NOTE: This page is not copyrighted. Please forward this information to everyone on two wheels.
URGENT: SAVE CASCADE
Recall Petition of Cascade Bicycle Club’s Board of Directors
The Bike Club Rescue Squad has begun a drive to recall the Board of Directors of the Cascade Bicycle Club. Recall petitions are available at the Rescue Squad’s website, at http://BikeClubRescueSquad.org.
Cascade members can sign online. Anyone can download a hardcopy of the petition and gather signatures to mail to the Rescue Squad (PO Box 99131, Seattle, WA 98139).
Þ
Scroll down to see:
Background
What You Can Do--even if you're not a Cascade member
Read All About It (more articles)
Contact Information
Background
The Cascade Bicycle Club has grown and prospered under the 13-year leadership of its popular and effective Executive Director, Chuck Ayers. Known in recent years for the expansion of its recreational activities, such as its Free Daily Rides, and the 10,000-rider Seattle-to-Portland (STP) event, the club has flourished under Ayers’s direction.
Under Ayers, the club’s political activities also expanded when he hired David Hiller as Advocacy Director seven years ago. Cascade has become a very effective defender of cyclists in Seattle, King County, and Olympia.
Throwing the club into turmoil October 4, the Board of Directors voted 10-to-1 to fire Ayers, despite acknowledging Ayers’s success. Although the initial reason given for Ayers’s firing was a clash in management styles, it has been reported that the main reason was Ayers’s refusal to reign in Hiller.
The board fired Ayers believing that Hiller’s comments in the press (see related articles, linked below), especially in the alternative weekly The Stranger, were counterproductive. Ayers and his senior staff did not agree.
When members strongly objected, the board rehired Ayers for only six months, to find a new executive director.
It seems likely that it wants to hire a more-obedient executive director and that their plans are to run the club more like an autocratic, hierarchal corporation than the democratic, grassroots, nonprofit club it has been.
What You Can Do
Even If You're Not a Cascade Member
If you like Cascade, it is probably because of the work that Ayers and Hiller and the dedicated staff have done over the years.
If the current board stays in power, Ayers will be gone in five months, Hiller will face a hostile and unsupportive board, and the rest of the staff may drift away.
Cascade as we know it will no longer exist.
Here's what you can do:
If you like Cascade and want to preserve it, sign the online petition at Bike Club Rescue Squad's website.
If you are not a member, you can:
If you ride with others, you can:
The Rescue Squad is also putting together a slate of candidates to run for the new board of directors. If you want to serve Cascade in this capacity, please send your resume, tailored for this position, to the Rescue Squad (address above).
Read All About It
You can read more about the crisis at the Rescue Squad’s website, where you will find more than 25 news items posted since October 4.
We particularly call your attention to:
With your help, we can preserve Cascade as a major asset to the cycling community.
Contact Information
Kelli Currie
Bike Club Rescue Squad
http://bikeclubrescuesquad.org
bikeclubrescuesquad@gmail.com
206-651-4535
Bike Club Rescue Squad
www.bikeclubrescuesquad.org
Sign our petition to recall the Cascade Bicycle Club Board of Directors:
http://bikeclubrescuesquad.org/petition/
NOTE: This page is not copyrighted. Please forward this information to everyone on two wheels.