The dirt: March 2025
The Dirt on our NEW Trail Crew Committees, a Town Hall Meeting, & our Sustainable Trail Building Course
Welcome to The Dirt, your favorite monthly newsletter. If you wanna get informed, get outside, and get involved in your local Central Ohio trails, then get "the dirt" from us.
Get trained at COMBO's Sustainable Trail building course and become a true steward of the trails!
Keep your eyes peeled for the launch of our sustainable trail building course. We are planning a full day course on modern sustainable trail building techniques both in the classroom and in the field. Our goal is to arm our trail stewards with the most current knowledge for building great trails. We have partnered with ODNR's Statewide Trails Administrator to administer the class. This is step 1 towards becoming a true steward of the trails. Our goal is to educate, empower and support those who share our passion for trails. We have 10 different trail systems and nearly 100mi of trails and the reality is that everyone has their "Home trail." It doesn't mean that you don't make it to other trails but there is one trail you return to again and again. You know it like the back of your hand. The good and the bad. We want to harness that knowledge and passion to take the "Good & Bad and turn it to "Great & Challenging." We want our stewards to do more than help clear fallen trees. We want them to help shape the vision for the trail. Where could we add a new feature or resolve a miserable wet spot.
Join us for an interactive virtual Town Hall Meeting to hear about more new things headed your way!
We know you have some ideas that are defrosting as we head into Spring and we want to hear them! We’re hosting a Town Hall Meeting so we can get together with our riding community to get a feel for where everyone is at and where they want to be this year.
We are introducing our NEW Trail Crew Committee program, NEW Volunteer Incentives, the 2025 Community Engagement budget so we can have more cookouts and hangouts, plus a look at some exclusive merch in our new online store in partnership with Hills Before the Hustle, opening soon + more! March 19th at 7:00pm.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be a part of shaping the future of our organization and our trails. See you there!
If you've ever finished a ride on one of our trails and thought to yourself "I'm no good with a chainsaw but I'd really like to still get involved somehow" boy do I have news for you. Every 3rd Thursday we have our COMBO Board Meetings that are open to the public (that's you) where we get together at a different bike shop or brewery every month for beer and pizza to talk bikes.
This is where the behind the scenes magic happens. We got folks planning events, races, and cook outs. We got folks planning new jump lines and trail projects. We got folks planning Halloween costume rides and demo days. I mean we have it all...other than you. We need YOU at these board meetings because we know you have great ideas for the trails you love. We need passionate riders in our committees that are committed to building our biking community.
Every month we break into committees, that you're welcome to float around to or join one that you're particularly invested in, and see how you can help out!
Here's a little breakdown of some committee chats that happened this month:
🎪 Community Engagement Committee
We took a survey this fall and we heard loud and clear that you are looking for more get togethers! We're working on partnering with groups, orgs, and bike shops to plan different Group Rides for all rider ages, abilities, and all around our COMBO trails.
We also want to get some fun get togethers on the calendar for 2025. We're thinking of brewery hang outs or cook outs, what else?
🏁 Race & Event Committee
We dipped our toes into some new and different types of races last year (Horns Hell, etc.) that we're looking to continue & build on for this year. What other fun can we get into?
Hosting races has a lot of moving parts and we're looking to grow our race committee so everyone can race, have fun, and contribute to the hustle of hosting. We're looking for folks to help with sign in, timing, podiums, the tech side of things - all of it!
🙋🏻 Membership & Volunteer Committee
After our end of the year meeting at Nocterra, we’ve been working on the Spring 2025 Meeting that we want to start having annually.
We’re looking for a location, date, & time to have this & other ways we can make this meeting FUN to bring the stoke of the start of the riding season.
We always run our large Membership Drive initiative in the Spring, so we’re working on a new Membership “package” of sorts to bring COMBO Members even more perks and reasons to become a member to help your trails!
🪓 Trails Committee
The Trails Committee is getting an overhaul this year - a face lift if you will.
We're partnering with ODNR to host a Trail Sustainability course to educate folks on how to sustainably build and maintain our trails. We are looking to educate, empower and support those who view these trails as their "Home trail".
With that knowledge we will be creating mini committees for each of our COMBO trails with their own eco system of Trail Stewards & Volunteers that are in charge of that trail's maintenance and development plan
In addition to building trails, we want to Build Community as well so we are working to plan COMBO supported cook outs and community events along the way. Our goal is to Build Trails and Build Community!
📸 Marketing Committee
Marketing is working on a total overhaul for 2025, which started near the end of 2024. We hope you’ve been loving all the new social content you’ve been seeing on Instagram & Facebook!
These newsletters are a new initiative we’re working on monthly, as well as other ways we can engage our community with the things that we feel like you should know, or is just fun to share.
🏫 Rider Education Committee
We’re currently working to solidify a schedule for our Dirt, Shred, & Flight School dates for 2025.
How many dirt, shred, and flight schools should we host? At what trails? How can we change up the information & get more people riding bikes?!
Are you interested in teaching or helping with one of these classes?! Let us know!
We would love to run a survey to see all the ways we can help the community with these rider education classes — what skills are needed? requested? important?
