Censorship and free speech...

[LabRat]

Being (very) new here it has been enlightening to read what has been posted in this thread.

For an outsider to cycle clubs, not just new to it but very wary of them to, the focus on numbers is an interesting topic. For the 'leaders' of the club this must be an important factor, for continued growth is vital for funding races and advertising etc.

My concern is who are the leaders of the club? who elected them ? what is their role to the individual in the club?

politics in any form is a sham, in any form its just people jousting for control.

The exclusion/banning of another rider from a ride by one person is the only thing stopping me from going on a club ride. If this rider was a threat to other riders then its up to them if they ride with him.

Do you need somebody to tell you who you can ride with? To tell you if your in danger from another rider?

If you are a member of ACC then its up to you how it is run, not through AGM's but through you actions on rides, club nights etc.

You, the members, are the club, not 'leaders', you can shut it down or make it flourish.

'freedom is not voluntarily given by the oppressors'

[Alan B]

At the risk of adding yet another opinion to this growing thread, can i just add my 4 penneth (or 2 penneth, or whatever the phrase is)

We are all cyclists, and are members of this club (or indeed any club) because we love cycling and love riding our bikes.

There are over 200 people in the club - we are all not going to necessarily like eachother - that is human nature. But with 200 people out there, and 60 on a typical clubrun, there are more than enough people to ride next to someone you get on with.

We all have other stresses and strains in our lives - cycling with the ACC is a release from all that. It is not a business, it is not our jobs or livelihoods, it is a HOBBY.

I personally don't want to have a crappy week at work, and then spend Friday not looking fwd to my only training ride of the week where I have company due to "politics", in fighting and sniping.

I know of other clubs much smaller than the ACC which have imploded due to stuff like this happening - i think there is a real risk of this happening to us

We want to make ACC the best club (and not just the biggest) - it is easy to put people off and turn people against us - but why should we do this - there is no point, everyone has worked extremely hard to get the ACC to where it is now, lets not waste all that good work.

I was up at the Manc velodrone last week with my ACC top on - several people came up to me and said what an impressive set up we have, cycling plus article etc etc....... let's keep moving forward and keep the great PR we now have.

Cheers

Alan