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their offspring, but HHYCC only takes riders up to 18. So far these
parents have looked at other local clubs, but under my plan They
would be suggested to consider joining the club (De Laune) that
is supporting their kids’ club.
While HHYCC is looking after their kids on a Saturday morning, the
parents could go out for a quick ride in De Laune colours. The
HHYCC committee is in support of the idea and one or two
committee members have already said they’d be interested in
joining a historic club like ours.
Why do I believe we need to spend our money in this way? Simply
because we’ve found it extremely hard to organise regular rides
for at least 20 years, and club runs are the main draw for any
new member. Now we have reached a point in our history, with an
elderly membership and a wide geographical spread, that we simply
can’t organise regular club runs any more to bring members in.
More or less the only thing we have left to use are our financial
assets.
Spending these on our existing membership is inward looking and
does nothing to attract new members, and besides which, we need
to be a little careful how we’d do that to keep our tax-exempt
status. So, being outward looking, and benefiting the local cycling
community is much more likely to give us extra visibility. Herne Hill
regulars are aware of De Laune thanks to our large banners at
Herne Hill, and the large grant we gave in 2017 is still being
mentioned at events, on the excellent PA system that it paid for.
An advert isn’t quite enough though – the selling point for any club
is to have activities! The plan is that these parents who join up
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