11/11/17 Promoter’s Meeting Minutes

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OBRA Promoter’s Meeting
11/11/17

Announcement

  • Code of conduct; working on redline [editing] the text so it’s easy to read.
  • Kenji is retiring 6-9 month from ED position, we will be search for a new ED, system wide search, smooth transition.

Membership report

  • Down a couple of percentage points from 2016 – 3700 members, 8% down.
  • Increase in Cat 5 memberships is the growing, need to retain these people.
  • Jen will be taking on upgrades

Marketing / Junior

  • Focusing on getting people racing – getting the word out and doing more creative MTK campaigns.
  • Opening OBRA to more to the NWCP racers
  • Helping drive the message about WMNs racing, WMN road peloton
  • JR cross clinics were very successful this year; wants to continue the JR drive
  • Suggestion from NWCP – can there be a bridge built between Junior racing to colleges and NWCP racing
  • College license? can there be a connection or how can OBRA membership help connect kids with license
  • Suggestion – push out more information on clinics in emails.

Women’s committee

  • Working on the 2018 prestige series
  • Splitting the series into Road / Criterium
  • Sell passes to their series
  • Need to know the calendar
  • On the search for a title sponsor
  • Event in December; working with the non-cycling groups working together to get women signed up [Sunday parkways, women’s cycling summit]

NWCP

  • Issues with low numbers of WMNS – possibility to open it up to non-NCCA events; build community and cross connect; build a mentorship program
  • Kenji asked if NWCP students will be interested in becoming officials to offset cost and making money. There is interest in doing this. Clint is interest in helping out with this as he works with PSU; would like to bring back dual sanctioning to increase fundraising for college teams.
  • Suggestion from NWCP – can there be a bridge built between Junior racing to colleges and NWCP racing
  • College license

Promoter reports

  • Matt – Monday night PIR; ups and downs; 4/5 and 1-3 women’s field showed up every night. Track category was very successful; once the track peeps figure it out the riders where racing two events. Track riders from PIR moved to racing Alpenrose. Successful for June and July was the dropping of Monday night PIR. Go earlier in April.
  • NWCP – down every category; mainly the WMN. On the national level, WMN have been doing great. Lack in and disconnect from NWCP women and amateur racing. Cost is a barrier to entry for college students.
  • Track – good racing season; two new promoters, Tuesday and Thursday nights. Increased road rider attendance. Senior WMN numbers was down, Friday night numbers of steady with beginner WMN up. Velodrome Challenge; numbers are up from last year, so growing. New track committee; new ideas coming to the table, push on Madison racing.
  • The David’s: Worked hard to save some of the road races; Would like to bring back cherry pie and the Lebanon race. Cross, was solid, but disappointing, decrease in participation about 20%. Saw an increase in beginner fields, decrease in “season racers.” Winter? Was the decrease in attendance due to weather?
  • Barton park road series -Steve – Struggle over the WMNs fields. Shaking up the fields a bit. Run a co-ed race together; Grand Fando event? Last event of the day?
  • PDW Omnium – went well this year. 6-day was down with teams; lack of promotion. Suggest that the PVC take over promotion of 6-day.
  • North plain circuit race – cancelled; bummer. Road couldn’t get the closed through center of town.
  • Trophy cup – attendance up by one rider over 2016. Gorge fire delayed it by one week. Need to speak to people you don’t usually talk to, encourage new people to enter cycling. Create a safe space for new riders try something new.
  • Do more clinics, maybe do a clinic the week prior to over actual race courses. Give teams more incentives to bring new WMN on and help them cultivate new WMN riders.
  • WMNS clinics after events?
  • Uphill TT – 11% increase in riders. Involved High school to set up and teardown event; introducing kids to cycling by putting up flyers at schools. High school that set up and teardown events will expose the kids to cycling.
  • Baker city stage race – 30% increase, jump in master participation, biggest Pro men’s 1 & 2 field; two rider short of a close field. WMNs field was down, overlapping with other events. Send postcards to other events for cross promotion, hand out free entries to Baker City Stage race to other events as “primes.”
  • Eco – had to move the date, due to snow – numbers were down, lots of challenges. 2018; rejoin the Oregon Cross Country series; 40% out-of-state. Move the race to March 17th, two weeks later, due to weather. Mt. bike trail being built in Pendleton, Oregon – trail out by airport.
  • Mike Ripley – Mt Bike scene; Work with NWCP to get teams into sport, price shouldn’t be a barrier. JR Mt. bike series went well. Maybe pick up state championship for 2018. Southern, Oregon participation down. Oregon triple crown making it a pass event. Oregon, Grand Fando was down due to weather. Shop teams are down sharply this year, devalued. Trying to make an effort to connect with bike shops. Open age groups for triple crown.

Championship committee – to bring back OBRA championships luster; looking people to join the community. BOD member to sit on this committee??

  • Joel Fletcher
  • David Hart
  • Stephanie Myers ?
  • Catherine Cooper

 

11/11/17 BOD Meeting Minutes

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OBRA Board of Directors Meeting
11/11/17

Kenji, Steven, Candi, Jordan, Meg, Michelle and Norrene
November 11, 2017

OBRA BOD meeting

Agenda:

12-12:30 Presentation by Watson Creative
12:30-12:45 Discussion of presentation
12:45-1:00 Financials
1:00-1:15 Marketing Update
1:15-1:30 Membership Update
1:30-1:45 Code of conduct/Safe Sport
1:45-2:00 Thefts
2:00-2:15 Announcement
2:15-2:30 Performance review results
2:30-2:45 Officials report
2:45-3:00 OBRA committees (who’s on which committee)

Presentation by Watson Creative – Watson MOTIV8

  • Software / Chip system – sass; Roadrunner sports / Adventure chips
  • Move forward with OBRA, open to a big give to get OBRA started
  • The Challenge; How do you cultivate low-commitment supports into highly-devoted champions? – what the chip system does
  • Low commitment to high commitment
  • Attract / Engage / Capture / Retain = incentivize + measure; Every brand touch point
  • 8 areas of motivation: Share experiences; incentivized, smart content, profiles intelligence, enhanced events, commerce fundraised, social amplifier, experience rewards
  • Push and pull info; update to electronic membership cards
  • Enhanced events give away for people to engage; help with new members; integrate the cat 4 & 5 riders into the sport of cycling. Enhances the events = Zwift style or messenger race.
  • Watson has its own store, can easily integrate into the OBRA system / Fundraisers; Fundraising events for Juniors??
  • Customize platforms
  • Leaderboard challenges: Team vs Team
  • BOD ask how does this apply to OBRA’s day-to-day activities? How will Waston’s program improve OBRA’s program to stimulate growth for OBRA; BOD would like more info on roadrunner program and Watson adapted their chip technology to running.
  • OBRA’s ROI, Watson will build, but someone has to run the system; set aside 50 hours to get the system running, then hours decrease to 12 hours per week.
  • Additionally would spend 3-4 hours per week
  • 3-5 months for Phase 1
  • Strong give from Watson
  • Need to organize content on our end
  • Not a need to implement the entire thing but maybe a few at a time and then add more as we go
  • How do we incentivize memberships and activate rewards system?
  • First cycling group to take this on…USAC does something kinda the same with being able to rank yourself
  • Reduces workload for Scott Willson
  • Points of talk – who would manage this; Membership / Catherine / Marketing
  • OBRA’s database structure is weird; this system can fix it.
  • Will provide data analysis for Ed, BOD, promoters and more.
  • Michelle questions – red flags; big projects always take longer than projected. Concerned about upfront man power to manage the new web system and then who takes on the responsibility.
  • Steven, do we have the right people in place to manage it? Who would be on point to work with Watson and interact with Watson?
  • Work with Matt to get a timeline of gates and dates if OBRA starts this project in January 2018; When would the interactive system go live?

Financials

  • Membership is in a holding pattern, we should have hit rock bottom of membership decline.
  • We could not get an umbrella policy due to two claims. Kenji to look into the NABRA policy.

Marketing Update

  • Joel sends out weekly emails / newsletter and what’s happening this weekend notes.
  • Discussed updating or refreshing emails with better content. Meg suggest maybe Watson can provide guidance. Discussed need to get more riders engaged in opening emails.
  • Michelle; really streamline communication and have a strong call to action; Need a person to do content; blog, social, creating a voice for OBRA.
  • Michelle to work with marketing to help work on content to streamline emails and newsletters.
  • Telling hero stories to membership.
  • OBRA has a large design community, Kenji suggest leveraging that design community better.

Membership Update

  • Jen is a rockstar – fast turnaround and taking on new responsibilities.
  • Membership is down, but cat 5 membership has increased.
  • Include a free membership card in every 2018 membership packet. Encourage all OBRA members to bring a friend to race.
  • Bring a friend campaign needs to be properly managed to ensure that the new rider has a good experience.

Code of conduct/Safe Sport

  • Board action / very long / can there be an executive summary of the code of conduct?
  • How would we enforce spectator behavior? Issue a letter of conduct to promoters regarding people who break rules?
  • Do we need to train officials and promoters? If so, how?
  • Action points; redline [edit] code of conduct and take out what is not needed to streamline the document.
  • Due date to have all edits back to Kenji is December 1st.
  • Let OBRA membership know we are working on code of conduct. Kenji to reach out.
  • We need to follow up quickly when people reach out to OBRA, we need to let them know we have heard them and that we are working to resolve their issue. People just want to know they have been heard.

Thefts

  • Thefts suck. OBRA members have been donating money. We need to publicly recognize these individuals and the ED and BOD need to write thank you notes.
  • 30 radios, 2 generators have been stolen.
  • Tony also brought back one generator from the dead.
  • $3k of stuff was stolen.
  • Kenji to send out link to officials for radios.

Announcement

  • Kenji announces that he is retiring from OBRA in 6-9 months, possibly sooner.
  • Kenji will help make a successful transition of power / exit interview
  • BOD to conduct the search for a new ED
  • Kenji is currently working on a job description for post
  • Steven asked that Kenji will send out a personal letter to the OBRA community announcing his retirement and remind people of what OBRA is about.

Performance review results

  • First time doing a review, all reviews where positive.

Officials report

  • Highest official turnout to training, but no one showed up to officiate.
  • 4 or 5 new officials have showed up at one event
  • Officials packet – are well put together
  • Need an incentive program, everyone’s time is worth something.
    • Clothing / officials gear?
  • Volunteers abused at Bend, decreasing individual’s participation; long time problem.
  • Flux of new riders coming from other states, changing OBRA’s culture. How do you address, this culture shift? PR campaign was suggested and to keep the campaign light to help get the word out.
  • Spectator culture changing as well, seems to be getting more hostile.
  • Need to reach out to other organizations to get individuals involved.
  • What can OBRA do to show there appreciate of the officials? Hand written note from BOD? From members?
  • Maybe tap into college networks, use membership cards to reach out.
  • Official training – trainers to be paid a wage for both putting together the training and day-of training. Potential training schedule date: February.

 

OBRA committees (who’s on which committee) –

  • What is the BOD’s position on these committee – leadership role, voice of 5-year plan, duration of BOD to serve on committee for min. of 1-year.
    • Women’s committee
      • Michelle
      • Jordan
    • PVC committee
      • Steven
    • ED search committee
      • Norrene
    • Potential Official Committee????

 

Term limits –

  • Jordan suggest limiting BOD members to two consecutive terms in office, then take a minimum of one-year off, before they can be reelected for another term.
  • It will limit the popularity contest and bring new voices to the table.
  • One term isn’t enough time to get things done, need two terms to catch on.
  • Balance new ideas with establish ideas, by balancing term limits.
  • Changing voting structure – Teams vs Membership voting?
  • Term limits can be a BOD votes; maybe take a moment to relook at by-laws in general.
  • Negative effect of limiting term limits: loss of tribal knowledge?
  • Positive: Cultivate new ideas, more BOD participation.
  • Add one more BOD positon to have an odd number. Seventh member could be elected by the BOD to fill in missing expertise of current BOD.
  • Change one thing at a time.
  • This term limit will starts with the 2018 elections if passed.
  • Unanimous vote – Term limit passes, goes in effect for 2018.

*Note for Grant writing proposal Approach for Travel Oregon: Target getting youth involved in the sport of cycling along with keying into the underserved population.