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FLYERS CLUB INFORMATION
[Sponsors] [IMBA Info] [Meeting Minutes] [Membership Form] [Mudnews Newsletter]
International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA)
So the Flyers are affiliated with IMBA. What is IMBA doing to promote trail advocacy? What kind of benefits does IMBA club affiliation bring with it? Why should you join IMBA? Hopefully, we'll be able to answer your questions.

IMBA PROGRAMS    IMBA CLUB BENEFITS    INDIVIDUAL IMBA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

SUBARU/IMBA TRAIL CARE CREW
The original Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew was a two-person team of trail maintenance and management experts that traveled around the US for nine months in a Subaru Outback Wagon. The crew became IMBA's traveling ambassadors, leading trailwork sessions, meeting with land managers, IMBA-affiliated clubs and dealers, and putting forward the best possible image for the sport of mountain biking. By the time they were finished in 1997, the Trail Care Crew had led more than 100 projects in some 40 states involving thousands of IMBA members. For 1998, two Trail Care Crews will be sent out to crisscross the US.

NATIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKE PATROL
IMBA is directing the effort to create and train volunteer bicycle patrols. Whether a patrol has two members or 200, IMBA is ready to provide training advice, patrol philosophy, standards, assistance, and networking.

ADVOCACY OUTREACH
The backbone of IMBA's work is advocacy. For the last year, IMBA Education Director Jim Hasenauer has been visiting IMBA clubs around the world to share his expertise on effective trails advocacy. Hasenauer, a professor of speech communication, teaches IMBA members to publicly communicate their ideas more effectively. The result is improved representation for our sport, fewer trail closures, and a better incorporation of mountain biking opportunities into land management plans.

GLOBAL ADVOCACY
The same issues that have constrained mountain biking in North America are shaping the development of the sport worldwide. With this in mind, IMBA hosted a Global Mountain Bike Summit in Switzerland on September '97. Mountain biking advocacy leaders of 12 countries attended. Our goal is to strengthen the global network of people who are working to promote off-road cycling and improve trail riding opportunities everywhere. In 1998, IMBA is planning on opening a regional office in Europe.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE (NPS) INITIATIVE
The quality of visitor experience in many U.S. national parks has been hurt by automobile congestion, valley air pollution, and crowded trailheads. Increase promotion of bicycle use -- both on and off road -- is part of the solution. IMBA has prepared and submitted a list of National Park trails that are appropriate for bicycling to NPS staff in Washington. Now we're working with our affiliated clubs and national park staffers to enact some of those recommendations.

TRACKING VOLUNTEER HOURS & NEW TRAIL MILES
In '96, IMBA members spent more than 100,000 hours working on trails. This effort produced more than 800 miles of new trail riding opportunities -- new trails and paths that were reopened after being closed to mountain bike use. For '97 IMBA wanted to double the volunteer hours and surpass 1,000 miles of new trails.

IMBA WEBSITE
Go to the IMBA website for pages of essential IMBA information, action alerts about potential closures, and updates from the IMBA Trail Care Crew. Always working to make the website more useful to IMBA members everywhere.

IMBA MAILING LIST
IMBA@cycling.org is an email link that connects mountain bike advocates around the globe. Subscribers post news of local trail access challenges and triumphs and often ask for advice from fellow advocates. Recent discussions have focused Wilderness issues, user fee programs, trail ratings and trail guidebooks. To subscribe, send an email message to: majordomo@cycling.org. In the body write subscribe imba on line one and end on line two. That's it.

IMBA/ROCKSHOX CLUB ASSISTANCE GRANTS/TRAIL TOOL DONATIONS
Thanks to the generous on-going support of IMBA Industry member RockShox, Inc., IMBA will again be awarding $250 grants to affiliated clubs. This is the fourth year for this program and in 1997 IMBA awarded 20 such grants. Past grant recipients have used their awards to purchase trailwork tools, buy trailhead education signs, design and print educational brochures, equip volunteer bicycle patrols, purchase lumber for bridges, perform trail-user attitude surveys, and create mountain bike information kiosks. RockShox is also making some donations of trail tools (a pulaski, a mcleoud, and a trail rake) to certain member clubs.

ACCESS TO MTB EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
IMBA offers a growing library of booklets, brochures, trailhead signs and research papers that will help you, your club and your local land manager promote mountain biking.

CLIF BARS FOR TRAILWORK SESSIONS
Clif Bar, another one of IMBA's top Industry members, will provide tasty Clif Bars without charge to fuel our club trailwork sessions. All we have to do is contact IMBA at least three weeks in advance of our trail project and tell them how many volunteers we are expecting. IMBA will contact Clif Bar and they'll send us the bars. All Clif Bar asks in return is that we acknowledge Clif Bar's contribution in the trail work flyer or subsequent newsletter report.

REDUCED COST IMBA INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIPS
Standard IMBA individual membership costs $20 per year; Supporting membership, which includes a T-shirt or hat, costs $35. Members of IMBA-affiliated clubs can become individual IMBA members for $15 per year or pay $30 for Supporting membership.

    Individual IMBA Membership Benefits
  • An introductory package of materials and stickers
  • Six issues of IMBA Trail News per year
  • A copy of the Trailfinder guide to mountain bike trails, guidebooks, maps, clubs, and retailers that covers all 50 states and Canada.
  • Your Bike Flies Free on five major U.S. airlines, including American West, Continental, Northwest, TWA, and Western Pacific. This membership benefit alone can save you as much as $90 per trip ($45 each way).
  • A free extended service contract for IMBA members who purchase a new Subaru in '98. (A $545 value)