Below is a list of the nominees for CRCA's 2018 Board and their personal statements:
PRESIDENT
Gabby Fisher
"This will be my second year running for CRCA President and the opportunity to continue to improve upon operational traction gained this past year. Much of the Board's efforts in 2017 focused on looking under the hood at existing processes, an exercise which exposed gaps specifically around overall race procedures as well as alignment with external stakeholders.
While we made strides in documentation and general approach to open + club racing, there is still room for improvement as evidenced by the main priorities from the 2017 CRCA member survey pain points:
- Registration
- Scoring/results
- Marshaling
- CRCA site usability
- Improved alignment and collaboration with CPC + NYC Parks
- Increased engagement within the CRCA community
From a process perspective, my intention for 2018 is to bring the above to a scalable and sustainable fix so that future Board teams can continue to improve upon 2018 wins.
From a larger perspective, at the end of the day our goal is to deliver a product which will engage + encourage members in CRCA participation, CRCA community involvement, and continue provide excellent racing opportunities to our members.
If we can achieve our goals for 2018, I feel confident that we can build a solid platform which will allow us to scale overall delivery, product optimization, and continued iteration around what it means to be part of the CRCA."
VP OF RIDER DEVELOPMENT
Tara Parsons
"I have been a CRCA member since 1997 and a CRCA coach since 2011. I was an active racer between 1995-2005, and a few years later I began coaching. I love bike racing, and I love helping others to love bike racing.
As a veteran educator and cyclist, this is a role that I am well qualified for. I know what the coaching program entails, including the administrative work behind it. I hope to continue to improve our program to help keep our racers succeeding.
Over the last two years I have expanded the CRCA coaching staff, allowing a variety of diverse coaching viewpoints to help our membership. CRCA’s commitment to learning through its coaching program is an important one, and one that makes our club stand out from others. It is important to me that we uphold this tradition of having safe and skilled racers as well as strong racers."
VP OF RACING
Julius Quito
"Thrown in the fire in 2017. In 2018, now with less "learning" and will focus on more "doing". I want to continue streamlining the operations of the races and continue the CRCA's mission statement: to provide a safe and fun racing program in New York."
SECRETARY
Matt Vandivort
"Much to the chagrin of my wife I have decided to run for the CRCA Board again. What can I say, I love the CRCA."
TREASURER
Ken Edwards
[Personal statement to come.]
VP OF COMMUNICATIONS
Dan Goldberg
"Having served as the Communications Director in 2017, I've learned a lot about both the role and the club in general. There's certainly a learning curve when it comes to working effectively across the board and communicating with the community, and I'm now better equipped to handle these responsibilities going into 2018. But I've gained more than just experience this year. I've also heard feedback from the community regarding what does and doesn't work, and have begun planning ways to improve these areas. Some identified opportunities: weekly club activity emails that contain all upcoming events for that week so you're not left waiting until the day before a race or sorting through one off emails about individual topics; regular newsletters addressing larger topics in the community; better coordination with race directors to share race results as quickly as we can. Of course, there's always more we can do to improve our communication and I'm open to hearing from club members. I look forward to having the chance to be a part of the board again next year."
Jose Cortez
"As a proud member of the CRCA cycling community, I am your candidate for Communications Director, a role that intersects with my profession.
I offer about 20 years of experience involving operations and communications, among other jurisdictions. I am excited about taking a fresh look at CRCA's communications protocols and making sure that that members can easily obtain/digest relevant content pre-race and post-race. In today's fast-moving world, communication is increasingly important, particularly to inspire existing members/teams and to motivate future members.
I am prepared to manage CRCA communications and will leverage my sub-team along the way, Fire Cycling Team. My team has been riding together for about 10 years and we participate in local events where we have witnessed the need for clear and consistent communication."
PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR
Jeff Young
"After a great 2017, I'm excited for the opportunity to return to the board in 2018. I plan to focus on continuing to develop relationships with our sponsors, donors, members and other stakeholders. I look forward to continuing to preserve and further develop the club's reputation in 2018."
MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR
Randy Locklair
""Hey everyone! My name is Randy Locklair, and I am the owner of hatchmap and Two Seconds Ahead (long live the Womens Development Series!) and your former membership director from 2015 and 2016. Not only do I missing helping you all with everything membership related in our NYC racing community, but, there was a lot I wanted to improve on with the membership signin/check-in system back in '16 but being a new dad got in the way. I'm ready to get back to work, and I hope you'll have me! Lets have fun together in 2018, and also make signup, checkin, upgrades, and number pickup even easier."
MARSHAL DIRECTOR
Tony Pletcher
"I am a cat 2 road and cx racer and have been racing since 2009. Originally from Seattle, I moved to NYC in 2015 and have been a member of the CRCA since then. I hope to bring my love of Cycling into my running of my position on the board and strive to improve the working of the CRCA to enhance operations and make racing better for everyone in the club.
TEAMS
Lucia Deng
"Having served as Communications Director of CRCA for 3 years from 2013-2015, and as a board member of the New York State Bicycle Racing Association from 2014 to the present, as Women’s Rep and NYC rep, I bring a lot of relevant experience to the role of Director of Teams. I also have several years of experience, both as a member of a CRCA subteam, and as co-captain. Knowing what goes into running CRCA races and events, in combination with what goes into running a team, allows me to understand the obligations of both roles, and the pain points that both team managers and the CRCA board face with regard to team duties.
My primary objectives as Director of Teams will be to improve and streamline the team duty assignment process, focusing on the following:
1. Redistribute the current points system to make it as fair as possible among all teams, while still ensuring that CRCA events have adequate staffing to run successfully to relieve pressure from race staff and the CRCA board.
2. Improve transparency/communication with regard to the scope of what each team duty entails, and accurately disclose how much time/effort each task will require of a team, so that teams can plan ahead before committing to a task.
3. Explore the option of assigning certain team duty obligations to members of CRCA who are not affiliated with a subteam in order to more evenly distribute the volunteer effort and participation/inclusiveness among the broader CRCA community, and relieve some of the burden from teams.
4. Working with the entire CRCA board elect, especially the Directors of Open Racing and Club Racing, Director of Marshalls and Membership to coordinate the efforts described above in a way that makes sense and improves the club’s events overall and member satisfaction.
5. Representing and serving as liaison with the team managers both in terms of communicating important information from CRCA BoD to the Teams and communicating feedback back from the Teams to CRCA leadership.
With my prior experience on CRCA and in the broader racing community, I am uniquely qualified to make improvements to the club through this role, as well as serve as a resource to the Board more generally. I look forward to being able to serve the Club and its members again in this new capacity as Director of Teams."
OPEN RACING DIRECTOR
Ted Teyber
"Ted Teyber was CRCA's 2016 & 2017 Director of Open Racing and is excited to return for another year to continue to improve CRCA's open races and the experience of members. Ted's enthusiasm for cycling at all levels, as well as his experience as a land use and commercial real estate attorney provide an excellent tool-set for municipal and USAC permit applications, as well as promoting registration among regional racers. Growing up in Southern California, Ted’s entree to cycling was mountain biking, and he was on the University of California Santa Barbara’s MTB team as an undergraduate. Ted moved East for law school, and with the free time that became available upon graduating, became interested in road racing as an adrenaline substitute for the elevation and features of mountain biking the western states. In addition to being a member of CRCA, Ted is a contributing member of IMBA, Transportation Alternatives, and Rails to Trails."
