The co-founders of the UMCA, John Marino and Michael Shermer, support this blog.
NOTE: The team list is incomplete because not all members have given permission to print their names yet.
SaveUMCA Team:
John Marino—UMCA co-founder and RAAM finisher (see December 23rd and October 15th letters to UMCA members)
Michael Shermer--UMCA co-founder, former RAAM Race Director, and RAAM finisher
Mavis Irwin--UMCA member (blog chief editor)
Seana Hogan--Life UMCA member and legend (six-time RAAM first place finisher)
Charlie Liskey--Life UMCA member, founder and president of Ultracycling Association, and RAAM finisher
Chris Kostman--Furnace Creek 508 promoter and RAAM finisher
Guus Moonen--Race Director, RAAM finisher, and UMCA member
Pat Enright--Life UMCA member
James Rosar--former UMCA member
Paul Biron--RAAM time station staff and UMCA member
Catharina "Cat" Berge--RAAM finisher, former UMCA BoD and member
Lou Lamoureux--RAAM rider and former UMCA member
Doug Sloan--former UMCA member
Hugh Murphy--Life UMCA member and RAAM rider
Bill Palmer--RAAM crew, RAAM training partner, and UMCA member
Jack Bochsler--former UMCA member (click for post update relating him)
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
17 innocent tipsters (number may change)
Supporters:
1 Steve Scheetz
2 Patrick Francois--Raid Provence Extreme (RPE) Race Director, President and Founder of the Ultra Cycling European Association (AECU)
3 David Glasgow
4 Dave Buck--Life UMCA member
5 Anna Noone
6 Reed Finfrock--Life UMCA member
7 Jan Christiansen--Founder of Swedish ultracycling association
8 Dr. Jim Watrous--involved in UMCA and RAAM starting in 1982
9 Jim De Graffenreid--Life UMCA member, RAAM Rider
10 Dr. Jim von Tunglen--former President of Orange County Wheelmen and Bicycle Club of Irvine, RAAM Crew
11 Donald Randolph--Life UMCA member
12 Randy Ice--Life UMCA member
13 Kermit Ganier--President, Los Angeles Wheelmen
14 Bob Paxson
15 Ron ______
16 Rex Reese--FC 508 TS official, FC 508 crewmember for Nick Gnu Gerlich, FC 508 crewchief Team Camel, Team Devil Ray, founder Nancy Dankenbring Award, RAAM crewmember for Seana Hoopoe Hogan, Team Phoenix
17
To have your name added, please ask Mavis Irwin by commenting anywhere on the blog or e-mailing her: mavis_irwin@hotmail.com
10 comments:
I noticed that the ultracycling.com website now has a list of the elections rules and procedures for 2008 that seem to address some of the access to member lists and nominee advertising issues raised from the last election. Has the Save UMCA Team had input into the rules and will you be commenting publicly on the revisions?
Good question.
We felt like we have a foot of a mile influence on these new election rules. (If I have it my way, the UMCA's election committee will never be allowed to exist for few legal reasons.) The SaveUMCA team will hopefully update the blog soon. Thank you for the question.
Mavis
From the early 80s when I took my sons to Huntington Beach pier to ride with RAAM up the Santa Ana River trail through riding 6 FC508s (2 completed) to now being satisfied doing DV100 I've been grateful for those who've built the sport and given an outlet for those us who look for challenges in life.
Anything that detracts from that past as UMCA-RAAM move does will ultimately be unfavorable for the sport. I can't imagine what is going through their heads but it clearly exceeds all bounds of ethical behavior.
Count me as a definite supporter of your efforts to straighten them out.
A couple of perspectives for you from a rider w/ UMCA membership for the sole purpose of riding in events where membership is required (so maybe a view of a typical member):
I don't really have an interest in hands on participation within the organization, with the exception of 1) participating in events 2) gaining value/benefit from the UMCA web presence 3) having a sounding board to the UMCA to provide occasional rider feedback to grow the sport and 4) participating in an annual vote of elected officials of the UMCA. For a lot of mature sports associations, membership is a pretty big number - expecting a high degree of participation in the democratic process of governing the association becomes less realistic as membership grows; reference the bylaws for the RUSA as a comparison - if the UMCA founders had more time, they could have written a shorter book; one that would have been forward thinking about how to manage and grow the organization effectively.
Second, regarding whatever quagmire exists between the UMCA and members as it relates to RAAM and the claims of a crown within the UMCA and bylaw abuse - I have no idea what's actually transpiring, but anyone who is serious about intervening and driving the UMCA to have appropriate meetings and votes to change the future of the UMCA should, in addition to reading the dreary bylaws, consult Colorado Law for non-profits (since that's where the UMCA is domiciled). If all the public blogging claims pass the bus test, then there are judicial avenues (clearly stated in CO law, easily referenced on the Internet) for seeking relief and action through an orderly and peaceful process. Fully understanding the judicial options, combined with a well stated summary of what's broken will help to establish a strategy of engaging with the UMCA first to try and influence voting action by the Board to change things. If they reneg, then the follow up plan for contacting the courts to expedite next steps is available.
The nation's demographics now, more than ever, favor some strong growth in this sport - low rhetoric, solution based dialogue can hopefully steer the boat back into the waters of opportunity. Good luck - hope this perspective is useful.
I can assume who you are, writing above's anonymous post. I however will answer the best I can for anyone's interest.
This is mainly the money. We would need a Colorado lawyer. The costs could be very high and who is going to pay? We're not talking about $1000 or $2000. The for-profit RAAM, LLC, who got over $250K from RAAM alone last year and spent an estimated $100K, is highly motivated to keep ownership of the race under the non-profit UMCA, so they will spend whatever it takes.
The costs could be 30K or more for this big battle. Who knows...you see, the small battle with a UMCA member over the JMC cost the UMCA 18K. Plus, it would take lots of time and drag on and on.
I think we are better off slowly influencing members and soon a decent Board may emerge.
I am truly confused about the issues and the more I read the more confused I get. As a past RAAM competitor and finisher from many years ago, John Marino is my hero. On the other hand, I consider John Hughes to be a friend. I therefore have mixed loyalties, in addition to my confusion. One thing that I am struggling with is the sale of RAAM, and maybe I am missing the whole point. If you sell something, even just a name or goodwill, don't you give up any claims to future management of that item. Is there someway to boil all of the issues into just a few salient points? Thanks.
About everything we know of going on in the non-profit UMCA government is now being influenced by the for-profit RAAM LLC and there are still old, aged questions being ignored. The UMCA members watching UMCA closely are concerned because UMCA was supposed to represent at least most ultracycling events. Under the laws known to us, RAAM as a for-profit organization was not supposed to be actively involved in the non-profit UMCA organization's government. As far as we know from the evidences out there, we have strong suspections that the for-benefit RAAM business is indirectly running UMCA and taking advantage of the UMCA's non-profit benefits.
We told UMCA many times that we won't rest easy until we know for sure if both UMCA and RAAM are standing on solid foundations. We are worried the partnership of both organizations can be a drawback about a decade from now. Desire our pestering for three years, especially the pass year, they have mostly ignored the questions they didn't want to answer and this reason, of all the reasons, does suggest something is not quite right.
The list of evidences suggesting an unhealthy UMCA members-owned UMCA is long with the latest one being the non-elected RAAM President/CEO's presentation in possibly all of UMCA's meetings involving the one making amendments to the UMCA Bylaws (evidence in UMCA magazine.) One of these amendments was changing the UMCA member's investigating rights from demending to see docments to only being able to request for them and be reviewed by the UMCA's executive committee.
The reasons why the for-profit RAAM organization is so deeply involved in UMCA's governing matters as they are now is still relatively unclear, but the future is not looking bright for both organizations if they ignore the possible drawbacks of this partnership. John Marino has been trying to point out the things UMCA-RAAM should be worrying about. You can read my letters to UMCA (the collection is located at the very back of this blog) for any updates on this latest development.
We can always love our friends and be concerned about their actions.
Mavis
In my experience it is difficult for outsiders to speculate about the running costs of a sports event. Everybody always thinks the organizers make a lot more profit than they do. I'd be surprised if RAAM LLC did much more than break even on the 2006 event. I think 100K is a very low estimate for the running costs.
Keep up the good work, though! IMO the UMCA is in severe need of a new leadership team.
The 100K-150K was our guessed amount based on Marino's RAAM costing him $50K to $75K between 1983 to 1992.
Mavis
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