Carl Brewer said:This is what I sent to BV :
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: why I will not be renewing my membership next year - an open
letter to BV
Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 13:45:56 +1000
From: Carl Brewer <[email hidden]>
To: [email hidden]Hello,
I recently let my BV membership lapse, but had second thoughts
as I was concerned about crash damage insurance, so I
renewed about two weeks ago.I subsequently found out that the insurance excess is
$1000, which makes it pretty useless for the majority
of bike crashes that damage bicycles. In my opinion, this
excess is absurd. Perhaps if BV wasn't wasting money on
expensive glossys for overpriced events then the
money could be put towards reducing the excess to
make the insurance realistic.I've been a BV member for about 4 years, and my
observation is that over this 4 years BV has become more interested in
BV (now we have a bigger, more expensive, glossy magazine, expensive
mailouts for ride events, more expensive event charges to
cover for "free" extras - like junkheap bicycles and
jerseys etc) and less interested in genuine
political advocacy and valuable services to cyclists,
both current and potential. This is a shame, as the
organisation appears to have lost direction, and
become more interested in bottom line membership numbers and
revinue raising than in providing any real valuable service
to those of us that ride bicycles in Victoria.BV's inability to acknowledge issues such as overcrowding
on major events (GVBR, RTB) and cancellation of
realistic events for average cyclists (GMBR etc)
as being significant further supports my belief that the organisation
has lost its way.BV should be out at schools encouraging kids to ride, and
should be running events cheaply ($120 for the RTB?!) so
that they're more affordable for average cyclists, not
spending time preening a glossy magazine and charging members
$95 a year for the privilege.I will not be renewing my membership next year, and the above is the
reason why.Carl
Good Morning,
Tell us something else new, I came to the same conclusion back in
1998, except my effective resignation went through the letters column of
The Age, which was a tad more public. Alan Parker is no doubt shaking
his head in sorrow (he started it all in 1974).
Regards,
Ray.