Cycling Club Committee Roles: Who Does What

A cycling club committee is the small group of members, elected at the annual general meeting, who run the club between AGMs. The working minimum is a chair, a secretary and a treasurer held by three different people, plus a welfare (safeguarding) officer and one person who owns the ride calendar. Most other roles can be doubled up until the club passes about 50 members, which is our rule of thumb, not a federation rule.

Sunday, 9:40 at the café stop. The founder is answering the insurer's email about last month's crash, chasing a renewal with the bank and telling a new rider where Saturday's ride starts. On paper the club has a committee. In practice it has one person and a list of names.

The core three, and why they must be three people

Scottish Cycling puts the starting point plainly in a volunteers' week feature (4 June 2024): "Any standard club must have a Secretary, Chairperson and Treasurer to be able to affiliate."

Cycling UK's Member Groups Governance Framework (April 2026) makes four roles compulsory for its own groups (Chair or President, Secretary, Treasurer, Safeguarding Officer) and adds: "No compulsory role should remain vacant for more than eight weeks." They bind its own groups, but the logic holds for any club: whoever spends the money shouldn't be the only one checking it.

The separation rules (read 20 October 2026):

• Chair, secretary and treasurer are three different people. Cycling UK's sample constitution (March 2026), clause 12: "Committee members may perform more than one role, except for Chair, Secretary and Treasurer who must be separate individuals."
• The secretary is not also the safeguarding officer. Recommended in the same clause.
• The honorary auditor is not on the committee (clause 16).
• In Italy, a president holds no other post in a club of the same federation. Since 10 August 2025, article 11 of Legislative Decree 36/2021 bars presidents of amateur sports associations from "qualsiasi carica" in another amateur club within the same national federation.

Cycling club committee roles: what each job does and the hours it takes

Nobody we found publishes hours per role, so we estimated them: each task × how often × how long, divided by 12. The example is a 60-member club whose committee meets quarterly for two hours (8 h a year each), the rhythm both the Handbook for Cycling UK Groups (version 5, April 2026) and Glasgow Gals CC describe.

Chair

Job: "To lead the group and ensure meetings and governance run smoothly and fairly" (Cycling UK handbook): agenda, committee and AGM, casting vote. Hours: meetings 8 + agenda prep 4 × 1 h + AGM 3 h + ad-hoc 1 h a month = 27 h a year, about 2.3 h a month.

Secretary

Job: "To manage day-to-day operations and act as the main communication link for the group" (handbook): inbox, minutes, AGM notice and papers, officer registration, the record of serious incidents. Hours: meetings 8 + minutes 4 × 1 h + AGM papers 4 h + inbox 1 h a week (52 h) + federation admin 5 h = 73 h a year, about 6.1 h a month.

Treasurer

Job: bank account, fees in, money out, annual accounts for the auditor and the AGM. Julian Howell, treasurer of Gala CC, told Scottish Cycling (4 June 2024) that keeping up with expenses and the membership system "takes about 30 minutes a week; plus a committee meeting every month", and year-end accounts take "about an hour to write and check over". Hours: his 0.5 h a week (26 h) + accounts 1 h + budget 2 h + our meetings 8 h = 37 h a year, about 3.1 h a month.

Membership secretary

Job: renewals, the member list, guest riders, personal data handled properly. Liz Fairweather, who runs membership at Glasgow Gals CC, which caps membership at 165, told Scottish Cycling (4 June 2024) that renewals mean "165 x 4 or 5 emails", March and April are busy, and "After May, the amount of time reduces dramatically." Hours: 60 members × 4 emails = 240; at an assumed 5 minutes each, 20 h a season, + list upkeep 1 h a month (12 h) + meetings 8 h = 40 h a year, about 3.3 h a month, bunched into spring.

Rides secretary or club captain

Job: "Maintain and publish the group rides calendar" and "Allocate and support ride leaders" (handbook), plus safety standards and feedback. Hours: weekly calendar 52 × 30 min (26 h) + leader rota 1 h a month (12 h) + meetings 8 h = 46 h a year, about 3.8 h a month.

Welfare or safeguarding officer

Job: first contact for welfare and behaviour concerns, informal resolution of complaints, keeping the safeguarding policy current. Hours: training and policy review 6 h + meetings 8 h = 14 h a year, about 1.2 h a month, with spikes nobody can plan.

Publicity officer

Job: social posts, website, newsletter, event posters. Hours: 2 posts a week × 15 min (26 h) + website 1 h a month (12 h) + meetings 8 h = 46 h a year, about 3.8 h a month.

Together that's 283 hours a year, about 24 a month. Spread over seven people, it's under four hours each. Left on one founder, it's over five hours a week on top of leading rides, which is how clubs lose their founders.

The welfare officer is not optional once you have juniors

National bodies treat this seat as a condition of joining:

• Scotland: Scottish Cycling's clubs page (read 20 October 2026): "All clubs with regulated roles now must have a Wellbeing and Protection Officer in order to affiliate".
• England and Wales: British Cycling asks clubs with any members under 18 to have a club welfare officer in place before it approves affiliation. Check the current requirements on its club affiliation page.
• France: to licence under-18s, FFVélo's 2026 club affiliation dossier asks the club to declare a "Référent jeunes" from among its bureau members.
• Italy: every FCI-affiliated club must appoint a "Responsabile contro abusi, violenze e discriminazioni" (the safeguarding officer) and adopt an organisational model, juniors or not, per the FCI's safeguarding page (checked 20 October 2026), which applies d.lgs. 39/2021, art. 16. D.lgs. 36/2021, art. 33, c. 6 also provides for a child-protection officer (responsabile della protezione dei minori) in clubs with minors; the FCI's template appoints one person to both roles.
• Spain: ask your regional federation what it expects of a club with junior members.

Why not the secretary? Cycling UK's handbook keeps them apart "in order to maintain impartiality and confidentiality. Combining them can create conflicts of interest and compromise trust in safeguarding processes." For cover, see ride waivers and insurance for clubs.

Minimum viable committee: 20 members vs 150 members

The jobs are the same at every size; the volume isn't. With the low end of Glasgow Gals CC's 4 to 5 emails per member, renewals mean 20 × 4 = 80 emails at 20 members and 150 × 4 = 600 at 150. At 5 minutes each, that's under 7 hours a season versus 50.

Split a combined role when one person is above about 6 hours a month, or when two of their jobs peak together, as renewals and the spring ride calendar do in March. At 20 members the doubled secretary stays under it: halve the inbox (our assumption) and 73 h become 47 h, plus 6.7 h of renewals and 12 h of list upkeep: 66 h a year, 5.5 h a month. Treasurer plus publicity (75 h) is borderline. The second hat goes to someone new at the next AGM, or sooner by co-option if your constitution allows.

Who does what: a RACI for 25 recurring tasks

Titles don't say who sends the AGM notice or who rings the insurer. A RACI table does: R does the work, A answers for it (one A per task, never two), C is asked first, I is told afterwards. "A/R" means the same person owns it and does it.

By column, the secretary is accountable for 7 of the 25 tasks, the rides secretary for 5. Guides for some rows: when to cancel a club ride, the ride leader's first 10 minutes after a crash, setting membership fees and club kit orders without losing money.

Same jobs, four countries: UK, France, Spain, Italy

• France. The law doesn't require a bureau: "Une association n'est pas obligée de se doter d'un bureau", says Service-Public (page verified 14 August 2026), and one person can hold two posts "si les statuts de l'association l'autorisent". The requirement is federal: FFVélo asks for at least a président·e, secrétaire and trésorier·ère, and calls the correspondant·e and délégué·e sécurité "indispensables". FFC clubs: ask your comité régional. Changes of officers are declared to the greffe des associations within 3 months, or officers face a fine of up to 1,500 € (3,000 € for a repeat), per Service-Public (page verified 5 November 2024). Alsace-Moselle has its own regime.
• Italy. An ASD can be set up by three people, but the FCI's affiliation page asks for at least five names in the dirigenti section, and every member of the consiglio direttivo must hold an FCI card. For edge cases, ask your FCI regional committee or a commercialista.
• Spain. Club rules come from your comunidad autónoma (Ley 39/2022 del Deporte, art. 63) and your estatutos. Ask your region's Registro de Entidades Deportivas what the junta directiva must include.

Filling the seats: elections, terms and handovers

The AGM elects the committee, and Cycling UK's handbook says "All committee positions should be opened for re-election". There's no universal term limit.

If nobody stands for chair, FFVélo allows a direction collégiale (shared leadership) if the statuts say so, though its affiliation software still needs three names. When a seat empties mid-season, Cycling UK's framework says a committee member "should cover the essential duties of any vacant role temporarily" and members must be told.

Before an officer steps down, walk through these together:

• Bank: mandate updated, signatories changed, online access moved.
• Federation and insurance: club login, renewal date, registered officers, current certificate, open claims.
• Records: constitution, three years of minutes and accounts, incident records.
• Member data: where the list lives, who has access, what gets deleted.
• Logins: club email, website, domain, social accounts, payment tools.

Find people before the AGM, not at it. Recruiting and keeping volunteer ride leaders works for committee seats too: ask one named person for one defined job, hours attached.

Keep the committee small and the club big

A committee that meets quarterly and publishes who to contact for what can run a club of 150.

• Publish the role cards with the hours. People volunteer for a job they can picture.
• One contact per question: rides, membership, welfare, money. The one-channel rule holds.
• Give every heavy role a deputy. Next year's officer is this year's deputy.
• Review the RACI at each AGM.

Still founding? How to start a cycling club covers the constitution and first meeting. The club ride playbook covers ride days, and how to grow your cycling club picks up once the seats are filled.

FAQ

What does a cycling club secretary do?

Runs the club day to day: inbox, AGM papers, minutes, officer registration and the incident record. In our 60-member estimate it's the heaviest seat, about 6 hours a month.

What's the difference between a chair and a president?

Often none: Cycling UK writes "Chair (or President)". Some clubs keep "President" as an honorary title and elect a separate chair. In a French association the président·e is usually the legal representative.

What is the minimum committee for a cycling club?

Three different people: chair, secretary and treasurer. Add a welfare officer who isn't the secretary and you have four, our minimum for a 20-member club. FCI affiliation in Italy needs five names in the dirigenti section, and every FCI club must also name a safeguarding officer.

Can one person hold two committee roles?

Yes, for most roles, if your constitution allows it. Keep chair, secretary and treasurer separate, and the secretary out of welfare.

Do we have to tell anyone when the committee changes?

In France, yes: the greffe des associations, within 3 months; in Alsace-Moselle, the local court's register of associations instead. Everywhere, tell your bank, your federation and your insurer.

How we made this. Written by club riders, with AI help for research, drafting and translation. Role duties and quotes come from the sources linked where used, read on 20 October 2026. Hours per role, the 20- and 150-member committees and the RACI are our own estimates for an example club, with every input shown. General guidance, not legal advice: check your constitution or statuts, your national federation (British Cycling, Scottish Cycling, FFC/FFVélo, RFEC, FCI), your insurer and your bank.