Members: The 2020 CRCA Board of Directors nomination period has ended. By early next week, you should receive an e-mail from our online election service to cast your vote. Further instructions will follow on that. In the meantime, the 2020 Candidate Statements are provided below:
President
Lucia Deng
After careful consideration, I’ve decided to return for a second year as CRCA President. I have learned a lot this past year, have enjoyed talking to many of you and hearing your feedback (much of which was positive!), and have worked hard with fellow Board members to make CRCA a better club for our members and the greater cycling community, while trying to keep it sustainable. 2020 will be my 10th year as a CRCA member, and if elected, my 6th year serving on the Board.
We expect many returning Board members this year as well as a few new folks. This is a great mix that will allow us to hit the ground running to make some changes that we’ve been brainstorming over the past year, as well as have fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to tackle our projects.
As many of you may be aware, USAC and NYSBRA will be undergoing significant changes in the near term. I am still in the information gathering process — trying to grasp the scope of impact these changes will have on CRCA and the NYC racing community. I am committed to being the best advocate I can for CRCA through this transition. As always, my goal is to make CRCA operations as transparent as possible, move us toward progress, inclusion and community building, and with the support of the rest of the Board of Directors, staff and all of you - our army of volunteers - I aim to help CRCA achieve yet another successful season of bike racing in NYC.
VP Rider Dev
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 three years I have expanded the CRCA coaching program to include guest coaches both from the experienced racers of the CRCA and from further afield, 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 Racing
Kevin Hsieh
After a season of learning what it takes to run club races in Central Park, I hope to continue to do so while introducing ways to improve on the strong base that we built last year. Now that the logistics are mostly in place, I'd love to focus on improving consistency of our start times, primarily focusing on improving our marshall deployment. I would love to drive more engagement in our races by focusing more on the series' leaders competitions and also introducing a sprint competition. I'd also like to improve our riders' experience after the race with more consistent podium ceremonies that will highlight the effort that our racers' put in over the course of the season. I also promise that every water fountain in Central Park will dispense SIS hydration mix. #scienceinsport #ad
Open Racing
Alexander Klafehn
Hey! I’m Alex; I’m a Brooklyn-based rider on NYCC Racing with four competitive seasons on my legs. Since I started riding regularly eight years ago, I’ve become a daily bike commuter, worked as a bike messenger through my first NYC winter, raced at the Kissena velodrome, volunteered with Transportation Alternatives, and I’m now entering my third year as a leader for NYCC’s A-Classic SIG program, a three month intensive training program. Every group I’ve been privileged enough to have been a part of has their own unique culture & qualities, providing a rich set of experiences that have made me grow as a better cyclist. I am interested in continuing to give back to the cycling community by being a part of the CRCA Board of Directors.
For the 2020 CRCA open racing season, my goals as a part of the CRCA BOD will be to:
Continue the tradition from past seasons of developing races to be more inclusive & supportive for the groups most critical for growing our sport: juniors, women, and beginner racers;
Create coalitions with other organizations & clubs to help cross-promote and share cycling with others;
Look at other successful races from other promoters and similar sports for inspiration on how to create more engaging & higher production quality events.
The product of these three goals is to build upon the successes of previous seasons by providing an increasingly diverse race schedule & calendar, and further grow the NYC racing scene as a whole. I look forward to the chance to create new opportunities for others just as bike racing has done for me.
Communications
Elizabeth Tobey
After stepping into the Director of Communications role for CRCA's 2019 year, I have learned a lot about the organization and have met many of the members on our sub-teams across all different categories, which will be a huge advantage so that I can dig in and get to work increasing membership and improving our channels next year. I started racing two years ago and CRCA’s Women’s Development series was crucial to my success. CRCA opened the door not just to racing, but to my team, KruisCX, where i am now the womxn’s team manager. I want to continue to give back to this community and help others have those same kinds of amazing experiences.
In my “day job”, I have run marketing and communications departments for tech, video game, and social media companies, giving me the skills we need to grow the membership and engagement in 2020.
Next year, I will to continue my work promoting the club and celebrating our membership's achievement throughout the season. I'll focus not just on races but also the skills, clinics, and events with guest coaches that we offer to members. I want to spend time creating content that helps grow our membership, specifically around women/trans/femme and developing riders who can benefit greatly from the wealth of experience the members of CRCA bring. I would like to make our website experience more streamlined and straightforward to newcomers and regulars alike and create a hub for members to visit regularly, improve communications on our social channels to interact more with the community and source images and stories directly from racers, and tell more specific stories about the journeys of individuals and sub-teams throughout the year.
Emily Singleton
Hi! I've been an active racing member of CRCA with Rockstar Games for 6 seasons now, and I would love the opportunity to give back to the organization that has taught me so much about racing and myself. My background is in journalism and communications, and my narrative personal Instagram stories are a joy for all.
Communication is essential to attracting and retaining members. In 2020, I will work to increase member social engagement and encourage new and different voices for website content. There’s currently plenty of room for recurring features, rider or team profiles, and general reminders why we all wake up before dawn to ride in circles. I am organized and detail-obsessed, and I believe my experience and collaborative nature would be an asset to the board as a whole. If you are interested in learning more about the quality of my work, please review my referenced Instagram stories. Thank you for your consideration!
Public Relations
Jeff Young
Statement to be provided.
Secretary
travis torsky
I have been racing bikes with CRCA for the last 3 years and I love the community it provides and the experience of having a local race series in Central Park. As an avid NYC cyclist and long time manager of a bike store I would be able to provide a great skill set that can help grow the club and provide its members with a great experience in 2020.
Membership
Randy Locklair
Statement to be provided.
Marshaling
Robert Sullivan
I have been racing with the CRCA for 3 seasons, starting the 4th in 2020. Last season I raced with the Rapha Cycling Club racing team and managed all of our interactions with the CRCA, as well as our assignments and various issues that arose. After the season some of us broke off from RCC and started a new team G4D Productions Racing. Prior to racing I completed triathlons, and marathons, so have been endurance sports pretty much my whole life.
In real life I work for TD Ameritrade managing a team of 10 people. We support computer infrastructure that our trading platforms run on. It’s a challenging job, but very rewarding.
I feel like I have the management experience mixed with experience racing and managing teams to be able to make a great contribution to the board to help move the CRCA forward.
john d’agostino
Hi All,
Given my experience assisting Tony Pletcher, previous Marshaling director, towards the end of last season, I believe I will be a good fit for this position. During this span, I helped run the morning check-in and marshal location process, quantify any additional marshal needs, and report tallies to the parks department before the start of races. Through this experience, I have seen the challenges this position faces, such as low marshal attendance late in the season, marshals not reporting on time, or the reliance on a select few to meet the marshal quota for the parks department. As Marshaling director, my main focus will be to maintain the safety of the racers while meeting park requirements, both of equal importance. I believe this position requires a strong focus, a fresh set of eyes, and high level of accountability.
So you know a little about myself - I have been working in the finance industry for 10+ years and currently work as a senior manager at a “Big 4” accounting firm, where some of my primary responsibilities include managing teams and client relationships. I also served as President of the Syracuse University MBA Class of 2012, which gave me experience serving the needs and goals of a constituency.
In regards to cycling, it is a huge passion of mine and I love the tight knit community that exists in NYC due to the hard work and efforts of CRCA. I want to be more involved in the Club so that we can continue to grow the sport and share the sense of community that we are all attracted to. I started cycling in 2013 as a way to stay fit while giving my surgically repaired knee a break from the pounding pavement that came with running. I quickly fell in love and have been racing CRCA for 6 seasons and in the road offseason, you can find me racing cyclocross up and down the East Coast. Suffice to say, I love the sport and want to be more involved.
I appreciate your vote and I’m always happy to answer any questions.
Treasurer
MitchelL napolitano
After two seasons racing with CRCA, I took over as Treasurer from Ken Edwards in 2019. I spent the 2019 season getting up to speed on all things CRCA. Through my experience as Treasurer I have mastered the various tools used by my predecessors to manage the clubs finances, and expanded on the toolkit used for payments and billing. I was responsible for managing the clubs overall budget, handing out prize money, and paying the many contractors and vendors that help make races happen. Managing the accounting for reimbursements, USAC officials, Central Park Conservancy, marshalls, etc took up a large chunk of the operational time of the position. At the conclusion of the 2019 season, I spent time reconciling the books, filing 2018 taxes for the club, prepping for the 2019 filing, and drafting a 2020 budget. I also worked to migrate the club to QuickBooks for increased transparency, traceability and tracking.
I am seeking reelection to the CRCA Board of Directors in 2020 as Treasurer. I am looking forward to continuing to serve the cycling community of New York City and specifically our CRCA members. In 2020 I plan to focus on further digitizing CRCA’s financial accounting, create a source of recurring revenue outside of membership/sponsors, and expand the CRCA's digital footprint for payments e.g. PayPal.
I earned a Bachelor of Science from Georgia Tech in Civil Engineering. I gained financial management experience through work at a Big Four consulting firm. I later got an MBA from Cornell University. I am now a Product Manager at an insurtech company here in New York City. Cycling is my passion, and I have truly enjoyed the sense of community cycling has provided.
With your vote, I look forward to returning to the board to help our club flourish.
Teams
Sean Hill
Writing this on the tail end of my first term as Director of Team for CRCA. It was quite a year for the club, the position and for me personally. It took me a while to get ground, but grew into it as the run up to this past season went on.
I enjoyed my tenure in 2019 and am putting my name in for a second term. What I can bring to the position in 2020, are my experience and knowledge of this past year as well as expanding some of the things I worked this past year.
I spent part of my time this past season, trying to increase engagement and visibility of our teams on social media channels, mainly through Instagram. This is something I would like to expand next year and increase next year. We grew our Instagram followers by rough 500 from the beginning of the 2019 season to now. Increased followership benefits not just the club but it’s teams and their sponsors as well. Additionally, working with the Director of Membership I would like to find a way to increase off race and off bike events with teams in 2020.
Personally I’ll say that volunteerism and community involvement are values which are extremely important to me. It’s been an honor to get to fulfill both of them through this board position in 2019 and hope to continue doing so in 2020.
