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San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club

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Ride Leadership Responsibilities

The San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club sanctions a series Weekly, Monthly and Annual Ride Events for the benefit of club members. These rides are organized and lead by volunteer Ride Coordinators and Leaders as described below. Sanctioned rides are those that are published on the SLOBC website and use Club Forums to communicate with their members. This ensures that only active members who have signed the annual waiver receive ride information. It is the responsibility of Coordinators, Leaders and Members to join and unsubscribe from Club Forums.

Ride Resource Links

Ride Leader Best Practices SLOBC Visitor Waiver Ride Start Communication SLOBC Incident Report - Online Ride Start Locations Email SLOBC Ride Coordinator Email Safety Director Ride Ratings

 

Ride Coordinator Responsibilities

The Ride Coordinator’s name and contact information will be published with the ride information on the club website. All Ride Coordinators are automatically part of the Ride Coordinators committee.

Weekly & Monthly Ride Coordinator Responsibilities

A Weekly or Monthly Ride Coordinator is a club member who volunteers to organize a ride event that occurs every week or on a designated day each month.

  • Design the ride or ride series in consultation with the SLOBC Ride Coordinator (slobc-ride-coordinator@slobc.org).
  • Make decisions about the Day, Location, Destination, Route, Distance, Ride Rating, etc. to define and describe the ride series.
  • Respond to questions about the ride series
  • Facilitate discussion concerning ride changes with regular participants
  • Keep information published on the SLOBC Public website up to date. Send updates to slobc-ride-coordinator@slobc.org and webmaster@slobc.org.
  • Be or recruit a Ride Leader for each ride, or each sub-group on each ride
  • If it is not possible to find someone to lead a given ride, the Ride Coordinator may publish or announce it as a Participant Led Ride. This means that the riders will collectively fulfill a Ride Leader's responsibilities.
  • Join the Ride's forum as a moderator
  • Communicate ride information to members through the Ride's Forum
  • Communicate information provided by the SLOBC Ride Coordinator, Safety Director, President or Board to riders at the beginning of your next ride.
  • Email any current road hazards or upcoming road work to safety@slobc.org.
  • Provide a record of who has led rides to the SLOBC Ride Coordinator at the end of each calendar year.

Annual Ride Coordinator Responsibilities

An Annual Ride Coordinator is a club member who volunteers to organize a special ride event that occurs once a year.

  • Work with the SLOBC Ride Coordinator to develop the event's plan and budget.
  • Make decisions about the Day, Location, Destination, Route, Distance, Ride Rating, etc. to define and describe the ride.
  • Recruit other club members to assist in event planning and execution
  • Make reservations, purchase needed food and materials
  • Advertise the event through the Club's General forum and place basic information and links under Annual Rides.
  • Be or recruit a Ride Leader for each ride
  • Identify the Ride Leader Responsibilities applicable to the event.
  • Provide a record of who led the ride(s) to the SLOBC Ride Coordinator after the event.

 

Ride Leader Responsibilities

It is the policy of the San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club that all club rides have Ride Leaders. A Ride Leader is a club member that volunteers to lead a ride. A Ride Leader's name and contact information may be published in club communications.

  • Respond to questions about the ride
  • Know and follow applicable Ride Leader Best Practices
  • Plan or know the ride route. Refer to Joining RidewithGPS Group below.
  • Have first time Visitors/Non-Members fill out and submit the SLOBC Visitor Waiver. They should show the copy of the form they will be emailed to the Ride Leader at the start of the ride. Let them know they must join the SLOBC if they wish to ride with us again.
  • Join the Ride's forum
  • Communicate ride information to members through the Ride's Forum
  • Provide you cell phone number to riders
  • Lead the Ride Start Communication
  • Remind riders that they are responsible for modeling best Safety practices
  • Model "Best Practices" yourself
  • Insure that everyone is accounted for throughout the ride
  • Submit an SLOBC Incident Report - Online within 72-hours for any incident that occurs during a ride. "Minor" incidents mean bumps, bruises, road rash, etc. "Major" incidents mean police and/or EMS dispatched.
  • Install the American Red Cross First Aid Mobile App on your smart phone
  • Email any observed road hazards to safety@slobc.org.

 

Ride Management

Managing Forum Membership

As a Ride Coordinator you will be designated as a manager of your Ride's Forum and can review, add and remove members from your Forum. If a member is having problems joining your Forum, use the following process to add the member.

  • Go to the Member Home webpage. If you are not Logged In, do so and check “Remember me on this computer” assuming it is your computer.
  • Click on the Club Forums tab.
  • Click on your Weekly Ride Forum.
  • Click on the Members button. This is available only if you have been added as a forum manager. Send an email to webmaster@slobc.org to request manager status.
  • Check Show All Members and click the Search button. A list of all current members will be displayed.
  • Click the Add Member button.
  • Click the red Select Member link.
  • Enter the Last Name of the member you want to add and click the Search button. Note, only the names of active members can be found.
  • Highlight the desired name in the Search Results box and click the Select button.
  • Click the Save button. You will be returned to the membership list and the new person will be added.

Joining RWGPS

The SLOBC has a paid SLOBC CLUB group at RideWithGPS that provides access to RidewithGPS capabilities. For an SLOBC member to have access to the SLOBC RidewithGPS account, they must first have a free or paid RidewithGPS account. Once the member has setup their RidewithGPS account, the following process is used to give a member access.

  1. The Member must send an email to slobc-ride-coordinator@slobc.org requesting a link to join the SLOBC RidewithGPS account.
  2. The SLOBC Ride Coordinator will email the Member an Auto-Approve link to join the SLOBC RidewithGPS club account.
  3. The member must click on the Auto-Approve link and enter the same name and email address used for their personal RWGPS account. This will automatically assign the member Active level capabilities within the club account including access to club routes and turn-by-turn navigation and off line maps with the RidewithGPS app.
  4. The SLOBC Ride Coordinator will assign the appropriate access abilities to the member. If you are a club Ride Coordinator, Ride Leader or Event Organizer, you can be given Route Management abilities and be able to create, save and edit routes for your group within the club account.
  5. The next time a Member opens or logs into their personal RidewithGPS account they will see the club icon on their dashboard page. Click on the icon to access the club's page.
  6. Download and install the free RidewithGPS mobile app on your phone. Sign into the mobile app using the same credentials that you use for your personal RidewithGPS account. The app will provide access to all RidewithGPS functions including downloading and navigating routes.
  7. Learn more about Club Member Benefits here:
    https://ridewithgps.com/help/club-member-benefits

 

SLOBC Rides & Insurance

SLOBC Sanctioned Rides (club rides) are rides published on our public website and in the SLO Coaster. These rides are conducted for the benefit of club members. Leaders and club members participating in these rides must follow the best practices and guidelines as described on this and the Safety web pages. These documents define how sanctioned SLOBC rides are "conducted and supervised" in terms of our insurance.

Non-Members

Non-members/Visitors are welcome to take part in one Weekly Ride one time. To do this, they are asked to first contact the Ride's Coordinator to let them know they want to join the ride. Next they use the following link to submit an SLOBC Visitor Waiver. Third, visitors must show the Ride Leader the copy of their SLOBC Visitor Waiver that was emailed to them.

Note: The visitor may fill out and submit the waiver at the ride's start if they not submitted it ahead of time.

Leaving the Ride

If someone or some group fails to adhere to the best practices and guidelines during a Sanctioned Ride (in effect leaving the ride), then the member or members who departed from the ride would not be covered by club insurance. This means that what is published about a ride and communicated by the ride leader at the beginning of a ride defines the parameters of that ride and deviating from this means that a rider or riders are leaving the ride and are no longer covered by club insurance.

Club Insurance

Our Club Liability insurance is for General Liability and protects the club and individual from third party claims. For example, our insurance covers a member and the Club if he or she hits a pedestrian or damages someone’s personal property while on a Club sanctioned ride and is sued. See Membership Benefits for additional information.

Email the club's Insurance Coordinator at insurance@slobc.org if you have questions.

 

Ride Leaders Lunch

Each year the club sponsors a lunch to acknowledge the volunteers that have coordinated and led club rides.

Lunch Eligibility

  • All Weekly, Monthly and Annual Ride Coordinators are eligible to attend the annual Ride Leaders Lunch.
  • All Ride Leaders that have led a minimum of three (3) and preferably six (6) rides during a calendar year are eligible to attend the annual Ride Leaders Lunch.