racing union will offer three proposals at the mabra annual meeting in an attempt to wrest power from the current corporatist oligarchy and return it to where it belongs, in the hands of the people.  we welcome comments on any and all of these ideas.  all responsible cyclists and citizens are working to help us adopt such plans.  join your neighbors, fill the streets, proclaim the union message!  da! union, da!

Proposal one: mabra will remit to member clubs $5 per rider per team for all licensed riders shown on the USAC database as a specified date (i.e. Oct 30, 2006 or Dec 31, 2006 or some other date that is deemed appropriate or convenient by the mabra board of directors.)  In 2005, there were approximately 1472 riders licensed in mabra, so a reasonable measure of the costs of this proposal would be $7500.  rationale: if one looks at annual expenditures and current and expected revenues, mabra is exceedingly solvent by any measure.  Current mabra funds have been collected from racers and license sales and there is no specific need now or on the immediate horizon for these funds.  Returning these funds to clubs to fund program activities, allow expansion of or even simply to help offset rising license costs seems like a reasonable measure.  This is a one time proposal and is not to be construed as an ongoing expense.  Note: should the current fiscal outlook change, or should the mabra president or treasurer make a determination that this proposal appears to represent an unnecessary risk to the association, we will respectfully withdraw the proposal.

Proposal two: for events in mabra that benefit a charity, mabra will remit to the promoter the $1/rider that it collects at races up to the amount that is donated.  To qualify, promoters would need to submit a brief plan (one paragraph indicating which charity was the beneficiary) in advance of their race date for consideration by the mabra BOD.  The mabra bod may elect to waive the fee at it’s discretion and all of it’s decisions would be final.  This plan would not effect the normal paperwork flow.  Events would go off as they do now and all fees would be collected.  promoters would need to submit a brief post-event summary and some documentation of the funds transferred (i.e. photocopy of the cancelled check) to the mabra secretary.  Rationale: this would have a relatively small impact on the overall solvency of mabra and help foster events that are charitable in nature.

Proposal three: the meeting minutes from the monthly mabra BOD meeting should be posted on the mabra web site within 10 days of the meeting.  Rationale: currently, the secretary does an excellent job of transcribing the activity of the mabra board of directors meetings and documenting the discussions and policy decisions.  However, this information is not always made available to the public.  Mabra is an association of it’s member clubs.  As such, it can only help the organization for it to be as transparent as possible.  Posting the information on a public forum makes it accessible and helps to reinforce the idea that all clubs have a voice in how mabra is run.

- - - posted by scott