President's Message - November 2013
As not all are on Facebook and follow our communications, pictures, results, etc., we met Wed night to close out the year for team meetings at the new GoRyde studio in Somerville. They are our team sponsor and Bill Kemmerer spoke about their Friday night spin classes for us and also various opportunities/services there. This was of great help to the juniors last winter and will be again this year. In addition, Marc came from Efinger's and he also detailed/outlined what they are doing, new products/pricing, etc. Good time of the year to bring in your bike and have it tuned/given a once over for year end. Thanks to all of our sponsors for supporting us and making Team Somerset endeavors possible.
Dottie/Joe summarized what the junior committee put together last week for the winter and 2014 program. Looking forward to again getting our juniors ready for a strong season ahead. We are working with a facility in the Montgomery area which can be used for some night junior training, and eventually for full team use. Once the program is refined, we'll make sure it is up on our website for all to see the components of what the juniors are doing. It is expected that we'll be part of a collaborative effort in NJ to utilize some NJBA funds and support the Junior effort.
Our regular meeting items were covered and it looks like we are about $10K in the "black" currently based on promotions this year, financial management etc. Bonuses and travel $$ will be paid out to close out the year. Larry will be setting up the new membership for 2014 on-line and ensuring that all waivers are completed by the team. Robert Kowal discussed clothing and the winter order is due in mid-December and we want to target completing our spring order by end of January. Sticking with Champion as our vendor, as it has worked out well.
3 more weeks of NJ/Mid Atlantic CX racing. Full court press today as Somerset had a very good showing at Sussex #1 including wins in the Masters (Rick Anderson), Cat 3 (Matt Bruno), and Junior Women (Gaby), as well as podiums by Martin, Eric, and Perry. Am sure we got the top team points today and are literally in a dead heat with Liberty with just a couple of NJ races left. A classic battle. Nice to see such a strong contingent out there today. It's been a great season of 15-20 races thus far for many of the team, and still a few to go through Dec 15. We have, likely, 2-3 riders going to Boulder, Co. for Nationals in January. More to follow on that.
We will be having winter rides. Based on this week's weather report, looking like they will not be starting on Thanksgiving. However, once the weather and schedule become clear, we'll post to Facebook and e-mail. After quite a long race season, I may do a few of these before year-end, but won't likely consistently join until after that. Looking like Sundays at 10 AM, Readington School, once they get going. Should others want to organize events, please feel free to do that through our communication mechanisms. In addition to e-mail, we have Facebook groups for the full team, junior development, and the mountain bike team.
Lastly, the NJBA meeting is Dec 7 at the Hyatt in Princeton. I expect to attend and others are welcome certainly. We will post our 5 planned events to the calendar. Cape May (April 6), Somerset Circuit (May 3), Junior/Women's RR (June 7), and Flanders (August 16) are set. We are organizing a TT on April 12 also. Based on parking and business changes at Briarwood Farm, we are pursuing moving the TT to Allamuchy and having it be a little longer, and perhaps a Circuit. More to follow on that as we look at the course, etc. and all the options.
Looking forward to another successful year end celebration with the team, and also the NJBA Banquet. More details on that coming. Always important to celebrate our successes/milestones and accomplishments for the year, before moving on to 2014. Happy Thanksgiving and holidays to all. Enjoy with your families and look forward to seeing everyone at one of the races or our year-end celebration - where we hope to also get a new team picture.
Thanks for a great year. If I forgot anything that we covered at the team meeting, please feel free to add.
Chuck