Hey Club Members,
We are getting a good start on the new year. There is a lot happening and we want to keep you informed, so here is just a bit of what up in 2010:
Club Member Only Events - Your new Board wants to make this a great year and give you reason to be a member of the Macatawa Cycling Club. We will be organizing more “Club Member Only” events. Rides, gatherings, etc. The first will be held on Sunday, January 31st at the New Holland Brewery in downtown Holland, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. Members are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Community Action House Food Pantry. The club will provide free food and soft drinks. Beer will be available at “mug club” pricing. We will be raffling off club t-shirts, hats, socks, water bottles and jersey’s. Come on down and join us for the first 2010 “Club Member Only” event.
New Jersey Design - Yes, that’s right! The Board approved a new jersey design. Kirk Walter is taking the lead on this initiative and we should have them available to purchase by the end of May. Watch your e-mail and the club website for more details. They are pretty cool………………..
Ultimate Cycle Challenge - We are looking to see how many club members are interested in forming a team for the Ultimate Cycle Challenge. The UCC is a 24hour indoor cycling event to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Now in its 5th year it has outgrown the original location and will be held this year at Evergreen Commons. Date is Feb 19/20. The cost to ride is a minimum donation of $30 and you can ride for a hour or as long as you’d like. We’ll have a trainer there for you, you’ll just need to bring your bike. If you’d like to be on the Macatawa Cycling Club team contact Mike Clark at Velo City Cycles @ (mike@velo-citycycles.com). If you have not participated in this before, WOW - what fun and what a great charity!
More info @ www.ultimatecyclechallenge.com
Club Web Site - We will be creating a new website for MCC in 2010. So stay tuned for this…………….
Holland Hundred - The HH is our signature event for the Club and our only fund raising event. Yes, and our goal is to grow it even larger than last year’s. It takes a lot of work to put on one of the premier tour rides in West Michigan. This year’s event will be July 17th. This year we are looking to begin to make the Friday evening registration gathering a signature event. Lots of planning to do, but we are extremely excited with this great idea. Again this year we are aligning ourselves with JDRFas the primary beneficiary as well as other local charities. John Wood and Mike McKay have already volunteered to be members of the HH Committee. How about you? Step up, volunteer to be a part of the Committee for this great event!
LMB and MMBA - Don’t know if you are aware, but the Macatawa Cycling Club is a member of both the League of Michigan Bicyclist and Michigan Mountain Bike Association. In fact the Club is a life member of the LMB. Visit their website and see all they have to offer. While on the LMB website, check out the link to this year’s Holland Hundred.
The 2010 LMB ride calendar is being printed, as we speak, and we’ll have a number of copies to share with our members (hope to have them available to pass out at the February 1st general club membership meeting). We have a half page add in the calendar for the HH.
Club Meetings - General club membership meetings are held the first Monday of each month, October through April. These meeting start at 8:00 PM and are generally held at the New Holland Brewery - upstairs conference room. We provide an overview of the Board of Directors meeting (held just prior to the general membership meeting) and host a variety of guest speakers. At the February 1st meeting we will have presenters on “Tri-Athlons”, what it takes to prepare for one of these challenging events. March is currently open, but assure you we will have a great guest speaker. In April we will be visited by Rich Moeller Executive Director for the League of Michigan Bicyclists. Rich will provide background on the LMB and what legislative activities the LMB supports. LMB is a great organization, you don’t want to miss this one.
Doug Spooner - Club President