As an administrator of a Strava club with over 3,000 members, I want to share the challenges we face when trying to organize meaningful activities for our community, especially when it comes to creating club-wide challenges. Currently, there is no dedicated feature for this, which makes it extremely difficult to engage all members effectively.

At present, the only workaround is to create a private group challenge and manually invite members. This approach is not practical for clubs of our size and has several significant limitations:

1. Manual Invitations: With over 3,000 members, manually inviting participants is an overwhelming task.
2. Participation Cap: Only up to 199 athletes can be invited to private challenges, which excludes the majority of our club members.
3. Subscription Barrier: Non-subscribers cannot join these challenges, leaving a large portion of the club unable to participate in what should be a shared experience.

These restrictions make it nearly impossible to create inclusive challenges that reflect the community spirit Strava aims to foster. Challenges are an essential part of what makes clubs engaging and exciting, yet the current system falls short of supporting clubs effectively.

For example, I had planned to organize a club-wide challenge this Christmas season—centered around the theme "Riding Against Fascism"—to bring our members together for a meaningful and social activity. Unfortunately, the current limitations make it unfeasible to involve all interested members.

Here’s why introducing a dedicated Club Challenge feature would be a game-changer for clubs like ours:

1. Scaling with Club Size: Clubs with hundreds or thousands of members need scalable tools to manage and engage their communities effectively.
2. Streamlined Administration: A dedicated feature would allow club administrators to create challenges that are visible to all members, eliminating the need for manual invitations.
3. Inclusivity: Enabling all club members—regardless of subscription status—to participate fosters a stronger sense of belonging and community.
4. Increased Engagement: Open participation would drive more activity within clubs, encouraging athletes to stay engaged with Strava and their communities.
5. Empowering Grassroots Initiatives: Clubs often organize challenges tied to social causes or community events. A dedicated feature would make it easier to execute these initiatives effectively and inclusively.
6. Strengthening Club Identity: Challenges are a fantastic way to build excitement, camaraderie, and shared goals among members, helping clubs grow and thrive.

I understand the importance of reserving premium features for paying subscribers—I am a subscriber myself—but I strongly believe that basic club challenges should be available to all members. Strava could still monetize official challenges or advanced features (e.g., detailed analytics, multi-club comparisons) while enabling clubs to foster community through inclusive and scalable tools.

In summary, a Club Challenge feature would allow clubs like ours to organize better, engage more members, and bring communities closer together—all while aligning with Strava’s mission of connecting and inspiring athletes worldwide.

Thank you for your time and for continually improving this fantastic platform. I hope you’ll consider implementing this feature in a future update.