Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

My interview with the new Preznit, part 2

Continuing with Kevin Schaeffer, new President of the Minnesota Cycling Federation (MCF). .

Smithers: What is your opinion as to the role of the MCF? Is the MCF fulfilling that role in your opinion?

KS: I think the major focus should be in determining just what the MCF is and what this organization should be working towards. The vision/mission/goals then dictate the priorities. I think we all have opinions or personal beliefs what the MCF is or should be, but I don’t feel there is a collective vision. Establishing this vision then dictates the priorities. Personally, I think the MCF is all of us, the racers, promoters, volunteers, officials, parents, sponsors of bike racing activity in Minnesota. So often I here that the “MCF decided this”, or the “MCF is doing this”, or that it’s “up to the MCF to do this”. I would like for people in the future to feel that THEY are the MCF. If something needs to be done, it needs to be pointed out, but they are nothing without volunteers to carry these ideas out. So we have to have an environment where people are willing to volunteer and take chances to improve things. What’s worse than fucking things up is not even trying something in the first place. Apathy can be the biggest malaise. It’s easy to sit behind the keyboard and pound out on the message board what should be done, but it’s a lot harder to endure a brutal meeting or spend 8 hours in the middle of nowhere watching a corner so 35+ year old men can pretend they are Lance Armstrong or Chris Smith.

Smithers: Who? I’m sorry, I don’t know those two clowns. Anyway, you think the MCF is doing the job?

KS: I think the MCF is kind of fulfilling that role. I think there is lots of room for improvement. Something that was brought up last night that is poignant is that we don’t even have a way to measure our success. Is success measured by the number of riders? Number of races? Number of clubs? Number of women? Number of juniors? Racer retention? Race payout? This is part of the vision/mission discussion that needs to be dialed in.

Smithers: I was raised to think that success should always be measured in the number of women. But that may not apply to cycling. This all sounds like a pretty big job for one person.

KS: As you know, I’m kind of a schloobheimer, and while I act like I know everything I need lots of help. I want people to come to me with their ideas and I want people to volunteer to work with me. We need banquet coordinators, web people, corner marshals, track volunteers, junior coaches, parents with mini-vans, we even need stinky messenger wanna-be’s. So I hope that I can help and offend everyone equally so we all can work together.

Smithers: I think I am busy the week that you need my help. What changes do you think need to be made to improve cycling in Minnesota, if any?

KS: To me its simple. To have a bike race you need at the very least 2 things. You need the cyclists who want to race their bikes and you need an event. So at the core we need to develop, teach, maintain and retain riders. At the very same time we need to do the same with race promoters. Any decisions or changes should be based on how they impact the racers and the promoters. The rest of the stuff, officials, associations, clubs, etc is integral but we can’t lose sight of what keeps us racing. It’s having racers and promoters. As an organization what we can to do improve/assist those 2 areas is to provide resources/opportunities for the racers and promoters? Sometimes I think the promoters get short-shrifted in this exchange. It often happens that the MCF is asked to dictate to the promoters what the various interests want. Smithers, you know more than anybody the difficulty in putting on a race. There are so many variables, and so many ways to screw it up. At worst most screwups just piss people off, they flatted, there 49th place finish was listed incorrectly, they didn’t get their 1 CRY point for the season.

Smithers: I know more than anybody about screwing things up. Did I ever tell you about the time I had a marching band on the criterium course while a race was in progress?

Part 3 tomorrow…