The Fight for Trails - What IMBA can learn from the NRA

By Joe Lindsey

This article originally appeared in the April, 2005 issue of Mountain Bike Magazine.

In 1977, the National Rifle Association underwent an internal coup that transformed the organization from a largely genteel hunting and marksmanship club into the most effective single-issue advocacy group in the U.S. The coup was led by Harlon Carter, who refocused the NRA on the issue of gun rights. Carter knew that the success of the NRA hinged as much on publicity as on policy. He mobilized the group with stunningly effective membership drives, publicized the NRA's victories and invoked a constant sense of crisis about eroding gun rights. Carter's results were impressive: By 1981, membership had doubled to nearly two million, providing lobbying clout and a 50 percent revenue boost, while celebrity endorsements (most famously the "I'm the NRA" ads, which featured, among others, the unhateable Roy Rogers) humanized an otherwise often divisive message.

In some ways, The International Mountain Bike Association has shown equally gaudy results. In just 16 years, IMBA has helped build more than 6,000 miles of new trail, enough to ride round-trip from New York to L.A. without hitting the same patch of dirt. But you wouldn't know it unless you asked. For all its accomplishments, IMBA's problems - stagnant membership levels, a lack of equal stature with other land-use groups and an inability to convince environmentalists that mountain bikers share their goals - add up to failed marketing. Tellingly, communications at IMBA isn't a high priority; only one of 14 in-house positions deals explicitly with promotion - and that, part-time.

At its heart, membership in an advocacy organization is about two things: identity and benefits. Mike Van Abel, IMBA's new executive director, admits that some of its benefits - like minor discounts on a bike-shipping service whose prices are equal to FedEx and UPS - are "window dressing." The most-attractive perk, dealer invoice price on a new Subaru, is great - but not if you want a VW. And clearly, identity isn't strong enough; every year, IMBA must recruit 10,000 new members, one-third of its base, just to keep from shrinking.

This fall, IMBA will hold a strategic planning conference devoted to setting out the next five years of policy and procedure. Central to that meeting will be a discussion of what models to use as inspiration. Typical examples cited are the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. What about the NRA? Carter's no-compromise approach to policy would be suicide for IMBA, which has neither as robust membership nor a constitutionally guaranteed right to trails behind it. But the public relations ideas Carter pioneered at the NRA merit study.

IMBA needs to brand itself as the sole defender of mountain bike trails in the U.S. (thanks to Wilderness access conflicts and development pressures, this fight is only getting tougher). It should also scream much more loudly about its successes - and offer better member benefits. All of these things have their roots in salesmanship. It's not about the merits of IMBA's goals, it's about selling them. Regardless of whether you love or hate its message, no advocacy organization in this country has shown a better record of that than the NRA.

Posted with the permission of Mountain Bike Magazine http://www.mountainbike.com, April, 2005.