CI Leisure Fees (for Bryan Johnston)

Hi Bryan

It appears from my reading that at their AGM on the 17th CI are proposing to effectively increase Leisure Members fees from €50 to €60 with the introduction of a split insurance product. Who among us is likely to say no to optional personal coverage when 3rd party is mandatory?
Or perhaps a member won't consider the consequences of not selecting the add on and assume they have the same coverage they always had. Which won't matter until they try claiming under it.
From my p.o.v. the only attraction of being a CI member is the insurance coverage (and its a prerequisite for Orwell membership) they do nothing else for me as a Leisure rider.

At the same time I note that Competitive fees , which continue to include personal accident coverage, are reducing by €5.

I would encourage you, as the Orwell Leisure Rep, to ask CI to explain their rationale in splitting the Leisure Fee across the different products and if not explained to your satisfaction to vote against the change.

Regards

Stephen

It’s not just a leisure fee increase Stephen - the Limited Competition membership which allows for club league, CX, time trials and Corkagh park events has also gone up by €10 from €80 to €90l

Thanks Stephen
Appreciate you bringing this to my attention I will look into it
Bryan

Gary McIllroy posted live updates in this Facebook Thread.

FB Thread: m.facebook.com/groups/344793343944?view=...id=10158872665868945

New Membership Fees were carried, No Puppy Paws for Youths, Plain Skinsuits for all.

The online chat @ the meeting was virtually unanimously against the increase . They didn't announce the votes just that it was passed.

Hard to see any Leisure rider voting for it. Afaik the Orwell Delegate bloc voted against it.

No decision yet but one possibility will be that if there are still restrictions in place in January that competitive riders will be asked to take out a Leisure Licence for 2021 and then top it up once racing is allowed again.

We had 5 delegates online for the AGM today - myself, Fergal, George, Orla and Stephen. Thanks to everyone for giving up the 2 hours and cutting spins short to represent the club.

We used all our votes to vote against the increases and changes to fees. I have to say I was very surprised to hear it passed - as Stephen said all the chat online was against it so it will be interesting to see the numbers when they release them later next week.

Definitely the easiest CI AGM I’ve been too - done and dusted in 2 hours:)

FB post says insurance premium gone from €350k to €600k in last 4 years

Is it too simple to say rising insurance premium forced the CI hand here ?

Hi Danny, the short answer is "yes" it is too simple to say that rising insurance costs forced CI to change the fee structure for Leisure Riders , to introduce an optional insurance add on for Leisure Riders, to increase the Limited Competition licence and to simultaneously reduce the Full Competitive Licence Fee while maintaining full insurance coverage for the latter two categories.

However it is true to say that that is the CI line and they pushed it strongly on Saturday, going so far as to say that this was almost existential for them.

fwiw - I think they used the wrong tool , at the wrong time, to try and crack their funding problem. Some thoughts on that below.

Fees haven't gone up for 3 years because they gave a commitment 3 years ago not to. Poor decision to tie their hands for that long.

Presumably there is some correlation between the premium and the number of members , but membership is currently declining.
As regards Claims , from my experience the CI insurance kicks in after private health insurance and given that 45% of the Irish population has private health insurance - and i would suspect it is higher within the cycling populace than the population at large - they wouldn't be picking up the majority of the cost.
All that said, insurance premiums are generally speaking ridiculously high for businesses and voluntary organisations in this country.

They mentioned that most people indicated in a survey during the year that they would be happy using their own coverage and not paying for CI coverage. If so, the full insurance could be optional - they indicated . 30 quid a head , not just 10 quid. Maybe there is nowhere else to get 3rd party cover.,

They also mentioned that c 5 quid of the annual fee goes to the provinces. For the last 2 years the provinces have had a combined average cash balance of c. 230,000 . Why don't they put that surplus cash to good use?

Some clubs mentioned that a goodly portion of their members are not also CI members . That looks like low hanging fruit to me. The argument back is that they would leave the club rather than join CI. I wonder...

I don't doubt that CI have their funding pressures. I also know that , as a Leisure rider ,apart from insurance I get nothing for my membership,
Indeed the CI website promotes insurance as the number 1 reason to join them (and the number 2 to get your bike covered)
I know plenty of competitive riders have benefited from the structures in CI and I applaud the work they do in those areas.
I don't see that they do much in the advocacy sphere leaving it to cyclist.ie and Dublin cycling campaign to do that . Leisure riders make up the bulk of the membership - 67% last year - and they were called the engine of the organisation , or was it the cash cow, on Saturday.

There is no absolute right or wrong way to raise the monies the organisation needs , but raising revenues by introducing a split insurance product for Leisure Riders only,was wrong imho. Far more straightforward to bump fees up across the board by "n" % if that is what the budget demands , but not to do it this year as due to Covid overall organised activity is way down and maybe use the funds sitting in the provincial coffers to help with this years insurance bill.

Thanks Stephen. You clearly have explored this more than me. I sense you are feeling underwhelmed by what is offered for a Leisure rider by CI but that is a rabbit hole I wont go down here.

FWIW - looking at it coldly (I say coldly because a part of me joins CI to support the national cycling scene) and as you strongly allude to, availing of a Leisure licence is akin to purchasing a mandatory insurance product and insurance inflation is frustratingly an inevitable in this jurisdiction.

I think if CI honoured the 3 year no fee hike then in the context of spiralling insurance premiums - then should we slate CI ? I presume the split option gives riders the choice to not 'double insure' if they have their own personal cover and thus avail of a cheaper licence?

Agreed that it is interesting the open racers had no increase - was rationale provided for this and the split insurance ? Perhaps underwriters advised this approach ?

I am tight enough with money and don't like spending money that I don't have to but I think this thread just needed to be framed against the rampant cost of insurance.