CTC : Chris Juden redundant

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PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
This arose over lunch on a CTC ride today, Chris was made redundant just before Xmas and the CTC no longer has a Technical or a Touring officer. Apparently the money freed will fund a Marketing and Communications Manager.

Redundancy terms were statutory minimum - and a card. (according to Chris on the CTC forum)

Given the very positive views I've read here about Chris in the past, I'm surprised this has not featured in a thread - or have I missed it?
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
Boggle
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
Chris is a seriously knowledgeable guy and posted very good advice on the ctc forum.

my understanding is that ctc's view is that more people are online and that there is plenty on the forum archives to cover most if not all bicycle techie stuff.
 
Location
Wirral
Classic spiral of decline, get rid of good people and alienate many hundreds, then get some smooth tongued spiv and perhaps recruit a dozen or so... [1]

Best thing that could happen to 'CTC of old' is to become the touring section of British Cyling - before the new unimproved CTC charity crashes and burns the lot

[1] Remember Littlewoods Pools? they lost 15% of their market to the then 'new' Lottery - they panicked and changed the system to be similar to Lottery - result was they then lost the loyal 85% and gained very little - not around any longer - think on CTC !!
 

Bollo

Failed Tech Bro
Location
Winch
The thread about this on the CTC forum has been painful reading. Surely CJ could have been found a role?
I've just ploughed through it, helped by a very nice Rioja that had somehow survived Christmas, like Signourney Weaver on the Nostromo.
I let my CTC membership lapse after the charity vote and reading all that does nothing to persuade me that I should rejoin.
 

swansonj

Guru
There are three reasons why this is a bad decision, none of which have anything to do with the fact that most of us think CJ personally deserves much better than the mean-spirited treatment he's apparently received.

First, technical advice was a member service, and doing away with it is a further sign that CTC is too occupied with empire building to care about its members.

Second, CJ stood for a solid, evidence-based, thoughtful approach to cycling. His departure is a sign that CTC doesn't really care about content, it's content to campaign in the basis of superficial show and spin. I bet we'll see more and more articles in Cycling, for instance, that merely reproduce manufacturers' spin and uncritically endorse the latest marketing fad.

Third, CJ's approach to cycling was all about cycling as a means of transport not cycling as sport. His departure is a sign that CTC is becoming more and more like British Cycling and leaving no-one to represent the cycling as practical transport constituency.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Sad news for CJ after all the years of good service he must have given the CTC. What to**ers.

Years ago when I was a member of CTC his articles were very informative free of bias or preferring a product to pay his mortgage. The CTC organisation as a whole went down the tubes years ago. Their organisation was terrible. They farked up my membership renewal 2 years running after 6 years of membership so I left. No apology what so ever I was given the impression that I was the inconvenience despite my membership contributing to their coffers. They sent me a miserable water bottle to entice me to re-join. Bog off! So I sympathise completely with how CJ must feel. They have certainly carped on him from a big height. He struck me as an extremely resourceful guy so I shouldn't imagine he will find it too difficult finding a new and more rewarding role some where in the cycling world. The CTC are of no consequence to me as a cyclist. They are an irrelevance.Their main campaign and recruiting slogan Safety in Numbers was fundamentally flawed. Back in the day when road racing had first become established in France and Belgium it was trialled here and the CTC campaigned relentlessly to get club road cycle racing BANNED which is probably why there has always been such resistance to it and cycling in general in the UK compared to France and Belgium. Had I known this before I joined them for the few years I was a member, I would NEVER have given them a single penny of my hard earned. If you want to support cycling then join British Cycling and your local club.

Maybe there is a role for Chris at BC? His departure from the CTC might be a blessing in disguise.
 
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John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
my understanding is that ctc's view is that more people are online and that there is plenty on the forum archives to cover most if not all bicycle techie stuff.
I think the problem is that we retro grouches, and tourers tend to be doing stuff that's somewhat outside the norm (touring gear has always seemed, to me, to consist of bodging things intended for other purposes into the role, unless you've the cash to buy Velo Orange, or Rivendell). A lot of my "Can I get x to do y?" questions have been answered by CJ's articles.
 
OP
OP
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PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
my understanding is that ctc's view is that more people are online and that there is plenty on the forum archives to cover most if not all bicycle techie stuff.

That was indeed the gist of the reported CTC view over lunch, and there is an argument that the direct member tech support role is not as significant as it was, however that was only a part of CJ's role - technical liaison with Government and Industry was the major part (i am given to understand). CTC will now have no technical input into Policy nor technically sound lobbying position wrt Government or Industry as it has no technical section.
 

swansonj

Guru
And the law around lighting will remain a mess for ever.
Exactly. A prime example of something that can only be sorted out by someone with the technical background and understanding of a CJ or equivalent. But also very indicative of CTC's current direction. If you are just interested in helping a few more people buy off the peg bikes (that are probably unsuited to their needs but never mind because they won't be using them enough to notice) and do some fun riding, then the mess of the lighting regs doesn't matter - they can just buy some manufacturer-hyped lights that don't meet the claimed spec but are good enough for the purpose. If you want to go beyond that starting point - which is worthwhile in itself, don't get me wrong - and promote cycling as a serious alternative functional transport mode, non-sporting leisure activity, and green contribution, it's things like the lighting regs (and toe overlap and mudguard quick releases and the expected life of ever narrower sprockets and chains and so on and so forth) that you need to tackle.
 

swansonj

Guru
So, the Feb issue of Cycle has an announcement from the Chief Exec - sneaked into the middle of a longer piece that starts in different vein altogether, and that doesn't spell out that the re prioritisation being announced involves making CJ redundant, indeed that doesn't even mention CJ or the other staff likewise sacked by name. It contains a statement that the technical content of the website and mag will be unchanged, which we know is a lie. And the only place where there is a tribute to Chris is a letter - not a single acknowledgement from the CTC. That feels really, really shoddy - an organisation that simply doesn't care about either its staff or its members.

I think CJ's statement that there is now only one relatively junior member of CTC staff who was a member before they started work for it is very revealing.
 
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