DC Randonneurs

The cue sheet for the Glen Echo 106km populaire, starting at the Glen Echo Park at 9:00AM on January 21 January 28, 2012 is now posted at Cue Sheet - 20120128 Glen Echo Populaire.

Registration opens in the parking lot at 8:00am. Be sure to park at the indicated location in Glen Echo Park and NOT along the residential streets next to the Town Hall. Directions to the parking lot:

From Maryland, take DC Beltway south toward American Legion Bridge, Exit 39, MD190 (River Rd) east toward Washington. Continue 2.2 miles to a right onto MD614 (Goldsboro Rd). At MacArthur Boulevard, make a right then a quick left into parking lot for Glen Echo Park and Clara Barton House.

From Virginia, at Maryland end of American Legion Bridge, take exit 41 onto Clara Barton Parkway east toward DC. In 1.5 miles, bear right on ramp leading to Cabin John overpass. Turn left onto overpass to MacArthur Boulevard. Turn right and continue 0.7 mile to lot for Clara Barton House and Glen Echo Park on right.

From downtown DC, go west on Massachusetts Ave. At Westmoreland Circle, continue on Mass. Ave into Maryland. Turn left onto Goldsboro Rd at the T, then in ½ mi. turn right onto MacArthur Blvd, then quick left into parking lot for Clara Barton House and Glen Echo Park.

The link to the GPS files is posted below. But please read this information before downloading them. Always get a copy of the final cue sheet. That final cue sheet contains the official route, so in case there is a conflict with the GPS file, you should resolve the conflict in favor of the cue sheet. Use the GPS as a handy-dandy adjunct. Keep your wits about you, as the GPS cannot notify you of road hazards — it is up to you to ride safely.

We strongly recommend that you set your GPS to the settings below. We cannot guarantee that these will keep you on the official route, but if you have your GPS set some other way, it is entirely possible that it will take you off route, possibly onto unsafe roads. Go to the Setup->Routing page and set as follows:

Guidance Method: Follow Road
Follow Road Method: Shortest Distance
Next Turn Pop-Up: On
Follow Road Options:
Off Route Recalculation: Prompted
Calculation Method: Best Route
Calculate Routes for: Car/Motorcycle
Avoid: (set to none – the route itself should control this)

By the way … make sure that your GPS either has maps already downloaded, or select the relevant maps around the routes. The GPS files are posted at GPS Files - 20120121 Glen Echo Populaire.

Dear Fellow DC Randonneur,

As recently announced, DC Randonneurs will have its annual general meeting on January 21st at 4pm.  At that meeting, we will elect Board members and officers.  We plan to follow a nominations/elections process that is like last year’s.

Four Board members have reached the end of their current terms (though all may run for office if nominated, since none are term-limited). These Board members are: Bill Beck (Club Brevet Administrator), Nick Bull (President), Chris Mento (At-Large Board Member), and George Winkert (Treasurer). Bill Beck and Nick Bull have agreed to continue to serve on the Board, should they be nominated and elected to do so (FYI this will be Nick’s final term as President under the term limits in the Bylaws). Chris Mento and George Winkert plan to step away from the Board for now — both have provided many years of tireless Board service on behalf of DC Randonneurs.  Chris has been on the Board since at least 2007 and George Winkert has served as Treasurer since 2008.

Following is a description of the nominations and election process, as well as a description of the open positions.

Nomination Process:

Potential candidates for the Board need to be DCR members, nominated and seconded by (different) DCR members. The DCR listserve will be used for the nominations process. Before nominating anyone, please check with the prospective nominee first to make sure that they are interested in running for the Board, and check that they are a current member. And before nominating or seconding, please make sure that you are a current DCR member. Don’t forget, if you haven’t renewed your membership by the end of December, you are dropped from the membership rolls. The website’s “Club Info” page includes a link on the left side to the current membership page (see http://www.dcrand.org/dcr/clubinfo.php?page=membership, which is usually up-to-date but might not reflect very-recent memberships).

After the nomination is seconded, candidates are required to post a message accepting or declining the nomination.

The nominations process closes on midnight, January 16th, a week from today.

Elections process:

Voting takes place in-person at the Annual Meeting on January 21st (see website for details). You have to be a member to vote, but memberships can be renewed at the meeting. We will have a secret ballot for any positions that are contested. For any positions with only one qualified candidate, we can have a show of hands.

Duties of the Board and of the open Board positions:

The DCR Bylaws describe the duties of Board members in general and of each Board position.  See

http://www.dcrand.org/dcr/clubinfo.php?page=by-laws.

Summarizing the Board’s general responsibilities and the responsibilities of the open positions:  In general, in accordance with the club’s purposes, the Board’s primary goal is to put on randonneuring events, supporting the Club Brevet Administrator / Regional Brevet Administrator (CBA/RBA) as the point person in doing so, and achieving this goal in accordance with the club members’ wishes as expressed in the Bylaws. Board members are required to be attentive to email and to participate in communications with fellow Board members, Board meetings, and decisions (which include electronic votes).

Club Brevet Administrator (CBA): The CBA will normally be a RUSA Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA) (or would be expected to apply to RUSA for approval as an RBA) who has authority to organize brevets in DCR’s traditional riding area, the territory with ride starts within about a hundred miles of DC, including parts of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The CBA acts as DCR’s agent in organizing and sponsoring club rides. The CBA submits a description of events (or the schedule of events, including an annual ACP SR series) to the DCR Board for approval.  The CBA designs (or approve’s other’s designs for) club brevets and administers them in accordance with applicable ACP, RM, or RUSA rules and consistent with the DCR budget.  They recruit ride organizers and/or ride volunteers and supervise them in administering events.  They compile and distribute results of DCR brevets.  Respond to request for information and promote randonneuring activities and recruit new DCR members.

President: The President’s duties and powers as described in the Bylaws are deliberately circumscribed, since all significant decisions are subject to Board voting (and potentially can be overturned by a vote of the membership).  The President can call and preside over Board meetings and the annual general meeting; can appoint a member to fill a vacancy on the Board until the next general meeting; and can nominate members to assist in specific areas as defined by the Board.  More generally, the President’s job (in my view) is, first, to work with the Board to carry out the wishes of the DCR membership as reflected in the Bylaws, and second, to attempt to remove all club-related administrative burden from the CBA so that he or she can focus entirely on organizing events.

Treasurer: The Treasurer’s duties include keeping adequate and complete books of account and being prepared to answer questions about them; collecting funds and making disbursements for events and other expenses that are within the guidelines of the duly-adopted DCR budget; assisting in preparing the budget, and submitting a report about prior-year financial results.

An At-Large Board member’s job is to participate in Board activity and to be willing to perform ad hoc tasks on the member’s behalf, as requested by the President or the Board.

Look forward to seeing you at the meeting, or the populaire beforehand (see upcoming email for more description …),

Nick Bull
President, DC Randonneurs

Save the date: January 21 rescheduled to January 28. Populaire, 9am. Annual Meeting, 4pm.

Populaire: starts at 9 am from the Glen Echo Park parking lot. For details: See the website.

Annual meeting: starts at 4 pm at the Glen Echo Town Hall. Please park in the Glen Echo Park parking lot, three blocks from the Town Hall. There’s a map on the populaire announcement on the website.

Why park “so far away”? There is limited parking in the neighborhood, and we don’t want to tick off the residents and possibly lose the privilege of using the Town Hall. Our use of the Town Hall is courtesy of Andrea and Steve Matney, who are Glen Echo residents. It’s a very nice place to meet, convenient to get to, and provides a good ride start and finish. We hope we’ll be able to continue to meet there, so please show courtesy to the Glen Echo residents.

And another thing … no bike shoes or greasy bike parts (let alone bikes) in the Town Hall. The floor is specially-finished wood and we do not want to mar it, for reasons just stated.

Directions to the Glen Echo parking lot.

From Maryland, take DC Beltway south toward American Legion Bridge, Exit 39, MD190 (River Rd) east toward Washington. Continue 2.2 miles to a right onto MD614 (Goldsboro Rd). At MacArthur Boulevard, make a right then a quick left into parking lot for Glen Echo Park and Clara Barton House.

From Virginia, at Maryland end of American Legion Bridge, take exit 41 onto Clara Barton Parkway east toward DC. In 1.5 miles, bear right on ramp leading to Cabin John overpass. Turn left onto overpass to MacArthur Boulevard. Turn right and continue 0.7 mile to lot for Clara Barton House and Glen Echo Park on right.

From downtown DC, go west on Massachusetts Ave. At Westmoreland Circle, continue on Mass. Ave into Maryland. Turn left onto Goldsboro Rd at the T, then in 1/2 mi. turn right onto MacArthur Blvd, then quick left into parking lot for Clara Barton House and Glen Echo Park.

Directions from Parking Lot to Town Hall

The meeting itself is in the Glen Echo Town Hall at 6106 Harvard Ave. From the parking lot, walk up to MacArthur and turn left (northwest) and walk three blocks up to Harvard Ave. Turn left again. It’s the big white building on the right.

Agenda:

We’ll have an “official business” part of the meeting, followed by the “social” part of the meeting. We’ll try to speed through the more-potentially-boring parts of the official business (while still leaving plenty of time for questions/concerns/etc) so that the more fun parts (upcoming brevet season, awards to volunteers, member recognition) can get more time.

4:00 pm, Glen Echo Town Hall

“Official Business” part of DCR Annual Meeting (an hour, more or less)

1. President’s report
2. RBA report
3. Volunteer coordinator report-awards to volunteers
4. Treasurer report
5. Approve budget for 2011.
6. Elect Board members.
7. Recognition of members-Super Rookies; cycling achievements.
8. Adjourn.

“Social” part of DCR annual meeting:

* RAAM Boomers preesentation — Nancy and John Guth’s presentation of their RAAM adventure.
* Swap meet — no greasy bike parts allowed!
* Pizza (and anything else people might want to bring).

Look forward to seeing you there!

Nick Bull
President, DC Randonneurs

Starting from the Glen Echo parking lot, the route heads up somewhat urban roads for the first fifteen miles to the first control at Poole’s Store at Seneca Creek State Park.  This store was founded in 1901, and was the oldest continuously operated country store in Montgomery County.

After Poole’s Store, there is a sharp but brief climb, after which the terrain moderates and the roads become very rural (and increasingly hilly).  Some of the roads are also quite shaded, so watch carefully for icy spots.  The next control is at the Hyattstown Deli, which is a good place for lunch. (An alternative lunch plan: grab a quick something at Hyattsville and eat a more substantial sit-down lunch at Cugini’s in Poolesville.)

Returning to Peach Tree road, the route passes its high point, 700′, at about mile 46, just south of Comus Road, and enters the town of Poolesville.  A final stretch along River Road will return riders to the DC Randonneurs meeting in Glen Echo.  With a net descent of around 600 feet in the last twenty miles of the populaire, those final miles go by pretty quickly.  (About 4600 feet of elevation gain, which is a fairly typical rate of climbing per mile for DCR brevets.)

Official finishers of the populaire will receive this pin.