We on occasion receive queries from cyclists as to ‘where the money goes’ and how PPA makes and spends its income.
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Where Does The Money Go?
On the income front, membership fees cover many of the actual running costs of the Association as well as our varies projects.
In this way, the Association has paid over R10m to various cycling projects over the last 5 years. Amongst others, the sub-committee looks at the long-term sustainability of the project and to what extent the project fits in with the PPA constitution when deciding on which applications to support annually.
Safety remains a big issue, notably the provision of bicycle lanes. To this end, PPA started our Safe Cycling campaign in 2011 and has now expanded it to a national initiative. We also continue to attend the City of Cape Town’s Non-Motorised Transport Forum (Active Mobility Forum) and other commuting and safety-related meetings and workshops.
EVENTS
The Pedal Power Association subsidises the events that are accepted onto the PPA calendar in various ways, in an effort to ensure well-organised events for its members and cyclists in the Western Cape, and to assist organisers to keep costs down as much as possible – which means the organisers can keep entry fees down, so that our members benefit.
Amongst Others
PPA assists with obtaining traffic approval for the event;
PPA pays for a safety officer at the event;
PPA buys and maintains route equipment and trailers, including marshals flags and bibs;
PPA pays for the various seeding calculations needed to seed cyclists according to ability as well as to upload and display their results electronically;
PPA pays for the first annual seeded funride number provided to members;
PPA supplies and pays for an Events Coordinator to provide support and assistance in various ways; before, during and after the event;
PPA pays for and supplies crew to assist with the line-up, start and finish of the event;
PPA supplies and pays for admin staff to assist members with various queries at registration;
PPA markets the event to its current electronic database;
PA supplies cycling marshals to assist with the start, and to assist cyclists en route.
What does PPA do for its members and organisers? The following report was presented at a recent AGM:
SAFETY MANAGEMENT
PPA event coordinators meet in person with the main organiser and members of the organizing committee of each event on the PPA events calendar and do extensive pre-event briefing sessions.
At this initial planning meeting with each organiser, a risk assessment is done during which
All potential risks are identified
Plans are discussed as to how risks can be reduced/eliminated
Contingency planning is done for unexpected scenarios
Feedback from the previous year’s event is discussed
To aid the risk-mitigating process, the PPA Office has drawn up a detailed events checklist, which is adapted and revised as often as needed and used before and during the event.
Amongst others, factors looked at to reduce risks at funrides include:
The nature of the event (road vs off-road)
The experience, expertise and capacity of the organiser
Duration of event
The time of year and day (potential effect/minimising adverse weather conditions)
Route maps and specific safety requirements en route
It is compulsory for all organisers to take out public liability insurance for their events.
The nature of the venue (purpose-built vs not purpose-built)
The environment around the venue and safety of participants getting to and from the venue.
Specific traffic management plans.
Medical plans.
Venue evacuation plan.
Crowd management plans, if applicable.
Traffic or transport disruptions.
A final short-term risk assessment is done in the week before the event, after looking at the weather forecast for the event and checking that all arrangements for the event are on track.
Event Evaluation
During the event: During the event, the event is judged according to a score sheet drawn up by PPA, which is based on the PPA’s pre-event checklist and incorporates relevant points from the Act. This score sheet is constantly updated to ensure that safety aspects carry more weighting than less important aspects (e.g. entertainment and nice-to-haves). Feedback for the score sheet is also obtained from traffic officers, Think Bike marshals (road), PPA marshals and riders who participate in the event.
Post-event evaluation: An internal debrief follows in the week immediately after the event, followed by an extensive debrief with the organiser and members of their organizing committee where the score sheet and any other feedback received is discussed and specific problems and challenges highlighted in an effort to rectify and raise the standard of the event for the following year.
Additional PPA Office policy: Where applicable, learnings from one event are transferred to others on the calendar.
Managing identified risk areas
Problem areas are assessed and managed from event to event.
How does PPA assist events financially?
Events that are accepted onto the PPA calendar pay PPA a fee applicable to their direct and specific needs and not a bulk amount.
| Item | Note | Saving for organiser |
| Racetec timing | PPA SLA | The organiser pays the PPA discounted rate and not the normal timing fee |
| Seeding of riders into start groups | PPA pays Racetec annually to seed all its members, with additional reseeding runs so that cyclists are at all times seeded according to ability. | This works out to approx. R2500 per event |
| Coke sponsorship | PPA has a sponsorship agreement with Peninsula Beverages. This provides participants with a free cup of Coke at the finish line. | PPA’s sponsorship agreement with PenBev works out to approx R1800 saving per event for organisers.
If organisers wish to provide Coke en route, they pay for the additional Coke themselves |
| Safety officer | PPA supplies and pays for a safety officer for all events | |
| Local traffic, medics, marshals | Events pay for local traffic assistance. Similarly, events pay for medical assistance, which varies according to the number of eg ambulances required. Events supply the route (point) marshals – these are often volunteers who do point marshal duty as their contribution to raise funds for charity | Events pay themselves for local traffic assistance, medics and marshals.
Amounts payable depend on the number of eg traffic officers required, number of hours from start to cut-off, and location (Cape Metropole is generally more expensive than Winelands). |
| Reductions from service providers | PPA organises discounts from service providers like toilet suppliers, announcers and the like. These discounts are passed on to all organisers who wish to make use of them | Various |
| Back numbers (road) | PPA provides numbers for all participants to use. | Numbers cost on average R5,50 each. For an event with 1000 participants, this would equate to a saving of R5 500 for the organiser |
| Frame numbers (MTB) | Racetec frame numbers | This is a cost for the rider. Racetec makes use of a permanent number and therefore there is no cost to an organiser |
| Event stickers | PPA supplies event stickers to use as proof of entry. | For an event with 1000 participants, this would equate to a saving of R300 for the organiser |
| Motorbike safety marshals | PPA preferred supplier | Supplier charges the PPA discounted price |
| Event results | PPA pays to maintain a web environment to display event results and event information | This works out to approx R1000 per event |
| Marketing – electronic | Events on the PPA calendar are marketed to the PPA database, website, Facebook page & Twitter account. | This works out to R2000+ per event |
| Start/finish crew | PPA supplies sufficient, well-trained start/finish crew for each event | PPA subsidises this amount and can save the organiser up to R2000 |
| Riding/cycling marshals | A limited number of PPA’s volunteer cycling marshals assist participants en route, and generally ensure that the funride rules are obeyed | PPA cycling marshals receive a free event entry in return for assisting at the event |
| Route equipment | PPA supplies a trailer with equipment to organisers who do not have their own | There is a nominal rate to use the equipment. The estimated value of the trailer and contents thereof for a road event is up to R120 000, and up to R80 000 for a MTB event, depending on how much equipment the organiser requires for the event |
| PPA events knowledge | Specific input from PPA Office staff | Estimated R5 000 per event |
| AVERAGE SAVING | Road events: R45 000 + equipment {up to R120 000}MTB events: R25 000 + equipment {to R80 000} |
MEMBERS
How does the Pedal Power Association assist its members? Amongst others, membership fees are reallocated to support members in the following ways:
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- Timing at events
PPA pays Racetec to electronically time PPA own events. - Subsidised event entries
PPA has negotiated a discounted entry fee for events on the PPA calendar, in exchange for PPA’s assistance as listed above. Please note all event entry fees accrue to the event organisers, and not to PPA. This is not applicable to losted events.
- Timing at events