Coalition to Reform LAB
Return Control to Members
and Restore Traditional Cycling Values
Why LAB Reform?
Since 1880, the League of American Bicyclists defended the rights and
interests of lawful, competent cyclists. Until the mid-90’s, LAB offered
many useful member services, usually through low-cost programs run by
volunteers. During the last few years, as a faction seized control of
the Board, LAB abandoned its role of protecting members’ interests and it
dropped most of the services to become just another Washington lobbying and
fundraising group. There have also been some highly inappropriate
actions taken by some of the directors. Details
— History of LAB
LAB Reform Goals:
Regain control of the League for members by restoring their right to elect ALL directors
Restore access to the ballot and Bylaws via the petition and referendum
Remove the veil of secrecy over the actions of the board and staff
Allow members a reasonable process to remove unethical directors
We have some progress to report in our quest to reform the League. At
the March 2006 board meeting, the “Statement of
Purpose” in the Bylaws that had been reduced to a meaningless platitude in
2003 was restored to nearly its former meaning. However, the other
Sneak Bylaws changes have not been rescinded.
In the 2005 and 2006 elections, all candidates who asked to be on the ballot
were accepted (as far as we know). In addition, the elections seem to have
been fair. However, this policy could be overturned at any time by the
board. We need protections written into the Bylaws to make them permanent
and we need to prohibit the board from undoing the protections.
In the 2006 meeting, the treasurer reported that the League’s financial
situation looks much better than its precarious condition of last year.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was much more friendly to visiting members
than in recent years. Bill Hoffman’s notes
from the meeting are available here. Due to a snowstorm, we did not
have a representative at the Mar. 2007 meeting and we have no information about
what goes on in tele-conferences.
The board has finally embraced cyclists’ rights as an issue for the
League. Unfortunately, the uncritical endorsement of separate bike lanes
and bicycle sidepaths in the League’s Bicycle Friendly
Communitiwes Program undermines the goal of Cyclists’ Rights.
LAB Reform heartily commends LAB for its role in the creation and submission
of an amicus brief in the Kentucky Court of
Appeals. This is exactly the type of work LAB should be doing in
support of cyclists rights and they got it mostly right. The new Share
the Road campaign is also promising.
Serious Issues Remain About the Governance of the League
When outside interests seized control of the League a few years ago, the
League largely abandoned its duty to protect our interests, thereby alienating
its most dedicated members. League membership declined about 14 percent
between 1996 and 2002, a period when
certain board members claimed
their leadership “… nearly doubled the League’s membership“. We
suffered a further decline of ten percent in 2004-2005. With the decline
in membership came budget deficits.
A large part of the “membership problem” is the fact that fewer than 10
percent of cycling club members belong to the League. These are the people
who should form the membership core. We believe these club members would
be the most loyal members of the League if the League would be loyal to them.
Below are some of the “highlights” of the LAB leadership crisis that led to
the formation of LAB Reform. These events point out the need to change the
leadership of LAB in order to end this crisis and prevent it occurring
again. For details on many of these events, see A
Brief History of LAB by Bill Hoffman.
There are also serious problems with League advocacy that is often harmful to
members and that fails to promote the best and safest cycling practices. The
Bicycle Friendly Communities Program is especially
troubling.
After a $47,000 operating deficit in 2003, the League generated even more red
ink in 2004 — $264,197. Instead of significantly cutting expenses, the
board desperately searched for outside donations to close another deficit in
2005. Outside funding did “keep the wolf at bay.” In addition,
several key (and presumably highly paid) staffers left in 2005. Some of
them have not been replaced.
When donations do materialize they often have strings attached — strings
that clash with the League’s traditional mission and that are detrimental to the
interests of League members.
League membership declined about ten percent in 2004 and 2005.
Charity Navigator, rates the League only ONE STAR (poor) for its
organizational and financial efficiency. Part of the financial problem has
been caused by simple carelessness. Among several examples of
extravagance, the League rents an office suite in Washington, D. C., one of the
most expensive real estate markets in the country. We also pay our
executive director a very generous salary. In 2003, the salary was
$115,500 in addition to a generous bonus. In the most recent report, the
executive director compensation was $112,577.
We need your help to keep the reform process moving
We frequently update the LAB Reform web site with new information and new
articles to keep our supporters informed. These will also include links
for informative articles about cycling — things that should be in the
LAB magazine. We often make small (or not-so-small) updates to various
pages, sometimes without changing the main page, thus some material may be newer
than the date at bottom of this page. If you provide your email address we
can send an occasional message to tell you when significant new information is
posted or when news breaks.
We should send out more eMail than we do, but we are volunteers with many
other responsibilities and we never want to bother people unless we have
something really important to say. You are invited to add yourself to our
eMail membership (you can easily quit at any time) without worrying about
receiving junk from us. Below is the entire history of our previous
mailings to our list. You can see how seldom we send mail.
Please send the following information by email to
fredoswald_AT_yahoo_DOT_com.
Name, address, phone, email, your local cycling club(s),
Your level of interest, any special skills or other info., etc.
You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take
up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal
sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external
circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a
position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work
well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
— Vaclav Havel, former dissident, now President of the Czech Republic
Please join us and help restore the BikeLeague to members.
