These are the notes from the July 7th, 1997 meeting of the NCBC. Much thanks to Tim Hunter for his note taking!
Club president Jim Fredley presided at the July meeting of the North Carolina Bicycle Club. The meeting was held at the REI at Crossroads shopping center in Cary on Monday, July 7, at 7:00 PM.
Jim opened the meeting with a safety anecdote. He said that he had ridden in the July 4 Spin Cycle ride. He and two other riders were almost stopped at an intersection, waiting to turn left, with their arms extended signalling the turn, when they were passed on the left by a van going 50 or 60 mph. He explained that he told this story in order to heighten everybody's awareness of the need to ride safely and carefully.
There being no old business, Jim asked for new business. Sheila said that she had received an announcement concerning a ride into Raleigh scheduled for July 18 through the 21st. The ride will start in Elizabeth City and ends at the legislative building in Raleigh. The contact is Charles Hardy. He can be reached at (919) 473-3328 during the day and at 441-3805 at night. Sheila will have detailed information available at the Summer Rally on Sunday.
Jim announced that the Jimmy V Cancer Research Foundation is organizing a bike ride with Lance Armstrong for August 23. He asked for input on how the club should support this effort. He said that very few details had been worked out so far but that he had been asked to attend an organizational meeting on Thursday, July 10. Sheila Miller, ex-club president, pointed out that the club has "always kept charities at arm's length" and recommended that the club "be careful." She suggested that we could provide publicity in the form of a sign at the Summer Rally and announcements in the newsletter and web page. She also suggested we could give the charity a copy of the club membership list with the restriction that it could only be used for the purpose of advertising this particular event. Sheila made a motion that the club not expend any financial resources in support of this charity ride. The motion was carried by a voice vote. Jim volunteered to send more information to Webmaster David Cole and newsletter editor Tim Hunter after the meeting on Thursday.
Pursuant to the issue raised at the June meeting, an attendee asked if Jim had determined if the club's insurance covered inline skaters who join club rides. Jim said that it was his feeling that, since by law "we're vehicles, they're pedestrians," that the club should discourage rollerbladers from participating in club rides. Tim asked if the club wanted a policy statement added to the ride calendars in the newsletter and web page. A motion was made to have all rides listed in the ride calendar as "bikes only." The motion was carried by a voice vote.
Sheila reported on the status of the July 13 Summer Rally. Ed Downing has prepared two routes, a 50K and 100K. The ride has a lot of flat stretches and the 100K has a long downhill sprint to a county line. She described the rides as "very picturesque." Sheila also asked for volunteers for a variety of tasks. Jim pointed out that Bikes USA had offered to man all the SAG stops for all the rallys this year. Jim also asked Sheila to try to get the sponsors' logos on either the registration forms or the cue sheets.
David reported that the NCBC web pages now account for about 40% of the network traffic on their site. Even though the space has been donated to the club, he suggested that we voluntarily repay the donor $10.00 monthly. A motion was made to pay the donor $120.00 annually for service starting in January of this year. The motion was carried by a voice vote.
Sheila gave a presentation on how to prepare for bicycle touring. She recommended asking yourself a number of questions to help you start planning.
Sheila then presented the following checklist: