I waited until Tuesday to post these rather long comments on the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in the hope of reaching more folks who may have been away for the long weekend. As many of you know who read the list regularly, Ray Hominsky outed an article in a local New Jersey, U.S.A. newspaper which told a somewhat unfortunate story about the Hall\u2019s collection which is languishing in storage.
Ray\u2019s outing brought out the best in the CR list with offers of donations and suggestions as to possible places the collection might go. Actually, with no reflection on Ray, when I saw the post I went \u201cOh No!\u201d I had for a year now been holding off coming to the list with requests for various kinds of assistance until we had actually found a home. But, since the cat is out of the bag I feel the need to provide the list with some information. FYI, there are probably a number of mostly lurkers who have had connections to the USBHOF in the past and we have at least one active lister who has been inducted into the Hall, the illustriou s Ted Ernst, in 2006.
For those of you unfamiliar with us the Hall has, since 1987, been inducting individuals in various categories who have made important contributions to our sport. We are recognized by the USA Cycling and have as our mission not only the rewarding of meritorious individuals but the preservation of the history of U.S. Cycling and the promotion of the sport. We are registered as a not for profit organization. Over the years, as you now know, the Hall has amassed an amazing collection of memorabilia related to all aspect of American Cycling including a bike ridden by Major Taylor which now is on loan to the ADT Velodrome located in Carson, California. The newspaper article Ray Hominski directed the list to goes into more detail about our collection so I will not repeat it here.
The Hall is looking for a home not only to house its collection but to pursue its mandate of historical preservation. That is indeed why I have NOT come to the list with requests. I had always hoped that when we were ensconced in new digs I would enlist the lists help in our project. Things like old club records, news clippings, race programs, etc. need to be preserved. I had hoped to ask also, certainly, for money, but even more importantly, for access to material that we could at least scan into a data base that would be available to researchers in the future. As all of you know much of this material often lies in basements literally rotting away and many of you know where some of it is. I had held off because we have neither the space to store new materials nor the facilities to scan and preserve them, at least for the time being.
We presently have a number communities around the Country who have
expressed varying degrees of interest in becoming home to the Hall. Some
of these are serious offers. I believe that within a year we will have
concluded a mutually beneficial arrangement with one or another community
to host the Hall and provide us with the building and the professional
resources we need to fulfill our mandate.
Each year the Hall Hosts a banquet to induct new members. Breaking with
tradition this year\u2019s induction ceremony will not be in New Jersey but
will take place Davis, California thanks, in large part, to the efforts
Dan Kehew, who you know as one of our list members. The dinner is
scheduled for November 2, 2008 and let me direct you to the following
press release issued by the City of Davis. http://www.usbhof.com/
It would be wonderful to get at many of you to attend as we can. Dan suggested putting a table of CR listers together\u2026or more for that matter. I or Dan will post details about tickets and tables shortly, as soon as the formal announcements are made concerning inductees and speakers for the dinner. There are many opportunities to support us not just by attending the dinner but by becoming a banquet sponsor. Sponsorshi ps will be available at a variety of levels and we will also be posting information about that.
Beyond the dinner we are still actively seeking communities who would like to become our home. Information on that is available at the following site. It contains a Request for Proposal detailing what we can bring to a host community and what we would require. Anyone interested can access the RFP at the following address:
http://www.usbhof.com/
For those of you attending Cirque this year I hope to have copies of the RFP available to interested parties. If I don\u2019t see you before, I will have them at my table at the Swap on Sunday. Please stop by even if you are curious and want to chap about the Hall and its work.
Additionally OF COURSE we welcome tax deductible contributions\u2026boy do we welcome them. We are chronically short of funds. If you would like to make a contribution in any amount please send it to
U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame P.O. Box 853 Somerville, New Jersey 08876
And be sure to indicate on your check that the contribution is from a CR List member.
Edward Albert
Chappaqua, New York, U.S.A