GEARS Greater Eugene Area Riders
February Board Meeting Minutes
February 3, 2010
Keystone Café, 5th and Lawrence

Board members present: Paul Adkins, Price Armstrong, Richard Hughes, Shane Rhodes, Sarah Thorpe, Sue Wolling
Absent: Gary Cook
Others present:

Board Meeting
Started at 7:13 pm
-Brief introductions were given.
-January meeting minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:
Written report was handed out. A refund was given of $400 for legal fees that had been paid. Richard announced that a positive change had been made in the club insurance. With the help of Gary Cook keeping track of the number of GEARs members who show up for rides, we are able to pay based on the number of riders who show up for rides rather than paying a larger, flat fee for the total number of GEARs members. The treasurer will continue with this insurance plan and renew when necessary.

Membership Directors Report:
64 family members, 350 members total in gears. A letter has gone out to 91 expired members notifying them of the expiration and encouraging them to renew again. 16 complementary memberships have been given out, mostly to other clubs. A discussion about the newsletter followed, and About half of the members take the printed version, half take the digital version. We expect the numbers to slowly lean towards the digital version. New bike rewards helmet stickers have been sent out to all current members.

Other business:
Priorities for GEARs in 2010.:
Continuing a discussion from the January meeting, the board hoped to narrow focus on a list for the top advocacy priorities for GEARs in 2010, in hopes to be proactive to causes in the area, and not reactive. The items on the table were the City leaf program, GEARs budget, Meet in the Street project with the City, the Eugene Bike Ped masterplan, addressing bike theft, and becoming more involved with elected officials and elections. All possible priorities were noted as fitting in with the GEARs mission statement. A discussion about the priorities followed, with the decision to have 3 top priorities. It was decided to focus on these there areas: continue to help monitor and improve the City leaf program, continue to push the City to make Meet in the Street happen, and continue to be involved and help the community become involved in the Bike Ped masterplan process. These three were chosen to do timing and because they provide for both current riders and helping to create new riders. GEARs will continue to react to issues as they come up, and encourage other priorities and volunteers for future new issues.

Price brought up an issue about a Oregon legislative bill that affected cyclists. Price announced he would draft a letter to support this bill and would send it to the board.

A member announced that the Eugene sustainability commission has recommended City Council adopt a policy to allocate funds for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. Money has come in from federal dollars to go to transportation projects that could be allocated to these improvements rather than traditional transportation improvements. A discussion about the funding and the value of the funding allocation followed. The board decided to make a call to members to help support the sustainability commission policy before the City Council’s February 8 decision.

Riverfront Research Park, Board Position & Letter:
Allen Hancock spoke about the Riverfront Research park area and future bike access to points farther south. Details were given about the upcoming permit extension decision the City will make for the area. There are concerns for cyclist and future access for this area. Proposed ORI building stands in the way of a future connection. Allen spoke about the history about the autzen footbridge underpass success in the 1970’s. Allen has spent time looking into creation of a new underpass or bridge for this area, and there is hope that some connection may be possible although City engineers gave no indication that this may be true. There is nothing in the Riverfront plan that calls for bike connection in the area. Allen came asking that GEARs support the creation of a underpass for the area regardless of the riverfront project completion. The GEARs board agreed that they can continue to contact the city about this connection possibility issue to help move the process along. Members will talk to Rob.

West Eugene EmX Extension- GEARs representation and discussion:
The West Eugene EmX Extension group said that they would like GEARs representation on the designs they are considering, how can they be as bike friendly as possible. Through an e-mail discussion, Judi Hortsmann volunteered to serve as the GEARs representative. She and the board discussed what kind of guidelines to have for GEARs representatives on this project and possible future projects. It was decided that Judi can come to board meetings, but may email updates as needed. Special meetings outside of the board meeting for this project are an option as well.

Letter of Support for Rails to Trails “Active Communities Transportation Act”:
A letter was sent in support of the transportation act.

May Forum event with the BTA:
There was some confusion as to what this event was, and Shane will look into this further and report back. In other BTA news, Shane, Sue and Paul have met with the new state coordinator. Her name is Susan. She seems really good. She has been hired to help local groups do as much as they can to better the biking environment. She is focusing on Eugene, Bend, Rogue Valley, maybe Salem.

Endorsement of Peddlers Express:
GEARs has been asked to endorse Peddlers Express by putting their logo on our website, and by letting them use our endorsement in their PR material. The board discussed possible endorsement of local businesses and what this would mean for both GEARs and the business. While the board agreed that they support the business’s idea as a whole, GEARs cannot endorse the business, as it has had no relationship with Peddlers Express. The board also decided that it will not endorse businesses in this manner in the future. GEARs will offer to highlight the business in a future newsletter, exchange links with them and add them to our resources page and discuss other possible ways to help the business.

Possible Spring Bike Swap:
A discussion about the value of two bike swaps a year occurred. It was decided that this would be a great activity for a general meeting in the spring.

Independent Bank Audit:
Richard attended a non-profit workshop in Portland. Recommends an independent bank audit. Recommends that someone besides treasurer audit the system and report to board, checking in monthly. Kent will do it.

Bramble check in:
Bramble coordination and committee meetings were discussed. Sarah will send out email for call to helpers, come up with a meeting date and meet. We will create a committee of some board members and some other members for the Bramble, as well as the whole bramble jamboree weekend.

Burley auction:
It was announced that Burley will be auctioning off 10 tandem bikes and donating all the proceeds to GEARs.

SRTS:
Safe Routes to School has received grant funding for a variety of projects in town. Congrats SRTS!

Crest Drive:
A discussion about the Crest Drive construction occurred. Paul Moore spoke about the lack of bicycle facilities in the area and the history of the Rose Quarter development in Portland. Paul asked for GEARs support to provide support and funds for legal action against the City for failing to provide adequate bicycle facilities in the Crest Drive reconstruction. The board discussed the advantages for GEARs, the Crest Drive neighborhood and the city as a whole and decided that bringing this particular issue to court was not in the best interest of GEARs, neighborhood or the City. The GEARs board will not provide funding for legal action for this issue.