Meeting Minutes

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

WBWC Meeting 9/1/05

Meeting came to order at 7:08

Tim Athan conducted the meeting.

Ken Clark, Bob Krzewinski, John Hritz, Brenda Bentley-Goenka, Ana Iacob were present.

1. The August meeting minutes were approved.

2. The treasurer reported that our fund balance is $839.16

3. New member intro - Matt Miller?

4. Actions/News

  A. WBWC 2005 biking /walking projects

  * Huron River Drive - Paul Alman contacted both the Washtenaw County Road
    Commission and the City of Ann Arbor.  The Road Commission responded that
    they have no current plans to make road repairs.  The City has not replied.

  * Bike Map Review - The County Parks and Rec department provided a copy of
    the City/County map for us to review.

  * Project Healthy Schools - K. Talley has contacted the University Health
    Service and they have expressed interest in adding biking and walking for
    transportation as part of their project healthy schools program.

  * The Brenda Report - Brenda contacted the schools a year ago and asked the
    district about their Safe Routes to School program.  At that point the
    district was not interested in this.  Recently, however, Brenda went to a
    schools redistricting meeting where they were suddenly more interested.  

  * Brenda met with Mayor Hieftje and Ann Arbor's new transportation
    coordinator Eli Cooper this past month.  She was disappointed by the
    response.  

  * Brenda also asked the Mayor to designate her as a City representative to
    the Everyday Walking Culture conference in Zurich Switzerland this month.

  * Brenda finally pointed out that she found a great website for walking
    recommendations from Great Britain.

  B. Local Bicyclist Deaths - Ghostbikes - We generally thought this was an
  interesting idea, but there were a good deal of questions about logistics and
  coordinating with governments. 

  C. Explain to what audience "how to break auto-dependency"?  Ken noted that
  he had a draft website front page for bicycling for transportation that he
  will send via email.

  D. Upcoming Events

    1. World Carfree Day 9/22 -  add website www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd

    2. Bob K pointed out that the State's Healthy Communities program is
    sponsoring walks on Labor Day in Chelsea, Manchester, and Dexter.

5. WBWC General Business

  A. Membership report/outreach

    1. Membership report (Schwende) - Frank is going to do a renewal mailing in
    November.

    2. Renew current bike shops and get new ones - No Report.

    3. 2005 Board/officer elections - Bob is working on a location for a
    general membership meeting and asked if anyone else was interested in
    serving on the nominating committee.   Bob pointed out that Doug Cowherd
    from the Sierra Club had sent an email inviting people to be on the board.

    4. Website update.  Ken pointed out that Huron Valley Community Network
    HVCN can now do full web-hosting and we should switch next time our site is
    up for renewal.

  B. Next newsletter comes out next month.

  C. Reports from other groups

    1. Friends of Ann Arbor Greenway - No update.

    2. Washtenaw Area Teens of Tomorrow - Youth Mobility: Tim pointed out that
    this group would like to set up a used bike program or a teen-based bicycle
    repair facility.  This would be a place where kids could learn how to fix
    up bikes and work on a bike that they could eventually keep.

    3. Getdowntown program -  
	The link started again this month with two buses and 15-minute service.
	Erica is wrestling with 

    1. AA Environmental Commission Transportation Committee - The
    transportation committee met Eli Cooper earlier today.

    2. League of Michigan Bicyclists - Update.

    3. UM Nonmotorized Transportation Committee (Talley) - The University has
    hired a new transportation coordinator, but there have been no meetings
    recently.

    4. AABTS Safety Committee - The LCI course is next weekend, more work on
    Chelsea bike parking.  

    5. AA Non-motorized Transportation Planning Committee meetings - The
    consultant is working on cleaning up the plan for presentation to the
    public.

    6. Parks and Recreation Greenway meeting - They asked for input on the Ann
    Arbor City/Washtenaw County map.  

    7. Washtenaw County Nonmotorized Steering Committee (Van Dyke, Talley) - No
    update.  Kris brought some comment forms that people can send in.

Adjourned 8:15pm