[Nfb-idaho] bike ride figures and meeting

[Ramona Walhof]

The best date for a wrap-up meeting for this year's Cycle for Independence 
is this Monday evening.  My house at 6:00 or 7:00 p.m..  Let me know if you 
want to come what time is best.

Now for what happened in figures.  You already know what the ride was like. 
79 people registered the day of the ride.  265 registered online through 
Blue Circle Sports.  69 registered for the ten-mile ride with only 4 
no-shows.  173 riders registered altogether for the 25-mile route with 23 
no-shows.  247 riders registered for the metric century with 23 no-shows. 
Some of the no-shows actually came to registration and picked up their socks 
but did not ride.  A few people rode a shorter route from the one that was 
on the maps.  That gives us a total of 489 people who rode and/or 
registered.  We believe that 439 people actually rode at least part of their 
routes.  These numbers are very close, but cannot be absolutely perfect 
because there are always a few peculiarities.  I could give you examples at 
the meeting if you want to hear them.

Given the weather and the slow start to register, I think this is an amazing 
record.  We have never had this many people registered before!

Next year will be my last year to chair the ride, so we will start making 
some changes soon.

We do have a lot of good pictures.  If I can get enough help, I will try to 
label them, so that we can send many of them too those who would most like 
to see them. We have good pictures of several well-known people on tandems.

 I had a call about a week before the ride from a company that wanted to 
come and take pictures, so they could entice riders to go to their Web Site. 
We should discuss whether we want this kind of thing.  I told him he had to 
get rider's permission before he could use them on his Web Site, so he 
didn't come.

We estimated very well for socks and food, but I think we ran out of goody 
bags.  I think we had more press this year than ever before, but we still 
can improve this area.  The thing that impresses me most is how few 
complaints we get.  We had about 65 volunteers, and all of them worked 
wonderfully, even though many were wet and cold.

Mary is working on thank you letters, but I may need more help to finish 
them, because she is leaving town for a couple of months next week.  I would 
like to get them sent to team captains.  We don't have email addresses for a 
lot of riders or we might try to send thankyous to all riders.  They are 
really what makes this the success it has become.

I particularly want to thank all the people who helped on the Steering 
Committee.  You all are essential to making this happen! I very much 
appreciate what you do!

Ramona