Randonneurs are often members of a local cycling club. One of the traditions of randonneuring is to display your club affiliation by wearing your club's jersey, cap, or other insignia at cycling events. When ride results are published, your local club affiliation is often displayed as well. Paris-Brest-Paris results, for example, include the club affiliations of riders rather than their home towns or other details.

Affiliation with a local cycling club is encouraged but not required for RUSA members. Those members who do not have a local club affiliation will be shown as being members of 'RUSA'.

Not all organizations meet the definition of being a local cycling club. In general, a local cycling club has the following attributes:

• it is a local organization, rather than a national or international one;
• it is primarily focused on cycling;
• it has a club leader, such as a President or Board of Directors;
• it has a published ride schedule (distribution via the web or e-mail is fine);
• it has set criteria that limit membership to a specific set of individuals, rather than just anyone who shows up; for example, members are those that pay membership dues, those that work at IBM, those who are cancer survivors, etc.

Some examples of organizations that you MAY NOT be able to claim as a club affiliation are:

• Clubs that exist in name only, for example 'Billy Bob's Saturday Cycling Buddies';
• National cycling leagues such as USA Cycling, League of American Bicyclists, Adventure Cycling, etc.;
• National or International organizations such as The Sierra Club, Greenpeace, etc.;
• Organizations that engage primarily in advocacy, fund-raising, or lobbying such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Friends of the East Coast Greenway, etc.
• Organizations that are not strictly bicycle clubs (such as a ski club that organizes a few bicycle rides in the summer).

The only reason for excluding these sorts of organizations is that they don't meet the definition of a local cycling club. Nothing in this policy should discourage you from joining whatever national, international, lobbying, or special-interest clubs that you wish. Furthermore, nothing in this policy prevents your local cycling club from affiliating with national cycling leagues or engaging in fund-raising or lobbying activities.

Another requirement is that your local cycling club cannot be the name of a local bike shop or a professional racing team. The ACP has a long-standing tradition of discouraging the display of corporate logos and professional team sponsorships at events. Instead, it encourages participants to 'show the colors' of their local cycling clubs.