After 13 years at the helm of the Cascade Bicycle Club, executive director Chuck Ayers is leaving his position as head of the Seattle-based bicycle club.
The club's board of directors asked for and received Ayers's resignation as head of the 13,000-member bicycle club, considered the largest in the nation. He declined, and the board fired him.
Friction
Chris Weiss, chair of the board, was quoted at the Cascade blog:
“While we are grateful for these and other accomplishments during his tenure, the Board has made the decision that Chuck is no longer the right person to lead Cascade into its next phase of growth and opportunity.”
The Seattle Times pointed out that Cascade's advocacy on bike lanes and bicyclists' rights have caused friction with the city's motorists. Quoting Ayers:
“I think they [the board] take a very PC approach and are afraid of people getting a little angry at us.”
Complex mission
The club, which is 40 years old, has a resume that is quite complex and multi-faceted. It has taken on the task of bicycle recreation, education, commuting and advocacy throughout the Puget Sound region.
A big part of its work is providing recreational opporunities for cyclists, such as organizing daily rides throughout the month as well as premier events such as the very popular Chilly Hilly, Seattle-to-Portland, Ride Seattle to Vancouver and Party, and Ride Around Washington bike rides, to name a few.
The club has an education foundation that sponsors a lot of work in the community to get children and teen-agers involved in cycling. It also sponsors the bike-to-work day in the Puget Sound region and supports commuting bicyclists throughout the year.
On top of all of this, the club has been pushing for completion of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard, some sanity in the enforcement of traffic laws along the trail in the town of Lake Forest, support for the city's plans to implement road diets along some streets in Seattle, and countless other advocacy issues.
Acting exec
As part of the transition, board member Peter Morgan has left his position to become acting executive director of Cascade until an acting executive director can be chosen within the next several weeks. Then the board will launch a nationwide search for a new, fulltime executive director.
Morgan told the Seattle Times that there's been “some tension between the board and Chuck about a variety of management issues over a period of time.” He said the board will be seeking someone who can double the club's membership.
Since Ayers took over as executive director in 1997, the club's membership has grown from 4,500 to 13,000.
The Times says a 3- to 6-month search is expected to find someone to fill the executive director job, expected to pay $80,000 to $100,000.
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