groc 2013 year in review

2013 Year End Review1Genesee Regional Off-Road Cyclists G.R.O.C. PO BOX 25674 Rochester NY 1462503/05/14

About GROC

• History:– Founded in 2004– NFP Status in 2011– IMBA Affiliated Club Since 2004

Mission: To be an inclusive community designing, building, maintaining and riding sustainable shared-use trails

2Genesee Regional Off-Road Cyclists G.R.O.C. PO BOX 25674 Rochester NY 1462503/05/14

Volunteers Drive Success View of volunteer hours and where they were spent


1st Year of Pilot Program, Building of Bay Park West

Trails

1st Year of Pilot Program, Building of Bay Park West

Trails

684

1,013

2,152

1,736

1,261

1,187

Value Of Volunteers


2008

2009

20102011

2012

2013

Serving Many Communities Where are our members (2013) – based on over 1,025 registered users on GROC Web Site


GROC’s Park Stewardship

GROC Provides the following services in cooperation with the local land mangers for each of these Parks:

– Trail Maintenance• Clearing• Repairing• Re routing

– Trail Design and building– Trail Blazing and mapping– Organization of regular work parties

• Tryon Park– Started Pilot Program in 2010– Creating new trails and repairing and creating more sustainable trail system– GROC Provided Trail maps and blazing and materials

• West Bay Park– Started Pilot Program in 2010– Creating trail design from scratch as no official trails existed in this park– GROC Provided Trail maps and blazing and materials

• Dryer Road Park – Started in 2004 – Home of the Fattire Festival– 10 miles of trail on 85 acres

• Ontario County Park– Started in 2007– Home of the Burning Bike Festival– 15 miles of Trail on 100+ acres

• GROC has volunteered over 1,127 hrs in other parks in the area. Whiting Road in Webster, Finger Lakes Trail, Ellison Park, Webster Park


GROC Trail Crew

GROC Formed GROC trail Crew in 2011

The goals of this program was to organize and bring new training to our volunteer community

• Trail Crew Meet Up Group– 250 registered volunteers– Hosting over 158 works days since 2011

• Trail Crew Leaders growing– Over the last 3 years many new trail leaders have

emerged– The training by IMBA and by core GROC Trail

leaders is building a community of stewards who understand sustainable trail building practices


GROC Recognition In The Community Proclamation From County Legislature:

Dan Quatro and Debbie Draw authored the proclamation recognizing GROC for our volunteer efforts and contributions to our parks

Outstanding Asset Builder Award:GROC Honored by Department of Human Services – Award was accepted on Oct 1st. GROC nominated for this award by Mike Cooper the Penfield's Director of Parks and Recreation. The Asset Builder Award recognizes those who donate their time in an effort to encourage our youth in leading positive healthy lives


IMBA

GROC Continues to work with IMBA and in 2013 will become an IMBA Chapter

2012 Subaru IMBA Trail Crew join us in Rochester for 3 days of Training and presentations on Sustainable Trail Building. Even better we got 2 Trail crews, Steve & Morgan Lommele and Jake Carten and Jenny Abraham really put on a fun and full three days.

Land Managers from Monroe County Parks, Victor Parks, Penfield and others attended training with the IMBA Crew

We continue to work with the county staff on trail management I the pilot parks as well as outside of the pilot program parks..


Other GROC Community Involvement

• Single Track Academy– GROC has a summer program for young adults that teaches mountain Bike Skills and much

more. This 6 week course focus on skills, health, advocacy, trail building, and sense of stewardship for our parks and trails.

– This program has been running since 2009

• Pick Up the Parks – GROC supporting this event since 2010IN 2013 We managed the Tryon Park clean upThe event in al the parks had about 600 volunteers and removed 16,000 pounds of trash from

our parks.

• National Mountain Bike Patrol– The Bike Patrol has been put in many hours on trails be representatives of the MTB

community– Safety and support of local events, Fattire Festival, S6, Hardcore24

• Events– Ellison Cyclocross– Fattire kids push pen

• Featured in short film at the 2013 Greentopia Film Fetival– Single Track Nature is a film by Epic10, Don Casper– Film was focused on a GROC Single Track

program that brought city youth to join in a Single Track Academy Program


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkaLo7IZ0KM

GROC in the Community

• Membership Dollars Go to:– trail signage– not for profit legal fees– materials for skills park– trail tools and other trail advocacy items– Insurance (1 million dollar policy, allows us to work in parks )

• Memberships – GROC has had as many as 400 paying

membersover the last 5 years

– 2013 memberships 224


GROC communications• Web Site:

– Own top organic search for mountain biking and single track in Rochester 13,000 + Unique Visitors per year

– Averaging 75,000 page viewed per year– Mobile app users – 600+ apple - 260+ Droid – v2

with trail conditions ready

• Email List – 1,241 subscribers– Avrg 30% open rate– Avrg 6% – 10 % click

• Facebook– 774 likes– Decent engagement but could be better

• Printed materials– Brochures– Trail Map posters


Local Business Support

• Bike Shop Involvement– Local Bike Shops offering discounts for GROC members– Local shops also supporting Single Track Academy with sponsorships

• Donations and Support– These groups have donated over $4,500 dollars over the last 3 years. The donations have been

presented to GROC for its Outstanding Mountain Bike Advocacy in the region.


What Has All This Effort Lead Too?

• Education and advocacy in our community to bring shared-use trails into existing within our local parks.


The Legalization of Mountain Biking in Monroe County• GROC Role

– GROC started this effort over 8 years ago– The Ellison Parks Master Plan was the battle ground

for shared-use trails• GROC Tactics:

– Mobilize the mountain bike community – Education campaign on sustainable trails and the

reality of Mountain biking as a sport in the US– Attending all county meetings– Letter campaigns that brought hundreds of pro

shared-use trails letters to county– Working closely with Parks department and

legislators to navigate politics• Results:

– Law changed to allow shared-use trails at the prevue of the Parks Department– IN 2014 the successful end to the Pilot Program in Tryon and West Bay Parks


Thanks To Be Given

• Monroe County Parks Department– Larry Staub– Dave Renaldo– Mark Quinn– Victor Parks and Recreation (Brian Emleson)

• Monroe County Legislators– Dan Quarto– Debbie Draw

• All The Local Bike Shops and their owners


Thanks To Be GivenHundreds of Volunteers


groc 2013 year in review

Sports

po box

rochester ny

trail maps

groc trail crewgroc

trail crew leaders

new trail leaders

core groc trail leaders

sustainable trail systemgroc