Warren delivers the AGM’s opening speech

Dave explains the club’s future activities

Ill Advised Bunny Hop Award: Steve Mann

Best Kits Award: Chris Davidson

LCC hosted it’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM) on February 22, 2023. The event was hosted at Fine Balance Brewing in the east end of Kingston and was attended by 33 members, eager to hear what’s upcoming for this bourgeoning cycling club. We followed this inaugural meeting and are proud to bring you the details here.

“As we gather here tonight, I want to take a moment to reflect on our achievements as a club. We have come a long way in a short time. It was a year ago many of us were sitting across town spit-balling ideas for how to make this cycling club a reality.

Well, that journey brings us here tonight, our first Annual General Meeting.”

— LCC Club President Warren Tilbrook

Introduction and member appreciation

On the eve of a big snow storm, many brave LCC members gathered around a delicious Fine Balance cold brew to participate in the inaugural AGM of their beloved club. After some mingling and bar posturing, the assembly sat down to listen to the President’s opening speech. Warren begins by thanking the members and highlights the effort and commitment put on by the members, volunteers and committee team, to make this club a success. “From the late nights working with Cedric to complete the governance documentation required for affiliation with Ontario Cycling, to Cedric putting together a proposal for a $10k club grant on short notice, to endless debates with the whole executive team while planning the Saturday rides”, Warren mentions proudly. It is only with this concerted effort that Kingston’s very own cycling club came to be.

A few of the member contributions that require mentioning:

Ed, Matt and Greg setting up the Learn to Ride series, an intro to group riding for club beginners
Sue designing a fabulous club kit and developing the Saturday ride schedule
Dave pulling together a great LCC Fondo to cap the 2022 cycling season
Michael applying his dedication to the weekly individual time trials (ITT)

Vision and values

LCC was born out of a necessity to establish a deliberate road cycling club in Kingston and move away from unstructured ad-hoc groups. The presence of true cycling talent in the city was clear, however, no structure brought them together and nurtured their skills, abilities and desire to socialize with others. By setting up the club, we bid farewell to small groups coordinating independently on social media and welcome an Ontario Cycling affiliate club. With this comes great perks: we remove the risk from the individual by providing proper insurance and open ourselves to the OCA with its funding and event opportunities. We are proud to have established this club for our city.

Our mission statement is simple: To provide opportunities for club members to participate in organized training rides and events.

Our vision is also to the point: To promote and grow cycling culture in Kingston while improving the skills and safety of all cyclists in the area.

Memberships

While the club’s planning had 50 members as its initial goal, we surpassed this to 100 members on our first year!

LCC members listen intently to the AGM

“In closing, I look forward to working with everyone in the coming year to build on
the club’s successes. I’d like to reiterate my call for more of you to get involved in
this club. It’s only with volunteers that we will be able to achieve our expanded
goals this year.”

— LCC Club President Warren Tilbrook

Cedric unveils the infamous Uncle Surge Award, a golden bungy cord

Board of Directors

The president then continued on to explain the board structure, introduced the members and reminded everyone that a vote by the audience is necessary to officially accept the board of directors. Warren explained that the way we have the club executive structured is to allow for the most efficient planning and coordination. As we grow, we are starting to leverage committees to tackle on specific events such as the LCC Fondo, Tour de Kingston, and planning Saturday morning rides. The board meets regularly for monthly meetings to make decisions on upcoming events and ongoing club operations.

The LCC board consists of: