Changing Times
Currently the Wildflower Century is approaching 1100 registered riders. With the leadership of Gary Havas and your Board we are adjusting our plans for the Wildflower Century assuming 1100 riders as the final count. With your help as volunteers, we will have another great ride that participants will enjoy and come back to again with their friends.

Our rides raise money to support club activities and cycling advocacy. For years, our two 1400 rider events have provided enough money for us to operate comfortably. The Wildflower registration this year has made it clear that we cannot operate as if the future will be like the past. Riders have many many choices and we can no longer assume that we will attract 1400 riders to each event year after year.

We will continue to improve the rider experience at our events to maintain their excellent reputation. However, there are some obvious questions that need to be more carefully addressed for 2017.
How many registered riders should be used for budget planning?
What level of clothing sales should be used for budget planning?
How should the ride budget be adjusted to reflect the expected income?
How should the club activity budget be adjusted to reflect expected income?
How should the cycling advocacy budget be adjusted to reflect expected income?

Beyond these there are even more fundamental questions.
Why do we want to raise money?
What do we want to do to raise money?
How hard do we want to work to raise money?

We are fortunate to have enough money to weather any shortfall that may occur this year, however, I ask these questions as a way to engage all members in thinking about where we want to go in the future. I encourage you to discuss the questions with fellow members, share your ideas with any Board member and become involved as we develop our 2017 budget.

What is certainly stressful at the moment can be turned into an opportunity to build consensus concerning our future.