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BMA Vision Quest 2010
Beyond monthly meetings in smoke filled rooms, BMA's board of directors (BOD) occasionally gets together to figure out the direction that BMA should take to increase the amount of high quality mountain biking riding we have here in Boulder County. If you have ever seen "the Office" or have lived through working for a company, you probably know that every once in a while the people running the show need to get together and really think "Big Picture" and probably a bit "Out of the Box".
BMA has grown into a powerful local organization that has accomplished many great feats of advocacy and trail building. To keep us on the path of success, we held a "Vision Quest" (no peyote involved), laid our organization out on the table, and looked under the hood to make sure that the motor is still purring!
The day began with a 20 mile circuit on the frozen ice trails and dirt roads around Boulder Valley Ranch and the Rez. It was awesome to get on a bike and put us all in the right mental place, but the quality of those trails left us realizing that there is an awful lot of work left for us to do locally. Our fearless leader (well, the guy voted as President) Jason was happy just to be out riding, even when they were dirt roads, in the middle of winter. But the snowy, icy trails created their own challenges and more than once a backside came in contact with the icy, but firmly loving Earth. We've got the bruises to show it!
After our "warm up" on icy roads and trails, the BOD met up with Ryan Schutz (he's IMBA's Rocky Mountain Regional Director dude) who agreed to moderate the business end of our day. Locked in a dark room for six hours, our plan was to do a full evaluation of the health of BMA and figure out what we needed to do to make the organization even better for the next few years. During the guided conversations we discovered that BMA is very strong on our political advocacy (aka working with government, business and private groups) and our physical advocacy (aka building trails), but sadly lacking in "social advocacy".
To take BMA to the next level, it's time to really bring in that "social advocacy" component at BMA. Social advocacy is our ability to organize the community and get people out and having fun - things like group rides, happy hours, weekend trips to Fruita or the local waterslide and generally the merriment that makes this all fun for BMA members like you. We also talked about how we might be able to greatly increase our membership services (look for some BIG announcements in the next few months) and properly communicate the BMA's value to both members and the greater Boulder County community.
The organization has a strong history and some great new blood, providing BMA lots ideas of the future combined with a great rooting in the successes and failures of the past. So BMAers, keep your eyes and ears peeled for a BIG 2010! We are really excited about the things going on now in trail advocacy and we will be calling out to you to help us grow this coming year.