Welcome to the 2020 Riding Season!
Greetings GLR members, past and present!
First, we all hope you have had a good winter and are ready to ride. While brevets might be far from your minds in the middle of January, the RBA and the board literally never stop. We've been busy all this time. Our new GLR kit will be coming out soon. Super excited about it. We can all show our colors. 
Our official Chicago opener is May 2 (ACP), but we will be having a number of events starting March 21st in Whitewater, a new start in Le Claire, Iowa on April 4 and 18, our gravel weekend in Oregon on May 9, and a Memorial Day Fleche/Dart. See the calendar for details and sign up early - it helps to know who's coming early.
There are some changes for sure.
First off, I have added some advice on the website for the current pandemic situation. Please review here Riding a Healthy Ride. While there are major concerns, we can still enjoy our sport and perhaps become more conscientious riders long term.
Second, we need volunteers to make our rides happen. So far Robert Booth, Brian Lewis-Jones and Ted Fay who have all made contributions (as well as our board). You don't have to do major things to help make rides happen. Offering to do the following will get way more rides on the calendar.
1. Pre-drive a route and report on the conditions! This is SO helpful since Wisconsin has had so many pavement issues. Almost every major accident GLR has had in the last 4 years has been because of pavement problems. We need eyes on the road in advance. It takes an afternoon to drive a 200k. Even doing a high risk part of a ride helps a ton.
2. Volunteer at the start! All you have to do is come early, say hi to everyone and help others get paperwork finished and bikes checked. Maybe pick up the bananas the night before? This is really helpful.
3. If you aren't riding, volunteer to be on call to do SAG. We have few sag requests, but they really help the safety of our ride and help our insurance situation. In all liklihood, you won't have to do anything, but it helps the whole club
4. RUSA is being forced to impose a new fee of $5 for every rider. We are keeping our fees flat and not increasing them. We broke even last year so this will be a stretch. Our club room is the biggest expense we have. If you have space for the RBA the night before rides, that will offset fees for about 20-30 riders.
5. Want to design and run your own ride. Totally awesome. Just contact Michele and think about volunteering at the start of another ride to get your feet wet.
Contact Michele if you even have a few hours. We will be posting a job list shortly so that you can get an idea of what needs to be done.
Third, we need advertising! Talk up our rides, put up a flyer at your LBS. Share with Facebook friends. This is a club about camaraderie. One of the reasons that randonneuring has the no support between controls is that your fellow riders ARE your support, the more people the better the ride. You will find all kinds of fun and interesting people on our rides. Don't be afraid to just come out and ride, however long it is.
GLR will be expanding its own awards program this year. Look for the return of "Best Picture", "Queen of the 200k" and Volunteer of the Year. All GLR awards are in concert with our values of Camaraderie and Perserverence. They will be a little different every year and will be announced at the closer. You never know what you might be awarded with!
This is a great club. It's so awesome that I drive 20,000 miles a year to be a part of it. And it's worth every minute.
Major thanks to our board too when you see them. Kingston Smith, Regina Schurman, Mike Welsh and Mike Hauptman all deserve thanks whenever you see them.
See you soon!
Michele
RBA [AT] greatlakesrando [DOT] org