Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition
Monthly Meeting
The Ecology Center, Ann Arbor
March 3, 2011
Chair Pete Hines
Vice Chair Joel Batterman (Elected at this meeting)
Secretary Tim Athan
Treasurer Karen Moorhead
Board Members in Attendance:
Joel Batterman
Larry Deck
Carolyn Grawi
Erica Briggs
1. Welcome/Introductions
Former board member Lily Guzman attended tonight’s meeting.
2. Approval of previous meeting minutes
Previous meeting minutes were approved.
3. Treasurer’s report
Karen provided the treasurer’s report:
“Beginning balance (Feb 2011) 3770.18
Deposits 195.00
Interest 2.14
Debit POS (13.07)
Ending balance 3954.25
The following checks were written but not yet cleared. They are annual donations:
Alliance for Biking & Walking 100.00
League of American Bicyclists 45.00
League of Michigan Bicyclists 50.00
Michigan Trails & Greenway 50.00
The Ecology Center (A2) 30.00
Rails to Trails Conservancy 18.00
Karen talked of concerns about the infrequency of back ups of our web site. She will explore alternative hosting.
4. New Business
a. Need a new Vice-Chair
Joel was elected Vice Chair through the end of this year.
b. Insurance issues for pedestrian grant activities (Larry)
Larry had sent out a note about our insurance options:
“The quotation from the Lansing agent with the Michigan League Insurance Project for Nonprofits came in much higher than expected ($1,165), so I prepared to purchase the State Farm policy that Erica had discussed with the agent Lynn Raade. When I called her to finalize arrangements, she said that the $400 quote would cover Erica as well as WBWC if she were an employee, but not as a contractor. For Erica to be covered as a contractor, she would need a separate policy, probably a business consultant policy for about $300.
WBWC now needs to decide whether to revisit the issues of what insurance coverage we want for WBWC and for Erica, how to pay, and whether the administrative burdens and costs of having Erica as an employee (rather than a contractor) would outweigh the insurance costs of having her as a contractor.
Incidentally, it appears that we will need to generate an IRS 1099 form to hire Erica as a contractor.”
There was confusion over whether Erica needs general liability insurance as a contractor, in addition to the liability insurance she has through her board membership.
Karen noted that if someone’s bike were stolen or damaged by WBWC bike valet parking someone could easily sue us. Erica noted that our cycling skills clinics could conceivably generate suits.
Lily suggested another talk with the State Farm insurance agent. Erica says that she definitely plans to do that.
Larry said he thinks that general liability for the board isn’t necessary but it would probably be a good idea.
Carolyn asked what PEAC, or other organizations similar to us, are doing. No one was sure. PEAC’s approach can be discussed at their March event.
The board decided they are happy with the decision at the last meeting to get the insurance for the board, despite the $400 annual cost.
Larry said he doubted we could do better than $400 with another provider.
c. Cycling Skill Classes Update (Erica)
Erica met with Paul and with Carol Hahn. They had a few concerns that Erica might be taking on too much with the class, and that the program may be more substantial than other parents wanted. She checked with some other parents and they had no objections.
Erica will be talking with the lead instructor, Officer Kathy Vonk, later this month. Kathy had said that Erica had allocated a reasonable amount of material to cover in 2 ½ hours.
Wheels in Motion will be on site providing free maintenance.
Karen noted that advertising for these classes could be done in the high schools.
d. Bike Fest / Tour de Kids events
Pete attended the green Fair meeting, and we will definitely have a presence there. They are moving us to the North Block (between Huron and Washington).
Pete hasn’t seen any updates about Tour de Kids. He said it wasn’t certain that it will happen.
Lily said that she’d heard that the Pro Am event will not be a part of Tour de Kids.
e. Membership Drive update
No update. Erica suggested that this item be removed from the monthly agenda template.
f. Website update
Karen reported that the new web site is entirely functional, and she hopes to announce it this weekend on Facebook and Twitter.
Pete said he was impressed with Google spreadsheets.
Larry asked about document storage. Karen said that she believes that Kris would like to be involved in this discussion, and Larry said he would too.
g. Internship discussions (Carolyn)
We’d talked about enlisting a Public Health or Public Policy intern. Carolyn was told that Public Health has no one to assign to us right now. We’d have to generate some awareness at the school to develop future possibilities.
Public Policy internships are generally 10 week summer positions. Alternatively, groups of students can tackle a class project during either the fall or spring summers.
Carolyn suggested that we could try to arrange for someone to get involved in a class project starting in winter term, and then encourage that person to continue on as an intern through the summer.
She suggested that the person could be placed at the Center for Independent Living (CIL), as her intern, with the task of supporting the WBWC.
Public policy students are often pursuing dual degrees.
Public policy has a funding stream. When a student gets an internship that isn’t funded, the school can help provide the funding. And if they need a desk, that could happen at CIL.
Lily reported that for Social Work you get class credit, so generally those students don’t have to be paid, while Public Policy internships generally involve pay.
Larry suggested we should identify a task from our work plan, or from the pedestrian grant, or define a new project. Carolyn said we will have to get the proposal in by the end of the month, for the intern event on March 25, (2 to 4 p.m.).
Joel suggested that the school of Natural Resources and Environment and the Urban Planning School might be possibilities, though he said that neither has a large internship program.
Erica suggested we get a description together this month over e-mail. Carolyn will send out what is needed for this first step in the process. Later more task detail will be required.
Carolyn will let the School of Social work know that we will be making a proposal.
Carolyn will try to get examples of Public Policy internship proposals for us to begin considering.
h. Support letter for Gallup Park grant
A draft of a support letter was included in the meeting packet.
This letter is to be sent to the city, for them to pass on to the Trust Fund.
The board endorsed Pete’s editing of the letter and his sending it out under the WBWC letterhead.
Carolyn is contributing a similar endorsement from the CIL.
Karen reported that we received an invitation to host bike valet parking at Huron River Day. That occurs on Sunday, July 17 from 8 to 4 at Gallup Park.
The board voted to accept the invitation.
i. Support letter for Ypsi bridge application (draft)
Larry said there is no problem in endorsing two projects for the same funding source.
The letter had been distributed by e-mail and it was endorsed tonight.
j. Updates on grant (Carolyn)
Lily finished a literature review, and they have spoken with a number of other cities to learn about best practices.
They will meet with Chief Jones next Friday to talk about a targeted enforcement campaign.
They are considering a survey of drivers, about pedestrians issues.
They plan to launch the education campaign in May.
Erica will provide a written status report by next week.
k. Curb Your Car Month 2011
Kris is working on this. Erica said that Kris would like a commitment from us that we are in support of this. She has lined up a graphic artist. getDowntown will be involved. Karen will put something on the web site.
The board voted to support this event.
The pedestrian grant will have a kick-off in May that can be affiliated with Curb Your Car activities.
We’ll host two rides that month.
Erica suggested that it would be a good idea to have Ward rides. Riders could examine problem areas. Alternatively there could be walks. Joel would be interested in getting involved.
Erica said that bike shops would probably be willing to support this, (perhaps loaning bicycles for city officials to ride).
5. Committee Reports
a. Membership
No report
b. Financial
No report
c. Public Outreach Committee Update (Erica)
Karen, Joel and Erica had their first meeting two weeks ago. Their “loose goal” is to have 300 supporters by the end of 2011. Joel has committed to updating our brochure by the end of April.
Robert Klinger was at the meeting, and he agreed to help with distribution of materials, and to help with an events communication list.
Karen would like to find another web site administrator.
There will be a regular meeting schedule, one meeting each month.
d. Social
Pete tried to have a couple of events, but almost no one showed up.
Lily suggested that perhaps the two rides scheduled for May could be consolidated into one ride.
6. WBWC General Business
Governance
No report
Organization-building
a. Newsletter
The next newsletter will be April 1st. Erica will send out a note with the deadline.
b. Schedule follow-up to retreat prior to April Meeting
Erica would like to schedule a follow-up to the retreat, and perhaps to also look at the lessons we learned from last year’s board training.
There was interest in this. Joel has felt that there is a need for more long term visioning.
Karen suggested that the mission statement could be included in the discussion.
Lily is interested in serving as the facilitator. Lily will check her schedule and send it to Erica. The date will be finalized over e-mail.
Larry noted that we have the work plan as a starting point.
c. Growing our board, board retention and board burnout
Erica will commit to reading some books relevant to this topic by the April meeting and will report at that time.
Erica welcomed thoughts about this topic, and considered that perhaps they could be posted anonymously.
Tim said he felt that rather than focus efforts upon enlisting new board members, we first should find more members who become active WBWC participants. Their move to the board will be a natural transition.
This topic will be addressed in the social outreach meeting.
7. Upcoming Events
Pete will send out a note about next Friday’s RAT.
Pete reported that we would have to pay $20 for participation in Earth Day at Washtenaw Community College. It is an all day event so we would need a number of volunteers to staff the table.
8. Discussion about Reports from other groups
Erica said that summaries from these reports can be sent to her for inclusion in the newsletter.
Larry reported that the Ford Boulevard implementation may get delayed as a result of budget delay in Washington.
The Complete Streets meeting was cancelled but the next one is on March 9 at 10:30.
Erica asked if the Bike Summit is at the end of the month. Yes: March 26 and 27. She reminded us that we were sending a couple of board members to it. Karen said we could take that amount of money and divide it among whomever can go.
We voted to provide $150 for board members, and former WBWC Chair Bob Krzewinski, to attend.
10. Adjourn
We adjourned just before 9.
