NER Board Candidates for 2015

Tsun Au Yeung
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I got introduced to the sport of randonneuring in 2012 and I have been enjoying all the NER has to offer since (Thanks Lynda B!). My initial interest was to train myself to eventually be able to do some bike touring, then gradually evolved into some personal challenges to better by fitness level (albeit it is only for my legs) and more importantly training my mental strength to accomplish what seems to be impossible (so far that seems to be 400K or longer rides). I worked as a volunteer for couple brevets in the past 3 seasons and I enjoyed greeting the riders at check point (See a very happy picture of me at Petersham, MA working at a checkpoint for the Tweedo 300K, adjacent to this introduction). I am very thankful for all the adventures NER provided to me in the last couple years. I would like to give back to the New England randonneuring community by serving as a board member of NER. A little bit about my riding: I enjoy rides that features quiet back roads and hot beverages. You are likely to see me on the road (or hear my thermos vibration in one of my bottle cage for that matter) heading to a cafe of my choice.
Sarah Bergstrom
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I've been an avid transportation and recreational cyclist my entire life, but only got into randonneuring recently. It drew me with its focus on challenge without competition, and I've had a wonderful time on NER brevets both as a rider and as a volunteer over the past two years.

I'd like to help the club continue and expand the range of rides, both in terms of new challenges for experienced riders and more beginner options to help new riders feel comfortable trying out randonneuring.
Frank CalabreseI have been a RUSA member since 2007, completed PBP in 2011 and intend to ride it in 2015. I have been riding NER events for several years and would like to contribute more to the organization. I can offer 20+ years business experience, an MBA, moderate mechanical skills, and make a passable bolognese.
Jon Doyle
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I completed my first brevet in 2008 and have been infatuated with the sport since that spring. I have lived most of my life in New England, and traversed much of it on a bicycle. My interests include art, yoga, bird watching, reading graphic novels, camping and canoeing. My favorite rides are those with some dirt roads and exhaustive laughter. I work as a graphic designer in Boston.
There is a great randonneuring community in New England and I would like to help it grow. I'm eager to bring others to the sport, so they may find great friends and experiences.
Dan GreeneI started cycling in the summer of 2006 after spending 9 months riding an exercise bike to lose weight and have never looked back. I rode my first century that fall (The Sea Coast Century). The weather report was for occasional showers. It poured all day long, with a 20 mph wind from the south (head wind for the last 40 miles). I was grateful when a kind rider came by and suggested I tuck in behind him for the last 5 miles. Little did I realize that this was my first taste of randonneuring.

I rode a lot of century rides over the next several years and discovered randonneuring when I rode the Great River Ride. It wasn’t until several years later that I discovered that there was a Boston series in addition to the Westford series. I rode my first Boston Brevet in 2011. I had ambitions to ride the PBP and was planning to ride the full series, but had conflicts on several ride days, so I ended up volunteering and pre-riding. I enjoyed working the rides and liked all the people I worked with. Though I was not able to complete the series (so far 300K seems to be my limit), I was hooked.

Since then I have both ridden and worked many rides. Last August I completed my first R12 (12 consecutive months of riding at least one brevet or permanent of 200K or more). In 2013, I joined the board as Equipment Manager and took on the task of organizing and updating equipment and supplies to make it easier for the people supporting rides.

Last December, I took over as President of NER and have been primarily working to manage the business side of the organization. As a member of the board, my primary focus will continue to be making certain that we have support for the people generously volunteering their time to run and support rides.
Jake KassenI have been involved with NER since the group's inception as the webmaster and as of this past winter as the RBA as well. In addition to the website I also wrote a management system which greatly simplified the paperwork involved with running rides and submitting results. In the next year I'd like to see a continuation of the improvements made in 2014 and continue to offer enjoyable long rides to the cyclists of New England.
Chris KnightonLike many, I originally got into randonneuring through touring. In summer 2011, I rode a five day tour through New England, a ride which was at that point far longer than anything I had previously done. Despite the many nice places to stop along the route, I found it more appealing to ride throughout the entire day and see how far I could travel under my own power before dark. It was on this tour that I rode my first century.... and then repeated the distance the next few days! After finishing my tour, I started searching the web about long distance touring, and discovered what randonneuring was and that NER organizes rides that start just a few towns away from home! As the Boston season was at this point over, I made note of the club and looked forward to spring...

Jumping forward seven or eight months, I wrote out and sent a check to NER to ride the whole SR series. I probably had ridden 200k before, or close to it, but the rest would be new. Some people thought I was stupid, but it sounded fun, challenging, and I paid, so there was no turning back. One by one the rides came and gone, each one being more daunting than the next, until all rides were completed and I was a "super randonneur" in 2012. Well, that was fun. I met a lot of great people that year, and think I was probably one of the youngest people at 23/24 years old to ride an SR series in recent history... NER or otherwise.... Since then, randonneuring has become my favorite sport. In 2013, I rode almost every ride NER offered in MA and VT, and rode my first 1200K, The Endless Mountains 1240k in PA. This year, I spent most of the year thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, so I didn't ride or help with any brevets but I'm very excited to get back involved in 2015.

As member of the board, I hope to give back for all the support NER and the many volunteers in randonneuring have given and continue to give me. The following are a few ideas I would like to work on:

Seeing the current monthly permanent series continue, and possibly expanding on it with new riding opportunities and new routes. I am also interested in setting up a monthly 200k permanent schedule to allow riders to achieve the RUSA R-12 award, or to just keep randonneuring through the winter.

Organizing more frequent NER social and discussion events. I believe these will grow participation, ridership, and people's feeling of being in a "club".

Encouraging more young people (<35 or so) to start randonneuring or to ride distances beyond the 200km.

Looking forward to another wonderful year of rando.
Melinda Lyon
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I have been involved in randonneuring since 1990. I have run the 100K the last 5 years and continue to participate in many of the NER events.

I think that NER has always had a dedicated bunch with very low DNF rates. We sign up and stick to it!

2015 is a PBP year. It would be nice to see a strong group in Paris after completing a rugged NER series. Hopefully we can have a couple of social events in 2015 to introduce riders to NER, PBP, and other events(BMB permanent) and to do our favorite thing outside of riding-talking about riding!
Anthony MennonaI have a great appreciation for what NER offers to randonneurs in our area. Having a more than full brevet calendar throughout New England each year is amazing. And having each brevet well run makes riding any NER brevet very much worthwhile. If elected as a member of the board I would work to grow the membership base of NER & will look for opportunities to have rides offered in even more areas throughout our region. I believe that offering brevets in different regions throughout New England helps to introduce randonneuring to new riders and keeps current riders interested with rides through new areas.

A bit about myself: I live with my wife & daughter in Montpelier, Vermont. I am the Finance Director for a non-profit organization which supports a sustainable economy in Vermont. I ride year-round & most enjoy the quiet dirt roads throughout Central Vermont. It has been a pleasure to showcase some of these great roads on our Vermont brevets & to share them with riders from New England & throughout the country who join us each year.

I began riding brevets in New England in 2006, taking part in the final edition of Boston-Montreal-Boston that year. I've volunteered for NER brevets since 2010, have been a ride leader since 2011 and became the Vermont ride coordinator in 2014. For 2015 I've scheduled a Vermont-New Hampshire-Maine 1000k brevet which I am very much looking forward to. Stay tuned for more details on this ride...

I hope to have the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors of NER & to give back to an organization which has given so much to me over the years. Thanks for considering me as a member of the NER Board of Directors!
Emily O’BrienI've been riding brevets for around eight years, and long distances for longer. I've ridden brevets in several regions of the US as well as France and Germany. I'm also a daily commuting cyclist and the maker of bags for long distance cycling. I rode my first brevets with the Boston series, and more recently have served on the board of New England Randonneurs as Volunteer Coordinator, as well as volunteering on several events. I'm running for the board because I want to help randonneuring in New England thrive and attract new riders, while maintaining our traditional friendly and noncompetitive atmosphere. In the coming year I hope we can foster community with more after-ride social events, and increase the variety of rides and start locations by enticing more club members to lead rides. I look forward to another year of supporting New England Randonneurs.
Dan ShinnickI'm 38 years old. Husband and father of three. My dad and I rode our bikes together when I was younger. We still talk about the ride that took us to the galley hatch in Portsmouth for lunch from our home in Lynn. Or the Tour de Cure century we did the same summer... Both on mountain bikes no less! People must have thought we were crazy! Back then 100 miles in a single day seemed like the accomplishment of a lifetime.

Riding with NER I've extended the distances some. I've led rides. I am a new permanent route owner. As a board member I would hope to foster and encourage others to experience meet their goals and set new ones. I also want very much to see New England randonneuring be held in esteem on par with that of clubs from Seattle, Santa Barbara, San Diego, the Carolinas and Colorado. To become a destination for the sport. In a part of the country rich in history and especially as the home of the BMB, it deserves no less.
Tom WorsterI have a couple of years of experience on the board of NER serving as Clerk. I’m not always on time with minutes but I keep our state mandated paperwork in shape and NER uses my home as its legal address.

I was a keen rando in 2006 and 2007 and did BMB and PBP. Since 2008 I focused on racing with track being my main interest 20010-12. This year I’ve been trying to convert myself to crits.

In 2015 I want to see two things. First, grow ridership. With the Epic fashion being #1 in the market at the moment, we should be very busy. We ought to be able to use our long hard routes, long heritage, euroness, steel lugs, crusty eccentrics and retro fetish very effectively in marketing NER rides. Second, we need to establish a new Treasurer using financial management processes that are integrated with Jake’s management web app.