It is my understanding that one of the prime reasons why OBRA is so
successful and has grown so dramatically over the past 20 years is
precisely because OBRA's brave leaders chose to break away from USCF
and keep the money here locally, rather than sending it away to an
office full of highly paid beaurocrats in Colorado Springs, who then
spent the money on themselves (salaries, office expenses, etc) and on
supported a very small selection of semi-pro Olympic hopefuls.

It's true that you gain something by being a member of USCF; however,
you also lose a lot--mainly the vast majority of your UCSF dues gets
sucked into a black hole, never to be seen again, and all of that lost
money gets spent on things that do virtually nothing to directly
support local, grassroots racing. In short, you pay a lot of annual
dues and get next to nothing in return

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm overstating the case for
OBRA's independence from USCF.

--Curt Dewees

On 3/29/07, Long, Steve wrote:
> Wow,
> I didn't know I was living a tragedy.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
> Behalf Of nick
> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 2:06 PM
> To: obra@list.obra.org
> Subject: [OBRA Chat] OBRA's Future...
>
>
> I am writing this in hopes that it will spur some conversation on
> the issue of OBRA races becoming USCF certified. There is a "HUGE"
> missed opportunity that races in Oregon and South West Washington have
> because of the lack of certification. USCF is "thee" organization that
> governs racing in the US, NRC and amateur, from state to state every
> members points are collected and recorded for national ranking as well
> as for upgrading purposes (I do not wish to patronize anyone here so
> please understand that I have only explained this for reasons of those
> who are unfamiliar). My point here is that OBRA races are missing out on
> several levels; the most obvious in this case is the lack of national
> recognition (no one wants to travel to a race that they wont receive
> points for). Because of this OBRA races miss out on increased funds as
> well as more competitive fields. On a similar note for those of you that
> race mostly in Oregon and South West Washington you miss out on the
> ranking
>
> system as well as points if you were to compete in a USCF race (this is
> a tragedy seeing as there is a lot of great races in our neighboring
> states as well as Seattle). We all know that Portland has established
> itself as a cycling rich community, but just like the cities progressive
> nature we also should be following that example and become leaders in
> the progression of our sport instead of living in the past. USCF
> certification would be a phenomenal asset to racing in Oregon and South
> West Washington; increasing awareness, funding, competitiveness, and as
> a result more racing! I encourage everyone to comment on this topic and
> to start the conversations, good or bad, for or against, please speak
> up.
>
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