I Want More *&!$#* Trails! Now!
Well, no one is going to do it for you, and it will take some work. But it’s not as hard as you think. Typical situation: your community loves singletrack and loves to ride, your club meets and rides together, perhaps fundraises or build trails, but you want more. More singletrack, more challenge, more variety, more legitimacy. Your community might have all the right pieces, but just like a puzzle, the pieces need to be put together. Here come the Trail Care Crews, PowerPoint, projector, screen and smiles in tow.
Strong communities build sustainable trails
Over the past few weeks, the Crews delivered the IMBA Club Care presentation in Las Vegas, Nev.; Prescott, Ariz.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Ruidoso, New Mexico. The presentation is not geared toward a specific time in a club’s “life.” The presentation’s lessons are good for all clubs: those whose formation is imminent, new clubs who seek guidance on how to be effective, long-standing clubs those who are at a standstill, etc. We try to be the glue that helps club get together and become the best they can be. The presentations made to those four communities listed above were essentially the same, but each club had its own challenges and opportunities for improvement.
And what do clubs want to improve to? Ideally, to become effective channels for mountain biking advocacy, sustainable trail building and FUN. So it’s not what clubs don’t have, but rather, what they do have and are not capitalizing on.
Case in point: in Las Vegas, we met with riders who were very motivated to start a club, but needed to identify a leader to spearhead the club creation. In Prescott, the community had different players, but no specific group aligned to advocate for more trails. We met with an established club in Tucson that was building awesome trails and having fun, but wanted to push their organizational capacity a bit further. In Ruidoso, there are existing relationships with land managers, but the community lacked cohesion to move forward with trail building.
None of these clubs lack motivation or passion for mountain biking. In various degrees, they have leadership, structure, roles and responsibilities, communication, relationships, diversity, and other components of an effective mountain biking club. What they lacked, in various degrees, is the organization specific to their advocacy and trail building goals. Being organized means knowing what your goals are, with whom to align, and what steps to take in order to reach those goals. Being organized shows that you are sophisticated, and helps you get what you want (maybe not on the first try, but soon enough!).
Community advocacy and sustainable trails go hand in hand. Community organizing is the most effective way to achieve goals that benefit the entire community. This is why IMBA and the Trail Care Crews especially, put so much time and effort in teaching the principles of effective community organization. It works.