Bike the Bay - San Diego Century
Paul
ride which is billed as a fundraiser for SDCBC.
http://sandiegocentury.eventmediainc.com/free-bike-shorts-with-registration-until-228/
I rode this last year, it was a disaster, the SAG stops had little but
peanut butter and sugar cookies, one stop was filling jugs with hose
water then filling water bottles from the jugs. Only 3 porta potties
at the first SAG, over a half hour wait to micturate. This was
supposed to be a fundraiser for SDCBC, Kathy was all alone at the end
with a few flyers begging for contributions, the after ride was
dismal. How much of his profits did Jim Curl donate to SDCBC? I
suspect it was $0.00.
I am a member of the City of Oceanside Bicycle Committee, we had Jim
Curl (the owner of the San Diego Century) produce a 'fundraiser'
called Bike the Coast for us last fall. Kathy Keenan arranged the ride
as a fundraiser for SDCBC. Kathy had beer donated by the Oceanside
Brewery and she sold $1,440.00 worth of beer at the after ride. When
our committee met to review the success of our endever we asked Jim
Curl how much money was collected and how much would SDCBC receive
from the proceeds, he replied that all financial information was
'proprietary' and the SDCBC gets nada! The City of Oceanside waived
permit fees, provided staff time for free and brought in vendors to
further enrich Mr. Curl. Our committee members and members of the
North County Cycle Club (a SDCBC partner) donated a lot of volunteer
time to the event.
Needless to say I am recommending all cyclists boycott any and all
events owned or associated with Jim Curl. The San Diego Century
probably is not a legitimate fundraiser for SDCBC and the Coalition
board should immediately request that unless Mr. Curl fully opens his
books and fairly shares his profits, he remove all mention of SDCBC
from all his advertising and any web presence.
Kathy Keehan
that need to be corrected.
Last year the Coalition was the benefit partner for Bike the Bay, our major
fundraiser of the year, and for Bike the Coast, the first year Oceanside
event.
This year the Coalition has agreed to be the benefit partner for San Diego
Century as well. We were not the benefit partner for SD Century last year. I
didn't ride the ride last year, so I can't comment on the ride itself. But
our agreement last year was that the ride allow the Coalition to have a
booth at the end of the event, where we could talk to riders. We did have
that.
I think your discussion below of Bike the Coast is very unfair to Event
Media and Jim Curl and his staff who put on the ride. They did all the work
for putting on the ride. Everything from getting the permission of the local
cities to have the ride go through to running registration and the website
to getting sag supplies to providing insurance, support, and all the other
hundreds of jobs that it takes to put on a successful ride. As many of the
people on this list know from their involvement in Bike the Bay, a
tremendous amount of work goes into putting on a successful ride. I think by
all accounts Bike the Coast was a very successful first year ride and
brought a lot of people to ride in Oceanside who otherwise wouldn't have
been there.
The Coalition received a donation of ~$1400 for Bike the Coast, along with a
separate $300 (I think - could be $350, I would have to check the records)
donation earmarked for helmets for Oceanside Bicycle Committee to
distribute. Event Media solicited the beer donation, covered the cost of
extra security for the beer garden, and provided us the space to run the
beer garden. They lived up to every obligation they had to the Coalition and
to the Oceanside Bicycle Committee to share the proceeds of the beer sales
and a per-rider donation to the Coalition. Event Media donated all the We
were very pleased how the ride went and our financial and PR participation.
Event Media's business is running bicycling events. As a private business,
they are under no obligation to open their business's financials to the
public or in a public forum. It would provide his competitors an unfair
advantage if they could see that. I can reiterate that Jim lived up to every
agreement we made with him regarding Bike the Coast.
I'm no longer the executive director of the Coalition, but when I was I was
pleased to have a good relationship with Event Media, Jim Curl and his
rides. They are a good and honest business.
Kathy
http://sandiegocentury.eventmediainc.com/free-bike-shorts-with-registration-
until-228/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to "SDCBC-Open-Forum"
group. Opinions expressed here should not be considered as having been
endorsed by SDCBC.
See the Acceptable Use Policy in the Files section.
To post to this group, send email to sdcbc-op...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sdcbc-open-forum?hl=en
Paul
Event Media did a lot of work and was well rewarded for it.
I am happy to see that Jim did eventually cough up a few dollars for
bike helmets. You were at the post ride meeting where he refused to
even tell us whether or not the ride broke even. There was no donation
for helmets at that time, he would have pocketed all the money had
Kathryn and Art not spoke out and suggested a donation for helmets
would be appropriate. A few of us did some research and we estimate he
made $30,000.00 or so in profit. You were given a corner and allowed
keep the money from the beer sales, big deal! The beer garden brought
in much more in revenue than the cost of extra security etc. many more
riders stayed and spent money at the booths because there was a cold
beer available at the end of their ride. Jim promotes his events as
fundraisers and implies to us who volunteer that the registration
proceeds will be be fairly shared with the charity, not so.
Bike the Coast had a short family oriented section along the San Luis
Rey River Bike Trail. I swept that section and it was very well
organized, the SAGs had great food, Howard and Pete took good care of
mechanical issues, everyone I met told me they were loving the ride.
The bike parking/valet area was great, Mark Castro of Omega Bikes got
all bikes fixed and safe, the after ride party and food was great,
kudos to all those who worked so hard to pull it off. I just wish Jim
Curl had a better sense of community and practiced what he preaches.
There are other organizers who do return much more to the community.
It is high time to give Mr. Curl some competition and request bids
from other organizers to run our future fundraising events. Yes I know
Curl owns the names, we can easily give our events a different name
with no loss of participants.
I fully support honestly advertised events which bring out more
cyclists in Oceanside and North County.
I do not condone trickery and slight of hand by event organizers to
receive favorable tax outcomes, free public services, volunteers and
participants who sign up under the impression that their efforts and
money will be contributed in a significant part to the cause that the
promoter claims to be raising funds for. Until such time as any
organizer actually delivers a reasonable share of the event profits to
the cause he claims to be fundraising for, I cannot support their
ventures.
I feel honor bound to advise others to boycott such falsely promoted
events. Should Jim Curl be honest and drop the his token 'fundraiser'
scam, admit that his events are in reality no more than for profit and
pay the going rate for services rendered, then I will encourage others
to attend his events. Jim's other option is to actually deliver
substantial funds to a non profit entity, he did not so much as offer
to buy one child's bike helmet for our committee, he was shamed into
that 'donation'.
It is high time we stop squandering public resources for the benefit
of profiteers.
Howard
The Oceanside Bicycle Committee was formed by the City Council in 2007
to encourage cycling for recreation and transportation. One of our
goals last year was to promote an Oceanside “Signature” cycling event
that would carter to both experienced and novice riders. The
committee spoke to different promoters and selected Jim Curl who also
puts on the yearly San Diego Century. The event was a tremendous
success with not only a greater turn-out than expected but with the
after ride expo with local food vendors. The event was never
intended to be a money maker for our committee. The committee’s goal
was to help promote and support the event to get people on bikes. We
feel we exceeded our expectations and look forward in making the 2011
event better and have a greater number of riders.
Paul, as a member of the Oceanside Bicycle Committee, you have ever
right to express your views but you need to recognize that you do not
speak on behalf of the committee and defame Jim Curl. Jim helped our
committee obtain our goal and did it in a matter that I was proud. I
received numerous comments from riders that stated the event was one
of the best organized and fun rides they had been on.
Howard LaGrange
Co-Chair of the Oceanside Bicycle Committee
On Feb 19, 6:18 pm, Paul <jpnev...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is Bike the Bay the only SDCBC fundraiser? Kathy was at this century
> ride which is billed as a fundraiser for SDCBC.
>
Howard
perspective to your comments.
The Oceanside Bicycle Committee was formed by the City Council in 2007
the yearly San Diego Century. The event was a tremendous success with
was run and organized. The after ride expo event was extremely
popular with riders who remained at the Oceanside pier finish area to
have lunch and view the exhibitors.
The event was never viewed as a money maker for the the committee.
Our goal was to promote and support the event to get people on bikes.
We feel exceeded our expectations and look forward in making the 2011
event better.
Paul, as a member of the Oceanside Bicycle Committee, you have every
ritght to express your views but ensure others recognize that you do
not speak on behalf of the committee. We are grateful to Jim Curl.
He produced a event that was well attended and organized. I received
numerous comments from riders stating the event was one of the best
they had attended. I feel you have defame Jim Curl and questioned his
integrity. As a Commissioner for the City of Oceanside, I have dealt
with numerous promoters and feel Jim is one of the most professional
and honest.
Howard LaGrange
Co-Chair of the Oceanside Bicycle Committee
On Feb 19, 6:18 pm, Paul <jpnev...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ride which is billed as a fundraiser for SDCBC.
>
Paul
organization.
I share the desire to expand the number of people cycling in San Diego
County, from beach cruisers to full carbon racers.
The event held in Oceanside was indeed a rousing success, mostly
thanks to Howard, Pete, Mark, other Committee members, NCCC volunteers
and Oceanside Main Street.
In order to avoid any further problems with any event organizers I
respectfully suggest that all future SDCBC events have written
contracts in place between the organizers and sponsors and
beneficiaries prior to commencing any marketing activities.
Here are three possible fundraising / profit sharing scenarios to
consider:
1- Pay the event organizer a set fee and the designated beneficiaries
keep all the proceeds.
2- The organizer pays the beneficiaries a fixed amount and keeps all
the proceeds.
3- The organizer pays the beneficiaries either a percentage of the
gross or of the net proceeds, This would require the organizer to
allow the beneficiaries to audit the financial records of the event.
Or the organizer can forgo the 'fundraising' route, market the event
without any fundraising claims, pay all the expenses and keep all the
proceeds.
If anyone has an alternative idea please share it.
Robert Leone
By my admittedly crude measurements of "are there people on the road who
look like this is the first time they've ridden this great stretch,"
"are people having fun?" and "am I having fun?" the Bike the Coast event
was a huge success. I'd gotten up late and headed along in the stream of
50 mile group tail enders. Since I realized I'd be too late to help out
with much except the festivities, I changed my mindset to "unofficial
neutral support guy" and helped out at about four or five flat tire
parties. The MOST fun was where some older, experienced gentleman
already had matters well in hand, so all I did was do lecture/color
commentary while the taciturn individual kept feeling for foreign
objects in the tire casing, slightly inflating the tube before
insertion, etc. OK, I did chase down the missing QR skewer.... I wish
we'd gotten that on video, he was THAT good.
I recall passing one couple on that last rise into downtown Carlsbad.
The woman in the lead was clearly in a bit over her head and loving
every minute of it.
We all see so many road riders and recreational cruisers in the north
county coastal area, especially old 101, that we forget how many people
who live in our area don't know what a tremendous transportation and
recreational resource it is for cyclists.
I appreciate there's a difference between being "a beneficiary" and a
"primary beneficiary" of an organized cycling event. However, as one of
our four guiding "E" principles is "Encouragement," I see no automatic
bar from the coalition being part of, and participating in, events
operated by for-profit entities simply because they're for-profit entities.
See you on the road!
Robert Leone