I got my first bicycle as an adult at the age of 21 from a high school girl in Baton Rouge who was “too old” to ride a bike anymore. Since I grew up on a ranch in Southwest Texas, my cycling had been confined to riding on dirt until a mesquite thorn punctured my tire, waiting till my brother Jerry had time to fix it and then taking off for another day of riding. I knew it was fun, but didn't really “get it” till I saddled up and rode to work on my “new” used three-speed racer!
Stanton and I didn't belong to any club and used our bikes for commuting and shopping. When we left Baton Rouge to live in Tampa, we realized that we had not become a part of any community except the university, so we decided to change that. In Tampa we immediately joined the bike club. We met a few friends through the rides, but still didn't feel part of the club until we volunteered to help with a race that the club was putting on. THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING! By the end of the weekend, we knew scads of people and they knew us! Even though it has been 27 years since we left Tampa, we still have friends from those cycling days.

     I got my first bicycle as an adult at the age of 21 from a high school girl in Baton Rouge who was “too old” to ride a bike anymore. Since I grew up on a ranch in Southwest Texas, my cycling had been confined to riding on dirt until a mesquite thorn punctured my tire, waiting till my brother Jerry had time to fix it and then taking off for another day of riding. I knew it was fun, but didn't really “get it” till I saddled up and rode to work on my “new” used three-speed racer!
Stanton and I didn't belong to any club and used our bikes for commuting and shopping. When we left Baton Rouge to live in Tampa, we realized that we had not become a part of any community except the university, so we decided to change that. In Tampa we immediately joined the bike club. We met a few friends through the rides, but still didn't feel part of the club until we volunteered to help with a race that the club was putting on. THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING! By the end of the weekend, we knew scads of people and they knew us! Even though it has been 27 years since we left Tampa, we still have friends from those cycling days.

In 1981 we moved to New Orleans, and this time we knew what we had to do to slip right into the cycling community. We joined the big bike club in town and asked about their volunteer needs. Stanton joined a racing team, and I learned how to drive a “follow van” for the racers. It's been 20 years since we left New Orleans, and there are still numerous New Orleans biking friends that we still see at least once a year.
     In 1989 we moved to Houston, but transitioning to the Houston cycling community was really easy because of the Houston cyclists we had already met while living in New Orleans. Once again, after a few volunteer stints, we knew dozens.
We retired and moved to Austin in 1999, but Preston Tyree had already started us on our Austin transition and again, a few volunteer gigs and I feel like I know half the cyclists in Central Texas!
     By now you know what I'm getting at. If you want to meet and get to know more like-minded people than you could ever keep track of, volunteer for something! The club is growing by leaps and bounds, and there are lots of volunteer opportunities out there ranging from one time per year to several hours per month. You decide what you can do, and I promise we will respect that.
     We're building a database of volunteers and will be publishing a volunteer worksheet that will spell out tasks and time commitment for each task. But, until then, here are a few ongoing needs that we have:

• Ride starter volunteers. Each ride that you start requires that you make copies of the maps, show up at the ride start about 30 minutes early, give a safety talk (we have a canned talk if you want to use it) and stay till everyone has ridden off on their bikes. Or if you want to lead a ride of your own design, take the Hosted Ride leader training and make up your own route. They'll teach everything you need to know, and then you can have a ride that starts and ends where YOU want, at a pace of YOUR choosing.
• Bike rodeo and helmet fit volunteers. This task usually takes a few (two to six) hours, and you will be taught everything you need to know at the time.
• We are also looking for volunteers to sit on some critical committees, which include the Legislative Liaison Committee, the Education Committee, the Ride Committee, the Volunteer Committee and the Armadillo Hill Country Classic committee. The AHCC has numerous subcommittees with a wide range of time commitments.
• Bike Month Coordinator or committee member
• Bike to Work Day coordinator
• 
  If any of these look interesting to you or if there's something else you'd like to do but don't know if the time commitment would be too great or you just need more info, please email the club at <staffaustincycling [dot] org> or call me at 512/478-5221. You'll never regret it!