My Nonprofit Reviews

While NICA has a good and noble mission on paper, their actual execution is very poor. There is very little in the way of actual leadership at the national level. It’s staffed by a bunch of former school teachers and people who have done nothing other than work at NICA. There is little business sense. They tend to tolerate bad behavior, since no one wants to “offend”. Bullies love how this organization runs, as they have carte blanche to behave badly, with little to no consequences. No one will call them out. Ever.

As a result, NICA has very little control and influence on state leagues. Some of the league staff are chock full of egos and bullies. If those individuals are money makers or influential to NICA in any way, NICA will turn a blind eye. Their very model encourages this behavior, as NICA does not wish to address or acknowledge that there is negativity or bad apples in the real world of mountain biking. There is no consistency with how this is addressed, and sometimes they just don’t address it purely from an avoidance standpoint. You see, it’s hard to be positive and upbeat all the time if there are real life issues to be dealt with. And there are.

I think this head-in-the-sand behavior hurts the organization greatly, and I would not be surprised if a very large lawsuit hits them between the eyes due to the lack of control and oversight of the leagues. It’s really NOT about “more kids on bikes”, it’s really more about propping up the people who benefit NICA the most.