Originally Posted by
jamawani
One of the many questionable rationales that the current leadership of Adventure Cycling offered for membership and financial losses,
thus the need for the sale of its headquarters in Missoula, is the following:
“We are not bringing in enough new members because Adventure Cycling’s brand is perceived as older and pavement-centric
and our programming is not well aligned with growing bike travel types (e.g. gravel, trail) and event trends (e.g. meet-ups and bike summits).”
...
But the real key for expanding engagement and membership is to bring inexperienced people into touring.
And, more than likely, on pavement.
There are a few things ACA did and then stopped these past years that while not a large effect - seemed like they could have helped...
One was their "bike travel weekend" where a particular weekend was designated and people could post their ride and include others. I believe the last of those was in 2022.
Another was where life members could gift a year membership to someone.
When you think of bringing more inexperienced people into touring there is the early part of the funnel with youth (*) but there are also much later parts where someone might be a regular rider with a club or group.
When I was part of such a group in Colorado with a schedule of weekend rides, I organized and promoted "three day rides" about once per year where we essentially did a mini-tour, some were camping, some were motels. Often someone's partner might even SAG the ride. It took folks who never had toured and let them try it in the small.
I also gifted a few memberships, with an encouragement towards those who would continue after the year.
Early June is not an ideal time in Central Texas for a bike travel weekend, though I posted one year (no takers) and still like the general weekend idea.
I like the idea of a meetup - though a regular club ride makes more sense. Rather than bemoan the switch to such forums I wonder if ACA could empower/encourage/support existing members to host a one-time meetup with core materials that then get enhanced/customized with the local circumstances.
As a practical matter I am skeptical that an infusion of money (from a building sale) is as big a factor to increase membership as engaging existing members more.
(*) As far as engaging cyclists earlier in the funnel such as youth - I agree that can be important. I commute to work and was pleased to see my local elementary school have a periodic "bike bus" as an organized ride with kids + parents on a ride to school as a fun / periodic event.
The issue I see with engaging earlier in the funnel is it might be harder to justify spending too much of ACA organizational resources. I have cycling friends engaged with teaching kids bike safety and others involved with bike coops. Those are excellent efforts and I applaud their passion for doing them. So I like it but also wouldn't spend much of ACA's budget here.
I also wouldn't spend huge amounts of ACA's budget on the late part of the funnel (existing active cyclists into touring) but would see where one could harness passion of existing members into encouraging others ...
Most of that is pretty independent of gravel vs pavement.