Technology is a wonderful thing, until it fails to perform. Such was the case as the MOBRA board once gain tried to establish some sort of conference call/dial-in feature during its meetings. After all, If it’s too crappy out to ride, it’s likely to be too crappy to drive your car to a meeting. So how do we make sure we get the word out to the MOBRA membership when we have folks who don’t have time to attend in person? We really thought technology would be the answer. Alas, technology left us stranded like a new racer without a UCI Pro Team kit. As a result, much of our deliberations about important stuff, like the track grant application, was fragmented, unintelligible, and as clear as a CX bib number on a muddy day. If anyone knows of a convenient corporate conference room available at no-cost, please let us know.
 
The MOBRA board decided several months ago that it ought to support grass-roots efforts aimed at promoting ridership in Missouri. This led to the announcement several months ago that MOBRA would award up to three separate grants of up to $1,000 each. Awards would go to MOBRA members after they present a grant proposal of appropriate quality and merit. Exact criteria for the awards of the grants is still in process of being fine-tuned (hammered out?). On Monday, the MOBRA board and its membership discussed the application submitted by representatives of the track program. This program seeks to use the funds to increase ridership at the track by holding a number of junior track racing clinics. The 2014 season is to be used to start a pilot program, and a full-fledged program with strong outreach to local communities is expected to be implemented during the 2015 season. The track agreed to work with the MOBRA board to develop general guidelines for accountability. The track grant proposal was discussed at length, but probably far longer than would have been the case if all of those participating in the conference call could have heard the proceedings clearly.
 
During the remainder of the meeting, a number of cycling-related topics were identified for future discussion. A ranking system was developed to determine which topics will be covered at the next three upcoming meetings. Please see the meeting minutes for details.
 
After the exhaustive discussion on the track grant proposal, no time was spent on the mundane topics of running MOBRA. So if you’re itching to find out the status of the USA Cycling LA application, or the budget, it will have to wait until next month.
 
The above is an unofficial narrative of the proceedings that occurred at the 3/10/2014 MOBRA board and member meeting.