DHBC Women's Day - Saturday November 27

[Camilla]

To the women of Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club,

We'd like to tell you about our plan to get more women into the club and to invite you to be part of that plan. It doesn't involve much effort on your part. Just turn up to Saturday Slowies on 27th November and we'll have a women's catch up at the end of the ride in Centennial Park. Read on to find out more.

We know that lots of people who join the club check out the website first. Apart from a photos on the website that include women, there's nothing to tell women what to expect about the club and what it's like to be involved. For all a casual reader knows, the club could be really unfriendly to women, or only cater to finely honed racers. But we know the club is more accommodating and broader than that. It's also interested in those who just want to ride their bike. And the club does have a reasonable number of women now - this year we were delighted that for the first time ever we were able to get up a women's team for the masters team time trial. We may not have won, but we had a lot of fun along the way!

But women are still under-represented in the club and we'd like even more females to enjoy cycling the way we do. So the club has enthusiastically adopted a proposal to include a women's page that links off the front page of the website. The purpose of the page is to tell women what they can expect if they ride with us and to do that in a very personal way by highlighting the experiences of individual women who are riding with the club. That's where you come in - and you can be as public or discrete about this as you wish, but we would love to hear your views.

Our plan is that at Saturday Slowies on the 27th, we all meet up at the end of the Centennial Park bit of the ride, at the normal meeting place at the gates, and then we have a gathering of the women somewhere over near the coffee shop. We've organised someone to take photos and someone to capture your views.

We are hoping that you will join us as a woman who is willing to be "profiled" in a chatty and friendly way on the website - why you joined, your first ride with DHBC, what level you ride at (we want all levels of participation) and why you keep riding. That sort of stuff. In fact, think about what you would have liked to know before turning up for your first ride.

We'll aim to manage this as efficiently as possible and then ride back to Marrickville together.

I hope you can join us!

Camilla, Jessica, Eleri and Simon S

p.s. A DHBC jersey is preferred but by no means essential. And if you can't make it for the whole ride you can join us at the gates (off Cook Rd) at 8am. Bring a few dollars if you'd like a coffee! Cupcakes provided.

[Eleri]

Excellent to see so many women in the park this morning! Thanks for to everyone for coming along and being part of the story.

[Camilla]

Yeah, the turn out was fantastic. I had lots of positive responses from other women who couldn't make it as well. I hadn't realized quite how many of us there were!

Thanks to Simon, Eleri & Stuart for their excellent tape-recorder/camera skills. And the work that is to come. I look forward to seeing the results.

[SuzieSpiro]

Yes indeed, very good work - thanks for Camilla & Jess for the organising & announcements and Simon, Eleri & Stuart for their efficient reporting skills. Look forward to seeing the end results... I'm sure they will be fantastic!

[Stuart]

So here's a couple of the shots

all together (well, mostly - some of the girls snuck off to get coffee at this point it seems)


The long and short of it with the world's smallest Teschner


Club secretary and resident red wine expert Camilla with commuting steed


It looked like it sparkled in the sun ... oh well - here's Jess


Fixie fixation with Amy

[mikesbytes]

That's pretty impressive, when I joined the club there wasn't even that many males

[Trouty]

Thanks to Camilla (or friend of Camilla) for the self icing cup cakes, a nice touch.