LFGSS CC - LFGSS Cycle Club

It's bureaucracy, it's invasive, it's a burden on anyone who might want to organise an event.

Think of the children? Fuck the children*.

This is a cycle club for adults, enabling adults to have a laugh, to expand the number of adults who try out and use cycle facilities, participate in sport, etc... it's not overly organised, it's not going to be some sprawling administrative body... it's just an umbrella under which a bunch of adults, who talk shit on the internet, can come together and appear fairly organised and official, and kick open a whole load of doors so that we get access to things that a bunch of adults, who talk shit on the internet, might not get access to.

This forum has always been adult only, and there are literally 2 or 3 people who are likely to be under 18, above 16, on the forum, and interested in joining this club.

For the sake of those 2 or 3, I'm not going to suddenly muddy the water, and require everyone who wants to organise an event to divulge their past to me or anyone else. I'm not going to require them to go through invasive jumps, just so that they can go "Hey, wouldn't it be a blast if we did event x". They should be able to do that without the burden of CRB and "think of the children".

There's a line to be drawn, and when we suddenly require welfare officers, "think of the children", CRB checks, record management, ratios of CRB checked people at events... then it's way outside the remit of the club.

Of course this sucks majorly, of course I'd prefer to say all are welcome. But it's the world we live in and this forum has never been "think of the children" and the club won't be either. Our conversations are adult, our socialising is adult (pubs!), we are adults. Let's just get on with having a blast as adults.

To anyone below 18, please join a club that can safeguard and protect you. If you still want to join us when you're 18, you are very welcome to do so. And regarding events, the vast majority of forum events are not club organised events, they are just public gatherings... nothing is stopping you from doing them.

As for club events, the only open question is: What happens if someone from VCL who is 17 turns up to Herne Hill and wants to ride with us? We've never turned anyone away, but would we suddenly have all of the burden above? If the answer is yes then it may well be that we can't let under 18s participate in those events. The burden on the club is too great, we are disorganised and post-formation will be decentralised... we can't expect anyone who organises or volunteers at an event to go through CRB for 1 or 2 people, and we won't.

• Not literally, there are laws against that.
  

100% with DK on this as one of the 2or3 under 18's active on the forum , the forums not supposed to be serious and with most forum rides ending at pubs/involving drinking it's not really aimed at us either way , I have a pretty long involvement with scouting (participating and organising) and even when the main crowd are kids the CRB checks are a lot of work and more than you'd expect people get turned away so to do the same for the sake of me,indra and possibly a few others seems absurd especially when there's other cycling clubs who could accommodate us and even when CRB checks are all done the red tape involved is too onerous for a club of this not so seriousness
When it comes from turning people away from events I'm 100% with that if it protects the integrity of the club and all the members and it's only a couple of years tops i.e after being 16 to use the forum anyway so I don't see it as a problem if it's for the greater good of 99.9% of forum users