It's Time to Speak Up!

Yes, cycling politics is boring and annoying. Bike racers and other avid cyclists tend to care about political stuff in their sport just about as much as they care about brussel sprouts in their breakfast oatmeal, but around NorCal we do get a chance to speak up about what goes on around here, and even more important, we can speak up and make a difference in what goes on. There are online forums for road racing stuff, for CX mud-slinging, and all things MTB, but not so much about the track side of the sport. The track stuff gets discussed in the infield between races and training efforts, but that's mostly between just two or three people at a time.

The NCVA BOD election is coming up in about a month, and some candidates have already declared their intentions and shared their point of view. There are nine spots available and there will be more candidates announcing their plans soon enough. Last year we had only nine candidates, so there wasn't really much of an election at all.

A downside of not having an election last year is that there was very little discussion before the election about the candidates and their goals and objectives for the NCVA. The ballots got counted, the nine people took their places on the BOD, and then they went to work on doing what they thought we wanted. But we never heard much about what they think, and maybe more important, is that the BOD members didn't hear much from us about what we think and want for the velodrome.

I don't know if there will be an election this year, but I hope people will take the opportunity to speak up about what they want to see at the velodrome in the coming year, and that people share their ideas and concerns with the candidates in a constructive way.