MGCC 2013 AGM Recap by Sasha Gollish

AGM 2013 Recap

On Wednesday November 13th MGCC hosted its second Annual General Meeting at Gears Bike Shop (Leaside).

New MGCC Logo and Kit for 2014

The highlight of the night was the unveiling of the new MGCC logo and kit. A huge ‘thank you’ to Mike Zikovitz for his time and effort in creating this awesome new logo.

Below is a quick summary in the order of events from the meeting. 

1.   A General Update On the Club  (Fraser Chapman)

MGCC has seen considerable growth since 2011, where we began with 220 members. In 2012 it grew to 374 members. 2013 saw 606 people register. As Fraser said “It is a volunteer based, not for profit community of exceptional people doing great things with their bikes.”

2.  MGCC West  (Dave McLaughlin)

The MGCC started the west chapter in 2012. This was the second year and still see major growth in the future. 2013 saw 40-45 riders out on a regular basis with lots of new people coming out helping to grow the west chapter. 

2014 will see the addition of: 

- Marshals for the rides

- The addition of weekend rides and more weekday rides, including a ladies only ride

- Building a structure based on what MGCC central is doing

- More ‘field trips’ where MGCC west comes to central and central goes out to MGCC west

- Building a board of directors for the West Chapter

3.  MGCC Training & Coaching Committee – (Greg Connor, Rolston Miller (on behalf of Real Deal) and Charlie Breyer (Watts Up))

2013 was a very successful season and improvements made across the Club, including: 

- Lots of success racing, both in numbers joining the race teams and in race results

- MGCC Strava domination(!)

This year, most of the credit goes to our Partners, RealDeal and WattsUp. Again both RealDeal  and WattsUp have winter training programs available to our members. Check out their websites and join the club for some awesome training sessions. 

From the club survey clearly it showed that coaching and training is important to our members. From the survey we asked the following questions and saw the following responses: 

1) What Off-season programs would the Club like to see?

#1 response: 61% of members want to see more winter programs from WattsUp and Gears/RealDeal

2) What Improvements would you like to see made to the Club?

#2 response: 45% wanted to see more skills/clinics offered

#4 response: 43% wanted to see more local training camps

3) How would you like to see the Club’s Funds Spent?

#2 response: 45% want to see it used on Coaching Clinics

Thinking hard about the budget for your year, coaching is money well spent

4.   MGCC Cycling Advocacy Committee (Sasha Gollish)

What did we do in 2013?

·       Helped to repeal of the City of Toronto Single File Bylaw, which made it easier and safer to ride in Toronto and on our weekly rides. 

·       Helped with the City of Toronto Cycling Safety Website. We wrote up the relevant HTA laws to support the info graphic the city of Toronto created to show you when it is and is not ok to ride two-abreast. Here is an infographic

·       Helping the Waterloo Cycling Club with their incident. Riders of the Waterloo Cycling Club were charged with careless driving while out on a group ride. These charges have since been dropped. 

                
What's the Plan for 2014?

·       Helping the CIty of Toronto with a Truck Side Guard Policy. It is important to help support this initiative at the city of Toronto, it will make riding out and back to Brimley and on the Bagel/Croissant/Eclair rides Safer

·       Setting an Emergency Action Plan for each of our rides

·       Continue to make recreational cycling safer not just for MGCC members but all cyclists in the Toronto area. 

Most importantly a huge THANK YOU to Ian Henderson for his leadership over the last two years, he led the way in changing the single file law in Toronto. 

5.     MGCC Youth Program Committee (Dave McKay)

The Youth Committtee was quiet in 2013 but will be back in 2014, currently working on the framework for the future.  Target group is kids between 6-14 to develop their riding skills and confidence in a safe environment. The plan is to start a ‘Grass Track’ Racing program in 2014 check out this video 

6.    MGCC Race Team Committee – update & 2014

The 2013 Highlights and Stats: 

·       129 people registered for our race program email list

·       MGCC riders competed in road racing, mountain biking, cyclo-cross, multisport locally, provincially, nationally and internationally 

·       MGCC riders were very well represented in OCA sanctioned O-Cup races this year, competing in junior, sport, sportif, and Masters 3, 2, and 1 events, including podiums at several O-Cup events, and had several podiums at Provincial ITT Champs. Our most notable team was the M1 team, who were a factor in every O-Cup.  

·       Superb representation at the grand fondos, especially Centurion Collingwood that saw many MGCC riders podium

What we said we would get better at last year:

1.  Improved communication regarding race attendance: got better, thanks to the road captains who helped with race attendance issues

2.  Improved logistical support at races: better, thanks to help from RDR, but this still needs improvement. I would like to see 2 summer interns hired for this job.

3.  Better communication to the club as whole regarding MGCC racing results during the season: much improved, with 4 large communications going out. Continued help is needed with results –especially multisport—as they do not include club name, and getting those results compiled is time consuming

4.  Continued integration of MGCC racers as mentors to MGCC club riders: share the knowledge: this is going the right direction, but I would like to see more “race specific” instruction going on. We have lots of fit people, but we can make better bike racers.

5.  Continued empowerment of MGCC racers by training and working together. We can all make each other better: THIS HAPPENED!

Goal for 2014: 

·  More juniors and more elite riders riding in MGCC colours

·  Consider how it is we support our racing members. On site logistics? Uniforms?

·  Mid-winter “racing camp”? Boone is amazing, but can me a little late for the majority of the early Ontario season.

6.   MGCC Social & Philanthropic Committee (Michelle Pearlman)

Philanthropy

What MGCC did in 2013:

·   The best attended social event was the one that profiled all charitable rides in Canada. We learned that already there are lots of members in our community that are actively involved. Two of the most notable were David Newall’s Pedaling for Parkinson’s and Don Behan’s Beaver Valley 180, in support of Special Olympics. In addition huge fundraising was done by some individual members; Fraser Chapman, Peter Cook and Sarah King alone raised well over $150K this year for Coast to Coast

·   The club introduced the MGCC ‘s Annual Bursary. In 2013 MGCC received close to 40 applications, and awarded 8 grants of $500 and two of $1,250 to talented youth in our community

·   We held our biennial Bike Rally, which was managed completely by Andrew MacEachern and Barry Gordon. In total there were 110 bicycles, bike helmets, and bike locks where provided to children in

·   The MGCC Year End Party Raffle continues to support different initiatives. In 2011 Tracey Dort-Kyne, in 2012 Share the Road and this year the Ontario Cycling Advocacy Fund.

What we see for 2014:

·   Re-launching the MGCC Bursary with new criteria. Criteria include that a rider must be Ontario Resident and U-23. MGCC will be announcing results to be announced in December.

·   Form formal Philanthropy committee. Activities will include to support the biannual MGCC Bike Rally. And we may look to expand to annual by engaging a school

·   Establish a more formal partnership with The TRAILBLAZERS Tandem Cycling Club, a registered charity, provides recreational cycling to people who have limited or no vision, the opportunity to cycle with sighted volunteers on our tandems (bicycles built for two)

·   Explores additional organizations or causes for MGCC to support

·   Continue to promotes various charitable cycling events in the community and profiles key activities by members

Social

What we did in 2013: 

·   Monthly Pub Nights for Central, the West also introduced some social activities

·   Club Time Trials – initiated and lead by Jeff Sykes

·   Epic Year End Party

What we’re planning for 2014:

·   Form formal Social committee that will explore options 

·   MGCC is 100% Volunteer driven, want to make sure we are recognition and acknowledging across various committees and activities. For instance we had the Croissant Tips of Weeks, managing the Marshall schedule, week day ride emails, website updates, etc.

7.     MGCC Finance Committee – update & 2014  (Fraser Chapman)

Our fiscal year end is December 31st when the financial statements will be made available in the new year. 

Here is how your $65 membership was spent this year:

$14 on water bottles

$10 on bike decals

$3 on a 2nd club tent

$9 on socials

$5 on extra club kit (tri kit included) – given away at the end of year party

$14 on general club admin: ie. club registration (CCN), directors and officers insurance, incorporation fees, Bagel Ride SAG, Cookie O Grams, Centurion/O-Cup expenses, TT Championships, Thank you gifts

In 2014 the membership fee will be $75 + Insurance: The 2014 membership will include MGCC Water Bottles, MG Jersey Bins (a safe and dry place to store your phone, credit card, etc), MG Bike Bells, MG bike decals 

8.  Training Camp (Fraser Chapman)

·   BOONE, NC – Apr 30th to May 4th – all MGCC members (male and female) are invited to attend

·   Women’s Only Camp Details coming soon

·   Investigating the possibility to do a mid-winter cycling camp.  


9.   New Routes (Fraser Chapman and Tim Marshall)

In 2014 we are reversing the Bridle Path Loop for 2014. This is still a consideration and will be tested in the spring.  We're doing this from a safety perspective.

New weekend bagel rides are also under consideration; these are much easier to redesign as it is a matter of changing the ‘box’. ‘Australian Pursuits’ are going to introduced the 1st Saturday of every month. In addition there may be ‘specialty’ bagels (longer rides).

If you have new routes in mind please send them to Tim, keeping in mind the importance of safety and all inclusivity.

10.  MGCC 2013  Athlete Bursary 1.0 + 2.0 (Fraser Chapman)

In 2013, known as Bursary 1.0, MGCC had 40 applicants and distributed $6500.

In 2014, known as 2.0, we have 32 applicants and $8500 to be distributed.

11.  Election of Board of Directors for 2014 (Fraser Chapman)

A huge thank you to Shannon Hunt, Patti Lawrence, and Dave Newall who have stepped down from the board. 

We would like to welcome the new board members: Greg Connor, Peter Cook, Sasha Gollish, Dave McLouglin, and Scott Moore. 

Honorable mention goes to Kerri Brass, who initiated our marshaling program 2 years ago and led the group through the 2013 season. Kerri will be stepping down and Ian Henderson will be taking over his role.  

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