Re: why I will not be renewing my membership next year - an open letter to BV

GPLama said:

"Carl Brewer" wrote in message...

Quoted message said:

This is what I sent to BV :

snip..

Well said Carl! Looks like there are a larger number of people unhappy with
BV than I first thought.... Does a full race license have any insurance
benefits for regular riding/training (apologies if this has been
asked/answered before)...?

cheers,
GPL
:../..:

huh? cant see the origonal post. any chance you can quote it fully?
chaars FD

flyingdutch said:

huh? cant see the origonal post. any chance you can quote it fully?
chaars FD

Oh the joys of usernet being propagated to cycling forums...I just went over to newsreader/aus.bicycle & did a cut n'paste of Carls initial post:

=========================================

why I will not be renewing my membership next year - an open letter to BV
Body: 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

I did not renew last June because I ride a 20yo tourer which I would have to pay somebody to steal, hence the insurance bit is not an essential for me, and I find the magazine very ordinary.

Then last month I got an invitation to renew and save up to 30% on a new Learsport bike, which could be worth up to $500 on a $1500 machine but as they don't sell off the rack steel tourers any more I will have to hang on for a bit longer.

In the "old days" there used to be a basic fee with insurance and magazine as add ons.

I pointed this out to Juan the Mexican Membership Man but to date he has not bothered to reply.

I believe the events are two expensive and it has been alleged that they are overcrowded but once again I prefer solo touring anyway.

Mike Ayling

cfsmtb said:

...and less interested in genuine political advocacy...
Carl

i agree with everything(ish) you have said apart from this one phrase Carl.
BV spend [censored] of time with state government, federal government, Councils, Vicroads, BUGs(hmmm), Schools, and many other organisations. There are a zillion things that urk me about BV (but apart from the few points you make) but i usually pick up the phone or email the relevant people inside BV to get the inside story and realise that nothing is as easy as it seems or as we would like it to be.

A large contingent of BV's day-to-day staff are volunteers who give their own time for nought. I recently attended a forum at Vicroads (in my own tine) which BV also attended and they had a very strong impact.
That's where the dollars go. The 'glossy mag' is more economical now than it has ever been, due in no small measure to the amount of advertising it attracts.
And as for the insurance matter, do you really think BV has a say in this?
of course not, its dictated to them by an insurance Co.
BV is not set up to represent ALL cyclists, only their 40,000+ members.
And yet they take on the burden to do so and still get criticised for it.
I guess while the open market supports their (seemingly wierd) pricing and size of events they will continue. Some bad will come of this, but it is attracting new riders! Sure there could be more, so new approachs wil lbe taken in time, no doubt.

Cycling advocacy is a tuff thing to measure and 'see'. but it does happen.
It may be slower than some would like but i would challenge those who want it done better to step up and do better. I reached a point of rage about 2 years ago and took a small step and got involved with my local BUG. i figured i could do more on a local level. admittedly this is a selfish interest of mine. So to you all. wanna see improvements? Get selfish.
Nobody else holds the cycling panacea for you.

You do.

F"rant-over"Dutch

"NoZX6R" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Not sure if I've missed something here, but does the $45 fee then entitle
you to race at club events? Any, or just certain events?

No racing. Everything else, yes. Includes track training, road training,
any mass ride as long as there isn't a 'winner' it's not a race.

flyingdutch said:

iCycling advocacy is a tuff thing to measure and 'see'. but it does happen.
It may be slower than some would like but i would challenge those who want it done better to step up and do better. I reached a point of rage about 2 years ago and took a small step and got involved with my local BUG. i figured i could do more on a local level. admittedly this is a selfish interest of mine. So to you all. wanna see improvements? Get selfish.
Nobody else holds the cycling panacea for you.

I agree with the sentimnet, but I don't see that as selfish. I figure if I hassle councils about the rides that I ride on, other people can do the same, and when they ride on "my" roads they get the benefit of my efforts and vice versa. Just becuase you're benefiting directly, it's not selfish.

Of course, the other main benefit of doing things in your local area is the ability to start letters with "As a resident, ratepayer and voter.......".

Or "Please notify the accounts department that my next rate payment will be reduced by the $50 to pay for the tube and tyre which were damaged this morning due to your failure to maintain the roads properly."....

Shabby said:

I agree with the sentimnet, but I don't see that as selfish. I figure if I hassle councils about the rides that I ride on, other people can do the same, and when they ride on "my" roads they get the benefit of my efforts and vice versa. Just becuase you're benefiting directly, it's not selfish.

Of course, the other main benefit of doing things in your local area is the ability to start letters with "As a resident, ratepayer and voter.......".

Or "Please notify the accounts department that my next rate payment will be reduced by the $50 to pay for the tube and tyre which were damaged this morning due to your failure to maintain the roads properly."....

Yeah, my 'selfish' bit is cos for the main bit only i see what is achieved for all the time i put into it (or dont as the case may be). also, applying the theory of 'if you want it, go out and get it' kind of selfish.

PS if you wanna complain about roads, its secondary Rds for local council and Vicroads for all main roads now (as of 3 month ago). Vicroads got jack of councils stuffing em up 🙄
PPS email to top or specific person, as 'underlings' cant escalate stuff up to CEO/whoever but CEO can redirect messages down. your rates at their beuracratic best. Machiavelli had it worked out. If you dont like someone's work, burn 'em 😄

F"burnin down the house"House

flyingdutch said:

cfsmtb said:

...and less interested in genuine political advocacy...
Carl

i agree with everything(ish) you have said apart from this one phrase
Carl.
BV spend [censored] of time with state government, federal government,
Councils, Vicroads, BUGs(hmmm), Schools, and many other organisations.
There are a zillion things that urk me about BV (but apart from the few
points you make) but i usually pick up the phone or email the relevant
people inside BV to get the inside story and realise that nothing is as
easy as it seems or as we would like it to be.

If they do, then they're doing a rather bad job of communicating that
to their members.

Quoted message said:

A large contingent of BV's day-to-day staff are volunteers who give
their own time for nought.

I understand this, and am not denigrating the efforts of the vollies
(having been, and continuing to be a volly in many fields, I
understand some parts of how hybrid organisations work)

That notwithstanding, the direction of BV "appears" to be going
is more self-serving, and just because someone is doing something
for "nothing", doesn't mean what they're doing is the right thing to
be doing.

Quoted message said:

That's where the dollars go. The 'glossy mag' is more economical now
than it has ever been, due in no small measure to the amount of
advertising it attracts.

I'm more concerned with the time it takes to put it all together,
vollies are a limited resource and they're (to my eyes) trying to
compete with the real glossies, which they can't do.

Quoted message said:

And as for the insurance matter, do you really think BV has a say in
this?

Yes. They have the ability to shop around, and also to be
a little more upfront with their advertising claims about it, and
to negociate with insurance companies. They have ~40k
members, and a fair wad of cash, that gives them a decent
bit of bargaining power.

Quoted message said:

Nobody else holds the cycling panacea for you.

Very true, and in my own way I'm contributing to cycling in
Victoria 🙂 Now get back to training!