £10k in grants ffs! why? if its just a grp of cyclists with no premises and no ambition - then why charge? (or obtain monies that other organisations could do with?)
however, large numbers of folk seem to go along with it! especially the "i'm on the committee for life" bit.

You cant volunteer for anything if nothing is suggested aside from ride leaders otherwise it becomes a club within a club and that ll never be allowed to happen - the last member who asked for a copy of the accounts had their membership revoked.

Just look at Mid Devon or One and all cycling to see what can be done, let alone Plymouth based RutrainingtodayCC who with a 1/10th of the membership have just put on a very successful series of GoRide training, in spite of Yogi's refusal to publicise or help in any shape or form

t.m.h.n.e.t

Depending on fees paid!

Some form of coaching available

In general:

Quality kit at sensible prices.

Different groups (speed/distance) and perhaps different disciplines - ie: MTB/TT/Mountain Goats

Good cameraderie: Little point if the club membership is stiff and uninviting.

BruceG

Lookyhere wrote:

cougie wrote:

What do you do for the club ? Have you volunteered for any positions ?

As Paul says its about people giving up their time. For a lot of clubs money isn't the answer. You need good reliable volunteers and a lot of cyclists are selfish with their time.

It is about money here, a club with 450 members gets in £4.5k in membership and then obtains £10k in grants ffs! why? if its just a grp of cyclists with no premises and no ambition - then why charge? (or obtain monies that other organisations could do with?)
however, large numbers of folk seem to go along with it! especially the "i'm on the committee for life" bit.

You cant volunteer for anything if nothing is suggested aside from ride leaders otherwise it becomes a club within a club and that ll never be allowed to happen - the last member who asked for a copy of the accounts had their membership revoked.

Just look at Mid Devon or One and all cycling to see what can be done, let alone Plymouth based RutrainingtodayCC who with a 1/10th of the membership have just put on a very successful series of GoRide training, in spite of Yogi's refusal to publicise or help in any shape or form

Are you suggesting there is some financial malpractice going on? Why don the both of you raise your concerns with the body that awarded the £10k in grants, just ask them what they intended it to be used, for then you can reasonably question why it hasnt. Internal club politics really are not the ideal on this forum, it is clearly a club specific problem, thats needs dealing with internally

Mikey23

Interesting as I've just joined yogi. Not ridden with them yet but they seem a reasonable bunch and have a very good website. I noticed that they are trying to get coaching together. Not seen anything about a youth policy but that doesn't affect me anyway. Did you go along to the agm at the weekend and voice your concerns?

cougie

I know when my club applied for grants we had to jump through hoops to get anything.

If you think something is wrong speak to British Cycling. I don't see how a one sided argument from anonymous people on the Internet will do much. You may just have a grudge ?

Mikey23

latest info from yogi website is that they are doing coaching and some of this is for juniors. I suspect that their problem is like many clubs, lots of members but a much smaller core group of people that are prepared to help out. takes a while to get suitable volunteers and get them trained up. coaching juniors involves protecting vulnerable young people training as well. oh and a race to come in the autumn. Your silence suggests that you chose not to get along to the AGM, air your opinions and perhaps volunteer for a position but to come here and criticise them in a public forum instead ....

CakeLovinBeast

This just smells of sour grapes from over here. Coming on an internet forum and telling us all how upset you are over the lack of facilities/activities suggests that you've got some form of grudge. Either try to resolve things through official channels, or vote with your feet.

slowbike

CakeLovinBeast wrote:

This just smells of sour grapes from over here. Coming on an internet forum and telling us all how upset you are over the lack of facilities/activities suggests that you've got some form of grudge. Either try to resolve things through official channels, or vote with your feet.

I would be concerned with a reported lack of transparency in the accounts - tbh £4.5k pa can go quite quickly - but the club should be open and honest (to it's members) about where this money goes ...
However, according to the website they go over the accounts at the AGM - sounds reasonable and I wouldn't expect a club to produce accounts on demand anyway - so perhaps there really isn't much of an issue with the accounts anyway!

Jinx9

Mikey23 wrote:

takes a while to get suitable volunteers and get them trained up. coaching juniors involves protecting vulnerable young people training as well. oh and a race to come in the autumn.

As you are a new member of yogi, you won't know how they operate! They are now in their 4th year and have had tens of thousands of pounds in membership money, Sport England funding, raffles (from donated prizes), kit sales and turbo training sessions. They have held one road race (organised by a member) and are now only just sorting out a youth coaching session - open to club members only and not following any BC Go Ride programme.

Members should be asking how that money is going to be used to develop the club for the members... oh hang on, one person did and had their membership revoked!! It is a legal requirement for clubs to discuss their accounts at the AGM, so don't think they're doing you any favours! Try asking for a copy of the accounts (also a legal requirement) and see how far you get!

RUTraining Today has been going since January 2012 - they have already held a road race and 5 Go Ride Sessions. They are hosting a Go Ride Games event in August and have further Go Ride sessions planned for later in the year open to any child whether they belong to a club or not.

It's not about time - it's about getting of your backside and making things happen. If you look at the yogi website, its the members who are doing all the work whilst the committee sit back and take all the credit. If you dare to criticize them on their website, you are told to go and join another club - so it's hardly surprising 'sour grapes' seems to be quite common when discussing the yogis!

mamba80

CakeLovinBeast wrote:

This just smells of sour grapes from over here. Coming on an internet forum and telling us all how upset you are over the lack of facilities/activities suggests that you've got some form of grudge. Either try to resolve things through official channels, or vote with your feet.

Of course its sour grapes... what on earth do you think internet forums are for then... just a good news story? how many come on here and slate Halfords or any other bike, shop or Sportive or whatever.. a club is no different.
Most folk try reasonable argument with the organisation they ve fallen out with and when they get no-where it can end up on a forum - i know what happened when a Yogi member asked for copy of their accounts and questioned what was happening with the funds - membership revoked and this was after organising their leisure rides for them and their 1st ever RR - with very little help from yogi - just ordinary members trying to help out a new ish club with a newcomers ride.

Clubs that boast this or that and then rarely deliver should eventually expect to get a rubbishing - no one from Yogi - committee- has come on here and defended them... only you and you r a MDCC rider!

Personally, as a Tax payer - i expect value for money from a Tax funded grant - £10k and 1 coach trained up in 3 years, 10 turbos bought...big xxxxing deal. Many Many other volunteer based community clubs in many sports would have done far more with 10k - maybe you dont pay tax and dont care how it gets wasted? .... thats the "sour grapes" dude!

cycleclinic

I think look for a lub where the members are people you like, the members like riding and like bikes. That's the sort of club I like.

sassycat

We are members and have never had any problems with the YOGi club. I really think you should speak to them about your issues, though I agree that facilities for youth cycling in Plymouth is sadly lacking. As with most things, I realise that it's probably due to people having to give up their own time. Let's hope something gets organised soon!

dawebbo

This is simple:
1) raise your concerns at their agm
2) if still unhappy either run for committee or leave
I'm sure the committee will be happy to spend even more of their freetime organising stuff while you sit on your fat arse and anonymously slag them off on internet forums.

mamba80

Done no1 and no 2 - only as they dont have any form of election to the committee (unless a permanant member resigns) the first part is hard to do.
As to slaging them off, why not? its good enough for you as thats what you are doing... sitting on your fat arce, slagging me off, whilst not having a clue what your commenting on... which again, is a common theme on internet forums.

kieranb

Well having helped my wife do accounts for 2 different voluntary organisations (not sports related) I was shocked at how poor accounting was kept, very little traceability of funds etc. One group was/is trying to improve, the other didn't seem too bothered, eventually my wife gave up due to lack of support from the rest of the committee. I also realised not all committe members were exactly giving up much of their valuable time.


Any funding grant should have had a proposal put forward to justify the request for funding. The funding body should be able to assess whether that funding was used as specified.

Pross

Personally I would be asking the club committee or asking on the club website rather than posting on a general cycling forum and asking someone from the committee to come on here and answer your questions. What is the £10k funding for? I suspect it is just grants that are available for things that benefit the community - my club gets access to grants like this which get used for things like paying for members to go on BC coaching courses.

For what it's worth my club (100 odd members, £15 per year adult membership, 3 main sponsors) provide kit at subsidised prices, fund one of the top women's racing teams in the country (via seperate sponsorship), run a youth coaching session every Saturday and have actively encouraged people to become coaches to support this but most importantly, and not money related, it is a place where you can meet other people to go out riding and the club organise a load of open or club races over the year. To me that is what it is all about, I don't want anything out of the club other than encouragement to ride and being able to encourage others to do so.

However, I don't think publically slagging of a club on here is the way to go.

Pross

Mikey23 wrote:

latest info from yogi website is that they are doing coaching and some of this is for juniors. I suspect that their problem is like many clubs, lots of members but a much smaller core group of people that are prepared to help out. takes a while to get suitable volunteers and get them trained up. coaching juniors involves protecting vulnerable young people training as well. oh and a race to come in the autumn. Your silence suggests that you chose not to get along to the AGM, air your opinions and perhaps volunteer for a position but to come here and criticise them in a public forum instead ....

No, that's all part of the BC coaching course. All that is required is a First Aid certificate and a CRB check (which gets done through the course paperwork). Just don't expect coaches who are qualified to anything below level 3 to be handing out 1 to 1 advice and training plans, they are not allowed to do that - it is all about coaching technique at levels 1 and 2.

Mikey23

Ok, very similar to athletics then. I am a UKA level 2

Pross

Mikey23 wrote:

Ok, very similar to athletics then. I am a UKA level 2

Yep, the basic format is the same across most sports now.