Dave, you have some good points. Tom, thanks for the update.

In my perception, the recent rumblings regarding Forest Park are
caused by either no or misinformation. The work that PUMP is doing
behind the scenes is not being conveyed to or not reaching the
cycling community. People outside of PUMP are making their own
assumption about what is or is not happening behind the scenes. I
have to admit, I didn't know much about what was happening either and
I think I have stayed up to date as much as possible on the issues.
In addition to marketing I think the information conveyed at the
meetings regarding trail issues should be published to the PUMP
website and the important information (like Forest Park, Mt. St,
Helens, etc.) released to other sources like bikeportland, MTBR.com,
WTF, the Oregonian, etc. I think the lack of information leads some
to think that PUMP is not accomplishing its goals or is ineffective.

Dave, I think you are correct about re-branding. At the club care
meeting the point of my beer buzzed ramble was that I think we need
more diversity in the club. The most active members generally are
singles with some extra time on their hands and the predominant
riding style is XC. Most of the rides are scheduled for all day
adventures starting mid to late morning and lasting the whole day.
Many of us with family obligations can't afford to ride that kind of
schedule very frequently.

I will volunteer to organize some early rides next summer with the
goal of being done by lunch time. That way you have the afternoon at
home to spend with family or take care of household issues.

We have a great core group of people that run the club but I think we
need a more diverse group of people to lead other diverse activities
such as early rides, DH rides, urban riding, fun rides, etc. There
is a huge opportunity to pull people in, just look at the success of
the Cross Crusade. But, maybe their success is based on the local
venues and the popularity of the CX sport.

I don't know the history of the PUMP club with others in the
community but I hope it could be repairable. I have ridden with
others that I have meet on MTBR.com and all seem to be adverse to
joining or riding on PUMP outings. I have never really been able to
get a clear understand why they have their opinions.

Fred


--- In pumpclub@yahoogroups.com, ujelang@... wrote:
>
> Thanks Tom.
> A few observations from me.
> With under 200 members it is hard for a small club to be effective
at what
> we want to try and accomplish - which is a lot. We have several
important
> issues that are critical to mountain bikers which we are trying to
stay on top
> of. They include Forest Park, Mount Hood Wilderness proposal,
and Mount St
> Helens administrative bureau. The active members in the club,
which is
> significantly less than the total number of members, can't handle
all of the issues
> that come up. We need to have more members to be able to be a
more
> effective club.
> We are trying to increase our membership base, but if people don't
want to
> join for whatever reason then we'll have a hard time in growing.
And, if
> people refuse to join because they think the club is ineffective
then they run
> the risk of contributing to a Catch 22 situation. If they don't
join and
> encourage others to join then we won't grow. If we don't grow we
can't be more
> effective.
> Unfortunately it seems PUMP has a bit of a negative reputation.
You and I
> both know that we now have a different mind set on the Board - at
least I
> think we do. I've only been a member of PUMP for a few short
years. I've only
> heard anecdotally what might have contributed to our negative
reputation.
> From the unfortunate negative comments, that I've read, I think it
might be
> time to re-brand PUMP. I've mentioned that to the Board Members
and I hope
> that will be a topic of conversation at our next Board meeting in
January.
> I'm not 100% convinced re-branding will solve our image issues.
But it is
> something we need to consider.
>
> David Anderson
>
>
>
> There is a big effort on the current Board to have a more
transparent
> operation in club matters. Minutes to the Board meetings will be
posted on the
> club's website. The Board meeting dates will also be posted on
the calendar and
> the meetings will be open to the membership.
>
>
> 1. If you are having problems sending me e-mail, please start
using:
> ujelang@...
> 2. I've got a blog full of all kinds of fun stuff! Links to some
of my
> favorite websites. Lots of photos. check it out!
_http://dcycle.blogspot.com/_
> (http://dcycle.blogspot.com/)
> 3. My flickr photos can be seen at:
http://flickr.com/photos/ujelang/
> you may have to copy/paste the addresses in to your webbrowser...
> **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL
Mail,
> Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now.
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>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>