Recent Announcements

RUSA at Philadelphia Bike Exposition on March 8-9th

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Tue, 02/25/2025 - 08:48
Come and join our "Randonneurs USA Bike Party Peloton" and celebrate our community at the 14th annual Philadelphia Bike Exposition on March 8-9th, 2025:
 
  • 107k Populaire hosted by the Pennsylvania Randonneurs on March 8th at 8:00 am led by Ello Shertzer, details and sign up here.
So mark your calendar, plan your trip and come visit us in Philadelphia on March 8-9th, 2025.  And mention (in any of these avenues to any of our volunteers) "I LOVE OUR BIG TENT OF RANDONNEURING & RANDONNEURS USA" and you will receive a special gratitude gift from Randonneurs USA.  
 
The 2025 Randonneurs USA Philadelphia Bike Expo Commission includes the following members:
Deb Banks 
Lisa Charlebois
Nigel Greene 
Josh Haley
Jake Kassen
Jonathan Karpick
Paul Kramer
Brad Layman
Chris Newman
Emily O'Brien
Dawn Piech
Ello Shertzer
Mac Vergara

Susan Gryder awarded 2024 American Randonneur Award!

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Fri, 01/17/2025 - 18:50

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that the 2024 American Randonneur Award was just awarded to Susan Gryder (#9931).  

Susan has been a member of Randonneurs USA since 2014, volunteering and supporting events for all three Florida regions, from 200k to 1600k and everything in between.  She manages a major part of the RUSA store and exemplifies the “unsung hero” RUSA volunteer. Susan steps up to the plate whenever that’s required.  

Additional details will be in the next issue of our American Randonneur magazine as well as the February issue of Between Controls, our monthly newsletter.  
 

 Susan Gryder

2025 RUSA Officers

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Thu, 01/09/2025 - 09:59

The Board has elected the following as 2025 Officers:

President - Dave Thompson

Vice President - Dawn Piech

Secretary - Gardner Duvall

Treasurer - Lois Springsteen (not a Board member)*

Non-Officer Board members: Bill Bryant, John Lee Ellis, Charlie Martin, and Chris Argo (RBA Liaison)

* President, VP, and Secretary must be Board members. Treasurer can be someone not on the Board.

Unpaved Distance Credit for Team Events

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Fri, 12/27/2024 - 11:08

Starting 1/1/2025, finishers will get credit for unpaved distance on team events (Flèche, Arrow, Dart, and Dart Populaire). The credit will work the same as for brevets and other events, and permanents.

Team Event organizers will compile the unpaved distance that each team actually rode when submitting results. The Team Events page has been updated to reflect this.

 team event pin

 

American Randonneur Award - nominee deadline 12/15

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Wed, 12/11/2024 - 17:17

Each year current RUSA members can nominate another current RUSA member to be considered for the American Randonneur of the Year award. To nominate someone, you need to submit an explanation of why they should be considered, by Dec. 15th. Once those nominations are received, the *incoming* board (those on the board on January 1st) will discuss, consider and vote on who should get the award.

The person you wish to nominate needs to be a current RUSA member in good standing. The board will only vote on nominations for RUSA members who are not currently on the board during the nomination period or not on the board when it reviews, discusses and votes on the recipient for that year. You can still nominate someone that fits that description, but any nominations for someone on the board at those times will be held over until that person is eligible.

Nominations without supporting statements will not be considered, so take the time to explain why you feel they should be nominated.

For more information on the award, a link to where to send your nomination and supporting statement, and a list of past recipients, please go to this page.

Gender Designation Survey - RUSA Needs Your Input

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Mon, 12/02/2024 - 09:11

Randonneurs USA (RUSA) and Audax Club Parisien have historically collected gender data to understand demographics. Over time, it became clear that limiting gender options to Male and Female was insufficient. In 2020, RUSA added a third category to cover non-binary/decline-to-state. 

Currently, the awards listings on the website and in our quarterly American Randonneur magazine show an F designation for those who have chosen Female. Members can already opt out of having their gender designation appear on awards listings by choosing non-binary/decline-to-state. We intend to make changes to gender data collection in 2025.  We want to take this opportunity to get your input. These revisions are as follows: 

  1. Splitting the non-binary/decline-to-state category into multiple distinct categories.
  2. Adding privacy settings that will allow members to decide whether or not their gender designation is shown on awards listings, independent of their selected gender option. So for example members can select "Female" instead of "Decline to state" and opt out of having gender designation appear on awards listings.

NOTE: This is a survey, not a vote.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to us at board@rusa.org or any individual Randonneurs USA board member.

Thank you for your time and providing input to this survey. 

► RUSA Gender Designation Survey

  

 

Election Results for 2025 RUSA Board of Directors and RBA Liaison

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Sun, 12/01/2024 - 17:46

RUSA is pleased to announce that John Lee Ellis and Charlie Martin have been elected to serve 3-year terms on the Board of Directors and that Chris Argo has been elected, by acclamation, as RBA Liaison for 2025. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the other candidates who stood for election. A special thanks, also, to Vincent Muoneke, who will be stepping down at the end of the year, and to Rob Hawks, who will be stepping down as RBA Liaison after a number of highly productive years, but will be continuing as Brevet Coordinator chair, on the Membership Committee and as RBA of CA: San Francisco, our largest region. The election results are as follows:

For Regular Board Positions:

John Lee Ellis 287
Paul Kramer 215
Charlie Martin 402
Pierre Moreels 172
Number of voters 614


 

Many thanks to Don Hamilton for managing this election.

2025 Board Election - Voting Begins Nov 1

Submitted by John Lee Ellis on Tue, 10/29/2024 - 08:53

The RUSA board election is almost upon us.  At 9am Eastern on Nov 1, assuming no glitches, members will receive an email from the election tool that we're using this year to cast their vote for up to two of the five candidates for two open 3-year-term board positions. 

The candidates are here:  2025 RUSA Board Candidates

The RBA Liaison position is also open but Chris Argo was the only nominee so he's in by acclamation.  Please join me in welcoming Chris to the RUSA Board. The RBAL term is one year.  Rob Hawks is already starting to get Chris up to speed.

The RUSA Bylaws never stipulated that there would be an election for the RBAL, only that the RBAs would appoint one of their number.  We've traditionally handled that through a vote, even when there was only one candidate.  We made some changes to that section of the bylaws to clarify how vacant positions are handled and, in particular, acclamation for the RBAL position.

Don Hamilton will be handling questions that are directed to election@rusa.org.  That's the role that Johnny Bertrand has played for a number of years.  Like Johnny, Don will triage the questions as appropriate.