Introducing the OMBC

On October 29th 2017, a group of thought leaders representing the majority of mountain bike stakeholder groups from around Oregon, gathered in Bend for a prolonged discussion regarding the creation of a statewide organization. The goal was to flush out if such an organization was needed, who it would serve and what issues and needs were most important for the mountain bike community.

This group conducted deep dives into many issues such as actual needs from a statewide organization, model of representation and potential goals. Out of this session, it was agreed upon that all organizations present wished to work together to form a statewide organization. It was also established that this group should reconvene at least two more times in the next 6 months to work on this goal.

Cohesion and consensus amongst nine separate organizations is hard to achieve, no matter the user group. One of the most successful strategies during this session was the aligning of similar goals across different organizations. With each stakeholder group identifying their top needs from a potential statewide organization, a priority hierarchy was established.

Organizations Present

  • Northwest Trail Alliance-NWTA

  • Team Dirt

  • Central Oregon Trail Alliance-COTA

  • Disciples of Dirt-DOD

  • Trans-Cascadia

  • Oregon Timber Trail Alliance-OTTA

  • Greater Oakridge Area Trail Stewards-GOATS

  • Salem Area Trail Stewards-SATA

  • International Mountain Bicycling Association-IMBA

Since this initial meeting the OMBC has coalesced deliberately through the winter and summer of 2017-2018, and has now become public in September 2019.

Gabriel Tiller