A different sort of number

As the Louisville Bicycle Club Vice President for Education, I oversee the Club's education program, which aims to raise the skill level of cyclists throughout the community. Our education program also has an advantage for the club, in that it brings us new members who contribute mightily to the club's other programs.

Last year, we expanded the New Rider Clinic program to three sessions of eight classes each, up from two sessions. We had a great group turn out for the Wednesday evening series at Iroquois Park, perhaps celebrating the first year for that alternate evening.

Last year, we also gave students a new incentive for completing the class: Every student rider who attended at least six of the eight weeks, and who passed the road and written tests for the League of American Bicyclists' Traffic Skills 101 course earned a one-year membership in the Louisville Bicycle Club (or one-year extension of existing membership) and a Club jersey. We awarded memberships and jerseys to something like thirty-five or forty people in 2010.

For 2011, the teaching year got off to a rough start. Two of the first three or four nights of the May/June class got rained out--one with torrential downpour and high wind AFTER we assembled (I eventually found out that everyone had gotten home in the right number of pieces...). An ongoing computer problem hampered my efforts at organization, and I was unable to get my head out of my behind enough to do things correctly the last night of the class. A couple days later, I learned of the deaths of a good friend and a cousin, further disrupting my efforts to recover from the disorganized manner in which I mishandled that class. I assisted David Wittry some with his Wednesday evening series at Iroquois, and substituted for him one night--the night we had to cancel the last drill we planned and get folks home before the tornado came along and mangled a bunch of barns at Churchill Downs (among other damage caused that day), just a few miles north of where we were.

We recovered from those hurdles for the most part, though. About two dozen folks graduated from those two classes. Then the July/August class began.

Jenn sat for the League Cycling Instructor seminar in April of this year. To be a full-fledged LCI, she has to teach a couple classes under supervision of a seasoned instructor (it's okay for me to be that instructor) or co-teach with another LCI-IT. I offered her the chance to teach this class herself as much as possible, with my presence as supervisor/mentor/helper. She started with close to thirty students, with perhaps forty folks dropping in and out of the class over the eight week session. Her retention rate? Twenty-six folks earned their certificates and jerseys last night!!