Welcome in the New Year and the New GDB Board
by Brenda Barnell, President
January 2007

Happy 2007 to each of you! Here's wishing you all a great year of happiness, health, inflated tires and wind at your back.

As president of GDB, I'm looking forward to an exciting year of club activities, weekly rides, our very own Lancaster Country Ride and working with the board and members to make GDB a great club.

I would like to share with you a few items that we are working on thus far. As a communication tool to each of the members, I will be sending out quarterly postcards listing the club's major upcoming activities. I will also update you from time to time through a President's Draft as to what the board is working on. As a reminder, board meetings are held on the third Sunday of each month at 5 p.m., members are welcome to attend. If you have an interest to sit in on a meeting, please drop me an email.

Our rally director, Phil Watson is starting to turn the wheels for our upcoming rally. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 14th as the date of our Lancaster Country Ride. As in the past, we are asking members to volunteer to make our rally another successful event. Because of your volunteer hours the number of riders participating each year continue to grow, we are able to make minor adjustments to allow the routes safer for the riders, and it has often been heard as a 'must ride' rally. Therefore, please drop Phil an email and let him know that you will be able to volunteer and take part in a fun and outstanding club event.

As time gets closer, Mike Eipper, our Public Relations member and Airport Ride leader will move a few of his rides to Lancaster so we can pre-ride the routes and make sure they are in great shape for the rally participants. Mike has also done a great job in getting the local newspaper more interested in what GDB is all about.

Paul Brown will be updating our GDB calendar on the website when dates are selected for the pre-rides along with other events and rides throughout the year. Recently we have added a Starter Ride for Beginners, which has turned out to be very successful. If you have a suggestion for a new ride, contact Paul. Also, keep an eye on the photo gallery section as Paul does a great job capturing photos during our rides throughout the year and uploads them to the website.

Our webmaster, Gary Boudreaux will be making minor beneficial changes to our website. We are creating a section that will have photos of our ride leaders and their contact information. We feel this will be a great way for new or visiting riders to put a name and face together. Also, a big thanks to our ride leaders for all that they do during the year.

We are also in the process of updating the list of other rallies on our site. As new rally dates begin to appear on other cycling sites we will update our site with the correct information. If you would like to help in this easy process, please let me know.

For those of you new to GDB or still wondering if joining the club is right for you, just know that if you love the sport of cycling, enjoy having fun, sharing a few laughs with friends, traveling the streets and roads of the Metroplex that you thought never existed along with grabbing a bite to eat afterwards, then GDB is the club for you. Feel free to contact Brad Bedell, Membership officer if you have questions or any of the other board members.

The positions aren't complete without board members Andrea Spica, our secretary who keeps us all documented each month and has orchestrated updating our by-laws. And Rick Russell, our Treasurer who does a great job on the financial side of the club and keeps us all within budget.

Know that I'm here to make your club fun, exciting and that I'm passionate about the cycling world. GDB is an outstanding club and I'm proud to be a member and your president. Please feel free to drop me an email, call me or visit with me if you have any ideas, suggestions or comments down the road.

Until next time, be safe and enjoy!