From the Board of Directors: OBRA Committees

/in /by

Dear Members,

I hope this pleasant weather is getting you excited about the 2020 racing season. Before everyone gets completely involved in racing for the year, I wanted to send out some updates from the OBRA Board of Directors.

I am excited to share that the Board of Directors is back up to full strength after the voting at the annual meeting and adding some additional board appointed members. We will continue to work on our two main responsibilities: Executive and financial oversight, and setting organizational vision and long term goals. This board has fully engaged members that are determined to work hard to better the OBRA organization that we all love. 

 

The current Board of Directors now includes (in order of term expiration):

Clint Culpepper – Elected Member at Large (2018-2020) – Portland, OR

Jake Von Duering – Elected Member at Large (2018-2020) – Vancouver, WA

Brad Ross – Appointed Member, Treasurer (2019-2021) – Bend, OR

Karsten Hagen – Appointed Member at Large (2019-2021) – Bend, OR

Saul Lopez – Elected Member, Board Secretary (2019-2021) – Hillsboro, OR

Steven Beardsley – Elected Member, Board President (2019-2021) – Portland, OR

Christy Hawkins – Elected Member at Large (2020-2022) – Portland, OR

Nissy Cobb – Appointed Member at Large (2020-2022) – Portland, OR

Serena Bishop-Gordon – Appointed Member at Large (2020-2022) – Bend, OR

Stacy Westbrook – Elected Member, Board Vice President (2020-2022) – Portland, OR

 

 

We had a very productive first quarter meeting in January. The minutes from that meeting can be found here: industry.obra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/OBRA-BOD-Minutes-01272020.pdf.

In our February work session meeting earlier this week, the board set out the framework for the committee structure that will help us, as a community, tackle all kinds of initiatives to keep moving forward towards realizing this organization’s mission and vision. Additionally, these committees present an opportunity for you, our members, to be directly involved in doing the work to make the sport of cycling as great as it can be in our state. The committees are listed below, along with the board representatives, staff persons and community members that are currently on them.

 

 

Committee Structure

  • Membership Committee: Christy Hawkins (Board Rep), Stacy Westbrook (Board Rep), Jen Featheringill (Staff)
    • Tasks: Organizational Training & Standards, Outreach & Events, Staff Support, Team Oversight
    • Sub-Committees:
      • Women’s Committee: (existing committee) Christy Hawkins (Board Rep), Jen Featheringill (Staff), Victoria Jansen, Kendra Wenzel, Carley Leins, Alexandra Burton, Rebeccah Bieri, Stephanie Uetrecht
      • Junior’s Committee
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

 

  • Marketing Committee: Saul Lopez (Board Rep), Joel Fletcher (Staff)
    • Tasks: Short term marketing campaigns (Stories, videos, promotions), Membership communication channels (direct email, website, etc), Strategy for marketing long term goals, Member retention

 

  • Innovation & Technology Committee: Clint Culpepper (Board Rep)
    • Tasks: Website Integration, Race scoring tech, Race registration tech, Future tech advancements

 

  • Competition Committee: Brad Ross (Board Rep), Catherine Cooper (Staff), Joel Fletcher (Staff), Mike Ripley, Brenna Wrye-Simpson
    • Tasks: Manage OBRA Competitions (BAR & Oregon Cup), Championship Event Oversight, Event Standards, Promotor Resources, Venue & Permitting Assistance

 

  • Strategic Partnerships Committee: Steven Beardsley (Board Rep), Clint Culpepper (Board)
    • Tasks: Identify and foster community partnerships to further OBRA’s Mission, Vision, and Long term goals

 

  • Finance and Fundraising Committee: Serena Bishop-Gordon (Board Rep), Chuck Kenlan (Staff), Brad Ross (Treasurer)
    • Tasks: Long term income diversification plan, First layer financial oversight, Fundraising support, Grant application for committee programs

 

  • Portland Velodrome Committee: (existing committee) Nissy Cobb (Board Rep), Karsten Hagen (Board), Jen Featheringill (Staff & Chair), Erin Glover, Jon Ragsdale, Mike Murray, James Newman, Jim Graves, Eric Gneckow, Nils Tillstrom
    • Tasks: Manage Velodrome venue and operations, promote track racing

 

This is my call to action. We need OBRA members to bring their passion and expertise to fill out these committees. There is a lot of good work to do and we need good people to help do it.

If you are interested in getting involved, please email me at sbeardsley@obra.org and we can talk more about where you can fit in.

Thank you for your time and here is to a successful 2020 season.

 

 

 

 

Steven Beardsley

President – Board of Directors

Oregon Bicycle Racing Association

www.OBRA.org – sbeardsley@obra.org

VISION: Every person in the state of Oregon has an awareness of the sport of bicycle racing and the opportunity to participate.

MISSION: OBRA advances the sport of bicycle racing by providing leadership, facilitating competition, and inspiring participation.

2020 Men’s and Women’s Oregon Cup Series

/in , /by

The 2020 Oregon Cup Series will include Men’s and Women’s Road Racing for 2020.

 

This series is meant to determine the best overall road racer in Oregon and will include TT’s, Criteriums, and Road Races.

 

2020 Oregon Cup Schedule

 

 

(Links will be updated as they become available)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for more information on the 2020 Oregon Cup Series (.pdf)

USAC and OBRA Junior Racing News

/in /by

 

Over the past year, USA Cycling has focused intently on creating more access points for youth to connect with and become involved in the sport of cycling. As part of that outreach, USA Cycling contacted us at the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association to explore ways that we could work together to

1) reduce financial barriers to kids participating in the sport of cycling and

2) support our efforts to keep kids racing in a safe, fair and fun environment.

 

To support the OBRA program USA Cycling will:

·     Offer free race licenses to all OBRA Junior participants 18 years old and younger.

·     Recognize the results of all our events and assign ranking points to your student-athlete. These points are important for call ups at National Championships and in some cases for collegiate scholarships.

·     Any team or club that wishes to take advantage of members club benefits (e.g. free Safe Sport training, free race director or official license, etc.) may join USA Cycling for no club fee.

 

To take advantage of the free license offer, please get in contact with Joel Fletcher (OBRA Junior Racing Director) with your name or the name of your junior racer, and then log into usacycling.org and “purchase” a license for you or your athlete.

From there you will go through the normal purchase path and once prompted in the promo box before checkout type in the code you received from Joel. The code is case sensitive. If you have any issues please feel free to reach out to USA Cycling directly to Liz Kollar lkollar@usacycling.org or Joel Fletcher at jfletcher@obra.org.

Pacific Northwest Women’s Series and OSU Criterium News

/in /by

The Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference is once again opening all of their races to amateur women/trans/non-binary racers. Amateur w/t/nb riders race alongside collegiate w/t/nb riders and help their conference provide strong fields for their w/t/nb racers.

For race weekend details and registration, please see their flyer and visit their website here: nwcollegiatecycling.us/2020-schedule.

Women, you will register here!

 

and

 

This year the Northwest Collegiate Cycling Conference is also opening its OSU Criterium to OBRA Men on the afternoon of Sunday, March 22nd. Races will be sanctioned through OBRA and are being hosted graciously by Twilight Operations. All event fees will be donated to the OSU Cycling Club. Come race on the OSU Campus and support collegiate cycling! To register, go to obra.org/events/27186/register.

Men, you will register here!

From the Director 2/10/2020

/in /by

Greetings OBRA Friends,

As some of you have noticed, the 2020 race calendar has changed a bit in the last week. The reason for this is that Zone 5 Promotions has decided to pull their races out from under the OBRA umbrella and will be using USA Cycling to sanction their races. The reasons given to me were that OBRA has focused too much lately on social issues and not enough on the sport of bike racing in Oregon. I do not agree with this premise. Sometimes an organization needs to focus on what is right in front of them. Granted, the issues we were facing at the end of 2019 diverted some of our attention from other OBRA business, it was, and is still, important.

Through what has transpired, I have learned that many OBRA members don’t really understand the differences between OBRA and USAC and why there need to be two separate sanctioning organizations. I hear this even from experienced racers. Some would say that OBRA is “grassroots” racing; it is. However, grassroots racing does not, in any way, limit our racer’s ability to achieve at the highest levels in racing. In fact, it enhances it with more racing opportunities. Bri Walle, Clara Honsinger, Jacob Rathe, Lance Haidet and Ian Boswell to name a few, all perfected their craft racing in OBRA events.

USA Cycling is bike racing’s national governing body. Through their ranking system, Olympic and World Championship teams are selected. USA Cycling also does what OBRA does; insure local bike racing in all other states. USA Cycling has been a strong partner with OBRA through our category reciprocity agreement, our ability to dual-sanction events and the new agreement that benefits OBRA’s junior racers.

I want to highlight two of the starkest differences between our two organizations. The first is governance. Every January you get to decide on how OBRA is governed and operates. You elect new board members and pass new racing and administrative rules. Your USAC license does not give you these rights. The second is financial. Some of the key differences are highlighted in the chart below. It is far less expensive to promote a race through OBRA. It is far less expensive to be a racer in OBRA.

 

In 2020, OBRA had 3,050 members that paid $35 for an annual membership. The Washington State Bicycle Racing Association (WSBA) is a good organization with strong leadership and excellent race promoters. In 2020, Washington had 1,195 licenses which paid up to $80 for their USAC license plus $25 for their WSBA membership.

Although I have great respect for the people at USA Cycling, I harbor no illusions that they believe it is in their best interest to absorb OBRA into its organization as a local association (we once were). It is easy to conceive that they could offer low or no fees to race promoters in the short term for the later gains through absorbing OBRA. I can guarantee that if this ever happens, races will go away and OBRA’s membership will shrink significantly. The Alpenrose weekend of CX was run under USAC in 2019. The promoters told me that they are saving $15K by running it through OBRA in 2020. The money promoters save by promoting racing through OBRA allows them to invest more into the race experience and make events more sustainable for the long-run.

This letter is not intended to discourage people from racing in the Zone 5 Promotions races. They are good people that put on good events. It is intended to highlight the differences between OBRA and USAC and to show some of our uniqueness. We are far from perfect and know there are areas that need improvement. The energy and sense of purpose that the OBRA board is showing plus, the OBRA staff’s commitment to the organization, lead me to believe that we are heading in a positive direction to further OBRA’s mission and values. OBRA has outstanding race promoters that run high-quality events. We have top-notch race officials that do their jobs with professionalism and smiles on their faces.

We/You/Me are OBRA

 

Chuck