RUSA Awards
Dan Driscoll
Yes, interesting…
I respect riders’ desires to make Rando Awards easier to earn for themselves, but I also have my own thoughts about a more productive trajectory.
RBAs are RUSA. Without RBAs donating thousands of days a year, RUSA collapses into a Strava perms club. RBAs give generous — often huge — amounts of time and energy; for some, it’s a significant part of their lives. They are not paid employees. Not a cent of your RUSA membership dues goes to the RBAs. Any “central planning” that treats RBAs like franchise managers risks killing the golden goose and stripping regions of their individual personalities. It will hurt Rando more than help it.
If someone thinks an RBA isn’t doing enough — or isn’t doing it in a proper way — I’d strongly suggest, rather than complaining publicly, you first offer to help. Mitch offered to run the Rouleur Rides for Seattle and did a bang-up job. If that doesn’t work, just fill out the RBA application and give it a go.
Rando Awards are not “life and death.” If you don’t have time — due to family and job commitments — to travel to the rides you desire or to deal with local weather issues, adjusting your goals rather than changing rules may be more appropriate. I do not think the ACP would entertain dropping PBP from the Randonneur 5,000 or Randonneur 10,000 award requirements just to make them more accessible to those who can’t make it to France.
RUSA offers a fair selection of awards that require events and awards that allow perms. Below is a list of 16 awards that do not require events and can all be earned with the same 100 km perm, ridden repeatedly out of your own front door and several others that can be earned with just perms. Less than one third of RUSA’s awards require events.
- RUSA 1,000 km, 2,000 km, 3,000 km, and 4,000 km distance-per-year awards
- Our new RUSA Ultra Distance Awards (1,000 km to 5,000 km)
- K-Hound and Ultra K-Hound (one of RUSA’s most prestigious ultra awards)
- P-12 and Ultra P-12
- Mondial and Galaxy (RUSA’s most prestigious lifetime awards)
- The American Explorer Award can be earned with all perm rides of 100 km or less
- The R-12 can be earned with all perms out of your front door of 200 km or longer
- SR 600 medal and awards for 10 or more Super Sixes — can only be earned with perms
Changing rules years after an award has been created to make it easier is unfair to all the randos who took the time and effort to earn it as originally designed. Past awardees might feel cheated. Rather than change rules for existing awards, how about suggesting new awards that more closely align with what you’d like to see?
As an RBA since RUSA’s inception, I see awards as tools to encourage and engage riders. Not every RBA has to use every tool in the toolbox, and it should be their option to decide which tools work best for their job at hand and the free time they have to donate. I do not believe any Rando award actually draws in non-rando riders. RUSA has not advertised nationally to promote randonneuring — much less its awards. Most of RUSA’s marketing has been done internally to existing members. It’s the RBAs and RUSA members who are bringing new riders into the fold, not masses of riders learning about the existence of the Rouleur Award and wanting to join RUSA to earn it. Awards are not acquisition bait — they are retention glue.
We all may have different perspectives. I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong — just sharing mine, and I’m happy to agree to disagree. We could argue about the merits of changing award rules, but my guess is that our time is better spent skinning this cat in a different way, and that our thinking is probably much more aligned than it might appear.
We’re all skinning the same cat: more smiling randos on the road. Let’s keep the toolbox diverse, the existing award contracts honored, and the RBAs as sane as possible.
Ride on, DanD
Phillip Stern
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jeff.li...@gmail.com
Dan,
Your post here was titled “RUSA Awards,” and Phillip's follow-up praises RBAs. There seems to have been a disconnect somewhere. And you seemed to have moved off course in your post because much of what you said had to do with RUSA.org and the independent contractors called RBAs. Let's be clear, as independent contractors RBAs are not RUSA.org. They are not the “golden goose” you claim they are. If they are RUSA.org, then they would be franchise managers. And they are definitely not franchise managers.
In all fairness to Iwan and his quest to have the rules for the Rouleur award changed, I do not think he was wanting change to make earning the award easier for HIMSELF. And I have a problem with the term “easier” that you use. The last time I checked racking up miles is the same whether it be done in Pennsylvania, Texas, or Paris in France. The degree of difficulty should not be about getting to Pennsylvania, Texas, or Paris.
Most of what RBAs do is administer ACP rides that will qualify Americans to ride in Paris Brest Paris. Without them I don't think Americans would be allowed to ride in the Paris event. I've never set a goal to ride PBP. So the RBAs are not really RUSA.org to me. And in 2022 and this year RUSA.org for me has been little more than a Strava perm club as you put it. I don't think I am alone in that regard. Next year will probably be different. But who knows. Once upon a time I was a Strava member for about two weeks. I did not like it. All the talk of KOMs.
I chuckled when I saw your comment about taking PBP out of the ACP Randonneur 5000 and 10000 awards. I never had thought of those things in that way. I have always thought of the 5000 and 10000 awards as “add-ons” to PBP itself. Funny how different people have different perspectives.
I swiped the following quote from a Google search:
“A franchise manager oversees the operations of a franchise to ensure profitability and brand consistency, acting as a liaison between corporate headquarters and individual franchisees. Their responsibilities include training, providing business advice, enforcing brand standards, and managing staff.”
The keyword in the quoted material is BRAND CONSISTENCY. And whether or not you want to acknowledge it, RBAs currently do not ensure brand consistency. Marketing a national organization requires brand consistency.
Do I care if RUSA.org has brand consistency. No. I'm fine with RUSA.org doing what it does in the way that it does it. Maybe because I'm detached so to speak. If I were to wake up tomorrow and RUSA.org were to no longer be on the Internet, then life would go on just fine for me. And after my bout with ocular melanoma in 2021 every day is more precious than ever.
-Jeff
