In response to the previously proposed membership fee increase, Cycling BC has carefully reviewed its operations and expenses and is putting forward an updated proposal to its members.

Your Cycling BC Board strongly supports Option 1, which we regard as the minimum necessary to cover much-inflated operating costs and which retains an excellent insurance package for Cycling BC events and protects our members 24/7.

Voting will be open to 2022 Cycling BC members from Monday, December 19, 2022, to Tuesday, December 27, 2022.

Login to your CCN account to VOTE

Updated proposal for members to consider:

Q: How did you arrive at the new recommended price?

Some fees were last increased at the start of 2021 and many not since 2019. Inflation has driven up costs—especially insurance –since then.

We calculated each new fee by subtracting the 2021 insurance cost from the 2021/2022 fee and applying 11.8% general inflation to the difference (the BC Consumer Price Index increased 11.8% from October 2020 to October 2022).  We then added the 2023 insurance cost of $47.61 to this amount and rounded up to the nearest dollar to get the new fee.

We also made about $90,000 in cuts to the expense side of the budget. This allows us to keep the fee increases smaller than in the original proposal.

Budget Impact – Option 1 (Vote In Favour of the Board Recommendation):

Budget Impact – Option 2 (Vote Opposed to the Board Recommendation): Re-uploaded Dec 19 @ 9 am

Q: Why was this not passed at the Cycling BC AGM held in June?

Cycling BC strictly follows the BC Society Act and holds its AGM every June, six months after our fiscal year-end. With the current volatile insurance market, we couldn’t get a firm quote for our 2023 insurance costs. As such, a motion was passed stating that we would bring a pricing proposal for an online vote in October or as soon as we had a quote on insurance pricing for 2023. We received the pricing estimate on November 12, and through extensive dialogue and board input, a proposal was presented to, and approved by the board on November 28.

Q: Why is the Board supporting option 1?

In order to limit financial risk to the organization and keep 24/7 insurance coverage, the Board agrees to support Option 1.

Here’s the breakdown of the rationale:

To arrive at the revised pricing, we start with our last fee increase at the end of 2020 (recall that we have held fees constant for two years since January 2021 to help rebuild membership in the Covid recovery) and recognize that 1) insurance premiums have increased by $7.87 per member since then; and 2) general inflation in BC (CPI-all items) has increased by 11.8% since the last quarter of 2020. If you take the $80 Ride For All membership fee in January of 2021, subtract the insurance premium per member at the time of $39.75, which left $40.25 in 2021 that was available to spend on various member services. We inflate that $40.25 by 11.8% to reflect the most recent two years of rising prices in BC to get $44.99 and then add back the 2023 insurance cost of $47.61 per member to arrive at our current proposal of $93 for the Cycling for All license.

Many of our fees have not increased since 2019, and we’re absorbing those cost increases without inflating from 2019 costs (as our original proposal did). To offset that uncompensated inflation we’ve proposed around $90,000 in expense reductions for the next year, some of that by demanding lower pricing from contractors and some by reducing service levels.

Q: Why are we proposing to increase prices at all?

1. Insurance costs are rising because Cycling BC members use our insurance. Since 2019, we have helped approximately 120 members – with an average payout of $3100 – with their cycling-related injuries. In addition, we’ve been able to support three members with catastrophic injuries because of the insurance included in our membership. Some of them were injured during non-sanctioned rides and the 24/7 accident insurance was able to cover them. Being a part of the collective means that some members might not need the coverage, but their participation in the program means that support is there if needed and that those who do need it, are supported at lower prices. The support that our 24/7 coverage has provided this handful of members has the potential to be life-changing for them.

In 2017 we added 24/7 on-bike accident insurance to our memberships. We believe that this coverage offers excellent value for the price. Our coverage helps those injured while riding their bike recover from injuries and get back to riding.

To capitalize on the excellent premium rates we are afforded as a collective, Cycling BC passed the cost of the additional premium on to all members. Since January 2017, we’ve increased our pricing twice: once in 2020, adding $5 per member in anticipation of a premium increase, and once in 2021 on select membership types in anticipation of an additional increase and to account for a shortfall of $5 the previous year. The 2020 actual increase in premium was $10, with another $5 in 2021.

2. Rising operating costs: since 2016, we have not increased pricing to account for inflation. Pre-pandemic, we were able to fill our budgetary gaps with the help of donors. During the pandemic, we relied on approximately $200K per year in Federal subsidies.  Until 2021, membership pricing had almost, but not quite, kept pace with increases in insurance costs, but not with the rising operating costs of running an organization. And since 2021, we have not recovered the increases in premiums.

Between October 2016 and October 2022, BC has seen 20.7% inflation, and the cost of doing business at Cycling BC, not including salaries, has increased an additional $46,000 per year. None of these increases have been passed on to members. Instead, we sought to generate revenue through donations and sponsorships, to limited success, and sought grant opportunities to keep member pricing low.

As the world returns to business as usual, the sponsorship and donation landscape is more challenging than before the pandemic.. Everyone is recovering from COVID and we are competing with event organizers, other sports, and the non-profit social services sector for support. Our counterparts in other sports are experiencing the same challenges with these sources of revenue as we are.

While we will continue to seek to diversify our revenue sources and build back our philanthropy programs, these sources of revenue can only go so far to fill the gap between our costs and our income. Cycling BC has budgeted for revenue from these two sources for 2023: $60,000 for sponsorships and $125,000 for donations. Additionally, we continue to work on other strategies to limit the need for increasing membership fees. This includes increasing service fees to program users including sanctioning, NCCP course fees, and athlete levies.

Q: What other measures are you considering to reduce costs?

As a Provincial Sport Organization (PSO), we are mandated to deliver basic programming related to participation, coach development, athlete development, and races and events. As such, we also have access to different grants and cutting programming further could result in a loss of grant revenue, further exacerbating the problem.

• In 2019, when MEC closed its Broadway location, we lost our donated office space. We then moved to our current location in Burnaby – the most affordable location with annual rent at $58K per year. As our lease expires in Spring 2024, we’re already looking for another solution, acknowledging that post-Covid and with a more distributed team, we can downsize.
• We will continue to cut costs and seek efficiencies where possible and where there will be no negative impact on our government funding.

Q: What are your plans to generate new sources of revenue?

Preliminary plans include:

• Working with Cycling Canada pilot projects to reach new members
• Continue to seek sponsorships for all programming
• Re-establish our fundraising committee 
• Partner with Cycling Canada on a fundraising gala
• Leverage the HopOn membership – “try it” race license at select race series