October 2020 Top Talk
Fall riding time – perhaps the best time! And yet, we are still not populating our ride calendar with scheduled club rides. What are we waiting for? We are waiting for Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties to collectively advance into Phase 2 when restrictions will have further eased and, perhaps more importantly, the State of Oregon has a better grip on disease tracking and treatment. If you want to stay current on county progress, Washington County has a user-friendly summary at Covid-19 Status. Also, Oregon has a dashboard that offers a rich source of data at Oregon’s Covid-19 Data Dashboard, including what percentage of each age group has required hospitalization after testing positive with clinical signs (e.g., 31% of positive patients in the 70-79 age group required hospitalization, yikes!)
Meanwhile, although no formal club rides are being scheduled, many of our members are posting their informal rides and would be agreeable to riding in small, physically distanced groups. You can find them on our group Facebook page at Facebook PBC Group. This is a public page and is a great resource for meeting up with others who would like to share safe riding.
Meanwhile, we do have a fabulously enthusiastic team of 12 riders who are working to raise money for the American Lung Association! You can find a way to help remotely by donating to our team members at Portland Bicycling Club’s RTB Team. Donations as little as $5 are accepted and can be done anonymously. You can also find out some of the routes these riders are planning as they train. Check out https://portlandbicyclingclub.com/home/trainingrides/. Perhaps you would like to join them or ride some of their routes.
Meanwhile, the executive board has asked Mark Hartel to plan for ride sign-ups that would not require riders to congregate closely or handle common papers and pens. Also, as recommended by the insurance company that handles our liability claims, our waiver now contains some verbiage to cover infectious agents. Mark has done a great job and deserves many thanks! You can find out how our distant sign-ins will work AND read the new waiver by taking a ‘test ride.’ The link can be found on our website’s home page PortlandBicyclingClub.com as “Test Ride – Do Not Attend.” Once we return to a formal ride schedule, use of this sign-in option will be at the discretion of individual ride leaders, but you will be able to see which leaders are using it by checking out their ride descriptions. As a bonus, this method will allow leaders to preview how many people to expect and, if logistics suggest a need, to recruit another ride leader or to limit the number of attendees.
Meanwhile, we plan a second round of jersey orders later this year, so stay tuned to an email announcement. A successful re-order will require a collective minimum of 10 jerseys.
Meanwhile, our Zoom meeting went well in September with over 30 people attending, so we have decided to hold future club meetings via Zoom until we are able to meet in person again. This may also include our December meeting when we will be holding elections for the 2021 executive board. There will be a few openings, so contact a board member if you are able and interested in donating some of your time to the club: https://portlandbicyclingclub.com/about/executive-board/
Thank you, all, for staying positive and continuing to be active in one way or another during a trying year. Stay safe! Stay well!
Pat McManus, President