Meeting Minutes

Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition
117 North Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan
734/487-9058
www.wbwc.org

   04-09-02 WBWC Minutes

   Meeting convened at 7:06pm

   Present: Kris Talley, Bob Krzewinski, John Hritz, Tim Athan, Bob Goodsell,
   Bob Klingler, Ana Iacob, Frank Schwende, Krista McDermott

   Meeting minutes for the August 8th 2004 meeting were approved.

   2. Treasurer's report: $596.16

   3. New member/attendee intros and interests - None

   4. Actions

   A. WBWC 204 bicycling/walking projects

   1. Frank updated us on his work on letters for the election. He is
   preparing material that mentions the size of our membership and other
   members of the coalition.

   2. Friends of First and William Park - Kris asked whether we should be
   willing to take a stand on this topic. We generally agreed that we could
   support this, in particular because we are not happy about the continuous
   parking system expansion and the effects on pedestrians and cyclists of
   the extra commuter traffic.

   3. Non-Motorized Projects - University of Michigan - No update. Krista
   reported that the University community will get free rides on AATA in the
   near future. However, she has heard a rumor that this is part of a
   proposal to end the University system in the future and have AATA take
   over the UM bus system. We are supposed to proposed 3-5 key things for the
   University to work on.

   4. Huron River Drive (Nieters) - No update

   5. Walking School Bus 2004 school year (Hritz, Bentley-Goenka) - No
   update, however there was a story in the Ecology Center's newsletter this
   month.

   6. New High School - Bob Klingler brought up the proposed new high school,
   and brought up a meeting September 21st 7-9pm at Forsythe.
   www.proposednewschool.org? We discussed whether to opposed the school
   and/or whether to recommend changes to encourage walking and bicycling and
   not encourage motoring. We agreed to not fight the location, but to do
   what we can to force bike lanes, sidewalks, covered bike parking located
   more conveniently than car parking, and shared-use paths.

   7. Pedestrian Bridges (Bentley-Goenka) - no update.

   8. Pedestrian Recommendations - Ken asked that we contact Ann Arbor City
   Council to encourage them to take up the Environmental Commission's
   resolution.

   9. Winter bike - Krista would like to hold one or more winter biking
   workshops. She is thinking of one near campus and one downtown Ann Arbor.

   10. Website link to Alt-trans program - Krista would like to have a link
   on our website to the Ann Arbor Alt-trans program and other nonmotorized
   repair/improvement contact information. She also mentioned lighting on
   school property paths and where to put bike parking.

   B. Bike to Work Week 2005

   Kris is planning to hold a meeting in September for BTWW.

   C. Upcoming Events

   Ann Arbor Nonmotorized Plan Central Area Meeting, September 15th, 7pm
   community high

   Meeting on the High School proposal - September 21st, 7-9pm

   Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace "Organizing for Change" conference
   September 10th and 11th

   5. WBWC General Business

   A. Membership report/outreach

    1. Renew current bike shops and get new ones (Athan, Moore) - Tim
       contacted both running stores and they are considering joining and
       were willing to let him put some flyers out. He also contacted
       Michigan Sports and Fitness but they have not replied.

    2. Membership fees - There was some discussion about the membership fee
       changes we voted on in June. Bob Kr. said that he was not sure that
       the increase was a good idea. Kris pointed out that the reason we
       increased the rates was a strong recommendation from the Thunderhead
       Alliance. We discussed adding a student/low income rate, but didn't
       take any action.

    3. "New bike owner packet" w/ AABTS for bike shops to distribute
       (Talley/Clark)

    4. Redesigned membership brochure with new rates, new logo - We discussed
       allowing sponsorships logos on our brochures from membership
       businesses.

    5. Business cards to hand out at meetings and to bikers/walkers passing
       by

    6. Info table improvements - Erika Briggs and John Hritz indicated that
       they are interested in working on this.

   B. Newsletter/blog (Goodsell/Krzewinski/Iacob)

   C. Reports from other groups

    1. AA Bicycle Coordinating Committee (Clark) - No meetings past two
       months.

    2. League of Michigan Bicyclists (Clark) - There was a board meeting in
       Chelsea in July.

    3. AABTS Safety Committee (Talley) - No meetings recently

    4. Non-Motorized Transportation Planning Committee (Hritz) - John showed
       us a bunch of material that was presented at the Nonmotorized plan
       team meeting earlier today. There is a Central Area Public Meeting,
       another large public meeting, a Planning Commission meeting or two,
       and finally City Council.

    5. AA Environmental Commission Transportation Committee (Clark) - No
       update

    6. GetDowntown program (Briggs) - Erika will be attending Prowalk/Probike
       in Vancouver

    7. Thunderhead Alliance (Talley) - No update

   Meeting Adjourned 8:30pm