It was an energetic gathering, when 40 members of the Nelson Cycling Club convened for the club’s Annual General Meeting held at the Hume Hotel in late-November.
“We have had a very successful year, with lots of exciting things in the works for 2013,” said Garett Lumley, club treasurer, who presided over the meeting.
Currently, there are 430 members in the club, 35 per cent of whom are under the age of 18.
Lumley kicked off the night by acknowledging the years of hard work that former president Pat Wray and her husband John Krebs (former trail stewardship coordinator) have done for the Nelson Cycling Club. Wray and Krebs moved to Cranbrook last fall, leaving the position of president vacant.
The Nelson Cycling Club is the stronghold of mountain biking for the Nelson area. Apart from building and maintaining trails in the areas of Mountain Station, Svaboda, Kokanee Park, Giveout Creek, Morning Mountain and Smallwood, the club hosts an annual bike swap, monthly “toonie” rides for club members, built and maintains the bike park at Art Gibbons Park in Rosemont, hosts the annual Fat Tire Festival, has created a site plan for the Morning Mountain Polygon, an area that the club received Section 57 Authorization for in 2010, and built and expanded the trail system at Smallwood.
Many of the trails are multi-use, enjoyed not only by bikers but also hikers, runners, dog-walkers and other recreationalists. What many people don’t know is that the majority of the property at Mountain Station is privately owned, and the other trail systems are located in government regulated parks or crown land. Without advocacy of the Nelson Cycling Club with the landowners, many of these recreation opportunities would not exist.
Among the many items discussed at this year’s AGM, were several topics of particular interest including the City of Nelson’s interest in the Art Gibbon Bike Park, format changes for the Fat Tire Festival, the new Nelson Cycling Club Trail Guide, and logging in the Giveout Creek area where the popular trail Powerslave is located. Powerslave was highlighted in the 2010 bike film Life Cycles.
The 2012 board of directors was re-elected with Mark Crowe as land-use liaison, Darcy Lutz as communications coordinator, Chris George as trail stewardship coordinator and Lumley as treasurer.
The position of president remains vacant, as well as the following very important committee positions: bike park coordinator, Smallwood director, Morning Mountain Polygon director, and road riding liaison.
Anyone interested in these positions should contact Lumley at 250-505-4412 or yelmul9@yahoo.com.
Minutes from the meeting are available in full on the NCC website at: http://nelsoncyclingclub.blogspot.ca/
Resuming in January, the Nelson Cycling Club Board meets every fourth Wednesday of the month, at 5:30 p.m. in the Chamber of Commerce boardroom.
All members are welcome to attend.