This came from Marcus by way of another forum; however, it's important enough to post here. If you are involved or interested in racing or volunteering at the Ed Rudolph velodrome in Northbrook next year, please try and attend the first off-season meeting this Thursday, October 16, 2008, at 7:00pm at the Village Green facility of the Northbrook Park District.

Here's the message from Marcus..

Hi Everyone,
I hope you enjoyed your Summer! Yes, it's getting chilly, but we're entering the time when the groundwork for next season is laid. Chicago has a lot of new teams and racers and I'm hoping you can forward this request to your respective teams and others who might not be included in the above list of names/emails.

Chicago has been having a Renaissance of cycling as of late and I'm encouraging inner-city based teams to send representation to the NCC on a regular basis. The Northbrook Cycle Committee is having their first meeting of the off season next week- the 16th of October; I'm trying to encourage new people and local teams to get involved behind the scenes.

There are a number of factors to encourage our participation:
- It's a good policy to have at least one member of each team present at the NCC monthly meetings.
- Over 50% of the Thursday racers at Northbrook are City of Chicago residents yet only a couple attend meetings.
- Without Chicago representation at the meetings, it's possible for the NCC to loose track of our special needs.
- If changes to programming, race scheduling, category needs, etc. are to be made before next season, action needs to take place without delay.
- The NCC is grossly understaffed and any influx of early volunteers/support will be beneficial for the organization.
- Elections of next years' officers is right around the corner- runners announced by November, voting in December. Everyone attending the meeting gets to vote!
I'm not necessarily trying to get you or one of your teammates to run for a position, but I would be ecstatic if you did. Either way, City residents' input at the NCC meetings is very valuable and irreplaceable. And just so you know- the current president is stepping down and a couple of other positions have been vacant all year...

As far as being qualified to take part in the NCC? It's like when you started racing at the track- you had to take that first step some time, and the clock is ticking.

And maybe another point to add to the above list:
- Chicago needs people who know how to run a successful velodrome program... Before you know it- we'll have a velodrome of our own and we'll need people to run it!

CAR POOL to the meeting: [...] Another resource for car pooling to the meeting is Luke's car pool page: http://www.chicagobikeracing.com/index.php/rideboard

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-Marcus Moore-
Yojimbo's Garage