I’ve been meaning to get an update out for a while, but I’m sure you know how life goes sometimes and there’s always a shinier rock to chase or a sunny day to ride (speaking of which, the sun just peaked through my window…)

Anyway, task at hand – I want to take this opportunity to do a whole lot of welcoming. We have a new Board of Directors that were elected at the AGM in Feb.  It was a great day for Mountain Biking in the Fraser Valley as a full slate of 11 directors were elected.  Our first board meeting was in March and we introduced ourselves and are getting the new directors acquainted with the systems/processes and projects that are on the go and need attention.  My favorite part of our new board – composition.  It is nearly 50/50 men and women (we have 11 directors so 6 & 5 is as close as we can get to 50/50 either way!).  It is also comprised of new riders, experienced riders (I get to fall into that category, which is a nice way of saying I’m getting old…), trail builders and maintenance rookies, people with hiking backgrounds, policy experts – you name it.  The diversity of our board will benefit all riders and builders as we should be able to see our membership’s needs with a good set of ‘eyes’.  Very exciting times at the Board Table.  Welcome to them all – their info will be added to the site and shared soon.

I’d also like to welcome Langley to the FVMBA regional fold.  At the AGM, the LMBA officially joined the FVMBA and that included a donation of nearly $4,000 to the FVMBA.  We are eager to support the mountain bikers of Langley and their pursuits of the sport.  The annual Bike Jam is coming up in June (confirmed date to be announced) and we’ll support that event which aims to provide a great biking experience for riders of all ages and for free!  We encourage all Langley riders to get their FVMBA membership to support the trails that they ride in Maple Ridge, Mission and Abbotsford.

Speaking of membership, last fall we set some goals through the strategic planning process and one of which was to grow our membership.  Before the SaveSumas campaign, our membership sat around 110 people.  As a result of the awareness of that campaign, we surged to a little over 200 by the end of 2017 which was really neat to see.  I just pulled the latest report and I am extremely proud to share that we have over 600 members today!  This surge in membership is something we didn’t even foresee with our optimistic goals so to all those new members – WELCOME!.  We have 100* family memberships which is something that is near and dear to me – showing representation of the little rippers out there.  I hope that your kids are as pumped as mine to get sweet, sweet stickers for their helmet and bikes.  We’re now eyeing up 1,000 members for 2018.  We don’t know the true size of the mountain bike community in our region, so why not take a little moon-shot.  We have a refer a friend program to share the news.

Welcome goes out to our new Corporate Members and Sponsors.  We launched a revised Corporate Engagement program this year with an aim to give value to those that support us.  Make sure you take note of the companies and organizations that are supporting Mountain Biking in the Fraser Valley and in turn, support them.  Your membership card also gets you some perks with our Membership Supporter companies.

Another new addition to our fold – the trail network & builders at Thornhill in Maple Ridge.  We hosted our first Maple Ridge Trails town hall and through that meeting, formally on-boarded the builders from Thornhill to receive the support and guidance from the club as we start the process of working with the land manager and other user groups to find a legal and sanction place for the very popular trail network.  The builders are all keen to see their hard work recognized for the value it brings to the community of trail users.  They got rewarded with some sweet trail tools that they quickly put to good use.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhFrD2Ch9g5/?hl=en&taken-by=paulkirkham

You’ve likely seen the news that #wesavedsumas and will be celebrating this upcoming Monday (16th) at Field House Brewing in Abbotsford.  Welcome back Sumas, we missed you this winter.  Goodbye snow – go bug Alberta…

Vedder Mountain Classic race is coming up in less than a month!  Welcome to all the out-of-town racers that are registered to join our local riders at our signature race.  I’ve been meaning to check and see if the Italian fellow that contacted us about the race last year is making the trip across the pond…

I think that’s about it for now.  Happy trails.

Rocky Blondin

President – FVMBA

* – earlier version of this post listed 139, but I can’t read spreadsheets and we’re at 100 families.  Still stoked, but important to be accurate.