The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Psamathe
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Psamathe »

Si wrote:Well, on the subject of kids.....when we go into a school and teach bikeability we quite often have kids asking if there is some sort of club they can join to continue riding. And I'm afraid the answer seems to be 'no'. Problem is that there are loads of clubs around here but as far as I know they only accept kids if the parents come too. And for the most part the parents aren't interested in cycling. What we need is some sort of club setting up in urban areas where the kids can go without parents and be taught different things about cycling,e.g. bikeability, MTBing, BMXing, racing, spannering, etc etc. CTC doesn't seem to offer anything like this on a wide scale as the local MGs are all volunteer run and few volunteers want to get mixed up in what is basically a cycling youth club.

I don't know if it is the same issues as facing many other clubs for youngsters but somebody who does a lot of work with kids (water based activities/sport) explained to me how these days a major issue facing getting adult volunteers is the risk of accusations of "inappropriate" behaviour (which might be false). That somehow men who volunteer for helping in such clubs can have a "why" question over their real reasons. And whilst some will still help, many are discouraged by the real or imagined risks. Saw something similar reported in the Guardian (I think) some time ago.

Ian
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Steady rider »

One approach could be to contact the Caravan Club with a view to providing details of rides from their sites, CTC display boards and leaflets detailing the routes. The CTC could in tern promote these sites and possibly gain a small reduction in fees for members using them when booking via the CTC. Routes suitable for children could be highlighted, e.g near to good quality cycle tracks or using minor roads and bridlepaths. Mini events for CTC members, or open to the pubic, could be organised from suitable sites and listed in Cycle. On the other hand the CTC could consider investing in suitable sites taking caravan and tents.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by admin »

mjr wrote:That's slightly unkind/misleading in two ways: 1. BC here are using athletics tracks;


Sorry, yes, a little misleading if BC are using things other than cycling tracks. But then the question might be: why aren't CTC organising events for children on athletics tracks? I suspect that BC are just much more geared up to organise events like this on tracks, not roads.

mjr wrote:2. CTC campaigning was absolutely crucial to getting at least one motor-traffic-free route provided near here, which was fairly swiftly adopted by Sustrans for their National Cycle Network. Going back further, weren't CTC crucial in providing the first tarmac roads? But the large grant to the Sustrans charity for the NCN Millenium project means that it's Sustrans symbolism on the signs.


Agree that CTC have certainly helped to campaign for a few motor-traffic-free facilities (including my own campaigning!), but in general over the last 150+ years we've preferred to campaign for the Right to Ride on public roads, and have often actively campaigned against hated "segregated" cycleways. I don't blame the club for doing so, the CTC has until recently been a club for keen adult touring cyclists. It looks like this is changing now that CTC is a charity.

The vast majority of the tarmac roads that CTC helped to get provided are no longer suitable for most types of cycling, especially by children. The days of cycles being sensibly classed as "carriages" and thus required to use the "carriageway" have passed: a bicycle no longer resembles the "carriages" we have on modern roads.

As to organising cycling events for children, not only do you have to have nerves of steel (or a motor-traffic-free cycleway of some useful length) you quite probably also need to arm yourself with CRB Checks, Safeguarding Policies, Risk Assessments, Insurance, and most probably a decent set of bicycle repair tools (certainly a pump will be needed!). That's even before you start to think about the issues of High Viz and Cycle Helmets, and how you might deal with those. There are very few people willing to make the effort: it's hard enough planning a cycle ride on roads for just my own family!
thirdcrank
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by thirdcrank »

The need for enhanced CRB checks to work with vulnerable people is hardly unique to the CTC. It's inevitably going to affect any organisation that depends on volunteers in that for paid workers, it's an inevitable part of the job requirements and potential applicants know that. An enhanced CRB includes details of everything which has "come to notice" which in some cases may have happened several decades ago. People tend not to volunteer to have stuff dragged up from years ago and aired. The sad thing is that time and again it's been found lacking because conventionally respectable people have been found not to be so well-behaved as a clean CRB implies. I believe there are plans to change this system.

PS

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27895472
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by thirdcrank »

I see that the Supreme Court has ruled that the extent of CRB checks must be limited. I fancy this may encourage more people to volunteer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27895472

Will apologies for the BBC's dumbing down in the link (The appeal involved a caution for theft of pedal cycle some years ago and is illustrated with a picture of bikes in a rack. :roll: )
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Ru88ell »

I'm sorry for being about two years late responding to this thread.

There's been a few comments about me and about Stourbug. I'd like to add if I may.

Si, Simon and Rob are all about right, with the exception of the clipboard by the bed, and Stourbug continues to grow. Our membership almost made 330 in the last period, and we are now 50:50 male/female.

To the main question, "The CTC - is it vulnerable?" I would say yes it is; it lacks vision and drive.

I have spoken to the CTC a number of times to see if it could replicate our model and there was no interest other than me doing it myself for nothing. BC, however, came to see us some years ago, and my wife and I clearly told too much as they went away, obtained about £1m from the Lottery, and founded Breeze. CTC had us in it's palm, and all of this Breeze success could have been theirs, but they turned it down. For what it's worth, Breeze hasn't kept pace with Stourbug. We have proven that women generally don't want to cycle just with other women; we have very few women only rides, and these tend to be during the working week and are fairly short and slow. Most of the female members want mixed rides, and many in the group are couples. The bulk of our membership falls into the 40's and 50's age range, but younger ones keep appearing too.

We have managed to keep Breeze at bay in Stourbridge. They have a few rides but none seem that well supported. I did get very frustrated though when Breeze went through a period of trying to recruit our members as ride leaders. One or two did attend Breeze ride leader courses but found them to be far too restrictive. Our wonderful local council, whilst having done diddly squat to help Stourbug, is endlessly promoting Breeze and Sky events.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by mjr »

Ru88ell wrote:I have spoken to the CTC a number of times to see if it could replicate our model and there was no interest other than me doing it myself for nothing.

What is that model? I'm interested to learn more and see if I can persuade KLWNBUG to apply it. We're picking up a new rider or two each month, but in a cycle-friendly borough, I feel like we could be doing more...
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Ru88ell
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Ru88ell »

mjr wrote:
Ru88ell wrote:I have spoken to the CTC a number of times to see if it could replicate our model and there was no interest other than me doing it myself for nothing.

What is that model? I'm interested to learn more and see if I can persuade KLWNBUG to apply it. We're picking up a new rider or two each month, but in a cycle-friendly borough, I feel like we could be doing more...


You're already in a good place having looked at your website. It's probably easier to discuss. PM your number and I'll give you a call.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Steady rider »

Please provide any helpful tips, perhaps in order of merit.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Ru88ell »

Steady rider wrote:Please provide any helpful tips, perhaps in order of merit.


Get some helpers
Create an internet forum. Load it with info.
Use forum to co-ordinate everything. Don't allow calls, texts, emails. Forum communication only.
Two social nights per month - in a nice pub. Ladies like wine. Our pub puts on free buffet each meeting, and they don't charge us to use pub.
Ride out to pub on alternate weeks.
Promote a ladies challenge - train them from novice to be able to undertake, say, 40 or 50 miles. Tell them what they need to do. They listen better than men do.
You need women because they also form the social side of your club as it grows. They take over the forum and keep it active with chat about all sorts of stuff - even cycling from time to time.
Train them weekly. Get them cycling in M1. Target 3 x 10 miles by end M2, 2 x 20 by end M3, 1 x 30 by end M4. 200 miles in total.
Log rides on the forum - Ride Log section. Set's competition.
Challenge ride month 5.
Encourage the ladies to bring husbands.

By then you should have constitution, be affiliated to CTC, have club kit, etc.
Find local events to ride out to.
Show them your locality, so they know where to ride safely away from main roads
Have a laugh - fancy dress rides at Christmas, St Patrick's day, etc.
Train your most competent riders to be Ride Leaders
We don't have set rides - ride leaders put rides on when they want to, and where they want to go.
Ride booking via the forum only.

That's the gist of it, and it's bloody hard work on your own. If you already have a group it should be easier. That's not a definitive list, and there's a lot more to running the forum than you'd think - but it worked for us. It worked very well. We created a 300 member group in a town of 50,000 population, and the town already had two cycling clubs and a CTC region, most of which has come to ride with us now.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Steady rider »

Many thanks and I can see how you have had success. So could the CTC help by providing the web space for each group?
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Ru88ell »

Steady rider wrote:Many thanks and I can see how you have had success. So could the CTC help by providing the web space for each group?



That's one of the things which CTC could have offered. My idea was that CTC bundle up a 'Stourbug' type package with instruction manual, but they didn't want to know.

This is where BC and Breeze will fail; they just don't have the social side. Our social scene is superb. We have curry nights, quiz nights, disco nights, brewery trips, tours to beer festivals (Clun), skittles, etc, etc. We're a big social club which does lots of cycling.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by Si »

There was actually some talk about creating a 'MG toolkit' which would include a template website and hosting. This was a couple of CEOs ago so I don't know if it ever got off the ground. It may even be that it was offered to MGs and they weren't interested.
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by RickH »

Ru88ell wrote:Our wonderful local council, whilst having done diddly squat to help Stourbug, is endlessly promoting Breeze and Sky events.

I'm not absolutely certain about Breeze but I do know that the general Sky Ride Local ride programme in any given area is always done in partnership with the local authority, so it isn't surprising that they are going to be plugging those. It may not make it better for you in that respect but that will be why it is happening.

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gaz
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Re: The CTC - is it vulnerable?

Post by gaz »

Anyone looking to promote cycling to the wider public might like to take a look at the BBC's "Things to do" service.

I haven't used it and only came across it by chance, Redbridge Cycling Centre are using it to promote events.
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