Melanie - 4, the Duke - 2

As Darryl attends to his wet basement, here is what happened Tuesday night...

First off, a big congrats to Chris, Rachel and Miriam as little Jonah joined their family early Sunday morning.

Melanie, the pride of New Brunswick, decided to join bike club. This was met with furrowing of eyebrows, but with her being an "excellent conversationalist" we all took it in stride. This was Melanie's 4th bike club event, 2 more than the Duke, and it showed as she remembered everyone from her last attended meeting and was saddened that Darryl was not there to convert her. She left all to soon, and tears were shed ... until next time Melanie.

It was nice to see the Duke out in full force and it was decided when quorum met that Duke is now the President of the Sushi club, henceforth relinquishing his Vice-Presidency of the Dog Club.

Onto actual bike news - Dieter put in his order for a new bike, the Vertex will be arriving to Home St. soon! We were all quite happy for Dieter, especially Melanie.

In other bike news, little M has her new bike at home, the 'little mermaid'. Dieter, Jon and Chris all agree it is very nice. For the record, it has 2 mermaids stickers - this was verified by lil' M. Here's hoping for good sidewalk weather!

It was good to see Bergen out last night, especially after his story of the flu. After a night in Plum Coulee that never really started, Bergen found himself out of commission for 3 days of work. These 3 days were spent lying in bed, staring, as it was to painful to read a book. Things were beginning to look up for Glenn so he decided to goto A & W and get a burger. Happy with burger in backpack, Glenn is on his way home down the back alley when a cop car pulls up to him and begins an intense interrogation. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME", "SHOW ME SOME ID" and "WHERE WERE YOU JUST NOW" are some of the things Bergen first heard from the boys in blue. To this Glenn explains he is on his way home after getting a cheeseburger from A & W. Then they demand to see the burger - Glenn obliges. As he is reaching for his ID, the second cop comes up behind Bergen and checks his belt for a gun. At this point, Glenn is a bit worried. Apparently, the Domo down the street was just robbed, and after this interrogation, the cops realize Bergen is not their guy. They leave with a parting comment of "Don't take this personally". Bergen finally gets home, eats his burger, and half an hour later, proceeds round 2 of this evil flu - no work the next day either!

Swatter sent his greeting via Duke - a consensus was met that Dave is still the dumbest 'dum-dumb' around.

The Dark was tasting alright. As was the Coors Light, that Melanie had

No peanuts this week.

Race this week - meet at Jon's @ 10am - off to the park.
p.s. James (apparently) is a cheater.

I'm out.

Mark/Marls

The big "V", peanuts, and other ramblings on a Tuesday night...

With Darryl out west, I get the dubious honor/chore of taking minutes, so here we go...

First off, a big thanks to the President as he stepped up and brought 2 bags of peanuts for the evening, and as grateful as we are to him, a big round of applause goes Lori, as she was the one who purchased salted, AND unsalted peanuts for FGBC. WE know why the President is really just a figure head in this institution - the real power is behind the scenes.

Continuing on with the President, talk turned to his recent vasectomy, and how the freezing REALLY didn't take all that well. At one point Brian yelped loud enough to merit four more shots of freezing - the surgery continued, as did the episode of seinfeld Brian was able to watch. Sweating profusely, and white knuckling his way through the rest of the surgery, all is done, until the first sample needs to be brought in.

At this point, the discussion turned to others who have had the surgery. Everyone agreed theirs went smoother than Penners, and in a few months, he could bring in his first sample. This is where the FGBC came in - we decided that we could potentially be a courier service for men who need to verify the surgery was done correctly. We voted Darryl to head up a committee to further look into this endeavor.

A wrinkle arose when Dave (Dieter) alerted the group that we would need a guide for our Tinker Creek ride, as much of the course is on private property. We waited for quorum, and when met, we decided to pursue this guide for our ride. Dieter will keep us posted.

Speaking of Dieter, he is still not happy with his current ride, and is in discussions/negotiations with James of Tinker Creek about a new ride - a Vertex (swell name) by Rocky Mountain. We were all excited for Dieter, and wished him all the best in this continued search for a new bike.

A bike maintenance day was proposed by Penner - this was met with great approval and excitement. Dr. Hubie coined it as a day of "beer and bike stands". This also was met with approval.

A discussion on dogs arose...Luke and the Duke are President and Vice President of this new chapter. Good luck gentlemen!

Turning back to bike related matters, our next race will be at Whittier Park on the weekend of April 3 and 4. Time and actual date has yet to be determined. Dr. Hubie will keep us posted.

That concludes this weeks meeting.

I'm OOT
Mark (Marls . . . get the spelling right Darryl)

Attendees: President, Juan, Dave, James, Chris, and Me

fgbikeclub.com or fortgarrybc.com?

Amongst other things, we debated what a new domain could look like, and be named like. The president advocated the latter because it leaves openness to other clubs with the fort garry prefix. Please register your opinions in the comments. It would cost the club about $30/year to go to a site with our own domain name.

Conversation rambled. There was no major agenda, what with the date discussion out of the way. Some of the topics were:

• merchandise. Marles is now heavily pushing the idea of FGBC stickers. Hopefully he will anti up with a little research on this.
  
• bike sale. Unger has an opportunity to purchase a bike for $1600 off. well, that leaves a price of $2400. actually, the deal is available to any FGBC member. Since it seems Unger will not be taking advantage of this obvious deal, you can contact him to get more details.
  
• member Jerry. had a little phone call with Jerry this eve, before the meeting. apparently he's in the club. It seemed like a good thing. He's already been riding. The issue was brought up as to whether there was space for two non-resident Loeppky's in the group. No decision was made.
  
• other regular items were brought up like Marles' single speed brake issue, location of our spring ride, etc.
  
• oh, Luke made it out. nice to see. so the discussion of fixing his bike came up again. Just as a reminder to you, the reader, it was put somewhat out of commission at last spring's ride... yes, that means he hasn't really ridden it since then, although that isn't ususally mentioned in such a forward way when the topic comes up.

Since this secretary will not be at next week's meeting, the decision was that Marles will take minutes. I think this happened because he left before the rest of us.

Present: Marles, President, Secretary, James, Unger, Jonny, Chris, Luke

the date stays! June 11-13, 2004 for the spring ride

With some amount of disbelief, let it be stated here, for the final time, that the date decided upon for the spring ride at last week's meeting stands. As we gathered this evening, there was a note of tension, nay, apprehension, that all last week's good work at discerning a date might be undone in a few simple words, like, "I can't come".
It is my priviledge to report, that even as the President brought out "the book", there was no single person present to throw a stumbling block into the finely tuned plan. While pertinent questions were raised: what about the people who aren't here? is this quorum? the usual... the response was in unison, "too bad, they could have come to the meeting, or sent their concerns by blog comment or email". It is destined to be a fine event.
In other commentary:

• Unger was encouraged to be proactive in assessing options for camping other than the Morden campground.


• Fundraising opportunities spread to the Fort Garry Bike Club Golf Tournament. It was thought that a club some distance from most population was highly prudent. Luke certainly has his work cut out.
  
• new merchandise was the topic of some discussion. Marles favoured many items, but started the discussion off with the thought of a new shirt. Hats (nice caps with mesh back and foamy front, old skool like), socks, gitch, and wrist bands were options mentioned. Stongly affirmed were the MEC long sleeve riding shirts. Members could choose their own colour/style and then we would gather them together to have them screened.
  
• some discussion of a letter to Fort Garry Brewing Company, about how they are infringing on our logo, or rather, how there seems to be some confusion over who's is nicer, took place. The motive behind such a letter was rather vague, but had to do with possibilities of sponsorship in the form of $$s for shirts, or maybe a free beverage. This is not new ground, but now that we have a VP (External) as part of the club structure, we may have the framework within which to begin such discussion in earnest.
  
• the idea of retaining legal counsel, (also not exactly new in the context of the previous point) was taken to a new level after the letter discussion, as names began to be bandied about. (This discussion remains "in camera" because we don't want a bidding war for the job to become ugly.) It seemed that a cap for being able to retain such counsel (not actually to do any work, but so we could say we have legal counsel) settled in at around $5, or a pint of Dark.

Present: secretary, Marles, Unger, Jonny, Chris, Penner, Jimmy

down to business

well, business was the order of the day. not did we hit five members present and the excitement about getting on planning the next "big event" was underway. there is a veritable list of business items.

Present: President Penner (with book in hand), Unger, Bergen, Marles, Juan, Jonny, Chris, James F, secretary.

1. site options. very near a consensus emerged that we investigate the Morden/Tinker Creek area as the primary option. The usual other options were voiced: Ingulf, Spruce Woods, Riding Mountain, Moab.
   
2. accomodations. with Morden as the primary site, Unger stepped up to the camping coordinator role. First choice was some piece of private bush, but it was deemed that the campground would likely be fairly low on guests at the date proposed.
   
3. date. yes, gentle reader, we did tackle the date question head on. Two dates emerged. Middle of May, or middle of June. The President's holidays fall right in the middle of those. At first mid-May was ahead, but, as is usually the case, time to ponder the issues coupled with a heapin' helpin' of group discernment, and the dates June 11-13 rang somewhat victorious. The potential conditions of any of the above mentioned trails, what with all the snow this year, and the area south of Morden's generous dollop of gumbo, made things somewhat more clear.
   
4. fundraising. enthusiasm coalesced over the, at first tongue-in-cheek, but eventually acknowledged, stellar idea of the Fort Garry Bike Club annual curling bonspiel. Leadership to this event was handed to numerous people as they walked in, and yet, it seemed like the idea was not home for each potential potentate. Clarity was ours after the hockey members arrived, discerned themselves out and passed the torch. When there was no one to pass the torch to, stock was taken over members not present, and the name Luke was gleefully proclaimed. "We have a winner!"
   
5. other.
   • club structure. a couple of new portfolios are in place.
     - Bergen: Vice President (Exernal) - we'll still need to work on defining the role, but the title is confirmed. With his upcoming position as assistant to the assistant for the VP (External) at the Uni, it should come into focus over the next year or two.
     - Unger: accomodations task force, and bun baking.
     - Penner and Barg: rediscerned themselves to the dog committee.
     - Fundraising for the next jersey: Luke
     
   • long term goals. - week long trip to Medora in about six years
     - two or three day road trip (ie. carry your stuff on your bike to a determined destination)
     - wheelie competition
     - contact Team Brown ( a job for the VP (external) perhaps?)

Good show FGBC! A fine meeting.