President's Message for February 2008:

What a great meeting we had in January, thanks to all who joined us at Barley's and I hope more of you can attend this month. Special thanks to Vic Dyer for his generous contribution for pizza and soda and to

Kelley Segars for presenting a great program, we so appreciate the work that you do to help make the greater Knoxville area safer for us all! I 

This month we will use the program slot to discuss ideas for the club this year. IDEAS!?! I know you all have them, and we desperately need them, so please join us to help develop the best cycling club in the area. Here are just some of the topics we would like to explore:

• Ride Calendar - Where do you want to ride? How 'bout leading a ride? We would like to fill our calendar with a variety of rides this year. I'm especially interesting in leading some beginner rides with the intent to bring new people into cycling. Also, we are seeing opportunities to ride-share with clubs in Chattanooga and Asheville. We host a ride for their membership in the local area and they do the same, very cool.
•  Advocacy - What's that? Well all of us are advocates every time we ride our bikes...to the non-biker we are all spokespeople for cycling and we should always remember that through our actions...mutual respect for the responsibility we all have while riding the road. What can we do as a club to promote bicycling as a safe means of transportation and recreation?
•  Special Events - We have our two big rides during the year, the Cherohala Challenge and the Fall Century. During our last meeting, we decided to support the TPO Summer Ride Series for the month of July. Dave has several good ideas and along with Helen, plan to organize this ride...we need your ideas to make it the best ride of the series.

We will send a representative to Washington for the 2008 National Bike Summit to join other constituents from our great state to promote continues funding for bicycle related programs. Transportation dollars are being reduced in general and in the past, bicycle project tend to suffer greatly in the face of cut backs. Look for more information to come as we prepare to meet our representatives in DC to promote our agenda.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone for the time and energy they put into the club. This month has been challenging for me personally and I've placed extra work on others, extra thanks and I'll do better in the days ahead!

Hope to see you at Barley's on February 18th!

Keith