Author Topic: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?  (Read 10546 times)

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #50 on: 12 November, 2018, 09:10:09 am »
And how many CUK members are active members of local groups?
My understanding is that it's never been more than 20% and at the time of the charity conversion it was under 15%.
I'd be surprised if British Cycling hasn't got more club members than Cycling UKs overall members.   There's 70,000 who race and although I learnt upthread that you don't need to be in a club to do so I expect the vast majority are.
I've seen nothing to change my mind about British Cycling's reliance on cycle sport remaining fashionable and that being the motivation for broadening it's appeal.  Not so long ago it had a tenth of it's current membership and this from a couple of years ago on their website ought to give an indication of where those members have come from.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/20160815-about-bc-news-British-Cycling-reaches-125-000-members-milestone-0 

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #51 on: 12 November, 2018, 09:47:41 am »
As far as I can tell, CUK have actual local clubs on the ground.

Do they though? There are local CTC groups that are affiliated to the national organisation but the central government of CUK seems to be quite a distinct body, mainly focused on national-level campaigning, while the local groups get on with the business of organising rides.

In this respect, the relationship seems very similar to that between clubs and BC.
It's quite hard to make direct comparisons, both have affiliated clubs, in both cases those clubs can insist of joining the national organisation to be a club member, Cycling UK has a specific membership category for these, I don't think British Cycling do.  British Cycling seem to exert more influence over their affiliated clubs and possibly offer them more in return.  Cycling UK's affiliated clubs have in many cases affiliated just for the insurance and have no interest beyond that, likewise the affiliated members.
What Cycling UK has that British Cycling doesn't is Member Groups and these are a part of Cycling UK.  They're left to largely organise themselves though they are obliged to follow certain policies. Their finances are included in CTC's accounts, they receive funding and other benefits. You can't join one of these Member Groups, everything they do is open to all Cycling UK members, from the rides to the AGMs. 
DuncanM is right in this, what he doesn't do is put it in proportion, there's not many of these groups (140?) and the percentage of members who are actively involved with them is small.  There's been a feeling (Mine anyway) that the national organisation had lost interest in these groups, but that seems to be changing.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #52 on: 12 November, 2018, 10:12:40 am »
 
DuncanM is right in this, what he doesn't do is put it in proportion, there's not many of these groups (140?) and the percentage of members who are actively involved with them is small. 

Yes, that's what I suspected, but I have to admit the numbers are even smaller than I imagined - assuming your figures are accurate.

Quote
There's been a feeling (Mine anyway) that the national organisation had lost interest in these groups, but that seems to be changing.

Yes, indeed. My local CTC group disbanded and reformed as an independent local-campaigning and ride-organising group with no CUK affiliation. I don't know why - I'm not involved with the group so not privy to their politics but I suspect the disjointed relationship with HQ had something to do with it.

Perhaps this goes some way to answering the OP's question.

CUK have no natural link to cycle sport, so it makes sense for them to focus as an organisation on campaigning, but it is clear that BC doesn't cover the needs of every cyclist so that leaves large numbers of cyclists somewhat disenfranchised.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #53 on: 12 November, 2018, 10:15:41 am »
The Cycling UK member groups have individual identity, with their own jerseys, core members, interests and traditions and so on, but no formal existence from the national organisation.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #54 on: 12 November, 2018, 10:28:56 am »
The Cycling UK member groups have individual identity, with their own jerseys, core members, interests and traditions and so on, but no formal existence from the national organisation.
Sorry, but that's simply wrong, they are part of the company.  They're money belongs to Cycling UK and they have to submit they're annual returns to be included in their accounts.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #55 on: 12 November, 2018, 11:01:21 am »
Typo on my part. I meant to say "no formal existence separate from the national organisation." By which I mean, people who ride with this or that member group tend to think of themselves as part of this or that group, but formally they are all members of the same organisation. Move from Penzance to Thurso and you can start riding with the local group, nothing new to join, but new people and habits. The MGs individual accounting is neither here nor there to the vast majority of people.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #56 on: 12 November, 2018, 11:21:20 am »
I get the impression that in focusing on the charity conversion and the rebrand the CTC/CUK rather abandoned the member groups to their own devices; as a result a lot of them (my local group included) converted to affiliated groups. On the one hand, many of these members just one to go on rides and don't care about wider campaigning, but I do think CUK could have done/should do more to support grass-roots campaigning in their member groups. Stuff like 'how to respond to local planning applications/transport plans/etc.'; I'd have thought you could put together some materials without too much hassle.

Kim

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Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #57 on: 12 November, 2018, 01:53:47 pm »
On the one hand, many of these members just one to go on rides and don't care about wider campaigning, but I do think CUK could have done/should do more to support grass-roots campaigning in their member groups. Stuff like 'how to respond to local planning applications/transport plans/etc.'; I'd have thought you could put together some materials without too much hassle.

Isn't that stuff covered by local grass-roots campaigning organisations (LCC, Pushbikes, BCC, and the like)?

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #58 on: 12 November, 2018, 02:41:40 pm »

Isn't that stuff covered by local grass-roots campaigning organisations (LCC, Pushbikes, BCC, and the like)?
[/quote]

Probably, but aren't they mostly in big cities? I think there must be a fair few places without active local.campaigns where the infra could do with scrutiny; for a national organisation like CUK I'd have thought helping their members to campaign at grass-roots level would be a cheap way to try and get their aims into action.

Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #59 on: 14 November, 2018, 04:38:34 pm »

Isn't that stuff covered by local grass-roots campaigning organisations (LCC, Pushbikes, BCC, and the like)?

Probably, but aren't they mostly in big cities? I think there must be a fair few places without active local.campaigns where the infra could do with scrutiny; for a national organisation like CUK I'd have thought helping their members to campaign at grass-roots level would be a cheap way to try and get their aims into action.
[/quote]
Somewhere (probably in the loft) I've got a huge CTC ring binder from the 'Right To Ride Network' which is when they attempted to harness individual members to do grass roots campaigning. This possibly goes back to the late 1980s - and I think I was the only CTC 'Right to Ride' member in my District Council area. It was a great binder, with some very good material (as I recall) but the backup from head office was abysmal, and relied too heavily on there being experienced campaigners in adjacent areas who were prepared (or in my case, not prepared) to support the fledgling RtR members.
I've only recently managed to extract myself from the CTC campaigning mailing lists following on from my signing up to RtR, and that was after I'd quoted GDPR at them.
Too many angry people - breathe & relax.

mattc

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Re: What Is BC doing right and CUK doing wrong?
« Reply #60 on: 16 November, 2018, 02:48:27 pm »
Oh joy is me!

A most welcome email arrived today. From British Cycling.

Subject: Member News - exclusive sportive access

!!!  :o !!!  :)  :)



Why do CUK never send me such generous offers? Eh?!?
Has never ridden RAAM
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No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles