idd wrote:I plan to continue to be a member as I want to be involved with the local group rides. The organisation of these is done totally locally by volunteers. Very little of my membership fee actually goes to the part of the organisation that I value most highly. If this local part of the organisation split from the national Cycling UK then I'd cancel my national membership and join the local riding group like a shot.
Was there ever a time when it was different? I'm asking rather than looking for an argument. I'm a relatively new member compared to some on here, only about 25 years. In that time, the local group has grown and the support from the central organisation has improved. Gone is the rigid DA structure, where you had to ask permission to organise anything on their patch, it's easier to set up a group, or affiliate, now than it was a couple of decades ago. The allocation grant used to be based on the membership numbers in the DA's area, regardless of how many they appealed to or how much they needed the money, some big DA's did well out of it while others struggled. The current flat rate is particularly useful for newer groups.
I suspect a lot of long standing ex-CTC members are in the same position and Cycling UK run the risk of losing a lot of these (and the volunteer time that they contribute) if an alternative organisation was to appear.
An alternative organisation did appear at the time of the charity conversion, it died a death within months, no one was interested. I'm not even sure what this idea of a national touring club is, or what it was, or what it might offer, as you say those things are done locally.
I've been hearing since I joined the CTC how something has been lost, but when I ask what that is, there's never much of an answer, a vague notion that it's no longer a club. Then when I ask what the club did that isn't being done now the answers become even vaguer. What is it you got from the CTC of old that you're not getting from the current Cycling UK?
There's also this idea that those riding with the Member Groups are somehow the real members, my understanding (Happy to be corrected) is they've never been a majority, at present I think it's about 15% of the membership, which sounds about right from my knowledge of the local group.