Sunday January 30, 2022 @ Kinship Brewing Company
About Velorosa's Winter Party & Member Meeting
Every January Velorosa Cycling Team holds it's annual Winter party and member meeting. It marks the start of the new year and cycling season for the team. It's a chance for returning and new members to connect off the bike, celebrate our accomplishments for the previous year and hear about the planned activities for the team in the coming year.
This year's event was hosted by our team sponsor, Kinship Brewing. We couldn't have asked for a better spot to come together but with ample space to spread out! Kinship also treated us to their new catering menu which included a variety of dips, fruit, vegetables, appetizers, dinner and more to accompany the tasty selection of beers and beverages.
Meeting Minutes & Discussion:
Take Note -> We did video the meeting but due to some technical difficulties we're unable to get the file to upload at this time, despite several efforts. We have enabled a "Go Live" feature on our website for future virtual viewing options and apologize the video won't be available at this time.
Meet your 2022 Velorosa Executive Board
The meeting started with team founders Kim Hopkins and Karolyn Zeller sharing our team currently consists of over 120 members and then introduced the 2022 Velorosa Board and sharing about their history with the team and accomplishments of note.
Erika York - (President ) Joined Velorosa in 2010, has raced road, time trials and gravel. Erika is also a licensed USAC official, she can answer all things race related! Erika has been a member of the board for 5yrs.
Rose Willey - (Vice President) Joined in 2015, has raced road, time trials, gravel and a passion for ultra distances. Rose also is the force behind our website, designed our current team kits and a go to for memership and the team app. This is Rose's 3rd year on the board.
Deanne Herr - (Treasurer) - Deanne joined 2016 she rides gravel, time trials and ultra distances as well. She is our resident badass Grandma, setting course records in time and distance most recently at the HooDoo 500 where she dominated both the men and women's field to win overall. This is also Deann's 3rd year on the board.
Krystyn Williams (Secretary) - Joined in 2018, she rides road and gravel including doing the Break the Cycle 200 and a Spotted Horse 150 gravel finisher! Krystyn is a teacher in the Des Moines school system and is excited to join the board this year.
Barb Bremner (Communication) Joined in 2021 and dove into team rides with the goal to learn to be an independent self sufficient cyclist riding road, trail, gravel and more! We're excited to have Barb join the Velorosa board this year!
Thank you to Kim Hopkins & Karolyn Zeller
As we introduce two new board members, we want to take time to thank and acknowledge our retiring board members Kim & Karolyn, who are original founding members of Velorosa cycling team. Without their vision, leadership and guidance during the last 15 years, our team wouldn't exist. Their contributions to womens cycling in Des Moines and Iowa have been impactful in so many ways. we’re grateful to them for passing the leadership and the future of our team to the next generation!
I AM VELOROSA
After the board hellos and goodbyes we kicked things off announcing a new theme for this year, #iamvelorosa
"I Am Velorosa" highlights all of the awesome women cyclists who make up our team. We have different experience levels, interests, cycling disciplines and more but together we are all VELOROSA! The big reveal of this year's theme and t-shirt design was alot of fun as board members took off their jackets and made a group declaration!
Recognizing Our Sponsors 2021 & 2022
We're grateful for our wonderful team sponsors, each year they #showup for our team and the Des Moines Cycling community. Please consider patronizing their businesses. This year we welcome a brand new Velorosa Cycling Team sponsor Peace Tree Brewing Company and welcome back a past sponsor, Thirsty Pigs!
Velorsa's 2022 Sponsors Are:
Bastion Capital GroupBeth Montpas, Life CoachBody In Motion Therapeutic Massage, Capt Roy’s, Cumming Tap, DSM Financial, Iowa Distillery, Jasper Winery, Kinship Brewing Company, Peace Tree Brewing Company, Pigott Office Furniture, RYLU Bike & Be You, Sakari Sushi, T-shirt Graphix, Velorosa Cycling Apparel and Thirsty Pigs.
Visit our Sponsor's page for details and links to their sites and businesses!
Team Sign Up & Liability Waivers for 2022
We will continue to use our website for signing up and renewing team membership. New this year, you will indicate interest for committees and volunteer service preferences:
2022 Committees
Fun Ride
Summer Party
Weekly Training Ride
Volunteer
New Members
Communications
We’ll follow up post party to finalize committee members and roles, several indicated continuing as committee heads and/or want to lead, let a board member know of your interest! We've tentatively scheduled an all committees meeting for Wed Feb 16th at Peace Tree Brewing to kick of the year.
Reminder - Liability waivers MUST be completed yearly by all team members. So if you recently renewed, you still have to compelte the form for 2022.
BONUS! Everyone who completes their liability waiver and renews membership before February 14 will be entered to win a ticket Wine, Women & Shoes charity function Wednesday May 11th. The ticket is a $175 value and you will be seated at the Velorosa table with other team members in attendance.
Social Media, Blogs & Communication
Keep taking and posting photos/selfies when visiting our sponsors and posting n Social Media is the best way to thank and promote their businesses and our club! Use #iamvelorosa on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
Post photos from races and events to your private pages and tag the Velorosa Cycling Team page (@Velorosa Cycling team) as it’s nice for the community to see what we are doing!
Use the private team Facebook group for things only team members need to know about ie: team rides, team related questions, who's racing or riding what for the weekend etc.
We want your stories for your blog! If you have an interest in sharig about an event, your journey in cycling, your favorite bike gear and more we are looking for team bloggers and storytellers. Reach out to Barb to get started!
2022 Kit Ordering
Same kit design as 2021, a fit kit is available through Rose to tryon until 2/7. We are offering a new Mtn bike shirt option and will have a slim fit and standard fit for jerseys. Slim fit is shorter in the waist, tighter/tailed fit. Standard fit is the same design as last years fit, seems to be longer and roomier in the waist.
Ordering online will start mid February, look for an email and an announcement in Facebook. BE SURE TO READ THE WHOLE EMAIL. It contains all the details but if after reading you still have questions, feel free to reach out to Rose for help. REMEMBER... this is the only time of year we order kits!
A casual apparel order inclduing "iamvelorosa" team shirts, sweatshirts etc will be in March. Ordering will take place on our team website store. We will send out an email and post in the private Facebook group when the store opens!
Velorosa Volunteers
We recognized (team blogger) Linh Ta and Kristi Herrold (Break the Cycle/Summer Party) for their volunteer efforts in 2021 by awarding them their own "iamvelorosa" shirts.
We continue to ask our members to “on their honor” donate 4 hours to something cycling, fitness or health related in 2022. By all Velorosa team members participatig, this gives our community over 500 hours of free “woman power.”
New this year;
When you renew your membership, there is a place to indicate your volunteer preferences and we can match you with opportunities or you can volunteer on your own
A form is now on our website that you sumbit to get credit for your hours and be recognized! Visit www.velorosacyclingteam.com/volunteer
We'll be adding volunteer opportunities to the page as well for those lookig for places or groups to get started!
Some things we did in 2021 to help the community:
Donations to UBFM and Dream Team from Sip & Drop. Velorosa team members volunteered at several races, were Break the Cycle as aid station workers as well as riders tackling the 25, 50 and 100 mile ride challenges and raised more that $500 for this event.
Even in 2021 with not many events happening, we still donated over an estimated 400 hours to these events!
Sip & Drop - Collected community donations of gear and money for the Des Moines Dream Team and Urban Bicycle Food Ministry.
2022 Calendar of Events
New for 2022 is our calendar of events page where we've already begun placing events for the upcoming year. Some dates and details are still being finalized but you can bookmark this page and check back for the updates!
Some of the fun things we've got planned so far include a new member meet up, Pink Week, UBFM night, Jasper Winery Summer Concert series Ride, Sip & Swap, Rosa on the River at Roy's, MTB/Fat Bike Dirt Clinic, Fall Bike Camping and MORE!
We're also excited (and judging from the enhthusiastic applause we got at the meeting) to announce the return of the Velorosa "team only" Monday night rides! Tentatively slated to begin in April and run through September. More to come on that so stay tuned!
Here are a few other rides, races and events you may want to put on your calendar that our team likes to participate in;
BRR Ride - Feb 5
Firetrucker Adventure Bike Talk with Rose Willey - Feb 23
CIRREM - Feb 26
Gents Race - April 2
INDY 50 - May 14
Velorosa Summer Party - June 4
Break the Cycle Challenge - June 11
Tour of the Mississippi River Valley - June 11
Iowa Gravel Classic - July 2
Tour of Central Iowa - August 12-14
Gravel Worlds - August 20
Redfield Rock & Roll - September 10
Spotted Horse Gravel - October 22
Recognition & Recapping 2021
Closing out our meeting this year, we asked members to stand and be recognized starting with new/first time racers and including gravel racing, road/time trials, ultra cycling, triathalon, mountain bike, charity riders and finally beer biking/party riders. As we got to the end of the list, everyone was standing and it was pretty fantastic to look around the room and see all the uniquely wonderful women on their feet cheering for each other, declaring "I am Velorosa!" We handed out some new team stickers with the theme "iamvelorosa" to all who attended. If you missed the party but want a sticker for your bike, helmet or wherever don't worry, we will continue to hand these out at future rides and events so all you have to do is #showup to get one! Our evening of camraderie and celebration came to an end with the 2021 slideshow, created by Karolyn Zeller which highlighted all the fun, achievements and memories from last year.
Watch the Slideshow!
We hope you're as excited as we are to ride together in 2022 and ready to declare ....
"I AM VELOROSA! "
Your Velorosa Board,
Erika, Rose, Deanne, Krystyn & Barb
P.S. Did you watch the slideshow all the way through... after the sponsor credits?? ;-)
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