Bikes and Boards Club now open following dissolution of service

Former retail service dissolved by the AMS in August, reopened as a club

Image by: Sarina Grewal
The Bikes and Boards Club in their retained space

In August, the AMS faced heavy criticism from the student body when it moved to dissolve the Bikes and Boards retail service. However, at the Nov. 2 AMS Assembly, Bikes and Boards was ratified as a club, which officially opened Jan. 8.

Bikes and Boards, formerly an AMS retail service, was dissolved this summer after the AMS Board of Directors projected a $40,274 deficit for the 2018 fiscal year, as well as an estimated $195,161 deficit by April 2021.

Due to its abrupt nature of dissolvement after being open for most of the summer, this decision was met with backlash from the student body. At the time, the AMS said the service would transition into an independently-run club and retain all inventory and tools.

According to AMS Vice President (University Affairs), Palmer Lockridge, the club went through the standard club ratification process in the first semester of this school year and have now retained their space in the JDUC. On top of this, they recieved the full $2500 grant from the AMS as well.

The transition hasn’t been easy for incoming executives. According to Bikes and Boards Club President Ben Kukucska, ArtSci ’19, access to previous Bikes and Boards emails was requested so the new executive could understand the former service’s structure. However, the emails only became available to the club in December. Kukucska also said the financial documents they received about Bikes and Boards were unclear.

AMS Clubs Director Marnie Myszko told The Journal she recruited students to run the new club last semester, with some former members of the Longboard Club taking on the responsibility. No former Bikes and Boards service staff returned to run the club.

Myszko noted the club has adopted a more teaching-centric approach as opposed to being revenue-centric.

“They’re focusing on more of the learning aspect – teaching students more about the bikes that they’re riding, the boards that they’re using,” Myszko said.

Despite the fact that Chair of the Board of Directors Mike Blair told The Journal in August they would retain all assets, the club never attained possession of the skate sharpener.

“Last I heard they are still sorting out whether they want to give [the skate sharpener] to us for free, whether they want to sell it to us, or whether they want to sell it to someone else,” Kukucska explained. “I really hope they sell it to us because it would be a very successful asset for us.”

Kukucska said he was forwarded to various people by Myszko about regaining the sharpener, to no avail as of yet.

Going forward, the executive team aims to focus primarily on raising awareness of their club as a new entity on campus. After a minor rebrand, they’ve created a new Facebook page and plan to continue to promote the club this semester.

This semester will be one of experimentation for the volunteers – to see what works and what needs to be changed – but Kukucska and his fellow members are hopeful they’ll have a successful semester.

“We’re off to a good start,” Kukucska said.

Tags

AMS, Bikes and Boards, Club

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