AIOC-Cross

So today I had two big meetings. The first was the management committee meeting of the AIOC-Cross, and the second was the general meeting of all the AIOC-Cross members. The AIOC-Cross is the Association of International Cyclo-Cross Organizers. It's a private association that every UCI race organizer around the world is allowed to join for a small fee. There are generally two meetings per year, sometimes three, and one of them is always at Worlds. Once I started coming over to watch worlds, I started attending the meeting, and was eventually asked to join the management committee.

It's hard to say what the AIOC-Cross really does. That's one of my main complaints about it. We spend a lot of time talking about the meetings themselves. When to have them, what to discuss - things that most modern groups might discuss ahead of time via e-mail. Then we mostly brainstorm about the situation of 'cross around the world, what's going well or poorly, and what action we'd like to see taken as organizers. We often send our recommendations to the UCI 'Cross Commission, of which myself and the president of the AIOC, René Vermerien, are also members.

The meetings can be kind of hectic, because everyone is encouraged to speak in their native languages first, and then we translate as needed. In addition to whatever people's native languages are, most everyone also speaks at least French and/or English as well, so things normally get translated into one of those languages. Our management meeting consists of Belgians, Dutch, Swiss, British, French, and Luxembourgers, so we go back and forth between French and English. And because French is not everyone's native language, they speak slowly and carefully enough that I understand things pretty well. In fact, today was the first time I actually spoke French directly to ask a question. It's probably been since high school that I was able to do that. Almost everyone else speaks at least 4 languages: Dutch or Flemish, French, German, and English. And at least one guy speaks Luxembourgese. Seriously.

In the general meeting, we had to add German to that as well, and the one German guy ONLY spoke German. You can see why it takes forever to get anything done in a meeting in Europe.

I was happy with the way things went today. I'm always a little nervous that I'll be taken seriously or that I have enough experience to speak effectively in this group. But I'm always treated well and find that I'm able to make relevant and meaningful contributions, and that my opinion matters. Even though I've been organizing my race for 18 years now, I'm still much younger than most of the other organizers, and probably weigh half as much as well. To be sitting at the head of the table with the other management committee members, and be presiding over a group of organizers that includes people running World Cups, Superprestiges, and Gazette van Antwerpen events can be daunting. We spent a large part of the day discussing the out of control start money in Belgium. Realizing that I have some kind of influence on what Sven Nys and Lars Boom might get paid sometimes makes me laugh.

While I was in the meeting, Christine Vardaros totally rescued me by coming by the hotel and picking up my license, then getting my race number for the World Cup tomorrow. That's another aspect of this trip that really hits me sometimes. How did I find myself so deep on each side of the line? How is it that on this trip I can wear so many hats? On one day I'm a member of the AIOC management committee speaking to the organizer of a Superprestige about Boom's start money, and the next day I'm racing with Boom (if you want to call it that) in the World Cup. I rarely stop to think about all of it, but today I suppose I did. The other organizers think it's great that I'll be in the race tomorrow, and while no one expects me to be at the front, it's still viewed as an accomplishment to be qualified to start.

Now we have a big group dinner, and I'll come back to the room and pass out, I expect. World Cup tomorrow. Yikes.