CTC Members
CTC Local Group Secretary
CTC Affiliate Groups
Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC)

Philip Benstead
CTC Brand Petition,
19 Greencoat Mansions,
Greencoat Row,
Westminster,
London, SW1P 1PG

philipbenstead1@gmail.com
0794-980-1698

18 February 2016

Dear Secretary/Member

If sent to you in error, please forward to the correct person.

CHANGE OF THE BRANDING NAME OF THE “CTC” to “CYCLING UK”
DEMAND FOR A POLL OF THE WHOLE CLUB

You and your CTC members may have become aware that at the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) Council meeting on 23rd January 2016 agreed on a vote of 10 to 5 to replace the existing “Cyclists` Touring Club or CTC” and associated logo(s) and heritage marks with “CYCLING UK” or another branding name and logo(s). https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00003150027

We are petitioning the CTC to demand a poll of the whole club so CTC members will have the opportunity to endorse or overturn the motion.

It is our opinion the entire decision-making process was flawed and any dissent was either ignored or shouted down. A similar technique was used regarding the governance issue, but more of that a little in the future. We need 200 valued CTC members signing, but I want many more to avoid any being discounted and to show the strength of feeling.

It has been drawn to our attention that there are already similarly named cycling-related internet sites

https://www.facebook.com/ucyclingk/?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/CyclingUKNews
http://cycleuk.bike/

Please could you circulate this petition to fully paid up CTC members.

Please ensure that their name/number is legible and that they must also sign it in black or blue ink/biro.

Please note that we have the support of some councillors.

We are seeking the poll details to be in the April/May edition of “Cycle”; so time is short.
Please return the completed sheets in an A4 size envelope to me ASAP at
Philip Benstead CTC Brand Petition,
19 Greencoat Mansions, Greencoat Row, Westminster, London, SW1P 1PG.

Please ensure the correct first class postage is used, you need to use the Large Letter rate of 100g = 95p, 250g = £1.26, 500g = £1.68, 750g = £2.42.

NB Data Protection Act, your email address was obtained from a public available source on the internet.

Many thanks for your help,

Philip Benstead
BRAND PETITION COORDINATOR AND POST-BOX

Sign it with a biro and post it? In 2016??

Sort of sums up my image of the CTC.

Is it only a club for cycling tourers? As most people suggest joining for all the benefits it offers cyclists in general would it not be better placed representing all of them and improving it’s appeal by not having a geeky/beardy name.

So they are aware that the internet exists but want people to post their details with the correct amount of stamps and signed in the correct type of pen?
I am seeing lots of very upset people with beards, sandals and socks.

Do you still drive an automobile or would you just call it a car? What if you drive a van? I guess either of the latter options would rule you out from being a member of the AA 🙂 Automobile Association is similarly geeky but no one knows is at that since they adopted the AA brand. CTC works just as well.

Perhaps it’s more that going forward (buzz word special) they want to be able to appeal to a wider range of people and brand themselves as an inclusive cycling community looking after all cyclists rather than a small club.
I don’t think they have much to worry about with their competition sites listed.
Perhaps the bigger issue is being inundated by people who don’t tour.

Anyway the first bit that got me was the mad use of SHOUTY caps so popped in, laughed at the letter (sorry to those that feel upset by change).

Blimey,don’t folks have better or more important things to do, like go for a ride?

Worth shouting about 😎

What scotroutes said – how much has this rebranding cost that could have been spend campaigning or training?

As a member, the lack of consultation is very disappointing.

So it seems people are in support of your cause, but I reckon about 90% of people won’t bother with all the shit about black biros and ensuring the right postage is used.

Use an online petition and you may be on to something.

how much has this rebranding cost

About 50p from what I’ve seen.

Seriously the CTC does a good job IMO, no idea whether this is a storm in a tea cup.

I would participate, but I used my last stamp campaigning to stop them changing the name of Jif to Cif. Bastards.

With such a simple polling process, I’m sure you’ll get millions of responses though.

They do seem to be one of the few national organisations working for cyclists, maybe if more MTBers joined they may make more representation for us

Name change seems sensible to me

Clubs tend to get run by people who like to run things. That does not mean they are the best people to run things.

Don’t understand why they don’t want the rebrand?

Maybe I just skim read it, but the only reason I saw was that there’s a couple of URLs that already use it?!?

Moaning old buggers.

The grumpier tourers get all arsey if there’s more than a couple of pages of mtb stuff in the magazine so I can see them losing their shit if they are going to drop touring from the name. What % of the CTC are grumps I dunno.

Reckon the ball point pen and postage is a shrewd move, only the die hard grumps are going to go in for all that so CTC will stay as is if they get the vote.

Personally I dunno, “cycling uk” does sound a bit toss TBH, but I guess it is the direction the CTC are moving in, supporting/promoting cycling of all flavours through the uk. Come up with a better name and I’d back it, til then I’d probably stick with CTC (but no I don’t care enough to buy a black biro and some stamps)

Not a lot of bike storage space in Greencoat, unless you have a cellar there.

Don’t understand why they don’t want the rebrand?

But! But! It’s change!

Worth joining an MTB forum and getting shouty about, surely?

For whatever the good aims of the new ‘brand’ or charity are, the CTC has strong brand heritage and is the UK’s oldest cycle group as far as I know. It’s more than a shame to discard that. For those reasons alone I’d want to see it remain but organised club mentality, the traditional aspect (that I do have time for) risking smothering the new opportunitues (ie ‘bikepacking’ that is engaging a lot of new tourers), the pen and paper votes etc, it’s all a bit quaint in the online world.

Perhaps the new brand could allow the old brand to seperate so we have a touring club CTC with the classic badge etc having stong links with CUK to offer the best of both. Club with insurance and a voice, a charity with ability to campaign and support a wider view of UK cycling that’s not overlapping with BC. Play nicely now .. better together than apart.

Divided is conquered, by looking at the new online TCC I see division and something weaker (with respect) in the face of much better-presented and/or more relevant online resources that have come up recently with the new wave of interest in touring. By touring you could read ‘non-competitive cycling’ I suppose.

I expect all that’s been done in detail elsewhere but I just sat well out of it .. CTC membership lapsed.

Worth joining an MTB forum and getting shouty about, surely?

Will be interesting to see if there’s engagement here or it’s simply a publicity post.

So the 5 councillors that voted against are seeking to subvert the democratic process? I suggest that they form their own organisation or engage with, knuckle down and work within the current set up.
(They will probably vote out in the coming EU referendum too). 😉

It’s a shame they couldn’t fit a more universal name into the CTC abbreviation. A quick think didn’t come up with any usable options though.

Cycling, Touring, Commuting – still too specific.
Cycling for Transport Co-operative

The t is really tricky!

Anyway – it probably wont matter in a few years. Cycling UK is sensible.

As a member, the lack of consultation is very disappointing.

there was a membership survey online, and a advert with a link to it in the cycle magazine.

It specifically asked about whether the CTC name should be kept or not.

I remember when they changed the name of the CTC rag from “Cycle Touring” to “Cycle Touring and Campaigning”

That caused great upset.

I can’t remember when it changed to “Cycle”

It’s a shame they couldn’t fit a more universal name into the CTC abbreviation.

I was thinking they could do some word play marketing instead of an official renaming, Cake Tea and Cycling, Cycle The City/Country, Cafes Teashops and Cranksets, I’m sure others could come up with much better ones – then with a tag line “CTC, not just touring”

So the 5 councillors that voted against are seeking to subvert the democratic process?

well the UK does have the odd referendum, that’s not subversion is it? Perhaps the 5 thought this topic was worthy of opening up the the all the members.

Perhaps they should have done that before the vote

there was a membership survey online, and a advert with a link to it in the cycle magazine.
It specifically asked about whether the CTC name should be kept or not.

I’ve never heard of CTC before and would have no idea that it’s bike related going by the initials. So i asked my friend google and he showed me some pictures (see below)

Is the top left one the old logo? It’s a bit rubbish if you ask me and the initials CTC don’t match the wording along side so i’m a bit confused. Did the son/daughter of the OP create the old ‘logo’ and that’s what he’s upset?

The new branding is a bit ‘charity’ but it’s friendly and obviously cycling related and possibly centered in the UK. Was the point of the rebrand to make more people aware of the organisation and maybe get more members? Then the new logo will do just fine (you have already made me aware of it – not going to join though – clubs aren’t my bag).

edit: designing for a committee is a bloody nightmare. Best to have one person giving the OK otherwise the process get dragged out over a very looooooong time and the end result is much poorer for it. Guessing the OP wasn’t the one giving the OK. Try and remeber that this ‘logo’ isn’t for you and you’ll be ok. 😀

Will be interesting to see if there’s engagement here or it’s simply a publicity post

I’ll bet you five English pounds which one it is…

Cyclists Together Campaiging 🙂

TBH, I’m not bothered about the re-brand (or consequent aims of more joined up and united approach), but as Jameso, I do think it’ll be a little bit sad to lose something with such heritage.

To be fair, one thing the CTC needs is a bit of a jump start, there are small pockets of progressiveness in the organisation, but also a lot of grumpy stuck-in-their-ways type people, and the very nature of the distributed local group model means it can be hard to get things spreading outwards from central leadserhip, but equally difficult to get new things spreading inwards from the periphery, so perhaps a revamp will help, then again maybe it won’t, either way it’s an organisation that does good and well worth supporting, whatever it’s called!

Good ideas D0NK – like it a lot.

I’ll bet you five English pounds which one it is…

Posted?

Postal order

The solution was to stay the CTC, and add the strapline “we are cycling”.

As I said on the news item, will the ramblers rebadge themselves “we are walking UK” to keep up?

Rebrand it as GoFar — !!

“we are walking UK” to keep up

“We are walking briskly with the occasional fake jog to keep up”

will the ramblers rebadge themselves “we are walking UK” to keep up?

Nope, becasue they dont give a shit about people who dont want to ramble – not sure they will have a marathon runners section or a mountain scrambling bit …. 😀

TBH the very existence of this petition justifies the change. It’s exactly that sort of rubbish they need to escape from.

Automobile Association is similarly geeky but no one knows is at that since they adopted the AA brand.

Yes, but this seems more like members of the Royal Automobile Club chuntering about breakdown services not being what the club was formed for, while enjoying brandy and cigars in the members only lounge bar.

I was torn over this news for a while after hearing it (have known about it for a couple of months) but can only think of it as an opportunity to reposition themselves to better represent all cyclists – their engagement with OpenMTB with the #Trailsforwales campaign certainly changed my opinion of what they are capable of and willing to do.

If it wants to be a player in the future and taken seriously by local and national government then it needs to get with the times and CyclingUK seems more obvious and ‘friendly’ to work with.

According to BikeBiz “The decision was taken at a CTC Council meeting and agreed on a vote of 15 to 1.” Seems pretty decisive to me. Also the charity will still legally be registered as the Cyclists’ Touring Club.

Pah grumpy old men suck it up.

to better represent all cyclists

I think if they want to represent everyone who rides a bike they need to drop the word ‘cyclist’ – a lot of bike riders don’t see themselves as cyclists (too much of the MAMIL/serious rider thing hangs off that word).