Chapter News from BV NEMBA's President, Rich Kordell (Reprinted from NEMBA Single Tracks, October, 2005)

I missed the deadline for getting our Chapter notes into the prior edition of Singletracks and got some grief from our membership. Sorry. (At least it’s good to know that someone reads this, Joe.) So let me catch up, in reverse chronological order with a few of the chapter events. There’ve been several happenings, most good, but one not so good, for the Blackstone Valley Chapter.

If you look at the masthead above, you may notice a change or two. I’ve taken on the role of Treasurer and we’ve named John Vosburg as Vietnam Rep. That’s because one of the founders of Blackstone Valley NEMBA, Mitch Steinberg, has packed up his bikes and headed off with Jeannie to ride the trails of New Mexico. Mitch was also the first chairman of the Vietnam Land Management Committee and in that role carefully planned a blueprint that will ensure the happiness of the riders of our trail network. Mitch was also one of my closest riding buddies and technical experts so will be missed even more when I’m looking for a spontaneous after work ride or advice on bike parts. Fortunately, he’ll be staying active in Blackstone Valley as our webmaster.

Speaking of Vietnam, the VLMC hosted a trail building event there on June 11. We had a great turnout of 40 plus people who earned good karma through their sweat equity in the sweltering heat. Nearly a mile of nicely flowing trails and some of the wildest, well designed technical features I’ve ever seen were sculpted by the work crews.

Rich