Members: elections for the 2019 Board are now underway. Statements from each of the candidates follow below:
President
Lucia Deng
2019 will be my 9th year as a CRCA member, and if elected, my 5th year serving on the CRCA Board of Directors. I've served as Communications Director and Director of Teams. I've also served as NYSBRA NYC Rep since 2015. So, I am familiar with the obstacles that CRCA, the Board, our teams, and our members face in our community, and how that community is also so integral to our success. I am running for President of CRCA for 2019 because I believe we have a very strong slate of new and returning candidates running for office, and I am hopeful that together, we can continue the progress that the Board has made over the past few seasons in making CRCA one of the most successful, most inclusive, and most progressive bicycle racing clubs in the country. It takes a lot of work to put on bike races in NYC and my primary goal as President will be to work with the Board, our members, and our greater sporting community to make sure CRCA continues on a sustainable path of growth.
VP Rider Dev
Tara Parsons
I have been a CRCA member since 1997 and a CRCA coach since 2011. I was an active racer between 1995-2005, and a few years later I began coaching. I love bike racing, and I love helping others to love bike racing.
During my time as a rider, and later as a coach, I’ve had the opportunity to work with other amazing coaches—they’ve made the CRCA coaching program what it is today, one of the best club-level coaching programs there is. These coaches have been a true inspiration to me, and I want to help the CRCA continue its legacy of developing strong and skilled riders.
For 2019, the rider development opportunities that I am planning include more guest coaches (John Eustice coached two special sessions in 2018), as well as adding more off-the-bike educational opportunities for our members, similar as the event at Hospital for Special Surgery on bike fit that I organized for the WDev series in 2018.
As a board member for CRCA for three years, as well as a veteran educator and cyclist, VP of Rider Development is a role that I know well. I am familiar with the scheduling and admin work and I also know what’s needed to improve our program to keep our racers succeeding.
I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity of serving the CRCA community in the position of VP of Rider Development, and I hope you will vote for me.
VP Racing
Kevin Hsieh
Hi! I'm Kevin and I've been racing bikes with CRCA since 2013. I'm a huge fan of the club racing series as it provides a convenient venue for racers all over the city and Tri-State area. Additionally, it's always fun to watch the storylines build throughout the season as various teams and racers vie for dominance in various competitions. Last year, I took a leadership role within KruisCX centered around building a healthy and sustainable foundation to support a men's and women's 3/4/5 squad. With a strong support structure established within KruisCX, I'm looking to take my focus elsewhere by assisting in the operations, logistics, and communication around CRCA Club Racing.
Open Racing
No candidates
Communications
Clay Parker Jones
Hi! I'm Clay, and I am running for Communications Director.
2019 will be my third year in CRCA, and fourth year of racing in NYC. I grew up on the North Coast of California, worked in my family's bike shop as a kid, and ran D3 cross-country and track. I got back into bikes when I realized that a) I was getting out of shape and b) I could buy accountability by spending money on cool bike stuff.
I'm passionate about spreading knowledge about bikes and racing generally – I can confidently say that I believe more people should be racing, more people should be knowledgeable about these perfect machines, and we need more love for cycling in NYC. Easy things to agree with, perhaps, but I hope that I can use my potential membership on the board of CRCA to make progress against these goals.
My work history aligns at least a bit with this role – before transitioning into organization design and development (perhaps I can help a re-forming CRCA board work well together), my early career was spent in digital marketing strategy. I'm no expert, but I know the fundamentals of growing a brand presence online, and can myself rapidly create content to a high standard.
I hope you'll vote for me, and if I'm selected, that you will offer feedback as we go so that CRCA club communications can be as effective as possible in the year ahead.
Bikes are great,
Clay
PR
Jeff Young
I’m thrilled for the opportunity to return for a third year as the public relations director for the Club. Through both race participation and involvement on the board, I’m grateful for the competition and friendships the Club has provided.
Over the past year, we’ve successfully bolstered our donor membership and sponsorship base. I look forward to continuing this progress to ensure that the club remains strongly backed and well-funded. In addition to funding, I look forward to continuing to protect and enhance the Club’s reputation with the Central Park Conservancy and cycling community.
Secretary
Dan Goldberg
After serving on the board the past two years, I've become quite aware of the importance of each position and the overall responsibility of the board to ensure the club continues to function. While I had previously held the Communications Director role, after having our son in March, it quickly became apparent where my time needed to be prioritized and, as a result, the amount of time I could realistically dedicate to the board. The transition to Secretary allowed me to remain involved but also balance my responsibilities at home. As we look to 2019, I hope to remain on in this position, continuing to contribute to board discussions and to the success of the club as a whole. In addition to improving typical Secretary responsibilities (e.g., scheduling monthly meetings earlier in order to share agendas with the club members in advance), I've offered to continue helping other areas as appropriate and needed such as with our Facebook advertising campaigns to help grow the club and drive open race registration.
Membership
Randy Locklair
My name is Randy Locklair, and I am running to be your Membership Director. In this role during the 2018 season, I was able to streamline and improve many of CRCA's operational and technical processes related to membership. This meant quicker race checkins (due to our new checkin tool) and more straightforward membership renewals (due to a re-engineering of the membership website). I am spending the remainder of this term finishing up some other enhancements and making plans for 2019, including improvements to marshal check-in, waiver submission, and race number pickup. I also hope to expand on our social event calendar, and spend more time recruiting new members. I treasure all of the personal interactions I have had with you all over the years, and I look forward to serving as your Membership Director for the fourth time in five years!
Marshaling
Tony Pletcher
This will be my 4th year with CRCA and after a relatively successful 2018 year in the role of the Director of Marshaling, I am seeking re-election to continue this work and help lay the groundwork for continued success in the club's marshaling stability. I look forward to continued work with Paulette and her team along with working with the CRCA board and club members to ensure a great 2019 year.
Treasurer
Ken Edwards
As your elected Treasurer since 2014 it has been a distinct pleasure serving you, the members. We have accomplished a great deal over my four year tenure. In particular we have used disciplined expense management to maintain the same Season Pass Membership rates for the past three years despite adding significant new benefits for racers including professional results for the Club Series. With my help the Club has also secured significant partnerships that have been integral to maintaining membership pricing at attractive levels while also improving the Club’s long-term financial security. Looking forward to 2019 there are several opportunities that I am already working on that will further improve the Club’s financial standing and support some of the lowest cost of racing anywhere in the country. I am already implementing changes to our banking relationships that should significantly reduce our overhead expenses with no impact on our members. I am also working with other board members to further improve our back-office solutions and best practices that should support the best racer experiences possible. In light of these opportunities and our excellent financial track record over the past four years I sincerely hope to continue as your Treasurer in 2019.
Teams
Jamie Chapman
I've been messing around on bikes since I was a kid and joined CRCA last year to learn how to properly race in a pack. Prior to bike racing, I rowed professionally and continue to compete in triathlons. CRCA has been a game-changer for me in the city. In addition to the Director of Teams duties, I'd like to plan some informal inter-team events and get more women into bike racing. I spend my days as a project manager at Gemini, a financial tech startup. If you see me in the park on a weekday morning (always wearing my Radical Media kit), say hello!
Sean Hill
My name is Sean Hill, I’ve been racing since 2014, but have been most active in the last two years while racing for Rapha Cycle Club(RCC). This is my election statement for the board position of Director of Teams.
2018 was my first season racing CRCA. I loved it. It was a treat to be able to race in Central Park that much. Part of the reason I joined CRCA was an effort to get RCC team more organized and to grow the team’s ranks. This is something I did in conjunction with David McNally who was the old CRCA Team Manager before I took the position over.
One of the goals we set out with, was to field a larger, more competitive CRCA squad and try to win the individual and team B field cup. We organized an off season training program, a Slack Channel for teammates to communicate and planned off the bike get together to foster better camaraderie. Our efforts we rewarded pretty handsomely in 2018. We won the CRCA B-Field Cup with Romian Leiblingler. Other achievements last season from the Sprint with TC Chioffi and the KOM Jersey with Ryan Fitzgerald in the Lucarelli & Castaldi Series. In addition we held the yellow in the L&C series for the early part of the season, along with the Green Jersey in the Tuesday Series at Floyd Bennett Field. It was incredibly gratifying to get these results with a team that had only been in existence for only a handful of months and an honor to have been involved in pulling it together.
For 2019, I’ve forming a new team with some members of the 2018 RCC squad called 42x21ATQ. This team will be a CRCA squad and be comprises of a mix of Cat 4’s and 3’s. I’m including all of this in my election statement to underscore that I am very much committed to the growth of racing and cycling in NYC. Being a part of this community has enriched my life on so many different levels. I want explore says that I can become more involved and in finding way to help it prosper.
Professionally I’m the CFO and partner of a bar and event venue group in Brooklyn called City Farm Corp. We have 5 venues and a couple different production companies. While the focus of my day to day involves managing finance, strategizing growth and compliance, I spend a good part of my time managing operations, logistics and personnel. I’m good at looking ahead, anticipating problems, enjoy working as part of a team, am adept at problem solving, finding ways to be useful (whatever the situation) and at the end of the day, I just enjoy getting things done. I believe these are useful skills for a Director of Teams to have.
In closing, let me say I excited about having the chance to join the CRCA board, and regardless of whether I am elected to the position, I am very much looking forward to the 2019 and being involved with CRCA anyway I can.
