Report on 2026 winter meeting

[James Walker]

Hi folks,

We had a good meeting last night, well attended and a lot of good input and discussion. It was good to see those who were there and we missed those of you who couldn't make it. Hopefully this report will bring you up to speed.

Present were (hope I haven't missed anyone, please let me know if I did):

Brian Welch, Jason Amoriell, Charlie Jones, Kris Fisher, Bill McGreevy, Billy Whitney, Rich Karaz, Darci Whitney, Jim Walker, Roger Gocking, Bryan Magnus, Kenny Boettger, Tatyana Reinboldt, Loring Porter, Nick Gowans, so 15 people, not bad for a snowy winter night!

We did the traditional introductions/sharing of goals for the season and it was good to hear what everyone has in mind.

The big discussion of the evening was regarding the question of team kit for this year: 1) whether to stick with our longtime supplier, Voler, or try Verge Sport and 2) ideas for the redesign that Darci's survey revealed a strong majority of the club is in favor of.

In the end we voted to give Verge a try. The main reason is that they offer more flexibility in ordering: anyone can order any piece of clothing at any time, even if it's just one item. Compared to Voler, which has a five-piece minimum. The advantage will be twofold, we think: someone who rips their skinsuit to shreds in a crash and needs one for an upcoming race can order one without having to find folks wanting four other things, and we won't have to order extra pieces each year "just in case" of crashes or new members joining mid-year, which has built up a pretty big backlog of old kit in our inventory. Verge's turnarounds are also somewhat faster.

There was a show-of-hands vote and I don't know the exact numbers, but it was overwhelmingly for Verge.

Regarding the design, the feeling is that we should make use of Verge's designers to come up with something cleaner and more modern looking. Darci will work with the Verge designers to develop some options that she will share with us for our input. Design points: 1) we will keep some kind of planet motif but not the really large Saturn that has always been on the front of the jersey: something smaller and maybe differently placed 2) we will probably stick with yellow, red, and orange but get away from the black and maybe the burnt orange on the jersey, maybe emphasizing the yellow for visibility and coolness in the summertime 3) we will keep the TPP logo on the front and back and maybe make it bigger 4) we'll rely on the Verge designers to come up with good ideas within that.

So in a few weeks Darci will have some designs for us to consider. Thank you Darci for running the clothing order for so many years, doing such a great job, and being willing to take on these major changes too!

Second most prominent topic was probably making more use of social media to communicate and potentially bring more people into the club or at least (in the case of visitors to the area) to our rides. Kris Fisher volunteered to head up that effort--Jason and Billy will cut Kris in on the admin for the team Facebook page so he can help with that, and he will set up an Instagram page or whatever you call them. Thanks Kris!

I will update our website and try to get it more discoverable via Google searches. Brian Welch gave some good advice on that. If anyone has recent pictures we could use to update the website please send them to me at jamesl...@yahoo.com 

Also, if one or two other members would like to be able to post to/edit the website I'd be happy for the help.

Bryan Magnus had set up a WhatsApp group for the Tuesday ride that we didn't make use of but we will move from the existing text group to that now since it has big advantages. Thanks Bryan!

We might also set up a full-team WhatsApp group or other specific WhatsApp groups if we get a Thursday ride going again or weekend coffee-shop rides as were discussed also at the meeting.

Anyone wanting to lead or organize such rides, please feel free! We will start the Tuesdays up in April or May depending on weather. We also talked about calling some more major weekend rides, things like the rail trail or Blue Mt. Road, and we should do that this year!

The slate of officers--Jason as president, Darci as VP, me as secretary, Rich as treasurer--indicated willingness to continue and were relected. Thanks for your support!

I think that's about all. If I missed something please chime in.

I have to be out of town this weekend but I haven't given up on getting some club ski outings together before the winter is over. Hopefully the snow will stay and the temps will moderate. I'll look at something for the last couple weekends of this month and be in touch. Jackrabbit Trail, Memorial Highway, Scott's Cobble, all are possibilities.

Thanks everyone, all best, and stay warm!

Jim

Secretary

Team Placid Planet