Well well well...the resurrection.

 

Just thought I would wish you all good luck with this endeavor, I know that Bellingham can and will have a great club someday. In case you are wondering I am at UW Dept of Pharmaceutics working on my PhD. Took the year off from Tri to go to Colorado to lease minerals for an Oil and Gas company (huge $$$) and now I am training again.

 

Just hopefully a helpful word based on my experience starting the Bham Tri Club and observations that I received that may or may not have been relayed globally.

 

With any group it is very difficult to forge an identity that encompasses more than about 20-30% of the whole. With triathletes, who tend to demonstrate the need to be ACHIEVATRONS in other aspects of their lives besides just triathlon, this drops even more. With these folks being very much active and involved in many things at once, its hard to find a way to unite so many people such that they come forward and willingly sacrifice enough of the time they lovingly devote to these other items to a new item, such as a Tri Club.

 

And from what we saw with OUR original club, it wasn't that they disappeared or werent interested, it was more a fact of having to decide what their individual level of commitment was going to be. And when I started this club, my goal was to provide a resource that anyone could access at anytime. The founders of the club: Tjalling, Jimmy, Sean, Matt, Jim, Jon, Paul, Kelly, Sharon (sounds like a band) with the support of a couple other folks at high profile local business agreed that we couldn't tell people how  much to be involved. And from that I felt we were on our way to a healthy balance between the core group who supported nearly everything and the entirety of the club, who could benefit from the core's efforts when they wanted. And the core group ENJOYED this and had more ideas than we knew what  to do with!

 

I  half agree with my good old friend Mr. Hackney about the "drop-off" of our attendance, that it could very well have been one of the reasons. But I dont really buy it too much. My own recollection of comments, questions and concerns voiced by many many members directly to me in private never once complained about the established group of "hardcore" members. Instead, what I heard was a wealth of info about what might improve their chances of being an involved member, what they hoped to see the club become/not become, and just generally happy that its around.

 

What I learned more than anything? What do I, personnaly take from the experience?

1. It HAS to be a group effort.

2. It will evolve--be patient.

3. ENJOY IT. Dont make it seem like work--although for a few of you who choose to be the carriers of this, it may be a lot of work.

4. Relax about membership. The members are out there, they dont need to check in every week.

5. The community of Bellingham has more than enough resources to make the BhamTriClub one of the happiest groups around.

 

I just wanted to write and let you know that when I left Bellingham, I was happy with what we did. I felt that it was a young group that would grow and mature. Well, I am sure everyone knows better than I did, and I look forward to seeing a new and improved club soon.

 

I have a 4 hour Pharmacokinetics Oral exam now so I better be going.

 

Aaron Moss

425-241-5399

 

PS--I kept the triclub domain name just in case this day should come...all you need is a web site host.