Ride Tour de Foothills with Brian Osterwalder

Our club secretary Brian Osterwalder invites you to join him to ride a century in the foothills with well stocked rest stops and great SAG support. It’s the annual Veterans Day Tour de Foothills!

The century route includes just over 100 miles of the great cycling, just over 5000 feet of climbing and 5 rest stops.

Upon your return, you will be pampered with great food as a part of your ride registration with an optional Beer Garden and Wine tasting to complete your fantastic day.

The event is on Saturday, November 11, 2017 from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM and meets in downtown Upland, California.

Speaking of veterans, you can register for the ride for free! Everybody else pays, but we’ve got a $10-off discount code for you:  bikelink01

So please follow this link to register:  Click here to REGISTER!

Finally, please send an email to Brian at brianosterwalder AT gmail DOT com so that you can make plans to meet him at the ride.

Flying with your Bicycle?

Our member Martin Keleti wants to share with our club his tips for saving money if you're traveling with your bicycle.  Some of these tips can save you money if you're flying to San Francisco for AIDS/LifeCycle next year, or if you're just going on vacation.

Alaska Airlines $25

Virgin America $50

Hawaiian Air $35

Compare those prices with United for $150

Training for the Cookie Ride

Training for Phil Gaimon's Cookie Fondo Continues

Pete Demirai has requested a series of really hard Santa Monica Mountain rides to prepare for Phil’s Cookie Fondo, which is on October 15, so we're going to have a series of rides on Saturdays to train. These difficult rides are open to EVERYONE!

The first ride was on Saturday, August 19. Did you go? Other club members going on the Cookie Ride are Christian Shopinski, Brian Osterwalder and Bryan Blumberg.

Training for the Cookie Ride
Sat, Aug 19 – Fernwood – Cold Canyon – Agoura – 47 miles and 5,000 feet

Upcoming Santa Monica Mountain Rides
Sat. Sept 2 – Helen's Monthly Group Ride (Piuma, Schueren & Old Topanga) – 45 miles & 4,900 feet
Sat. Sept 9 – Las Flores – Mulholland – Decker 48 miles & 5,250 feet
Sat. Sept 16 – Látigo to PCH & Piuma to Stunt – 52 miles & 6,000 feet
Sat. Sept 30 – Up Encinal – Down Mulholland – Up Yerba Buena – Down Deer Creek – 45 miles & 5,800 feet

Pos Peds Co-hosted Rides

Different Spokes member Salvatore Ianniello recently became Ride Coordinator for the Los Angeles Chapter of Positive Pedalers.  He is going to be setting up one AIDS/LifeCycle training ride per month on Saturdays from August 2017 through May 2017.

He has asked that the rides be co-hosted by Different Spokes.  So, look forward to the addition of Saturday rides being added to our calendar.

Of course any of our club members who are Certified Training Ride Leaders will be welcome to volunteer to co-facilitate these rides.

Thanks Sal!

Voting Has Closed

THE 2017 ELECTIONS ARE OVER!

These are the winners of the Different Spokes annual election of officers:

PRESIDENT & CEO - Bryan Blumberg (24 votes yes, zero opposed)
MEMBERSHIP CHAIR & CFO - Mario Rivera (24 votes yes, zero opposed)
SECRETARY - Brian Osterwalder (24 votes yes, zero opposed)

Different Spokes is moving along into its 35th year!  Thank you all for participating in your club.

Nominations for 2017-2018 Are In

Voting ended on Tuesday, July 18 at 6 AM.

Different Spokes is happy to announce that voting has ended.  We had a total of 24 votes.  The results are:

PRESIDENT - Bryan Blumberg - 24 votes for, no votes against

TREASURER - Mario Rivera - 24 votes for, no votes against

SECRETARY - Brian Osterwalder - 24 votes for, no votes against

We will attempt to install the new officers by August 1, 2017 and will then schedule a Board Meeting.  The meeting time and location will be announced and any Different Spokes club member may attend.

Nominations for Different Spokes Club Officers are now being accepted.

Different Spokes is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation. Membership dues are tax deductible. The club is required to have nominations and elections of officers annually. There must be periodic board meetings with minutes.

Official responsibilities of the officers are as follows:

PRESIDENT - The president is the chief executive officer. Conducts board meetings; has access to the bank account; is the agent for service of process for the corporation. Filing a statement of information with the California Secretary of State.

TREASURER - The treasurer is the chief financial officer. Responsibilities include maintaining the membership roster; reminding expiring and expired members that their renewals are due; has access to and maintains the bank account; renewing the club’s membership in the League of American Bicyclists; renewing the club’s liability insurance policy.

SECRETARY - The secretary is responsible to take minutes at meetings of the officers.

Different Spokes is a cycling club with a primary outreach to the Southern California LGBT community, but everyone is welcome to join Different Spokes.  Different Spokes has no affiliation with AIDS/LifeCycle. However, some members form a Different Spokes AIDS/LifeCycle team each year. Therefore a number of the club’s activities or bike rides are integrated with AIDS/LifeCycle.

Other duties which are usually performed by club officers, but may be performed by any member of the club are:

Planning the ride schedule.
Maintaining the club’s website, calendar, Facebook group and weekly email newsletter.
Designing the jerseys and shorts for the club’s kit/uniforms,
Planning, organizing or hosting club social events.
Coordinating club involvement in other community bicycling events.
Planning AIDS/LifeCycle training ride schedule.
Coordinating club ride schedule with club’s AIDS/LifeCycle Training Ride Leaders.

To be a club officer, one must have a current active membership in Different Spokes Bicycling Club of Southern California. This can be accomplished simply by paying your $15 annual membership dues.

To nominate yourself or another club member to be President, Treasurer or Secretary, please post a comment to this blog post. We will have elections in July. Officers will assume their roles in August.