Endemic MN-MSTA Problems

[Ray916MN]

The MN-MSTA is an all volunteer run organization. It receives no funds from the national club. It is wholly and entirely supported by volunteers.

Endemic problem number 1: There are not enough ride organizers and group leaders in the club.

Everyone enjoys a good group ride, all too few are willing to organize one or volunteer to lead a group. If you don't know how to organize a ride or lead a group, we can help you learn.

Endemic problem number 2: Members who do not volunteer do not refrain from making suggestions to volunteers about how they think rides can be better run or led or how the club can provide more to members.

With a distinct shortage of volunteers, volunteers get discouraged when people who are unwilling to volunteer to make their own ideas happen, put forth ideas and get others who are unwilling to volunteer to agree that the club should implement their ideas. This implicitly places the onus on current volunteers to do more, which of course make the lack of volunteers more acute and makes it even tougher to get volunteers.

Remember everyone who puts together a ride or leads a group or puts out the newsletter or runs the forum is a volunteer and who wants to volunteer when their reward is to be criticized or told they could be doing more by members who are unwilling to volunteer.

If you have a suggestions on how things could be better, please try to figure out how you personally could do something to make your idea happen, as opposed to suggesting implicitly or explicitly that someone else make your great idea happen. If you are not a dues paying MSTA member, please recognize that any benefits you may receive from being on the forum or riding on an MN-MSTA ride are benefits which are intended to support the MN-MSTA. If you like what the MN-MSTA does and stands for but don't want to pay dues, you are more than welcome to enjoy what the club offers for free and are more than welcome to help the club as a volunteer, but that the club and forum exist principally to serve MN-MSTA member interests.

[Greg]

harumph harumph!   

http://youtu.be/JN99jshaQbY

[Mike Duluth]

Ray, I would be more than willing to put on some rides up here(N-Mn, N-Wis, UP) if anyone would be interested. I could probably us a little help setting it up, but I know the roads pretty well.

[carlson_mn]

Ray, with regards to funds, how do we support MN-MSTA?  If it received funding from MSTA for the forum I would join MSTA but is there something we can do locally to support it?  Paypal Donation?  I imagine right now you cover the web hosting fee?

PM me if you need someone to help with anything or to work on a ride. 

[Neub]

Most of you don't know me since moving here 5 years ago was only able to make a couple rides per year (plus some of John's Monday rides) due to job demands and I don't do many posts unless I have something worthwhile to add...I don't have a need to pontificate needless ramblings.  Now that my job demands are over I plan on making up for lost time and when I sent my Twistar registration in to Ray I included a note saying that I was available for anything he needed help with before or at Twistar including MAP.  Currently I am building some SW WI routes into my GPS and will be willing to post/lead a couple of rides but one concern I have is about people bitching that I didn't ride fast enough and/or I made a wrong turn along the route.  My pace is +10 to 15 in corners and 8-10 over on the straights....have no desire to wreck or get a reckless driving charge nor do I want anyone riding with me to do so either.  So with that said, if you don't want to ride my pace, practice safe following distances and be able to put up with a wrong turn or two on the route then don't come.  Give new leaders a little slack during their learning curve or you won't have new people stepping up.  Randy

[Ray916MN]

Ray, I would be more than willing to put on some rides up here(N-Mn, N-Wis, UP) if anyone would be interested. I could probably us a little help setting it up, but I know the roads pretty well.

Thanks for stepping up Mike. Much appreciated.

I'll give you a call and work out a date in the next couple of days.

[Aprilian]

Ray, I offered to moderate a section of the site for you.   Let me know if I can help that way.   First subject would be How to Describe what "Ride Your Own Ride" Means to a New MSTA participant.   I volunteer about 20 days each summer to teaching and 2 days to a charity ride, so I don't have much on-bike time to donate.    I am working on a tool for MN_MSTA (easy to use) to help set common expectations for individual rides so that people can understand what the leader/Organizer has in mind.

[Ray916MN]

Ray, with regards to funds, how do we support MN-MSTA?  If it received funding from MSTA for the forum I would join MSTA but is there something we can do locally to support it?  Paypal Donation?  I imagine right now you cover the web hosting fee?

PM me if you need someone to help with anything or to work on a ride. 

Thanks for the interest and offer to support the forum.

There is no way to financially support the forum. I consider the money it costs to run the forum trivial.

For those who do not want to be MSTA members, consider the forum like a church you don't belong to but recognize as doing good things. Please spread the word about the forum to the right riders. Please continue to come to open MN-MSTA rides. Please continue to post and welcome MN-MSTA members on the adhoc rides you organize and lead.

Please continue to consider joining the MSTA and going to one of the club's rallies. At $25/yr. and going to one of the club's it is a pretty inexpensive membership.

I'll PM you to work out anything else you might be willing to volunteer to do.

Thanks again for the interest in supporting the forum.

[tk]

"Endemic problem number 1: There are not enough ride organizers and group leaders in the club."

"Everyone enjoys a good group ride, all too few are willing to organize one or volunteer to lead a group. If you don't know how to organize a ride or lead a group, we can help you learn."

This has been a problem in the MN-MSTA for many years now. The demand for ride organizers and those willing to lead a subgroup has been increasing but the number of members willing and able to perform this task has not increased.

On the plus side, we have quite a few nonmembers organizing ad hoc rides. The forum hit critical mass last August when we had rides posted for five days in a row. Matt, Ray, John, Bart and Mark organized rides 8/6-8/10. I attended all the rides and enjoyed everyone of them. The shortest was over 200 miles and the longest about 570 miles (Ely run). I think the Rockton BBQ ride Ray organized was the only official MNSTA ride of the five.

[GUZZI JOHN]

What is bringing on all this tension? I know 2012 is the "LAST" year but so what? I'll be running my little rides and whether 5/6 others show or not I'll still ride.  It must be the cost of gas plus the Republican primaries that are driving some folks nuts.GJ

[Chris]

So I am not a paying member of MSTA nor will I be. (Just don't see why too, if somebody would like to PM and tell me why I would love to hear)
I think there are 3 types of people on the forums
1 - Member - a person who pays MSTA membership dues
2 - Volunteer - a person who does not pay MSTA dues, but does organize\host\lead rides\events
3 - "           " - (no idea what its called) a person who does not pay MSTA dues and does not organize\host\lead rides or events, but just go for the rides.

Is that how you see things Ray?

[Ray916MN]

So I am not a paying member of MSTA nor will I be. (Just don't see why too, if somebody would like to PM and tell me why I would love to hear)
I think there are 3 types of people on the forums
1 - Member - a person who pays MSTA membership dues
2 - Volunteer - a person who does not pay MSTA dues, but does organize\host\lead rides\events
3 - "           " - (no idea what its called) a person who does not pay MSTA dues and does not organize\host\lead rides or events, but just go for the rides.

Is that how you see things Ray?

Just responded to your earlier PM, but I'll respond here too since you asked the question a bit differently..

There are really two types of people on the forum, MN-MSTA members and people who aren't MSTA members but belong to the forum. There really isn't a hell of allot of difference between the two except that I pay more attention to MN-MSTA comments about the MSTA, the forum and MN-MSTA rides because they are the club members I represent as a state director. It is my business to know who is a member and who isn't. There are allot of members and non-members who may ride with each other for a long time and have no idea whether each other are  members or not. Some people will pay attention to the distinction others will not. There are lapsed members who may be part of the forum too and the only people who generally know whether a member is a current member or not is typically Tony, Roger or I. No one typically  makes a big deal about who is a member and who is not in my experience.

Volunteer is not an official title for anyone, it simply describes someone on the forum who volunteers to help someone else on the forum put on a ride or do something else like fix their bike, haul a bike somewhere, or moderate a portion of the forum for example. I'm sure there are other examples. We hope everyone will volunteer in some capacity at some time to help make the forum and the club go.

Anyone one who wants to volunteer to help someone put on a ride or put on a BBQ or whatever, should just contact the person who is organizing the ride or BBQ or whatever and ask them if they need help. On rides typically, I'll either tell an organizer in advance if they want, I'll lead a group. In larger groups where it can be very difficult for an organizer to break people into smaller groups, I'll tell the organizer I'll take a group and typically I'll walk around, introduce myself and ask people if they are looking for people to ride with, ask them some questions about how they ride and form up a group, so there is less organizing work for the organizer to do. Sometimes organizers will tell people to find me if they think they'll be a good person to ride with me.

[Ray916MN]

Ray, I offered to moderate a section of the site for you.   Let me know if I can help that way.   First subject would be How to Describe what "Ride Your Own Ride" Means to a New MSTA participant.   I volunteer about 20 days each summer to teaching and 2 days to a charity ride, so I don't have much on-bike time to donate.    I am working on a tool for MN_MSTA (easy to use) to help set common expectations for individual rides so that people can understand what the leader/Organizer has in mind.

My bad. I'll get it up by the weekend.

Thanks for volunteering Ian.

[Vander]

I’d be willing to include my hosted ride invites here… absolutely.
Just thought that no one on this forum was into the DS scene.

Any interest here in short DS rides in the North Metro?

[DaleB]

Any interest here in short DS rides in the North Metro?

That would depend on the degree of difficulty and how much advance notice. I'm a decent road rider but for off road I'm about one step above "totally sucks." My DS bike is a DR650 which is somewhat marginal in the tough stuff when ridden by someone who knows what they're doing -- that is to say, not me. Also, I hate sand.

Dale B