The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club is pleased to announce the selection of former board president and club member Matthew Kellogg as its first executive director to serve the organization.
The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable trail access for off-road bicyclists and to maintaining the trails on which mountain bikers ride and other user groups rely. AMBC supports the conservation of open spaces and is committed to educating mountain bicyclists to ride sensitively and responsibly in order to protect the natural environment and the experience of other trail users.
Hiring an executive director has been planned for the club for several years, and the board committed funds for the position in late summer 2019.
“AMBC has continued to grow, and our board decided now was the time to take the next step and hire an executive director,” says board president Wes Soward. “There were many great applicants, and we ultimately decided to hire Matthew. AMBC is excited to see how we mature as an organization with our first staff position.”
As a past club president and former board member, Kellogg has firsthand knowledge and relationships that will help propel the club through the next phases. Kellogg was at the helm in 2015 when community support made Knoxville the winner of Bell Helmets’ 2015 $100,000 trail grant, a grant that funded the building of the Devil’s Racetrack, an iconic trail at Baker Creek Preserve in Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness.
Kellogg holds a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Tennessee and honed his project management and leadership skills restoring and revitalizing some of Knoxville’s historic downtown structures.
The executive director will be tasked with overseeing over 70 miles of natural-surface, multiuse trails in the Knoxville area. The most recent project included the reworking of Marie Myers Park in Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness. The project aimed to reduce trail maintenance while increasing the number of suitable ride days. Trail users from around the country and the community have great reviews of the new trail network, dubbed the #yearroundgetdown.
AMBC has been the driving force for natural-surface trail construction and maintenance in the Knoxville area. With support from partnering organizations and numerous volunteers, AMBC works to help provide natural-surface trail access across the 70-plus miles of trails it has helped build or for which it provides maintenance. It engages the community through monthly meetings, organized trail work parties and special events. A membership-based organization, AMBC welcomes all to join.
The next AMBC work party is 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Feb. 22, at I.C. King Park, 2625 Maryville Pike. The group meets on the fourth Monday of each month. Check the website for location.
AMBC events are also listed in the Outdoor Knoxville calendar.
Wes Soward is the current board chair of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club.