2007 Club Survey Results

More Clubs are Joining the League, and Responding to Our Survey!

The results are in! The more responses we receive, the more we learn about our club members. The survey says that clubs are continuing their membership with the League and have a need for increased technology tools. Here is some more detail on what we learned from club responses to the 2007 Club Profile and Technology Survey.

Twenty-nine percent of clubs have been League members for over sixteen years, 14 percent have been members for 11–15 years and 25 percent have been members for 1-5 years. Sixty percent of clubs have League Cycling Instructors (LCIs) in their ranks.

Most frequent issues that clubs face include: lack of volunteers, an aging (but growing) membership, hostility towards public rides, and poor road conditions.

Getting the word out to your members about rides: 85 percent of clubs use their website, 74 percent use the club newsletter, and 21 percent use the League of American Bicyclists website.

Forty percent of respondents said they visit the League website monthly. Seventy-four persent would be interested in the League offering a web tool to blog or connect with other clubs, and 79 percent of clubs said they would use a web tool that would improve communication about rides.

What lessons do clubs offer? Of the clubs that responded, 33 percent offer safety/skills lessons, 30 percent offer maintenance skills, and 25 percent offer riding lessons.

Let's not forget the useful information we learned in 2006 about our Clubs:

We learned from the 2006 Club Census that the average League-affiliated bike club has 325 members who pay $17 a year to enjoy a ride schedule of close to 250 rides in the year including one major ride that has 600 participants.

What else did we discover about clubs?

* Two-thirds are incorporated, and of those that are, one-third have 501 (c)(3) tax status.
* The annual budget of the average club is around $40,000 with primary expenses being insurance, the newsletter, and ride expenses.
* Only a handful of clubs don’t have a website. One-quarter of clubs have a members-only section to their site.
* Three-quarters of clubs sell merchandise of some kind – most likely a jersey (more than 80% of those selling stuff) and possibly hats, socks, shorts, or jackets.
* Eleven of the responding clubs had paid staff (either part time or full time)
* Ten clubs had memberships of 1000 or more, with the largest being 6,800

Thanks to those clubs who took the time to complete the survey, your feedback is important to us! Responses will help shape future content in the club newsletter, phone calls and other services we provide to club members.

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