As 2023 approaches its end, it is a time to look back on our community, its transitions and growth and at the same time, look ahead to what is in store for 2024.
We had fun. The one true thing that we all have in common is that we love riding our bikes. Regardless of the terrain or what we pedal, we love riding our bikes and we had fun. We look forward to more.
As a community, we grew. Some of our membership moved away, only to be replaced by new riders, new experiences and new members.
We built new trails and are building more in 2024. The Pinellas project is gearing up (pun intended) and will break ground very soon.
We had club trips, guided rides, socials, urban rides and helped nurture newcomers into our sport.
New processes were put in place to help track our volunteer hours. We will talk more about this in 2024. It is important.
CroomFest replaced our long time offroad 35/50 epic event. It has become an outdoor festival, offering camping, riding both on or off road, hiking and paddling. CroomFest 2024 is just around the corner.
Squiggy's Gnome Roam, modeled after a past event, the Squiggy Classic, was born. We look forward to what this event will offer in 2024.
We worked side by side, endlessly, to groom and care for our trail systems.
The Swamp Sisters were added to the club as our women's only riding group. We also started the Swamplings, our youth group, which started and stopped but will return in 2024.
Our board of directors will soon have our 2024 Strategic Plan ready to implement. This will help guide the direction of the club next year. We are looking at ways to streamline some processes, offer more volunteer incentives, make the volunteer reporting process more efficient and easier to track volunteer hours, look for grant money (Boyette needs a tractor), raise more funds to put back into the trail systems, trail education, build a scholarship program for NICA (the Brian Boyle foundation) and find ways to engage our membership. Lots to do for sure.
As we look back, it is easy to understand what a great club and community we are part of. As we look ahead, it is just as easy to see that we have great things to do as an organization.
There is plenty of fun to be had, plenty of riding to do and lots of things that we need to do together.
Wishing you the very best as we move into the new year. We will continue our efforts to keep you informed, ask you for help and encourage ways to cultivate the growth of our club.
Stay tuned.