newcastlecycling

Ferry,

I understand your perspective, but history is one of the reasons the naysayers in KOCC resist.  Both clubs, and their respective members, need to take the good things from history, and leave the negative baggage behind, as Robbo effectively suggests, and as a man with more years under his belt than me, I defer to his accumulated wisdom.

The naysayers in my club are, for the most part, decent nice people.  They have a view, that they are entilted to have even if it is one I do not agree with, that KOCC is the bestest cycling club ever, and HDCC is not as good and (perhaps) there is little benefit in merger.  Some probably see HDCC as something slightly more evil than the Nazi regime.

What makes people have such views? 

Plenty of religions thrive out of a sense that if you belong to religion A you will get a range of benefits that those belonging to a nearly identical religion will not.  It is perhaps not coincidental that some of the naysayers are deeply religious, and so such thoughts are an inherrent part of how they view the world.  Fair enough.

Some of these people may simply want life to continue as it is now - they like racing the same flat boring course week in week out, in the same grade.  Merger will not put an end to that, but they might fear it will.  So you deal with that in terms of how a merged club would deal with the interests of these people, who (I am confident) are in the lower grades.

Others may fear that their perceived importance in the small pond that is KOCC might be less important in the larger pond that might be HD&KOCC - these are the people who get a sense of pride or self from being a somebody in KOCC.  These people are often volunteers who do not race, and merger needs to give them some assurance that they will remain valued and important.  However, they should not get a disproportionate degree of influence either, as they sometimes do IMHO.

So, I see it as largely positive.