Joining the Clubs

I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member. 

-Groucho Marx

While I'm not as anti-group as Groucho, I don't belong to many organizations. In the bicycling sphere of things, the only organization that I've belonged to is the Adventure Cycling Association.* and ** Until recently.

On Monday I got my membership packet from the Rough-Stuff Fellowship. I wrote about this UK-based off-road bicycle organization a few weeks back. The concept intrigued me so much, I decided to spring for a one-year membership!

Inside the envelope was my membership card, a handful of stickers, two patches (or as they referred to them, "embroidered badges") and a metal pin (badge.) Also included was the latest issue of the Rough-Stuff Journal (I'll be getting a year's subscription as part of the membership) and a booklet of the early history of the organization.

It may be a bit...silly for me to be a member of an organization in a country thousands of miles away, but so what?

Well then, how about a club where location isn't a prime factor? Last week I received another packet, the membership kit for the mysterious Talik Saleh Bike Club.

The kit came with a couple stickers, five buttons, and the rules of the club, which are described thusly:

1. Ride bikes 
2. Try not to be an ass 

Man, I really hope to live up to the second rule.

*I guess you can still say I am a Zoobomber due to the "once a Zoobomber, always a Zoobomber" rule.
**Outside of bicycles, I've been a regular member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, Hostelling International, and of course, the Independent Publishing Resource Center.