CORBA’s Board of Directors recently voted to apply to the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s (IMBA) Chapter and Grass Roots Program. Initiated a little over a year ago, the program aims to help local clubs improve their grass roots efforts and community outreach by offering assistance with administrative duties that often drain a club’s energies better suited for advocacy. The program also offers clubs IMBA’s added resources and visibility. Ultimately the goal is to create a stronger, unified voice for mountain bikers by linking local clubs’ data bases.
As an IMBA Founding Club in 1988, CORBA sees this program as coming full circle. When IMBA was first founded, local clubs had no clout when approaching bicycle companies for monetary assistance with local land access concerns. IMBA’s goal was to create a national body that could then funnel funds to local clubs and their advocacy efforts. CORBA is proud and excited to become a member of this program.
IMBA is open to other clubs becoming chapter affiliates. The more groups there are with a cohesive message working locally the better. CORBA’s efforts, while significant, have become so widespread that our effectiveness has become spread thin. Our single club covers an area that could and should be handled by several clubs. While CORBA will maintain its involvement with Los Angeles and surrounding areas including Palos Verdes and Eastern Ventura County, we hope that the IMBA Chapter Program branches out into these areas as well.
Becoming an IMBA Chapter affiliate will not change CORBA’s local efforts and relationships with other advocacy groups and land managers. In fact, it will strengthen our efforts. We believe it is the next step in furthering shared use of our open space trails.
