Huh. The BBC has of late been engaged in some head-scratching about BBC membership renewal rates and how (if at all) to approach people who let their memberships lapse; and generally, how (and whether) to make membership attractive by restricting certain info only to members, charging members less for certain events, etc.

I haven't weighed in on this conversation -- I'm not a Board member -- but in my realistic (cynical? HA!) heart of hearts, I wonder if this is the beginning of a "buggy whip" kind of moment. Not only has the trend been that the BBC is contracting in numbers, but a lot of people also believe that the average age of the remaining members is increasing. (I'm not sure we've ever done any hard analysis on this, although it's been discussed; certainly, when I went to last year's awards dinner, I carefully scanned the crowd for the express purpose of discerning the relative number of gray heads . . . and it was A LOT. )

People nowadays (and younger people perhaps even more so) are very busy, and very electronically connected, and much more socialized to the concept of short-notice, ad-hoc get-togethers. That's a general thing, I think, certainly not just restricted to bicycling -- you can "use the Google" to find articles about the mildly famous "bowling alone" syndrome (Americans still bowl, but they are far less likely to belong to organized bowling leagues than they were years ago.)

Things like this Meetup group, Facebook, and even our little band here on BikeForums, certainly play into that. Are they the future for most riders, as opposed to big, formal, organized corporate clubs? The BBC, whether consciously or not (I think the latter) has recognized a small facet of the problem, and has responded by (finally!) eliminating the ride schedule from the printed newsletter, allowing ride leaders to post rides on the club's calendars whenever the spirit moves them, without having to schedule them three months in advance.

But still, I wonder . . . Even I, who can just about grab onto my looming AARP discounts with my fingertips sometimes get just a tiny bit mentally aggravated with the whole structure thing. It's not the Normandy landing. It's just a bike ride. With friends. I do that all the time, without waivers and liability forms, without mandatory helmet lectures, without a membership that I have to remember to renew.

I think the BBC, and other clubs, may have to accept that as time marches on, their roles may change. They will no longer be -- if they even are now -- the primary provider of regular rides. Maybe they become more focused on advocacy, on teaching brand-new riders how to negotiate city streets on two wheels, on special-event type rides. I don't know, I'm just blowing some smoke here, and I acknowledge that it's hard for me, as a fairly independent cyclist (pre-tested cue sheets? ride leaders? hey, just let me print out some sketchy Google "walking" directions and I'm good to go, LOL! and some of you all don't even bother with those! ), to relate to the mindset of riders who genuinely need/enjoy the structure and support of a formal group.