Thanks for putting out what happened at the meeting Loren.
I would like to clarify a few things to everyone.
The grant.
Originally I had contacted Rich Carolan about getting an approx. 5,000 grant for NBL NJBMX. This money was loosely outlined to be for the following:
PA system
promotional material
state awards.
Since this was in the planning stages as far as were the money would wind up, these original ideas were in “flux”.
The PA system will be a welcome addition to the program.
The laptop is needed to run the ~new nbl software~, (I shall leave that rant for another time as it is NOT the states fault that the nbl does things in a strange manner. Trust me there will be discussions on usb dongles and multiple point systems that add to confusion….later)
The rest of the awards are needed as well and Rich Farside was able to get a competitive bid from HRP designs on the 2007 plates to further save us money.
I had a defined amount set aside for promotional material, i.e: posters, flyers and bike hangers. I had felt that my lowest quotes were just a bit too much even with the grant. Lisa Heath volunteered up some information that Jeff’s brother could look into having the printing company he works for get these things made up at lower cost, to save us money. Some things occured and the material got put on the back burner and I will not lie, part of it was due to the lame response we got at the Jan 21st meeting concerning the grant.
Luckily Vinny was able to turn around popular board opinion and get this thing to happen.
And right here I have to say something everyone needs to hear.
This grant would not be happening if it was not for the riders and a couple of people who believe in what the riders can do. These riders are, myself, Rich Farside, Rich Carolan, and Bill Hayden. We spent a lot of time on the phone with Rich C to get him to realize this IS a cause worth contributing to. Scott Cranmer then proceeded to ask, why can we not accept the grant, Vinny volunteered to help the promotions committee… and here we are.
I will be contacting Lisa this weekend AND sending over the other quote I have for the posters and flyers. These will get done. We will promote BMX AND get the other things WE NEED.
As far as the letter concerning the volunteer of the year. Perhaps NJBMX would be better served by coming up with a way of having a “Rider of the Year” to encourage more riders to step up and help out. I cause waves because I stir the pot and look for ways to better our sport not ourselves, which is why I gave awards to people I looked to outside what I was doing. The intent was not to make Janeen decline the award but to make NJBMX think how better to go about serving the sport.
That is, in effect what an all volunteer organization does, serve that which it says it promotes.
I have a few final things to say on all this.
As of right now, we still have no status on the website for NJBMX, as far as I am concerned, I had the site ready to go. It has been taken down and the old standard has been put back in, all of our question and answer sessions are gone. Since I take that as no one would like to confront the issue of the website, I will no longer worry about the status of it. I would also ask that no more official news be posted here on NJBMX. If NJBMX would like to have an “official” forum on this site, I will be more than happy to oblige that, UNDER the condition that it is moderated by Loren Hamblin, Bill Hayden, Anthony Brown and Chris Vliet. So that people from ALL THREE TRACKS can post on a NEWS AND OPINION site. From this point forward any posts concerning NJBMX will be removed from here, this is not done as a snub but to push people in the CORRECT direction to get the information on NJBMX.
I have also realized that I have split my time between too many things.
I cannot continue dealing with state issues as it takes an inordinate amount of time to make things happen, beurocracy and all that. This is not a complaint so much as the reality of dealing with situations like this.
I have the following on my plate right now:
* CJBMX promotions and volunteering
* BMXDemos.com, a venture with George Hoernig and Dave Pawlowski (edit) to get “the word out” via BMX demos. (I will NEED a flyer from NJBMX to hand out at these events, Vinny, Ant and myself will work on this as part of the promotions committee.)
* Helping several people from this board open new tracks in NJ.
* I will be talking with Ant-Dog on speaking with the woman from the Rec Dept in Lumberton on how their town is dealing with this new “practice track” in hopes that we can get something going like that in Brick.
All of these things I have just mentioned seem to be happening with no drama and very smoothly. My workings with the njbmx state, I can say have not been so smooth up until Vinny took hold of this grant situation.
I will say with Scott and Vinny as the two top guys in NJBMX right now, their future looks pretty bright.
That’s all I have to say on the matter of NJBMX right now. I will be asking Super Resz, (he’s the guy who’s the father of that crazy micro jumper Michael Reszkowski) for an officials license this spring. Which means that a few riders will be coming up to be elegible for positions in NBL NJBMX in the coming years.
Things change, just takes time and perserverance.
Think about where you are now, dream about where you could be and of course,
there is no spoon.