While I knew that this project was likely to develop, change and grow, I had little to no preconception about how it would do this or with what cadence.
Cycling Culture Club has been live to you all for a little over a month, and while this fledgling concept finds its wings, I've welcomed the community's input, critique and most of all, questions.
It's the reason why I wanted to bring on contributors and why I'll continue to focus on growth in this area, as above all else, this space should be about community. Those shared voices should give inspiration to anyone who should land upon these pages and to do that for anyone, those that contribute to the success of CCC should be as diverse as possible.
So, the reason for this post, this open letter of sorts. Firstly, it's to give readers, of which we may have about 50 now (!) some guidance as to what this is all about, to help new contributors understand the ever-evolving pitch of CCC and to hold me accountable for the reasons I started this in the first place.
The mission
By now, I've carved this out 5 or 6 times, sometimes hacking off small chunks and other times letting the axe come cleaving through it all (Lots of analogies today, sorry). But I've landed on this, which while by no means final, I feel sets the scene nicely for what's to come;
Cycling Culture Club is a space where people from all walks of life can share their cycling stories. So that new people can feel represented in the cycling community from the moment they decide to enter it. A shared voice gives all a chance to speak and with that, may the stories of those poorly represented in cycling ring ever more loudly
I must thank the contributors who have come on board already, taking a chance on a somewhat vague but passionate pitch, because they have helped me refine that statement time and time again, each time I pitch it, and I like it better every time.
So what comes next?
This is not a business, this is a passion project, but anything that aims at some level of longevity needs some level of accountability. For me, I think this is committing to a few basic goals, to drop some pins on the timeline.
September 2023 - soft launch
November 2023 - publish the first articles from our contributors
December 2023 - Have onboarded 15-20 contributors
February 2024 - Release the first CCC newsletter
March 2024 - Release the first CCC podcast
This is all short-term - in my view - but all these objectives feel achievable for the limited resources I can offer the project.
In the long term, there is a bigger vision, one that's going to take the energy of more than just myself. I would love to see Cycling Culture Club grow to become somewhere somebody can go to find a pathway into cycling. Be that through finding a like-minded individual to ride with or discovering a community group with whom to take their cycling to the next level. There are tens, if not hundreds of amazing groups, doing incredible work across the globe and I would love to find a way to spotlight each and every one of them and open them each up to a global audience. A two-way benefit that ensures the community breeds community and that community is diverse and wonderful.
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