ACC Sportive

[Toks]

mmm...why not choose a charity home and abroad. A premiership footballer got some stick recently on the Talksport Radio show because he was raising funds for a charity he set up in the West Indies for poor kids who lack resources and help for their soccer training club. It was only when he pointed out he is funding a similar project over here that people stopped with the Charity begins at home stuff and were more positive about his efforts. I'm happy to support Alan's project but I''d be even happier if we could raise funds to support something in our local community too. Maybe offer to pay for a number of track days at Herne Hill for local kids or by a couple of some cheap road bikes and get some local kids on bikes

[kieran]

Before 'we' begin planning on what to do with the profits - how much would one expect to make?

Would if be a case like cake sales in schools? where often almost more money is spent by the cake bakers than is taken in by the school at the sale? The only reason the school makes money is that it doesn't incur the costs.

[Alan M]

These are all good points worthy of consideration if not endless debate, he said hoping not to sound toooooooo cynical....

[quote="Alan M"][quote="kieran"]don't you mean motivated? Anyway if it was put to the vote Alans charity would get mine. My general take on charities is that bad and all as some have it here it is much worse elsewhere in most parts of the world.

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Jojo"]All it sounds to me is a way of raising money for a developing cycle club that you are closely associated with (looking at the website) It also says "We have a growing membership fuelled by our dynamic and growing local and national economy. Cycling is a growing interest here as people progress from cycling for necessity to cycling for recreation and the local conditions are ideal".
Sounds like they need organisational help rather than money.

[Keith]

If Alan's prepared to take on the onorous and time-consuming task of leading the organisation of an ACC Sportive (It'll be a full time job at times!), then I agree with his condition of choosing the good cause where half of any profit goes.

So, can we talk about other topics as well as considering where any profit might go?

I've not done a Sportive for a year or more, so what's required to make a successful Sportive? Here's a few thoughts.

A good route. Challenging and scenic.
A "hook" - a name e.g. "Hell of the Ashdown", or some theme e.g. "White Horse" ride. Something to make people choose this sportive over others.
Decent parking and loos at the start. Sounds simple, but I think it makes a difference.
Manned food/water stops at suitable places.
A simple, signposted route.
Pasta afterwards? This made The Puncheur stand out from others.
Timing. Chips? Whatever, needs to be accurate and available on website.
Certificate or medals?
Photos. I don't think that many people ever buy the photos, so perhaps include free photos in the entry fee?

[Phil H]

I agree with Keith.

Re. photos, they are normally extremely expensive. If they were good though (and made me look slim - although maybe nobody is that good) I might buy 5 for £10. When they are one for £10 I will generally buy none. I realise this is up to the photographers, but I would've thought that they could work out that it's better to sell 200 photos for £2 than 10 for £10. Something that people have complained about on other internet fora is that photos are always of people struggling up a hill rather than cornering at speed and looking cool.

[Grahame]

For timing, the Beastway kit will be suitable and available.

Addiscombe contributed to buying it, so we'll reach a suitable agreement on use of the system. We may (read probably will) need to charge riders for the chips (a couple of pounds onto the entry fee will cover it), which can be refunded after the event.

[Paul H]

Perhaps you could call it the Olympic Sportive [url]http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/olympics/470178/exclusive-2012-olympics-road-race-route.html[/url]

Out of interest, who is going to fund the startup costs and any losses if the entries do not cover them?

How is the volunteer situation going with our current commitments do we have enough for this as well?

[quote="Alan M"][quote="Jojo"][quote="Dombo"]Perhaps have a list of (not necessarily cycling) charities on which we can vote to offer our support, rather than laying down conditions at the outset as to where the money should go?
While a budding racing club in Peru is no doubt a worthy cause, I am sure there are as many equally deserving pet projects as there are members of our club that could lay equal claim to a share of any profits.

[David.Hilbert]

How about a London-Brighton-London route?

[Andrew G]

[quote="Paul H"]How is the volunteer situation going with our current commitments do we have enough for this as well?

Thread hijack, yarrrr...

[quote="Andrew G"][quote="Paul H"]How is the volunteer situation going with our current commitments do we have enough for this as well?

[Maria David]

It's not a thread hijack at all Snoop!

Volunteers helping out is absolutely fundamental in the staging of any event, whatever shape or form!
If the club struggles to get people to help out at an event that lasts a couple of hours in the morning or evening, how can they be sure they will get the manpower to cover something that effectively lasts all day and will cover large sections of lanes in Surrey/Sussex/Kent??

I think that if a club is going to put on a sportive having never done one before you need to be absolutely sure you can cover all of the logistics required. Also, if doing such a thing for the first time I would have thought the main aim would be to make sure it is well run and safe. If the focus is simply on raising money you'll risk getting things wrong, unhappy punters and negative image. Not all events automatically make money, especially in the larval stages.

People need to decide if they're doing this because they really enjoy putting on cycling events for the benefit of others and all the “I’m doing something positive for cycling” feeling, or if it is to raise funds. It is not easy to achieve both of these in the inaugural year, especially if you’ve never done this sort of thing before.

Raising a couple of grand for charity can be done in different ways. A club cyclosportive is at the more ambitious end of the scale, and £ for £ is probably not the easiest. However, it is alot more fun if you know what you are doing and get the promised help from everyone!

[Snoop Doug]

Hi Maria

Some good stuff to add to more....good stuff

I hope Alan gets the nod to get a few folk together to thrash this out. I recall him suggesting a pilot kind of thing maybe later this year with a proper (ahem) one in 2011. Maybe we could convince the club run to be the collective guinea pig for a trial attempt..?

And of course, you are right about the helper issue. In my experience it's not that hard to fix. We have the rules in place to manage it, what's missing is some encouragement and when necessary a wee bit of enforcement (as a last resort). There are VCs in this club who according to the rules should not be on a club run because they have not fulfilled marshalling duties (I can be 100% certain of this for the time I kept records, pretty confident same is still the case now). I've brought this up @ committee previously and those who need to do something about it tend to find that a great time to look @ their shoes. Too much conflict avoidance creates a vacuum. Doesn't nature abhor a vacuum? Something will expand to take its place unfortunately. Hmmm...