Our great club simply couldn’t function without volunteers whose energy and enthusiasm make so much happen. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved at the club – from leading rides to marshalling at our time trial, from baking cakes for events to coaching at our Go-Ride club.
We hope all Penge CC members can volunteer at least a few times a year, bringing new ideas and fresh energy to help us continue getting better.
Ride-leading
The role that requires the highest number of volunteers is ride-leading. Every week we put out 9 or more rides and each ride has a leader. That’s not far off 500 ‘leads’ per year. Ride-leading is easy; our only expectations are that you can navigate a route and that you can pace the ride appropriately. Riders are adults and are fully responsible for themselves. That said, we offer ride-leader training and support our ride leaders in a number of ways including:
- Ride-leader training rides and advice with Elite
- A buddy co-leader to help you on your first lead if you want to gain confidence
- Ride-leader notes for tips and guidance when you lead
- Free use of club GPS units to make route navigation simple
- Training or help using your own GPS to create and navigate new routes
- Official British Cycling Rider Leader qualifications if requested
- ‘Money-can’t-buy’ Penge CC domestique caps
Go-Ride volunteers
We also need volunteers to help with our Youth Go-Ride sessions. The club needs coaches of course, but there are welfare roles, tuck-shop roles, PR administration and social jobs that all need volunteers. Whether you do a few hours a year or take on a full-time role it all helps.
Penge Cycle Club funds our coach development and training, so whether you want more knowledge on getting young riders started, or want to gain a more serious coaching accreditation, we can help. Start coaching our Go-Ride club and who knows where it could take you!
Volunteering at events
We organise a huge range of events across the year – like our annual Tour de Penge family ride, semi-serious races like our club Time Trials and Hill Climb, taster sessions at Herne Hill Velodrome, a summer BBQ and loads of other social events. None of these events could happen without a team of volunteers at the helm. There are a variety of roles you can do, including:
- Marshalling, timekeeping and setting up and taking down courses for our races
- Catering, baking, and BBQ cooking
- Publicising and promoting our public events like Tour de Penge
- Photographing and videoing at events
- Providing medical support/first-aid for some of our races
We send out requests for volunteers for forthcoming events via email and on Facebook and always make it clear what tasks need doing.
Over the next couple of years, we will organise more public events. We have plans to set up 2 cyclocross races and 2 Audax rides. For these to happen we will need all sorts of volunteers.
Our committee
You can help out at a few events during the year, or even join the committee and take an active role steering the club. We meet once every 2 months as a group and as needed in between in smaller groups, like ride leaders.
Earn your exclusive Penge CC domestique cap
Volunteering is not only rewarding, it’s also a great way to meet people from sections of the club you might not normally meet through riding. But if that’s not reason enough, volunteer several times during the year we’ll reward you with a money-can’t-buy yellow Penge CC domestique cap! Find out how you can earn yours here.
Ready to get involved?
We are always looking for more volunteers. If you would like to help or would like more information on what the volunteer posts involve, please email: volunteering@pengecc.org