The RUSA Membership Office announces the availability of the new RUSA Online Membership Services. RUSA is now able to accept membership renewals online with payment by PayPal or by check. New memberships and change-of-address requests can also be accepted with the interface.

RUSA wishes to thank everyone who volunteered to help with our newsletter, American Randonneur. We're grateful for such an eager willingness to help from a terrific group of volunteers. We are in the process of developing a strong committee to take on this important role. Thank you all very much.

We are pleased to report that Rob Hawks has been elected and that Eric Vigoren has been reelected to the RUSA Board of Directors. John Lee Ellis has been reelected as the RBA Liaison. The vote tally was:

Brenda Barnell	107
Jonathan Berk	47
*Rob Hawks	126
Paul Johnson	95
*Eric Vigoren	196
John Lee Ellis	7

We express our thanks to all of the candidates who stood for election this fall.

Janice Chernekoff has generously volunteered to edit a volume of PBP 2011 American stories and memories. Fortunately, her colleague and desktop publishing expert, Amy Brien, has graciously agreed to help with the design of the volume. We are pleased, therefore, to solicit PBP 2011 stories, photos and other art work that you think suitable for inclusion. Please try to select stories that have not been widely published elsewhere. All submissions must be submitted by December 31, 2011. We hope to have the volume ready for publication not later than mid-June 2012. Electronic submissions are preferred. Questions and submissions can be sent to Janice Chernekoff at editor@rusa.org. Please title all inquiries and submission with an appropriate subject line such as PBP Submission. We look forward to hearing from you.

Board elections are happening now until October 15. You can find a copy of the ballot and the candidate statements HERE.

Candidates in RUSA's 2011 Board of Directors election are:

• Brenda Barnell
• Jonathan Berk
• Rob Hawks
• Eric Vigoren
• Paul Johnson

The position of RBA Representative to the Board becomes available each year.

The candidate for the position of RBA Representative in the 2011 election is John Lee Ellis.

Candidates' statements, along with ballots and instructions for voting, will be included in the next quarterly issue of the American Randonneur and on the RUSA website.

Two positions on the RUSA Board of Directors will become available at the end of the year. Members may nominate two current RUSA members to run for those two positions. The General Membership List is available for viewing online at www.rusa.org. A nomination form is included in the May 2011 issue of the American Randonneur. You can find the nomination form online HERE. To submit your nominations, please mail the form to:

 Mark Thomas Brevet Coordinator 13543 160th Ave NE Redmond, WA 98052 

The nominations deadline is July 15. Nominations must be received by that date.

Introducing the long-awaited RUSA high-visibility, reflective cycling vest as part of the RUSA Safety in Cycling program. Lightweight, snug, stretchy, and comfy. Full zip, elastic waistband and RUSA logo on the front. Imported from France and PBP approved. Meets the EN 471 and EN 1150 High Visibility standards. Pre-order online by May 15. Expect delivery by July 31. Yellow only. Available in sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL. $30.00 each.

A new wiki has been created for PBP riders to share information. The site contains PBP map information, detailed information about PBP preregistration status, and more. Take a look and add your contributions to: http://pbpwiki.rusa.org/.

Just a friendly reminder. PBP2011 pre-registration starts this weekend for riders who rode an ACP 1000km brevet or an RM 1200km (or longer) brevet in 2010. (Actually 11/2009-10/2010).

The instruction page for PBP pre-registration includes the pre-registration schedule.

The instructions indicate that riders will need rider affiliation, rider license number and homologation number of longest 2010 brevet, but I'm fairly certain that for riders' whose affiliation is "Foreign" (i.e., non-France), the rider license number is inapplicable.

RUSA members can find the homologation numbers of any 2010 US ACP (200, 300, 400, 600, 1000) or RM (1200 or longer) events by results search on RUSA website. Homologation numbers for non-US RM events can be found at http://www.lesrandonneursmondiaux.org/homologations2011.html. For non-US ACP events, riders will probably need to consult the event organizers.

For clarity - note that the ACP uses the term "homologation number" and the RUSA results search function will give you a "Cert. No." for your brevet result. These are the same thing.

For a 2010 1000km brevet, it's probably a number in the 6000s. For a 2010 RM 1200km+ brevet, its a number in the 4000s. In the case of an RM brevet, please just use the numeric part (ignore the leading "US-") when pre-registering.

Bengt from Sweden posted today that you will indicate your choice of start time at pre-registration but that it can be changed with the final registration in June.

You'll need a credit card for the pre-registration deposit and your certificate number. I think that the registration is supposed to open on 4/3 at midnight, which would be the previous afternoon here. No need to rush, however, because it's not possible for the US quota to fill up this weekend. We just didn't have that many 1000/1200 riders.

Mark Thomas