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Building Sale Discussion Area / Re: Questions for Management

« on: December 24, 2025, 06:52:58 am »

Another question for ACA:

What steps is ACA taking to win back the many long-time and/or life members who have slowed or stopped their support (in donations, estate plans, etc.) because of their dismay with the recent management/leadership of the organization? Sure, many among this group have "aged out" and no longer bicycle, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have stopped supporting bicycling or bicycle touring for others.

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Building Sale Discussion Area / Re: Questions for Management

« on: December 19, 2025, 07:17:51 am »

Over the past few years, I have sent several emails to leadership voicing my concerns about ACA. I have suggested that in addition to reaching out to younger cyclists, they make an effort to market to the 50+ age group since this group has the time and money to do long-distance touring. I have spoken to many life-long members who have felt ignored by ACA management, certainly not reflected on the ACA web pages or articles in Adventure Cyclists. I even wrote to them about my concerns regarding the building sale and noted I would withhold donations to ACA.

I've never heard from ACA after these communications and never gotten the sense that leadership is listening to the life-long members. Their communications on the building sale and the subsequent vote have not given fair air time to the passionate members who oppose the sale. The ED/Board emails are dismissive of the Save ACA group, not even acknowledging that perhaps this group does have legitimate ideas on how to get ACA out of the current difficulties. Leadership could have reached out with an olive branch, but instead sent out a very off-putting email about the re-vote.

The huge drop in membership can't all be attributed to "ageing out" - I blame ACA leadership/board for poor management, forgetting the core mission, and for not doing more to nurture the relationship with their dedicated, long-time (and life) members.

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: September 12, 2025, 06:32:34 pm »

ACA posted their 2026 tours -- only 20 tours. I think this will kill membership since many people join to do a tour (you have to be a member of ACA to do an ACA tour).

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: July 06, 2025, 05:05:18 pm »

The cost of printing the pages with ads exceeded the revenue the ads were bringing in and they couldn't charge any more for the ads since this would have driven away the companies.

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: July 02, 2025, 03:32:55 pm »

Another opinion piece about the sale:

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/opinion-analysis/2025/06/30/diane-jenks-industry-needs-adventure-cycling

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: June 29, 2025, 05:33:03 pm »

Apparently, there was an article in a Missoula news site about the pending sale.

Jessica Zephyrs, VP of Marketing and Communications at Adventure Cycling Association, is quoted as saying:

"To anyone who loves this building for what it is and loves Adventure Cycling, my call to action is to donate to support the organization right now as we're experiencing these trying times...And then also, if there's a donor that loves this building, please buy it. That would be wonderful."

Seems strange to ask for a donor to buy this building when it was originally purchased by member donations.

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General Discussion / Re: "Lifetime member" status?

« on: March 27, 2025, 12:35:34 pm »

My hard copy of the spring Adventure Cyclist just arrived in the mail today.

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General Discussion / Re: "Lifetime member" status?

« on: March 27, 2025, 11:01:29 am »

Lot of staffing cuts recently so email responses have been pretty slow. I second the recommendation to call them - Geoff who answers the phone is pretty helpful.

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General Discussion / Re: "Lifetime member" status?

« on: March 26, 2025, 08:42:53 pm »

The first of the year digital version of the Adventure Cyclist just came out so I would expect the hard copy to arrive after that (since snail mail takes longer!)

There have been several member emails this year so if you haven't received any, you should contact ACA to see if there has been a mix-up with your email address.

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General Discussion / Re: ACA Donation Requests

« on: November 25, 2024, 05:32:28 pm »

New tiered membership levels: https://www.adventurecycling.org/join/

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General Discussion / ACA Donation Requests

« on: November 25, 2024, 04:36:27 pm »

Is it my imagination or are members being inundated with donation requests? I don't remember receiving so many emails from ACA past years asking for money!

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General Discussion / Re: Updated ACA website and 5 year plan

« on: August 09, 2024, 08:03:01 am »

I agree that ACA needs to do more to recruit new members, but focusing exclusively on the young will not accomplish this. Workshops to get high school and college students interested in bikepacking/touring will not get new members - they will not join ACA (yet). ACA should do more to get the 50+ demographic interested in touring - it is this group that has the time/money to do the Guided Experiences that ACA offers. Maybe workshops targeted to this group, including introductions to gravel riding.

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General Discussion / Re: Updated ACA website and 5 year plan

« on: June 29, 2024, 05:27:08 pm »

I agree that ACA feels "different" than several years ago. And the migration to the new web server is still not complete: there are old webpages or "Page not found." I inquired about not being able to fiind a map in my account that I had purchased, and they were not able to get it for me. I find ACA's communication with members has gone downhill and like John, have been considering removing ACA from my estate plans.

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