Western PA Bicycle Club – Q2 Board Meeting
April 13, 2025 – Southern Tier Brewing
Attendees: President Jim Logan, VP Robin Woods, Treasurer Al Gaburri, Board member Dan Blumenfeld. Dan complimented all parties for arriving early.
Meeting called to order 3:58 PM
Meeting Notes
President’s Report: Jim reported a pleasant social with the ride leaders at OTB in the South Hills in January. Ride leaders Kris Moser, Paul McKeown, and Jason McCullough, as well as Jim, Robin, and Dan all attended. At a brief 5 minute membership meeting, we affirmed officers for the year, with Robin self-nominating as VP. Congratulations Robin!
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Al reports that across all accounts we have approximately $13,119. Additionally, due to his active management of our CDs, the club earned over $400 in interest last year. He also reported that he closed the club PO box which is no longer used to save money. Thanks Al!
- As a follow-up. Robin encouraged having a second person authorized with PNC bank to transact business for the club. In June Al next visits a PNC branch to renew our CDs. Robin will accompany, and they will work to remedy this.
- Separately, Al reports he still faithfully files the IRS 990N postcard annually, to maintain our good non-profit standing with the IRS. Jim reports he filed the new-for-2025 annual non-profit corporation report to Pennsylvania. Also, perhaps 5 years ago, Jim changed the address on file with Pennsylvania to his house, so we are aware of any official correspondence.
Ride group updates:
- Kris Moser has announced plans for the Cecil rides in 2025, starting in late April. He also had the club share an invite for new riders to join the Cecil group.
- Team Decaf started riding 2 weeks ago. Robin has become involved leading monthly C rides.
- RBA Dan reports the Randonneurs are riding with an active schedule: https://pittsburghrandonneurs.com/events/
Ride of Silence: Robin is coordinating the Ride of Silence with cooperation from Bike Pittsburgh. She is still negotiating with Seth on a safe route that visits several ghost bikes and memorials.
Rough Diamond Century: Dave Lusher and Jim Logan both declined active leadership of the Rough Diamond Century (RDC) for 2025, while both are open to supporting roles. We announced the same in the RDC Facebook group. Jeremiah Sullivan expressed interest that the “unclub” ride group Unison lead the event this year. Jim and Jeremiah had a pleasant meeting, and he is conferring with his compatriots in the Unison ride group on taking on the RDC for this year. Jim also gently proposed that if their ride group has any interest in non-profit status, ride insurance, and bank accounts, the WPABC is here to help support such ride groups.
Club Picnic: The board has fond memories of our 2024 picnic in Saltsburg arranged by Dave Lusher in coordination with the Rough Diamond Century. Thank you Dave! However, we agree that it is time for the board to stop trying to “force” a picnic without stronger ride group and member support. So plan A for this year is that if either (or both) ride groups (Team Decaf or Cecil) plan to have a picnic, the board will support them. After meeting note: Both groups do have quiet socials within their groups already, which is dandy and the board cheers them on.
Connellsville Weekend as a Fall Rally: Dan cheered Jim’s thought that we turn a nominal overnight to Connellsville on the GAP into a club event, and Dan volunteered to help Jim coordinate/execute. What is shaping up:
- Date is weekend after Labor Day – September 6-7. i.e. the weekend of the old League of America Wheelmen century day and the WPW Fall Rally.
- People make their own reservations at the Comfort Inn in Connellsville (or elsewhere, if they choose).
Riding options:
- Outbound 100 km Pittsburgh to Connellsville on Saturday. 100 km return on Sunday (or people arrange their own transportation back).
- If people want a century option, they can add a loop to Ohiopyle and back on either or both days. Stopping at Ohiopyle at mile 80 for dinner or a snack does make a nice day and you can catch the Ohiopyle mountain town vibe.
- People can drive to Connellsville and do base camp rides on the trails. These people can maybe also help SAG overnight bags.
- We’ll have a modest happy hour at the Comfort Inn, with whatever we can source from the Connellsville Sheetz. Or perhaps a trip to the Yough Brewing Co.
- Meals are informally rather than formally planned at Connellsville restaurants.
- The Pittsburgh Randonneurs happen to have a 100 km Populaire scheduled for 9/6. They may coincidentally ride the same route that day, without of course coordinating with the club event on the GAP in any way (per RUSA rules). Note that there is an existing 100 km Permanent for PGH – Connellsville as well. So miles back can be RUSA miles as well.
Website: We had a bit of a website crisis, but webmaster Jim was able to resolve it with some timely help from Dan. Robin indicated that there may be another volunteer to help.
Membership “Reminders”: Robin brought up the club should be more pro-active promoting memberships, as all participating in the club insurance policy protects all parties (ride leaders, board, and members themselves) from liability lawsuits. Actions discussed:
- Dan is looking for a friendlier membership management plugin for WordPress than what Jim adopted 5 years ago.
- Robin proposed we proactively reach out to active 2024 Team Decaf riders that are not current club members. Steps to do this:
- Slice and dice the 2024 Team Decaf waiver sign-ins to get a list of who rode in 2024 and how many times. (For example, by a fancy Excel pivot table).
- We cross reference that with current active members (For example, as a VLOOKUP into Excel spreadsheet of current members).
- We do a mail-merge to the resulting parties to email encouraging membership.
Jim will do a draft to share on such a letter. - Note that we do have an under utilized club email account – ri********@*********ub.com, for such activities.
New Business: Robin reported she plans to move Woman@Work rides in 2026 from the Women @ Work insurance policy to the WPABC insurance policy. Jim encouraged Robin to keep the Women@Work branding if she sees fit but do it with the small print: “Women@Work, an activity of the WPABC. We did the same with the Pittsburgh Randonneurs when they used the club’s LAB insurance.
Meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM
Respectfully submitted,
President Jim
Ride with Us!
Western Pennsylvania Bicycle Club (Wheelmen)
ri********@*********ub.com
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