I’m thinking it may be worthwhile having a closed group for women to organize rides and have discussions. It will be much safer than posting in a public forum and could be a nice way to encourage more female riders.
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I think that is a great idea.
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That sounds like a great idea. I don’t think a separate category, as we are getting too many of them.
I think a sub-group of members would work.
The only problem I see is how do we add people to the group? The easiest method may be we start with the established women members and make the group invitation only so the established people would invite newcomers.
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I would recommend we have a small group of volunteer women and allow them to manage the group membership. We can enable the ‘request to join’ feature and the group moderators can either accept or decline, as well as invite as they like.
Though, without a category they are tied to group messages which means that new members won’t be able to see topic histories. Making the category visible only to the group at least means it doesn’t clutter the site for non group members.
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That works. Only members can see it.
I think they should have a category. And if it’s invisible, how can women request to join?
I think this also falls under the argument for the forum as club advertisement.
Can we have a category under ride for women, have it visible but only specific (female) members can join? That would solve the issue of “how would they know there’s a category” plus it shows the club is taking their legitimate concerns seriously.
If it is a separate category it is much more viewable to them. In fact we already created it but you just can’t see it @ChrisP cuz you are not a member.
Not sure if categories can be made viewable, but not accessible. I will look into that.
I kinda like the invite only private club thing.
Is club registration open now? I must have missed an announcement somewhere:)
No, I meant you are not a member of the Womens category… They have their own private secret club.
So far only @Carolyn_Smith and @Bikedawn are members.
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Is it worth posting somewhere that this category exists with contact information to request to be added? We could do it by invite only, but we need to make sure there aren’t women who are joining the club and miss out on opportunities because they haven’t made connections yet.
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On the web we have a page with all the groups both private and public, so members and non-members and see what we offer,
I see an FAQ section. There should probably be an FAQ on the forum that lists all available groups.
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We can certainly post this somewhere. We just have to decide where and how.
Another issue is a moderator for this Category. We need to either recruit a women, or we could just leave it without and not worry about it unless a complaint comes up.
I think right now I’m the moderator for this category. I don’t mind keeping that role, unless someone else wants to take over 
Personally, I am not keen on a female only group but I also have never been a fan of segregation for any reason. I am not saying we don’t need to encourage more women in the club - we really need to encourage more diversity as a whole - but I think “hiding” it doesn’t feel like the right thing either.
If someone doesn’t join the group, how do they know about these secret rides? How does the club manage ride attendance while we still need to do it - and which I foresee as a requirement for some time yet?
Why is it needed? How do you decide who is a “female”? What if someone identifies as female but hasn’t come out yet but wants to learn from the group? We need to look through the lens of equity and inclusion. What if someone wants a BIPOC group - if there is a female group, then can’t say no that either. Bridges before silos should be the goal.
I know that some women are not comfortable riding with men. But we need to build in that safety and comfort into the regular rides.
I think that having private forums for club members is important though - many club discussions should be private for any number of reasons.
Dawn
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By your logic, does that mean official ladies rides should be canned too?
Some people feel there are safety issues that a private group can help alleviate. So we provided that space. If a group of vulnerable users wants a safe space and it’s an easy thing to provide with our current technology, then why not? I’d be happy with providing a BIPOC group if that means we can get more riders out riding and feeling safe about it.
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No I did not mean official ladies rides should be canned. The rides should not be secret and should be available to everyone who identifies as female. If there is a private (only to those who join) group such as the current facebook group where rides are organized then those “not in the know” are excluded and we need to be inclusive.
I also think private vs public means within the club vs general public.
The difference is that Facebook is not an official representation of WCC. This site is. And we have a membership roster that can be used to populate such groups with confidence.
True.
I honestly get the idea of the group.
Just want to make sure that no one is excluded from a ride because they didn’t choose it a group.
Having the group for discussion of topics is valid and many things really are a female topic. 
I think that any official ride organization should be done via the rides group though.
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The group is set up for anyone who identifies as a female. We were careful with our wording in the description to ensure that we are inclusive. As long as the person is a club member and requests to join, they are welcome. The reason why I feel that a women group is beneficial is that cycling is a male dominated sport. I will ride with anyone and enjoy riding in groups of mostly male riders, but I have found it challenging connecting with other females in the club and learning more about women specific training, racing, challenges, etc. Most of what is posted in forums and online is specific to men. It’s nice to have a place to go where women can share, support, encourage, and build confidence so that hopefully we can build a confident group and see more representation of women in the sport. I would have loved having a strong women group to connect with when I started WCC 10 years ago.
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