Rhode Island NEMBA Chapter News
SingleTracks, February 2008
On December 4, 2007 RI-NEMBA held our third annual Christmas party at Pal's Restaurant in East Greenwich. 23 members attended and our only order of business was to elect our officers for the next year. Brendan Dee has bravely volunteered to take over as chapter president for the next year. Sara Grimley will continue for her 10th year as chapter treasure and Bart Angelo has agreed to continue as secretary for another year. This year we will have four vice-presidents, each representing a different popular riding area in our state. Jim Grimley will continue to be the contact person for Arcadia, Peter Gengler will continue to try and get things done in Big River, Lennon Schroeder will continue the great work he has been doing in Burlingame, and Leo Corrigan will take over for Brendan Dee in Lincoln Woods. Our Board of Directors Representative will remain the same with Matt Schulde staying on for another year and Bart Angelo serving as his alternate.
We are excited to have a new president and at our first meeting of the year on January 8, 2008 we all worked together to set a very ambitious schedule of events for 2008. For this year we included Fun Rides, skills clinic, a number of trail maintenance days, as well as continuing our ride series. We will also be using our REI grant to finally get our Ambassador Program up and running. We have set a deadline for April 1, 2008 to apply for a position as an Ambassador. Please see our website www.rinemba.org for details on how to apply for one of our 20 spots as an Ambassador. Also please remember we are planning the dates of some events 10 months in advanced so things are always subjected to change based on weather or if we have difficulty getting permits for the dates we hope. Mark your calendars but please always check www.rinemba.org for the final schedule closer to the date as well as for additional details about the event.
Date Event
Feb 17 Burlingame Winter Fun Ride
April 1 Ambassador applications due
April 6 Burlingame EFTA Time Trial
April 13 Trail Maintenance-Arcadia
April 26 or May 3 Beginners Skills Clinic
Late April Big River Clean-up
May 18 Arcadia Fun Ride-Browning Mill Pond
June 7 NTD Trail Maintenance-Lincoln Woods
July 20 Trail Maintenance-Burlingame
Sept 2 Arcadia Fun Ride-Beach Pond
October 4 Take a kid mountain biking day, Ryan Park, North Kingstown
Sundays- June 1, 15, 29, July 13, 27, Aug 10, 24 Arcadia Ride Series
Fridays, April 18-Aug 29 Lincoln Woods Ride Series
As you can see we have set a very ambitious schedule that we need lots of help to accomplish. We will continue to hold meeting at Famous Pizza on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30, new (and past) volunteers are needed and welcome. Help us to make this our best year ever!
P.S. Only Superman has been found in our character contest, look up because Batman is still hanging out in Big River and Wonder Woman is waiting to be found in Burlingame. --Tina Williams
SingleTracks, December 2007
On September 16, 2007 RI-NEMBA held another successful Fun Ride at a new location in Arcadia. Thanks to Jim Grimley for putting together an awesome ride and introducing RI mountain bikers to Beach Pond riding. This different location was a little bit further to drive to but definitely worth it. The success of the ride can be measured in a number of ways. First, we had a great turn out and everyone had positive things to say. Second, 33 riders renewed or signed up for NEMBA including 27 RI-NEMBA members-increasing our total membership significantly. Finally, we were able to raise $500 to donate to the Cycle for Life Foundation- (we'll report what the money was used for in a later addition).
Our biggest thank you for putting on this successful event goes to Jim Grimley without whom it would not have happened. Jim took care of the needed permits (both in CT and RI), designed the route and then pretty much arrowed it by himself by working until sunset the night before and then getting up as soon as the sun rose to finish arrowing before riders showed up. He then got stuck taking most of the arrows down as well (Jeff Haitz gave him some help doing this- Thanks Jeff.) So next time you see Jim be sure to thank him for all his work and next year consider giving him a hand.
Other people do deserve a thank you for helping out in other ways. Thanks goes to Lennon Schroeder for spending a few hours manning the water stop, to Craig Mello's wife for designing posters to advertise this event, to Randy Williams for helping people safely cross Route 165, to Bart Angelo, Sara Grimley and Tina Williams for working the registration table, and to Tina Williams to buying the food for the cookout and then for cooking the food (with some help from Randy and a kind gentleman who jumped in to give me a break so I could award the raffle prizes.).
Our final thanks goes to the Cycle for Life Foundation, Ski Market and Victory Cycles for donating prizes for the raffle, which helps to pay for the food and to increase our donation to the Cycle for Life Foundation. Many great prizes were donated, which makes it easy to convince people to buy tickets! Hopefully we'll be able to continue to hold our fun rides and to raise money for the Cycle for Life Foundation and next year when we do, sign-up to help out. There are plenty of jobs for everyone to do and it would be nice to spread the work out a little more, especially for Jim's sake.
On October 6, 2007, RI-NEMBA joined groups across the country in holding a Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. This event was held at Ryan Park in North Kingston, a great location for beginning riders. It was attended by 13 kids and 12 adults resulting in the signing of 1 new member. Thanks to Jim Hoard and Leo Corrigan for organizing this event. Due to some unforeseen glitches getting permission, this event was delayed so we are very pleased with the attendance without a large amount of advertising and hope that next year we can build on it and turn this into a really spectacular event.
We will continue to hold meetings at Famous Pizza throughout the winter months in preparation for a successful 2008 riding season. Please check the website, rinemba.org for details and join us as we always could use more help in improving mountain biking in RI. Thanks. —Tina Williams
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