UROC holds 12th AGM

Posted on

Early March, we held our 2020 AGM, at which we enjoyed a presentation by UROC president, Evan Loveless, about the accomplishments of the previous year and what we can look forward to in the coming year. We said goodbye and thank you to two of our long-standing board members, Mike Manara and Ally Greer, and welcomed aboard two new members, Mike Tunnah and Adam Silverstein. After the formalities, we socialized with our community over CBC beer. The AGM was our best attended yet, and the energy in the room built upon our passion and motivation for accomplishing our goals for 2020.

In brief, 2019 saw some big changes. First and foremost, Nathan Kwan, our Trail Manager and first employee, moved on; and with his parting, we hired our first Executive Director, Dougal Browne. As most of you know, UROC has been a working board, thus most of the management, administrative and fundraising work has been accomplished by volunteer directors. Nathan, as a bright and motivated employee, was able to greatly advance what UROC has been able to accomplish in the past few years. Dougal, again, brings energy and dedicated time to the organization, and has already demonstrated great leadership in building the capacity of the organization. 

Some other 2019 highlights include:

  • Hiring of Trail Crew Lead Hand – Scott Stansbury, and trail crew of 4 
  • Formalized board roles
  • Trail Maintenance Committee projects, creation of Events Committee
  • Closing of our second term of the Land Access Agreement – time to negotiate a 3rd!
  • Another 19% increase in trail use over previous year (fifth consecutive year of similar growth!)
  • A 40% increase in membership over 2017
  • Sustainable funding increase – annual grant from CVRD, annual grant from Village of Cumberland
  • Completion of the first two phases of the climb trail
  • 6 bike shop supported trail maintenance days, Trail Maintenance Level 1 workshop, Builder Brigade weekend, UROC women’s ride build workshop
  • 5 races (fundraisers for club), poker ride, development of third-party events policy
  • Partnership with CCSS Bike Club and Ride-Build-Ride programs, women’s ride program, toonie rides
  • LOTS of volunteer and paid trail crew trail maintenance and building
  • Great sponsorships
  • Mountain Bike Tourism Association symposium attendance, CVAG youth film project, social media and website updates
  • Planning for 2020! (UROC Board of Directors strategic planning meeting, new trail build plan submitted to land owners, negotiations for Land Access Agreement)

Goals for 2020 include:

  • Secure new Land Access Agreement (current agreement expired end of 2019, but has a 6-month extension to finalize a new agreement)
  • Increase financial sustainability by increasing revenue (through multi-annual grants, partnerships, membership, monthly donors, events and other streams) and reviewing expenses (including insurance which currently is 1/3 of membership fees)
  • Develop 5 and 10-Year strategic plan for trail network (density, type, distribution etc.)
  • Update trail management plan (revise priorities based on user input and use, safety and environmental issues)
  • Governance review, and revision of not-for-profit best practices, review constitution (12 years old!)
  • Increase organizational capacity through staff and volunteer committees 
  • Continue to accomplish a huge amount of trail maintenance, management and development

2020 Board of Directors is composed of: Evan Loveless (President), Adam Speigel (Vice President), Alex Blair (Treasurer/ Secretary), Erik Holbek, Todd Deters, Nygil Goggins, Leah Ballin, Adam Silverstein and Mike Tunnah

Almost lastly, we’d like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who contributes to the success of UROC and makes our trail network one of the best in Canada. This includes, our dedicated membership, volunteers, volunteer trail builders and maintainers, the Trail Maintenance Committee, the Event Committee and volunteers, our valued sponsors, partners (VoC, CVRD, land owners, CCFS, CCSS), the volunteer Board of Directors and the UROC ED and Trail Crew. 

And lastly, a lot has changed since the AGM, as the world enters uncharted territory on how to keep people safe during a pandemic. This has been a rapidly evolving situation. We assure you, that we are doing our best to keep our staff, volunteers, members and the community at large safe, while continuing to serve you. UROC trail crew is continuing to work at the long list of trail maintenance issues that can be addressed while maintaining physical distancing, the climb trail is continuing to be built, we are continuing to negotiate the new land access agreement, advocate for trails with local government, fund raise and continue our work to support our mandate. As such, we value your support and membership more than ever and will release some incentives for members over the coming weeks!    

We look forward to a productive 2020. All the best,

The United Riders of Cumberland Board of Directors