At the risk of having this kicked to P&R, which is kind of okay with me, the following is a portion of the email I received from Adventure Cycling, of which I have been a member for 20 years. I had decided not to renew after my last trip with them. The social situation was less than pleasant. Plus, about 75% of cyclists and staff got sick on both ends. I didn't eat with the group after day three, caught an Uber, and bugged out on Day 4.

I guess 18,000 other members may have felt the same way.

It is what it is.
*********************
Dear Adventure Cycling Members, Thank you to the 200 members who joined us for last week's webinar. For those who couldn't attend, we wanted to share the key updates about where we are as an organization and where we're headed as we approach our 50th anniversary.

Being Transparent About Our Challenges

Adventure Cycling has faced significant headwinds over the past few years. Our membership has declined from 40,000 members in 2023 to approximately 22,000 today. As our membership has aged, we have missed opportunities to attract new members through adaptations of our programming. This, together with the soft demand and rising costs in Tours, created a substantial revenue problem in 2024.

The board took decisive action in October 2024, reducing our 2025 budget by over $1 million while protecting the three program areas that make us unique: routes, inspiration (magazine and blog), and guided tours that help individuals have adventures and gain skills. Nonetheless, in 2025 we will still operate at a significant deficit.

As part of our financial recovery plan, the board listed our Missoula headquarters building for sale in June. This difficult decision provides a financial backstop as we work to organically rebuild membership and diversify our revenue. If we receive an offer, members will have the opportunity to vote on acceptance; these are your rights as a member organization, and we will honor them.

Outlook for membership in 2026 continues to be an issue. So, we are modifying our programming, systems, and value to do a better job of retaining longtime members and recruiting new ones. We are improving the sophistication of our sponsorship and legacy support programs, and we are returning to stronger advocacy, especially in conjunction with other cycling nonprofits to make our voices heard and deepen organizational giving. Our financial recovery depends on rebuilding membership and strengthening programs to appeal to a balanced cross section of adventure riders.

But this will be a multi-year journey, and we must plan our cash flow carefully. As we enter our 50th year, I think Adventure Cycling — as a concept and an organization with its three unique offerings — is more relevant than at any time in our history. We’re pleased to have Andy Williamson as our new Executive Director to steer us onto a more sustainable path.

Ugh. How large a group, and was it shared cooking or “catered” meals?

I remember reading posts on Cycle Oregon’s forum the year a noro virus spread through camp. (Fortunately, I didn’t do it that year.). Many (hundreds, IIRC) of the 2,000 or so people got it. People were getting out of their tents and puking before they could get to port-potties. After the event, some of the ill volunteered to get tested. The state’s Department of Health confirmed that they had the same strain of noro virus.

Lots of such places are going broke, woke or not. As a business owner myself, things have been tough for some time, and I'm not making as much as I formerly was. On the positive side, at least I am making something, not everyone is. Holidays and adventures are luxuries, and when money becomes more tight, these are the first things which face the axe list.

I do not think that ACA will last much past its 50th anniversary.
ACA had almost 50,000 members in 2019, 40,000 in 2023, 22,000 in 2025.
That's not losing members, that's hemorrhaging members.

There was never any explanation of why Scott Pankratz was replaced as E.D. after less than 2 years.
Not has there been any honest assessment of Jenn O'Dell's poor leadership record.
Instead, the board seems satisfied with blaming it on an ageing membership and the "dated" nature of touring.

Excuse me? Nearly 50% of your members don't age out or die off in 2 years.
But ACA's leadership has been inflexible in addressing how its politicization has impacted the drastic decline.
One key metric would be to look at the pattern in giving - esp. bequests.
For decades, touring cyclists have made significant bequests.
But if these have fallen significantly, it means that ACA has deeply alienated its former core members.

Yes, new generations bring new interests,
But it is not a good business model to toss out the old before you get the new.

First, I think the thread title choice isn't the greatest, as the thread focus is on ACA and the title gives no clue - plus is politically polarizing, likely alienating a notable chunk of possible commentors.

I attended the second webinar. The staff and Board chair were a united front in defending the decisions made to this point. Losing nearly 50% of membership and more than $1.5 million in revenue isn't fully explained by "aging non-renewing members". I do like that ACA has published their annual financials each year in the annual report in the magazine, but this sort of drop is remarkable.

I was involved with LAB when the Board and staff (mostly staff) decided that the unstated #1 priority for the organization was "allyship" with many of the other nonprofits on K Street who they hung out with outside the office, and not the needs of active cyclists who made up the plurality of members. I watched it firsthand as the culture changed. A lot of members voted with their wallets (as in not opening them) or by not renewing. Some Board members with significant fiscal leverage who were definitely not fans of the trend were able to partially reverse the trend, but even some of them gave up on the organization. I was also an observer when the proposed LAB / ACA / ABW merger was floated and almost pushed through - that probably would have destroyed all three organizations instead of one (ABW folded).

As far as "woke": I did note that the editorial slant of ACA content was moving in the portside direction through the years, but I think it was more the big turnover in staff, where the younger staff were by their nature of a mindset that advocates = left = normal and not any intentional program or plan. It's just what they thought was "normal". This is different from the conscious changes by LAB in editorial policy in the early 21st century. And all of this pales in comparison to the astonishing change in content in Bicycling Magazine immediately after Rodale was acquired by Hearst - one month it was middle-of-the-lane, the next month it seems they were trying to make Streetsblog look like Imprimis. I had a life subscription to Bicycling as part of my life membership to LAB, and I told them after the first Hearst issue I didn't want any more trees to be sacrificed to print such content-free polemicizing for my benefit.

Speaking of life memberships: I became a life member of LAB soon after my ECI certification, and a life member of ACA once I started working on the USBRS system (mostly on the AASHTO side). In both organizations, I got the impression that life members are given superficial deference, but the real influence is whomever is writing the serious grant and endowment checks.

My $0.03, without trying to be objectionably partisan.

Here is what I should have posted instead of #5, but the thoughts hadn't coalesced until I wrote post 5.

As I worked with ACA on the USBRS, I had the opportunity to spend time with Jim Sayer and Ginny Sullivan, and on occasion others such as Teri Maloughney. Occasionally the discussion would stray to political issues, but in a respectful and informative manner. My clear recollection is that most of the long-time ACA staff was at least one standard deviation to the left side of the political spectrum, but that they almost all seemed to understand the membership was composed of a much wider range of political viewpoints, and that bringing in political content could needlessly alienate many members. Then as they retired, a new generation of staffers arrives, who it would seem had a different worldview in that they may have internalized a "the personal is political" mindset and/or a presumption that a supermajority of the membership would embrace more-overtly political content consistent with the circles in which they traveled. The membership data would seem to indicate that this may not have been entirely the case; however, it may be shortsighted to attribute all or most of the loss to explicitly political factors.

I used to be involved in general social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but walked away from almost all of that in early 2021. I will note that a few old-line ACA staffers were very in-your-face with politics and it did result in permanent ruptures in real and virtual friendships - but this was the exception rather than the rule.

This topic has been covered recently:

Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

Quite true, but given that thread is both dormant and closed, I see this as a follow-on thread, albeit not well-titled for the purpose.

Will this thread suffer the same fate? Not sure, although I'd anticipate any decisive action to happen sooner rather than later.

There are societal changes occurring.

I recently learned that REI is closing some stores due to lack of revenue. Although REI is primarily a retailer and ACA is not, both have relied on a membership base with similar types of recreation activities that they serve. REI used to operate a travel service, they closed their travel business.

I have done two ACA trips, and have done two REI travel bike trips.

I blame some of the societal challenges for some of the problems at both organizations, and other related organizations.

I posted a link about the REI closings. SoHo I can sort of understand. I’ve been to that store twice. My visits were during the Labor Day sale, so I am sure it was busier than normal. But Paramus, NJ, with the population density in that area? Then I got to thinking. Paramus is also home to Campmor and has been for decades. I drove up to Campmor in the fall of 1999 to get gear for my tour the following March. Just took a quick look at its website. It still seems to be closer to what REI used to be. The example I like to use is quarts of MSR White Gas. Campmor still sells them. REI no longer does, but you do have your choice of different colors of Yeti coffee mugs.

They think hunting for more grants is going to save them.

Are there more or fewer touring cyclists today vs fifty years ago?
Fewer would support he headwinds theory; more would argue that the problems are self inflicted.
The good news about the latter is that the solution is within the grasp of the organization.

The entire "anti-woke" movement is nothing but Boomers seeing modern culture leaving them behind, and letting out one last primal scream of protest.

It's not a problem that needs addressing. The problem will address itself automatically when the Boomers die to extinction, which will happen in just a handful of years anyway so it's not even that long of a wait.

You could call it "self-deportation".

It would be a real shame if ACA went out of business.

Well they also need to compete with Dick’s, where I took this shot

Using "woke" in any manner (even if it were to be used in a complementary way rather than derogatory, though this is rare) is quite embarrasing and shows a serious lack of nuanced thinking and, often, a lack of varied and nuanced life experiences.

I think I gave this example in the thread that is now locked….

In June I was again on a portion of their Trans Am route in MT. It was my fourth time on that section dating back to 2011. Same time of year each time. I usually encountered lots of people doing the route. One year I camped with around a dozen others one night alone. This year I think I encountered around 6 people. The sign in books at the Twin Bridges and Darby bike camps suggested relatively few visitors.

Forgot to add that what I did encounter were two groups of people who were driving to locations to do day rides. One was staying indoors in Jackson. The other was clearly on a commercial tour. (Couldn’t make out the name on the one van I saw.). I’ll bet they were staying indoors as well.

Consider this: ACA has no Cycle Montana road tour on its 2026 calendar. It didn’t have one last year either. That tour was popular when I crossed paths with it in 2014 and 2016.

I like your comparison: The example I like to use is quarts of MSR White Gas. Campmor still sells them. REI no longer does, but you do have your choice of different colors of Yeti coffee mugs.

I paraphrased this from memory - REI started out as a coop with the primary goal of creating a means for people in this country to buy good climbing gear at a good price that was otherwise not easily obtained. Soon after they broadened that to other camping and backpacking gear.

But what you just described for Campmor, they are serving the role of REI better than REI is, only thing that Campmor missed was that they are not a Coop.

When I joined REI, they only had about a half dozen retail stores, all on the west coast. I was ordering from REI by mail order for several years before they opened a retail store in a suburb of Minneapolis where I lived, that was decades before the internet became a thing.

Now, I rarely buy anything at REI anymore, even when their store is only about two miles away from my home. They rarely have the camping gear I want to buy, but like you said, they have lots of colors for the Yeti coffee mugs.

Oops, getting off topic again. Sorry.

Same here.

Grade school sociology convinced me early on I wasn't much of a 'joiner'. Group dynamics always seemed to tend to a Bell Curve of influencers.

Hasn't changed in 65 years unless perhaps it's grown even more pervasive with the onset of Social Media.

WTF does the term "woke" have to do with this (other than the propensity amongst certain sections of the community to use "woke" as a general term of derision for anything they don't like)

But moving on, times have changed and I just don't think there is as much need for an organisation like this anymore.

When I cycled across the USA pre Internet I bought their maps as it was the easiest way
Nowadays there are so many free mapping apps and online resources and ways to connect with other travellers that you can easily do it all yourself

That would argue for the headwinds explanation. Maybe the deterioration in air travel will encourage bicycles travel.

I know of other large organizations going through similar turmoil, membership dropping off a virtual cliff. And they certainly aren't woke.

I was going to mention one I've been affiliated with, best to leave it unmentioned.

Having stepped back the last few years from active participation in the activities they support, I've come to feel less supportive of their 'program' for a number of reasons, most of them of a promotional nature.

Although the League of American Bicyclists also has a "progressive" program including emphasis on equity and BIPOC outreach,
It does not appear to have experienced anything like the collapse in support that ACA has.

The organizations do have significant differences.
LAB is more urban-centered and has a larger engagement with non-white groups and women.
ACA's touring focus tends to be more white- and male-oriented. But especially affluent.

The number of young people cycling has been in steady decline for 25 years.
Bike racks at schools are increasingly empty. They were full when Spielberg made "E.T."

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/a...ecline/683377/

REI does appear to be more of a "lifestyle" store than a recreation equipment store these days. My city finally got one, but the shopping center where they put it (with a bunch of other high end stores selling disposable clothes to look at rather than actual high quality clothes as any store I would want to shop at left), let me know that I probably don't need to get my membership card out. I used to really like going there a decade or 2 ago.