# Ride Lead Secretary



## Boopop (9 Feb 2017)

Evening all,

I have taken on the role of ride lead scretary for the year for my cycling club (LBRCC). This means I have to recruit ride lead volunteers (we have 3 rides every Sunday morning), tell them which general direction to go and also organise the rota for the year. So far we've been using a google spreadsheet as a sort of notice board for who's due to lead what and it has worked reasonably well.

I'm curious however if anyone in a similar position has found any software/websites to make such a job any easier? A simple improvement over our current system would be automatic emails to ride leads a few days before Sunday to post their route plan to our facebook page, even better would be the ability for ride leads to notify others they can't make one of their comittments.

Some googling hasn't got me very far so I wouldn't be too surprised if no-one had any suggestions, however it seemed worthwhile asking at least.

Cheers!


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## derrick (9 Feb 2017)

We do it all through facebook, seperate one for ride leaders, then it gets posted to the main facebook page,


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## Milkfloat (9 Feb 2017)

Our club has a different policy. Each ride leader is responsibly fully for their ride, if they cannot make the ride then It is there responsibility to find someone else or worse case cancel the ride, they plan their own routes too. There - I just made your job very easy.


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## Boopop (9 Feb 2017)

Milkfloat said:


> Our club has a different policy. Each ride leader is responsibly fully for their ride, if they cannot make the ride then It is there responsibility to find someone else or worse case cancel the ride, they plan their own routes too. There - I just made your job very easy.



Not quite...who decides the ride lead initially then? That's my job!


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## Milkfloat (9 Feb 2017)

Boopop said:


> Not quite...who decides the ride lead initially then? That's my job!



Find someone crazy enough to sign up for the whole year, it works for us.


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## Boopop (9 Feb 2017)

Milkfloat said:


> Find someone crazy enough to sign up for the whole year, it works for us.



Yikes, I don't think any of us have that much free time. Thanks for the suggestion though


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## PaulSB (10 Feb 2017)

@Boopop I organise Ride Leaders and rides for my club. I have some ideas for you which I'll try to post later today.


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## Boopop (11 Feb 2017)

Looking forward to hearing back from you @PaulSB


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## PaulSB (16 Feb 2017)

@Boopop Apologies again. I did reply before on my phone, which is tedious at best, and managed to delete it when I hit the reply button, since then I'd forgotten. Hopefully the following is of interest, it works well for my club, Chorley Cycling Club.

Much of what we do is via Facebook with the basic information repeated on our website. This is an issue for the small number of members who don't use FB and we need a resolution to help them get better info on rides etc. There are two official FB groups - the wider club group which is open to all, its not private, and the Committee group which is private. There are probably other groups amongst the membership - for example when I organise the Chorley Grand Prix marshalling, after a call for volunteers on the general page we use a private group to discuss the organisation details. I also run a private group for Ride Leaders, sweepers and volunteers of our Intro and Progression rides.

All this privacy is purely to keep the group focused and ensure people get the necessary info without the entire club pitching in with remarks - usually smartass ones!!

Winter and Summer are defined by the clocks going forward or back. "Defined routes" are decided and published by the committee at the beginning of the season. I think you can see we have varying degrees of organisation depending on the ride type. All the way to Club Ride level we have a high degree of organisation and beyond this leave the fast boys to sort themselves out - its how they like it.

Personally I feel your description of the role involves a lot of work and it is rather unfair to expect one person to do all of this.

We also have a wide range of rides published on RidewithGPS

The Riding Week

*Tuesday Winter Evenings*
Two rides available, the Club Loop which is a defined two mile loop around a large local housing development. No leader, just turn up and ride, usually ten loops. The intention is for club level members to ride at pace in a group using the slowest rider as the gauge for pace. Intended to be around 15mph but often hits 19 dependent on attendance

The Sporting Ride, with no defined leader, is for our fastest riders. There a few loops they use with the decison made on the night, it's effectively a chain gang. Basically fast!

*Tuesday Summer Evenings*
Again two rides available. The Club Ride is a 30 mile defined loop with no leader, usually someone jumps on the front. It works like this, 12 miles out as a group at pace 16-18mph, 1,2 or 3 turns of a defined 2 mile loop, regroup and return by a different 12 mile route at around 16mph. The intention is to increase pace over distance and allow riders to ride the three 2 loops at any speed they chose and as many times as they wish.

The Sporting Ride is as winter above

*Wednesday Ride*
A regular informal ride which varies according to the leader. Route is published on FB with members expected to respect the route and decide if they can achieve it without slowing the ride.

*Friday Fry Up*
Another informal ride, usually flat, of 55 miles at 16-18mph. One of the regulars will publish a route and again riders are expected to keep up but will be helped if needed

*Saturday Intro and Progression Rides* - this is my responsibilty
The Intros and Progression Rides are designed to introduce new members to group cycling, teach etiquette, improve the rider and help people gauge their own level for the future. All are ridden on defined routes.

I organise this by calling for volunteers every six months who then join a private FB group. We have volunteers for leader and sweeper and, usually, an experienced club member, often me, will turn out to ride up and down the group helping people if needed. This is usually getting them to ride on the wheel. Once the volunteers are decided I publish a calendar as attached.

1st Saturday is the Flat Intro at 13mph, higher if possible, over 30 miles plus cafe
3rd Saturday is the Hilly Intro at 12/13mph, ocassionally higher, 27 miles plus cafe
4th Saturday, alternate months, the Flat Progression or Hilly Progression, 55 and 45 miles respectively at 13/14 and 12/13 plus cafe. These are to help those looking to progress to Club Ride

* Sunday Rides *
08.00 depart Sporting Ride, again the fastest riders. All turn up, agree route and blitz it over 70-80 miles at around 21mph

08.00 depart Club Hilly Ride which is always lead by the same guy but he's great at a variety of routes. Ride Leader responsible for route and cafe to be published on FB. Usually 70 miles, 5000 feet at around 15mph. It gets a bit brutal on ocassions, people are warned in advance but no one is left behind unless they say they're dropping off. In Winter every other week the route drops to 55 miles with 3500 to help those who want to make the jump to this group

08.00 depart Club Ride usually lead by the same guy. I disagree with this as I think we need more variety but he's reluctant to give it up. Ride Leader is responsible for route and cafe and must publish the route on FB. A sweeper is usually chosen on the day but we all know what we are doing and take turns. No one is ever left behind, no matter what, though they did forget me when I had a heart attack. True. Distance 55 - 80 depending on time of year with a published average of 15mph but this could go to 17mph if everyone who turns out is capable of the speed. Usually flat with rolling hills. We stick newbies in the middle, pair them up with an experienced rider and give advice. In tough conditions a couple of riders will act as domestiques to get the sufferers home.

I hope this helps though I think it's not precisely what you wanted. My calendar is on the next post as the last time I tried to load it my whole post got deleted!!


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## PaulSB (16 Feb 2017)

The calendar is created in Excel and published as a PDF. The completed one for the first half of the season is on my work PC!


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## PaulSB (16 Feb 2017)

Whoops 

I forgot the Thursday Evening Hilly Ride. In principle this should be two groups but I gather it merges in to one quite often. The intention is to have a club level and sporting level ride using local hills. Both should meet, agree on a route and go. 

It seems this often degenerates in to the fast guys heading off with a few club riders hanging on the back. Apparently people do get spat out the back. 

This I feel demonstrates why organisation is needed on most rides.


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## Boopop (16 Feb 2017)

Thanks Paul for the explanation, you clearly put a lot of effort in!

I'm afraid I'm more interested about the system/software used more than the rides themselves. It looks like in the end you use excel/spreadsheets too. That's what I'm trying to avoid if I can help it, as I'm trying to automate allocation and reminders. Thanks though.


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