It's both an honor and a pleasure to be back as President of the 5BBC.

Toby did such a great job stepping into my shoes and she made them feel much bigger as I try to reach the levels she did as President.

Unlikely.

My goal in my next term of service is to find someone to continue the path the club has been on for many years now, where the board works very effectively as a team to do the business of running the club.

Not much new to report. Our priorities remain what they have been for years now: Rides, Rides and MORE Rides for the membership from our wonderful leaders. While I don't have much new news to report, our Leadership Class is new and improved and I do want to remind all of you of a few thoughts.

Some people some times say, to those of us who take our club seriously - "Remember, it's just a bike club".

Well to many of us (me for example), it's our community and we love it, and the riding we do in it, very much.

Some people go to synagogue on Saturday for community; some people go to church on Sunday for community, and many of us - go to ride with the club on Saturday, Sunday and any other day we have free - for community.

We had an incident recently on one of our rides - two leaders each filed complaints one against the other.

This is a rare experience, but in this case, both sides were a little bit right and a little bit wrong - and it brought home the point that all of us - the board, the leaders and the members - need to be reminded of a few points.

The lifeblood of this club - is rides. (Remember those priorities - Rides, Rides and More Rides).

Rides don't happen without leaders.

Of course growing our membership is important too - but it will come, it always has, when we have a robust calendar of compelling rides. So the critical ingredient to the lifeblood of this club are strong leaders.

To that end, we have evolved our Leadership Class over the years and more and more people have been able to step into leadership because we lowered the time commitment and increased the experiential component in a way that let's leaders emerge at the pace they need - gaining experience riding and leading with a supporting membership. So don't be surprised if you see a growth spurt in rides as new leaders post their first ones, and ride with mentoring / assessing leaders who will confirm their capabilities to lead. Think of it as learning on the job and we ask you to give it your fullest support.

It's important that all leaders AND members know our philosophy of leadership which is that "The Leader OWNS the ride they list". A leader puts a lot of effort into creating a ride and leading it effectively - if we have too many cooks, it can spoil the broth. So, if someone doesn't like the way a leader is leading - they have only TWO choices. First, they are welcome to leave a ride they are not enjoying (preferably taking the leader aside and privately explaining why they feel the need to leave). Second, if they feel the leader's behavior is egregious - they should send an email toleadership@5bbc.organd our capable team will address it.

I have a secret to share - the secret to being a good President of a bike club with a board like ours.

Toby did this even better than I ever did, but I did it for 3 years and am doing it again now. I have never made a single decision for this club. I don't have to. I bring all major issues - including the conflict mentioned above - to the board. It springs into action, researches, gathers input, deliberates, discusses and votes. I might have to break a tie - but I rarely have as I tend to throw it back into the team and have them reach consensus.

With all this said - I am available to all of you - feel free to email me with any questions or issues and I will, along with the board, do my best to answer you.

Thanks for your support - hope to see you on a ride soon!

Allan