Happy New Year!!!

What a year 2011 was! Let me recap some of our accomplishments.

·        The NIMBA race series attendance was up about 20% overall. The race series continues to grow, we plan to do 8 races next year. Running the races allow NIMBA and our trail partners to raise much needed revenue for trail materials, equipment and to pay insurance costs. Remember that ALL race revenue goes back to the trails, we are all volunteers. Here is the race schedule for 2012, mark your calendars! Registration info will be coming soon:

·         June 3^rd, TK Lawless, Vandalia, MI (Time Trial)

·         June 10^th, Franke Park, Ft Wayne, IN (Cross Country)

·         July 1^st, Potato Creek State Park, North Liberty, IN (Time Trial)

·         July 22^nd, Imagination Glen, Portage, IN (Cross Country)

·         Aug 19^th, Winona Lake, Warsaw, IN (Cross Country)

·         Sept 2^nd, Bluhm County Park, Westville, IN (Time Trial)

·         Sept 9^th, Bendix Woods County Park, New Carlisle, IN (Time Trial)

·         Oct 7^th, Potato Creek State Park, North Liberty, IN (Cross Country)

·        We built and installed new signage at TK Lawless, Rum Village and Bendix Woods. These are the same high quality signs that are used at the Potato Creek trail. To help pay for all of these, we sold signs for $35.00 each. We put the sponsor’s name on both sides of the sign they purchased. To date, we have sold 40 of these signs. There are more available for sale at all the trails. Thanks very much to those of you who helped contribute to help bring our trails up to a consistent and exceptional standard.

·        We completed some major re-routes at Potato Creek, TK Lawless and Rum Village this year for better erosion control.

·        We are about ½ done with the new trail at Bendix Woods. We plan to have our first race there in September of 2012. Stay tuned to Facebook for upcoming workdays, we will be working during the winter (weather permitting). We need help to complete this trail. This will be our 4^th NIMBA trail! Very exciting.

·        We have another potential trail in Bonneyville Mill Park near Bristol, we are working with the local bike shop and park management to see if we can make this happen. The terrain is beautiful and it would add a great trail on the east side.

·        We are working with Boy Scout Troop 664 in New Carlisle. They have 2 Scouts completing their Eagle Projects with NIMBA. The first scout, Nate Martin completed his project at Potato Creek on 12/23. When you ride PC, you will see a lot of work has been done filling in the low wet areas on a large section of trail. This was done working with the DNR using winter compatible materials. The second scout is building the 2 kiosks at Bendix Woods for the new trail. Greg Miller is their mentor on this project-a big thanks to Greg. What a joy it is to work with these young men, they are making great contributions to our community and our trails.

·        As NIMBA continues to grow, I have asked for some much needed help to keep the club growing strong. John Marquardt was elected President, Pierre Crevier was elected Vice President, Stacy Tucker will remain as Secretary and Judy Houston will remain as Treasurer. I will take on the role of Race Director with Megan Clark assisting me. The races take so much time, I just cannot do all this work anymore and I felt things were starting to slip. This growth is a good thing! A big thanks to the new Board for stepping up to help NIMBA grow! Some fresh air and new perspectives are welcomed. It has been my pleasure to be President and I really enjoyed working with everyone, I appreciate the tons of support from everyone, and now look forward to focusing on making the race series even better.

Looking forward to a great 2012!!