PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Hi all, and welcome to our sixth issue of International Bike Fitter Magazine.

It’s been another busy period for everyone in the industry, especially the various volunteers responsible for pulling together this magazine. So, my first note should be a huge thank you to them. It’s difficult enough to run your own business during uncertain times, but to also find time to write and edit a magazine (without being paid) is truly impressive. Thank you!

In the last issue, we talked about the process of applying to become a charity. That’s slowly ticking along and hopefully we’ll have more news for you ready for the next issue. But as part of that process, we’d like to take the opportunity to bring some fresh blood into the organization and launch our first ever election. The current role as President will be split into two roles, one as President and one as CEO. I’ll continue to carry out some day-to-day tasks in the CEO role and we’ll be opening a formal process to elect a new President next year. If you’d like to know more about what the role entails and put your name forward, then please get in touch.

After more than 10 years running the IBFI, I think it’s time to hand over the reigns to someone else for a while and see what fresh ideas they can bring. As I’ve always said, the IBFI is a member’s organization and we’ve always been open to hearing ideas and input from our members, but this is a huge opportunity to get involved and take a hands-on role in shaping the future of bike fitting.

A big part of ensuring we’re in a good position for this transition is the hard work going on behind the scenes to update and automate our website and membership management software. I know that hasn’t been a smooth process but the early bugs seem to be behind us and automating most of the membership application and mapping processes will ensure the new President takes on a much more manageable role than I undertook all those years ago. Please stay patient with us and let us know if you’re having any problems migrating over to the new payment system –remember, you don’t need Stripe to make payments, that’s just the system we use to receive them: you just need a bank card! In this issue of International Bike Fitter, we take a look at technology. Some, like AI and video capture, you’ll already be familiar with, but even then, there are some exciting developments and continued innovations to stay abreast of. Others, like non-destructive testing, might be new to you, so our introduction to ultrasound offers a potential solution to the age-old question ‘how do I know if my crashed bike needs replacing?’. Alongside our regular features you’ll also find a new course calendar showing all the courses currently announced for the next 6 months. This fits in with our new proposed timetable for the release of our next issue. Our original target of producing a quarterly magazine proved …a little optimistic, so we’re shifting to just two issues per year, one in Spring and another in Autumn. Hopefully this will allow us to be much more consistent in our publication dates.

If you’d like to contribute any content to the next issue, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Andy Brooke IBFI President