Board Meeting Minutes 12/1/16

by | Dec 1, 2016 | News and Events | 0 comments

Duluth Bikes Board Meeting

Meeting Minutes | Toasty’s

12/1/16 • 5:30pm

Present Board Members: Mariana Glitsos, Michael Latsch, Tara Sieve, Shawna Mullen, Jenny VanSickle, Dick Haney, Alyssa Lommel, Morris Levy, Jon Loye, Ruurd Schoolderman

Board Members Absent:  Mike Casey

Guest Participants:

___________________________________________________________________

Additions to Agenda:  none

Meeting called to order at 5:37pm

Review 11.3.16 Meeting Minutes:

  • Edit: Shawna was invited to the “Bike and Trail Committee of the Parks Commission”
  • Edit: Replace $40.00 and edit to $35.00
  • Edit: Jenny attended the Transportation Focus Group (not housing)


1: Officer Updates/Reports

  • Treasurer Update: $536.01 available–additional $1.50 that went towards the payment (bank fee?)
    • Give to the Max Day: 6 Memberships not reflected in this current account balance. Another person(s) donated $4.00
  • Mariana: BikeMN newsletter mentioned Duluth Bikes and new membership envelopes will be coming soon. Shared the link to the google drive with everyone and wanted to confirm. Bylaws note that Board Members shouldn’t have any more than 3 absences for Board Meetings.
    • Allow conference calls if unable to physically be present.

2: Committee Updates

 

  • Advocacy: Next Monday 12.5.16 will be meeting with Mayor Larson. Working on setting a date with Elissa. Jenny spoke with the city planners with backgrounds on the variances on narrowing lane width. They felt confident the new design would go through–Shawna is facilitating a meeting with Duncan that will be put forward this month. Priority is scheduling meetings with councilors. Hopefully able to find some compelling safety data and the dangers of angled parking. Bonding bill did not go through.Morris had a discussion with Dan Hartman and he has shown interest of involvement with facilities. Action: Morris will share google drive data on safety/angled parking.
  • Shawna-Are we still interested in approaching the MnDOT variance committee??

 

    • Ruurd-First step is that it goes to city council and we voice our concerns and if they do decide to adopt it, we go to MnDOT and voice concerns there.
    • Jenny-Something to think about is process and strategies for meetings.
  • Events: Shawna did an awesome job updating materials and we used that at the Great Outdoors Party (Give to the Max Day). Started to outline Bike Month.
  • Outreach: Focus on website as well building the Two Wheel Deal program. ACTION: ALL BIOS DUE NOW (Due two months ago)
    Action: Tara will send notice to YMCA to request they post that all Two Wheel Deal programming will be going through Duluth Bikes.

3: Give to the Max Day Updates and Fundraising

    • Mariana is going to send out a thank you card to Tavis (?) for donating $50.00 for Give to the Max Day.
      • Shawna-Usually tabling seems to be a waste of time, but this was really beneficial because we had a lot of engagement and conversations with people on policy and involvement. However they skipped introducing Duluth Bikes as one of groups attending.
      • Morris-I wouldn’t say that the event wasn’t completely dominated by COGGS.
      • Mariana-Found out from Will from BikeMN that the website was down for several hours during GTMD
      • Ruurd-It’s so big and so much competition. We could aim for around Easter when people are starting to feel like being in a giving mode again… Spring is also a more natural time for raising funds. How are we on membership numbers?

 

  • Action: Mariana will ask Will for complete list of BikeMN members. Ask also about building database for gathering shirt orders.

 

      • Shawna-I think there are a lot of people that were members before Duluth Bikes and see about connecting with them. When the renewal goes out, hopefully Duluth will be on that.
      • Shawna-We should have an annual member meeting during Bus.Bike.Walk month to help with recruitment and renewal for both current and new.
      • Ruurd-Can always raise a lot of money with t-shirts, but let people pre-order online via facebook. Can make between $5-$10.
      • Shawna-We can also focus on business memberships and approach our usual memberships (bike friendly businesses). If they wanted to become a member, we could offer a commuting class. BikeMN has a window cling that we can provide to these business.
      • Ruurd-Have we been pushing through our facebook page on facebook
      • Shawna-Tried putting a donate button or link to facebook… pin it to the top and have it in the description.
      • Morris-We could put out a write up to members saying thanks and to encourage them to donate.

 

  • Action: Tara connect with Shane from Happy Space for shirt prices and minimum bundle.
  • Action: Mariana will put up some Facebook posts about membership
  • Action: Michael will start sharing more about bike friendly business and two wheel deal.

 

4: Duluth Draft: January

    • Potential Presenters for Draft (focuses on bike related industry):
      • Patrick Stevenson
      • Northern Waters
      • Tim Bates with ZAPP @ UMD
      • Elissa Hanson
      • Facilities Management from the City has shown interest

 

  • Action: Shawna to follow up with Facilities Mngmnt to present

 

    • Michael: Jeremy Kurshaw (sp?) from Heck of the North Productions and Gravel for Good, supporting different bike related programs
    • Aerostich
    • Hursey Johnson presented how to market Duluth as an outdoor community
    • Visit Duluth received grant to go to Amsterdam on biking/cycling, so maybe whomever went to that?
    • Chelsea Froemke from Bike Cave
    • Kirian Langseth-Schmidt (Mariana and Tara both know her and her husband Dan)

5: Bus.Bike.Walk Month Discussion

    • We are having our first planning meeting on December 8th at 2:00pm City Hall room 106A–contact Shawna if you are attending.
    • Mayor’s Bike Ride is set for May 12th, guest speaker potentials: Anthony Desnick, Ethan Holly, Jason Hall, ex-transportation commissioner from New York City Jennette Sadik-Cahn (presenters covered by sponsorships)
    • Approaching bike shops to sponsor, Essentia, People for Bikes…
    • No goal for number of events, asking other organizations to host and we Duluth Bikes, will collect and promote
    • Ruurd-Could we approach Homegrown to host something?
      • Tara-We can, but it’s up to them to coordinate an activity and take ownership of it
      • Shawna-We did last year and they were all for it until “liability” came up.

 

  • Action: Each one of us find one person (not Duluth Bikes related) to send an email to Phil Gents pgents@duluthmn.gov for Homegrown to close the street for bikes and people.

 

6: Superior Street Updates and Mayor’s Meeting Discussion

    • Will introduce that Duluth Bikes is under BikeMN umbrella and sharing our strategic priorities and working together with the city/Mayor Larson. We are given 30 minutes to meet with Mayor Larson. Will bring up Superior St. on funding status and opportunities she sees to feel out where she stands. This will be relationship building with the Mayor and ask how best we can partner moving forward.

 

  • Action: Send out agenda of discussion points to Duluth Bikes group and Advocacy group set up plan on who discusses what and how much time for each.

 

  • Jenny-Do you think there should be an order in which we meet? Mayor first, then Elissa, then to the councilors (Hobbs, etc… Joel last since he flipped)

8: Duluth Bike Tour Map Update

    • Mariana: Got the update from Mike that he has not looked at the Bike Tour map yet.

 

  • Action: Mike, work on Bike Tour Map.

 

9: Winter Cycling Input for BikeMN

 

  • Could they provide a little Cycling Savvy booklet, winter version?
  • Gear for Winter Bike to Work Day?
  • Organize a winter community ride, they were the ones to reach out to local businesses?
  • Stops at a different restaurants, smores, ice skating. President’s Day Week when people have that time off?  The Inn on the Lake, Fitgers, and Bayfront?

 

    • “Biking’s HOT in the Cold”

Other:

    • Dick-How can we recruit from our membership base to be more involved with the committees.
    • Jenny-From my experience for recruitment is asking them to be involved in the committees, going to the community meetings and opening up that dialogue.
    • Shawna-Quarterly newsletter? What’s going on and here’s how you can be involved. Outreach committee…?
    • Action: Advocacy (and Outreach?) committee could look at community groups and connect with those groups, look at a more broad spectrum.

 

  • Action: Mariana post on facebook a “call to action” for recruitment or email our email list.

 

  • Utilize facebook to notify us of events/activities that are related to Duluth Bikes.

Meeting Adjourned: 7:04pm

Next meeting: 1.5.17 | 5:30pm| Toasty’s on Superior St.