PPA: How much funding should the association retain annually (i.e. not spend on cycling)?

[Icycling]

I have been asked by a fellow hubber to write something as an ex PPA committee (EXCO) member on why the PPA has managed to save so much cash that they now need to create an investment trust to hold this money for fear of a "hostile take over"!

 

Firstly, please remember that being on the EXCO is basically a voluntary JOB (yep it's a job and yes a small Honoraria is paid annually, and a few of the EXCO members donate to projects of their choice or donate back to PPA). Also please remember that although PPA is a non profit association (as a non profit association SARS does allow for a bit of saving) the EXCO can be held accountable for the way in which the money is spent by you the PPA member. Currently PPA is sitting on cash / investments which would be able to cover the annual cost of the organization for about 3 years - looking at the figures presented at the AGM.

 

How do we the members motivate the EXCO to spend more on cycling and less on investing? Given the current investment process, enough is invested annually to cover more than half a year's PPA running cost, even allowing for the EXCO to make a few bad decisions on how the money is spent.

 

How do the members motivate the EXCO to spend the money they receive on a annual basis, given that we are members now and as members we expect the full benefits of being members while we are members. I would possibly go as far as to say money not spent on cycling each year should become a rebate on the following year's membership fees! So if 1 million is not spent and their are 20 000 members then each member get a R50 discount on their membership fee. But the reality, and maybe I only speak for myself here, is that I would way prefer to see my R50 being spent on cycling! I certainly don't need to see it being saved indefinitely in case of a rainy day when I may no longer be alive or be a member of the association! I want the EXCO to invest as much as possible in all forms of cycling while I am a member (have been for 30 years), while still having a bit of reserve funding for future members. Right now my feeling is that the reserve funding is out of line to what is needed, while more can be done for cycling right now!

 

Area where (more) money could quite easily and wisely be spent - certainly in your post add your idea where you as members would like to see PPA improve cycling for all:

 

1. Road safety - I have said quite a bit in the post titled "Cyclist knocked down in St James this morning."

 

2. An integrated timing entry system - definitely possible! Imagine being able to arrive a fun ride without needing to do anything except have your timing chip and by crossing the timing mat you would have entered! Naturally there would be some entry tables for people without chips / 1st time cyclists - but all this man power could be re-deployed as marshals (I am a road racing cyclist) to help traffic flow.

 

3. I personally would love to see events like the Giro del Capo back on the PPA calendar and more spent on the PPA league racing - but if the money is been spent wisely on other cycling events, I can quite well understand why this would be at the bottom of the pile to a fun ride association - but I would definitely put it above money just being invested in case of a rainy day, as I do feel events like this offer the greater cycling community benefits.

 

Currently an extract from PPA front page:

 

"The Pedal Power Association is extremely saddened that a cyclist was killed this morning on our local roads.

 

The Cycle Tour was started 35 years ago as a protest ride to bring to the attention that very little was being done by the authorities for cyclists and in particular, their safety. So many years later and we are gradually seeing the number of incidents involving cyclists increasing, instead of decreasing due to drivers who still do not give cyclists the respect they deserve."

 

By creating an investment trust is the EXCO really serving cycling the way it should be with proceeds for the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay cycle tour? Could this not actually be called irresponsible behavior by the EXCO - given what the Chairman has stated in the above extract?

 

I personally feel that we the members need to guide the committee on how much they are allowed to invest in this investment trust and should instruct the EXCO to spend the rest wisely on cycling on a annual basis, or return the excess funds to the following years membership (yes this is a year out of date but would be the easiest way to implement it and hopefully motivate the EXCO to spend the money wisely).

[Bike Mob]

Bump

[GoLefty!!]

quite disappointing that only 10 people have voted yet so many are vocal on safety issues, FunRide issues, blah blah blah

[American Flyers]

Bring back Giro, Boland and Rapport Tour!!!

Can't PPA go out and find main sponsors for those races??? They have time...

Our racing need to be improved! More prize money!!

 

Block main road between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay. Throw cycling party!!

[Lucky Luke.]

Plus one for more money put into developing cycling.

 

My opinion - unless PPA can come forward with a convincing argument - ie. a long term strategy - which is made available to members and justifies investing this cash - ie. receives backing from members, it should be put to work asap with a reserve fund set aside for one year of zero income.

 

People are being knocked down and mugged NOW on our roads, with much more to come in the run-up to the Argus. Lets use the available funds to address this. Not to mention the lack of sponsorship for stage, league and fun races.

 

Thanks for the poll Peter.

[ccc2]

PPA should fund the following projects annually:

u16 multi stage race (with development element)

junior men multi stage race

Youth Cycling Festival (currently 1 in SWD & FreeState)

the above should then kick start schools cycling in the region

Multi stage tour for Eilte men

[Lucky Luke.]

Bump.

 

Do PPA members really care this little about how their fees are spent?

 

Please don't let me find any more threads complaining about PPA when nobody can be bothered to spend a few seconds voting on what a large (and I suspect quite large) repository of our own money should be spent on.

['Dale]

Yeah, Luke, me surprized too at the lack of engagement here.

 

I casted my vote.

Still thinking what would be cool.

 

Really like ccc2's suggestions.

[Shebeen]

Just voted, want to see PPA as the good guys. Not really impressed with the figures recently been thrown around about money spent on 'awareness', maybe i just go about my stuff with eyes closed but i think the cyclist needs more voice.

[Edge_Design]

Surely the government should be funding the safety campaigns and not us? Reduce the insane funride entry fee's (so that I can start riding in them again and so that you put something back into the PPA members rather than the "general cycling community") and then use the existing reserves for something more meaningful. I personally don't believe the safe cycling campaigns reach the non-cyclists at all (do you really think a bus driver is worried about a little sign saying cyclists are safe at 1.5m - if he even understands what it means?). Safe cycling shouldn't involve much funding, but rather education at the root of the problem - someone needs to go to the transport companies and arrange that training is provided for their drivers and you also need buy-in from the company that there will be penalties if their drivers don't follow the rules. Cars are generally small enough and maneuvarable enough that those accidents are generally caused by negligence and would not be helped by these campaigns.

 

If you can avoid wasting money on silly ineffective campaigns then use all the money you save there on buying 1000's of reliable bicycles for the people who can't afford them - this reduces the demand for buses and taxi's which helps safe cycling; gets more exposure for cycling as a form of commuting; improves the health of 1000's of South Africans; creates skills if you train a few people in the communities as mechanics to service those bikes (you need to provide backup as well as the intial investment!).

 

I didn't realise they were building reserves like that - I assumed there was some legitimate reason the costs of cycling keep increasing so dramatically! It wasn't that long ago that a funride cost R25 to enter (maybe 10 years?). Inflationary increases would put that around roughly R50 today - increases of 10%+ would only get you to about R70.

[Edge_Design]

Why do people want them to retain so much funding? If they receive no income for an entire year then they should be shut down immediately surely as they are obviously also not providing the service they were created to provide at that point? I reckon that's every company's dream to have reserves to cover all expenses for an entire year!

[Edge_Design]

PPA should fund the following projects annually:

u16 multi stage race (with development element)

junior men multi stage race

Youth Cycling Festival (currently 1 in SWD & FreeState)

the above should then kick start schools cycling in the region

Multi stage tour for Eilte men

 

What about me (i.e. the Average Joe cyclist)? We provide the majority of the fee's they earn and yet we should expect nothing in return? I don't want to build cycling in South Africa, I just want to enjoy my own cycling as much as possible and preferably at the lowest possible fee! Those are great idea's, but could be independently funded through sponsorships/entry fee/government/lottery etc and not by an NPO.

[andydude]

I voted. Reserve fund can be one year's fixed costs. As soon as it has been hit, ramp up projects and other causes.

 

They could even have a suggestion box for ideas.

[andydude]

Icycling - can you perhaps help with a short summary of the duties of WPCA and PPA? If we know these, we might be better to contribute as to what PPA ought to do.

[andydude]

It also doesn't help if questions are asked but no responses are given?

 

What I was trying to find out from my previous post is who is responsible for what. Is PPA responsible for racing, funrides, awareness or all three. What's the job of WPCA then? I think we need a clear structure of exactly who all the organisations in the Western Cape are for all the different categories (road, mtb, track, etc.), but I'm not sure who can draw that picture?

[Icycling]

Andydude - sorry have been on the road most of the day - so not been looking at the hub that much. Here is the link to the PPA constitution - I don't have a link to WPCA constitution

 

http://www.pedalpower.org.za/about-ppa/constitution-governance/