What a motorcycle club taught me about onboarding

Last weekend a friend talked me into joining his motorcycle club on their ride from Bishkek to Issyk-Kul. I'm not a serious rider. I own one bike, I'm nervous on gravel, and I'd never ridden in a group bigger than three. I came back with sore shoulders and a page of notes about community building.

Before we left, the organiser paired me with an experienced rider who stayed behind me the whole way. He never lectured. He flashed his lights when I drifted too wide and pointed out the good tea stop. Every new rider gets one of these, it costs the club nothing, and it's the best onboarding I've seen anywhere.

Their whole code of conduct is printed on a laminated card that lives in every tank bag. Ride your own pace. Never pass on the inside. Stop if the rider behind you disappears from your mirror. That's most of it. I thought about the six-page guidelines document I wrote for this network in our first year and winced a little.

Then there was the evening. When we reached the lake, nobody wandered off to their phones. Everyone sat down together, ate, and each person said one thing about the ride. New riders went first. By the time it got round to the veterans, I felt like I'd been part of the group for years.

So I'm stealing all three for our own welcome process: a buddy for every newcomer, rules that fit on one card, and a moment where new people speak first. If your community has its own version of the laminated card, I'd love to see it.