GROC Genesee Regional Off-Road Cyclists

2010 A Great Year

Thank You for a great 2010,

Winter and snow came so quickly in December that our trail work and great riding conditions ended abruptly, but we did have a great run all the way into December. We wanted to take a few minutes to thank the community for a really great year. This was a big year for our area as we will be starting officially the first legal mountain biking in Monroe County Parks this spring. We are so proud and thankful of all the work being done by the community on the trails in West Bay Park, and Tryon Park. The county has been so incredibly supportive and the new trails in West Bay are very impressive.

GROC Trail Crew and GROC National Mountain Bike Patrol deserve a big thank you as we had 20 to 30 people consistently showing up for trail workdays Saturday after Saturday at Bay Park West (BPW)and Tryon, but as an organization we put in over 3,430 hours in 14 different parks. The best thing was that people came from all over and even many who are not mountain bikers (yet). If you are interested and not yet signed up for volunteer work, please go to mygroc.com/trailcrew to register. While you are there check out the work being done, shown in the photo gallery.

GROC Trail Crew will be resuming work in the spring to complete in order to get the 2 parks (BPW and Tryon) open for the 18-month Trial Period.

West Bay is very close to complete and even the blazing and Map are finalized. But there will be more trail work to complete, such as benching. And the M. C. Parks Department will be completing the trail head signage.
Tryon Park is still in need of some work to complete several projects that will help eliminate various areas on some trails which are unsustainable. Tryon also needs to be blazed, the final map completed and the trail head signage to be completed by the County.

In addition to beginning the 18-month trial period allowing off-road cycling in these two parks, GROC is already starting to plan for 2011 with the annual events of the Fat Tire Festival in July 16th and the Burning Bike Festival in September 16-th- 18th. Of course, GROC does much, much more, including participation at the ADK Outdoor Expo held in May each year, Single Track Academy program teaching youngsters mtn biking, community service such as the Monroe County Pick Up the Parks event each year (started by GROC, now involving many organizations), National Mountain Bike Patrol’s thousands of hours keeping our trails safe and trail maintenance work days at all the parks that have off-road cycling.

The excitement certainty is that each year will offer more opportunities to increase access to great trail riding for us all!

Sincerely:

Jonathan Brown
President GROC

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Bicyclists Bring Business

A Guide for Attracting Bicyclists to New York’s Canal Communities

Bicycling is popular.

Bicycling is the second most common form of outdoor recreation in the U.S., according to a study by the Outdoor Foundation, with 60 million Americans enjoying the activity.
More Americans bicycle than golf, ski and play tennis combined.
In 2008, all of these cyclists took more than 2.6 billion bike outings, averaging 62 outings per bicyclist.
American consumers purchase 19 million bicycles each year, 20%more than cars and trucks combined and 25 times more than boats.

Bicyclists Bring Business A Guide for Attracting Bicycle Tourists To New York’s Canal Communities

The great treat while cycling across New York was that I got a firsthand glimpse of many towns and villages which were, prior to the trip, simply a name on a Thruway exit sign. What I discovered was that there are many, many small communities along or near the

Canal which are rich in historical significance and beauty.

— Erie Canalway Trail end-to-end rider, 2009

Bicyclists represent potential customers who can bring revenue into your community.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Development of this guide was a collaborative effort by Parks & Trails New York, the New York State Canal Corporation and the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.

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What is your volunteer time worth?

As we all have been putting in our time and effort on these great new trails, I wanted to share with you what your time is worth to the county and our community. So far, in 2010 we have recorded over 1,600 volunteer hours and over 1, 355 GROC National Mountain Bike Patrol hours within our local parks. GROC helps manage and coordinate volunteer work days and a significant number are from our board / committee members at Dryer Road Park, Ontario County Park, Dryer Road, Ellison Park, Ganondagan, Ontario County Park, Stid Hill, Tryon Park, West Bay Park, Whiting Road, and YMCA Camp Arrowhead.

Our efforts in the last few months have been focused on the Ellison Park area and working with the Monroe County Parks Department to open the first legal shared-use mountain bike trails in Monroe County in Tryon and West Bay Park. This effort has been amazing with large numbers of volunteers coming out Saturday after Saturday to build about 5 miles of new trail in West Bay Park and make much needed repairs and re-routes in Tryon Park to create sustainable shared-use trails and improve the safety.

The best thing has been the involvement of people who live around the park coming out and getting involved. They are enjoying the new trails and are having a hand in building them. This kind of community involvement creates stewards of our local parks who will feel some ownership and pride in the trails they have helped build. This is exactly the reason that GROC has been fighting so hard to bring shared-use trails to our area. By opening our parks to a wider user group, while educating and practicing environmentally friendly trail building and safety practices we will have many more people out to take care of and enjoy our wonderful park lands.

So whats your time worth? According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, “Research Brief: Volunteering in America Research Highlights” (2010) NY, the average value of a volunteer hour is between $25 to $28 an hour, and the national average is $20.85. (http://www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time)

Doing the math GROC and its volunteers have have committed over $61,611.75 in 2010 to the Monroe County and surrounding parks.

With all of the cuts to programs and the need for volunteers in all areas, we are glad to see that our parks are getting support from the local community members. GROC's efforts combined with other like organizations are responsible for providing the much needed labor to maintain and manage these great public lands.

Thank you for all your efforts !!

Sincerely,

Jonathan Brown (aka jb)
President GROC

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Want to be part of the GROC Trail Crew?

Join GROC Trail Crew Today - It's Free !

If you are interested in volunteering your time in helping maintain and build shared-use trails in our area please join the GROC Trail Crew.

This group will be focused on planning and executing Trail Work Days for Parks in our area.

This will also be where projects related to Tryon Park and West Bay shared-use Trial will be posted and all volunteers coordinated.

Please register so you can find out how you can help

Directions to register as a member.

Click on Join Us located in upper right hand corner and the Sign Up box is displayed.
Follow the instructions, providing your name, email address and password. Finish by selecting the Sign Up button. A message will be displayed advising that an email will be sent to the address you provided, which you will need to confirm before your account becomes active.
Once you have confirmed the message, you will now be displayed as a member. You can complete your member profile at this time.

Email Notifications

Please make sure you set the Mailing List to either

1)As they are sent or
2)In one daily email

Automated Meetup Reminders
1)I want to automated Meetup event reminders for GROC Trail Crew.

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GROC Annual Members Meeting

Recap of the Annual Members meeting

We had a small turnout last night but some great enthusiasm for what has been accomplished and some great ideas to help grow our core volunteer group. All that has been accomplished over the last 5 years is 100% done by volunteers and the commitment of our board, local bike shops, and all of the volunteers and local mountain biking enthusiasts.

Link to Presentation from Annual Meeting

We will see this year the first legal mountain biking in Monroe County. This is a huge accomplishment as it took the changing of a law and more than 2 years of effort during the Ellison Parks Master Plan process. Now the work begins with building brand new trails in West Bay Park and some much needed care and repair of existing trails at Tryon Park. Check the web site and sign up for volunteer list for trail work days for both parks.

There is much more to do and GROC now will have 4 parks, Dryer Road, Ontario County Park, Tryon and West Bay in which it actively designs, builds and maintains trails as well as patrols (our branch of National Mountain Bike Patrol). We also assist in several others. This is a significant amount of work and our core team is in need of help to manage and maintain all of these wonderful parks.

As our legal shared-use trails expand so must our organization. We have 4 open board positions and positions on several committees that need committed volunteers. We are also in the middle of forming a non-for-profit entity for various reasons including the ability to apply for and administer grants to provide community service. We need people who have had some experience in NFP applications and administration and/or in grant writing.

Please consider becoming more involved. We would really like new ideas and perspective to help continue our mission.

Available positions and things we need help on:

Trail management - become certified to manage, build and maintain trails
National Mountain Bike Patrol patrolers and ambassadors
Events - Help put on recurring annual events such as the Fat Tire Festival and Burning Bike Festival, and come up with new events and work with other groups to participate in related events
NFP - we need help on managing the NFP and writing grants
Board members and committee members
Cool people who love mountain biking

Please contact me if you have any interest, Jonathan Brown This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Our Current Board Members:

President - Jon Brown
Vice-President - Lou Eichel
Secretary - Mike Norton
Treasurer - Mary Lee Rosenzweig
Trail Committee Chair - Victor Gaspar / Rick Williams
Volunteer Committee Chair - Mary Lee Rosenzweig
Advocacy Committee Co-Chairs – Mark Rosenzweig, Frank Steiner
Education Committee Chair - Adam Reitz
Event Committee Chair - Brian Emelson
Members at Large - Scott Likly, Fritz Seager, Bruce Hayward, Russ Wait, Frank Steiner, Eric Metzler

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