The year behind us…
RVC is closing a tremendously successful year. We hosted more ride programming, more races, and more skills clinics than we ever have before. We diversified our offerings by growing short-track racing, enduro, and women’s+ rides. The year wasn’t without challenges – particularly the 2 month closure of the flight deck. Winterbike was amazing thanks to RVC’s dedicated grooming team in February and March and Fredericton also enjoyed the return of some winter trails that have been resting for the last few years.
Volunteer builders and maintainers delivered huge trail upgrades last year. The MVP flight deck did see a lot of work on Pinball, D-Track, and Monkey Business. Penniac got some new bridges installed and a renovation on Learning to Fly. Volunteers were also out in force nearly every week at Woolastook contributing to our multi-year success completely modernizing that riding area. Expect more improvements in 2025 including new signage to go up at Wooly.
Club corporate health
RVC is stronger than it has ever been. Our membership in the summer and the winter matched our all-time high marks. We’ve added 200 summer memberships in the last 2 years to completely recover what was lost during the pandemic. RVC has never had more people offer to voluntarily take out ‘gold-level’ memberships in order to support a little extra. Driving up membership isn’t the purpose of our club but it is something we view as a measure of whether we are getting it right.
Financially the club is healthy. We take in about the same amount of money as we spend and we spend only to invest in our mandate to grow mountain biking in our region. Remember – RVC is 100% volunteer so nobody’s getting paid. Our biggest single annual expense is insurance – which protects the club and is a necessity for most of our landowner access agreements. The club’s success at fundraising through donations, grants, and events has allowed us to keep your membership prices extremely low – and we have no plans to increase prices in 2025.
This is a good time to shine a light on all of the generous local businesses and government partnerships that have helped make us successful over the past 12 months. Without this community, we couldn’t do it. Please support companies that make a point to give back!
Changes within RVC’s board
RVC is run by a volunteer board. Everyone rides, and everyone brings professional skills to the table. We recently wished our club’s Vice-President, Mike Hutchinson, good trails ahead as he has decided to move on after almost 10 years of service. Mike has helped grow this club in many ways – from securing our first insurance policy to creating partnerships with landowners, and launching our biggest trail project ever. We all owe thanks to him. Luckily RVC’s Women’s+ Director, Rachel Garland, has offered to move into the VP role. This transition is going smooth and we all welcome the positive energy and ideas Rachel brings to this role.
Big things coming up
We have iron in the fire and RVC is moving on big ideas. We’ll need your support. On April 15th we will launch our annual membership drive and we would love it if you would join. Ever better – let us know how you want to volunteer. We need people interested in adopting trails, organizing trail days, leading group rides, or creating quality social content for us. That’s how this club works. Need inspiration?
Killarney Lake Park Trail Plan
We have been working as partners with the City of Fredericton on the design of a singletrack network at Killarney Lake Park. This will change the landscape of riding in town. We’ve walked the ground together, drawn lines on maps, and spent lots of time talking about what’s important. RVC has high confidence that the plan the city announced this week will be done well. The 32 km plan will begin with 15 km professionally built in 2025 and 2026. The plan includes beginner and adaptative-bike friendly trails, a skills park, flow trails, and technical XC on some great terrain in the back. The city staff have been excellent, and we believe these trails will be built with purpose – enabling both local rides and high-end competitive events. RVC began working on this in 2015 and 2025 looks like the year it happens!
Crabbe Mountain
Crabbe Mountain has been developing vertical riding terrain and they’ve approached RVC with an idea for partnership. There are many obvious benefits – and Crabbe represents a stable partner with possibilities for enduro and DH riding that nobody else in the Fredericton region can match. It’s an interesting idea. We are exploring what a partnership could look like, how both organizations benefit and how risks would be shared. We don’t yet know where this will go but the RVC exec has decided to spend real time exploring the options. We’ll have more to share as the discussion progresses.
The wrap-up
- RVC is healthy and growing. Momentum continues into 2025.
- Our most valuable resources are our members, volunteers, and partnerships with landowners and the business community.
- When we launch our membership drive on April 15 – please join RVC!
