The GEARs Nominating Committee has come up with our Executive Board Nominations for 2010. We are very excited to have the volunteer effort and commitment of these folks to help in reaching toward our mission. Here they are. Their bio’s are included below and the election will take place at the General Meeting on November 9th, 8pm at the Keystone Cafe. There are no Board positions that are contended.

Executive Board Nominations:

Sue Wolling -President
Sue has been a GEARs member since the club was founded in 1991. She likes relatively long rides (40-90 miles), but really doesn’t care about speed as long as she’s home by early afternoon. She hopes GEARs can welcome riders who seek exercise, fun and friendship, no matter what pace. While Sue loves recreational cycling, her real passion is bicycling as transportation. After learning about bike advocacy on the Eugene Bicycle Committee, she established the Eugene Bicycle Coalition, which merged with GEARs in 2008. Sue hopes that GEARs can help develop safe, efficient bikeways, education and incentives to promote bicycling, and a culture that makes people choose to hop on a bike, whether to get to work/school, run errands, or for fun on the weekend.

Price Armstrong -Vice President
Price has been a cycling activist since his days as an undergraduate working as the lead coordinator for the community bike program at Hampshire College. Since coming to the University of Oregon, he has had the privilege to work with the Bike Loan Program, the transportation student group LiveMove, and as a Graduate Assistant for the Sustainable Cities Initiative. With climate change, an obesity epidemic, and a unstable energy costs upon us, Price cannot think of a better way to spend his time than with GEARs, advocating for active transportation options. He is currently a Masters of Public Administration student with a concentration in transportation policy.

Richard Hughes -Treasurer
Richard has been a member of GEARs since 2007 and Treasurer for the last year. Also he has been instrumental in directing the Bike Rewards Program, in which retailers offer discounts to members. This program alone has been responsible for a significant increase in our membership. Retired in 1994 as a senior manager in L.A. County Government, where he was responsible for a staff of 300, collecting and accounting for $50 million annually. Richard has lived in Ashland, Santa Barbara, Thousand Oaks, Tehachapi and now Eugene for the last 8 years.

Sarah Thorpe -Secretary
Sarah is eager to start working with GEARs this fall. Sarah recently finished her internship with the City of Eugene Transportation Planning and is looking forward to continuing her work with Eugene’s bicycle community with GEARs. She graduated with a BA in Planning, Public Policy and Management from the UO this June, 2009. Sarah grew up in Ashland, OR, and is a proud member of the Eugene Concert Choir.

Shane Rhodes -At Large (also: Newsletter, Website Director)
Shane Rhodes is the Program Manager for SRTS at Eugene School District 4J. He has worked in the bicycle industry since 1995 as a cargo-bike courier, League of American Bicyclists Instructor, and as an advocate for cyclist and pedestrian issues in Sevilla, Spain, the Bay Area of California, and Eugene. He serves on the cities Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and would probably be a transportation policy wonk if he didn’t think real change comes from the grassroots. When not riding between meetings to make Eugene a better town for families to choose active transportation he can be found gardening with his wife Melissa, daughter, Isadora, and their four chickens.

Gary Cook -At Large (also: Ride Coordinator)
Gary has been cycling in and around Eugene for 36 years on the same bike. He knows the roads and streets well. He has been a GEARs member for about fifteen years.

Paul Adkins -At Large (also: Advocacy & Education Director)
Paul joined the GEARs Board in the Spring of 2008. With a background in communications and marketing, he works at Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life; on their website and community outreach. He earned a BFA from Kent State University in 1995, and led mountain bike tours for years before moving to Oregon in 2007. Now, Paul and his wife, Monica, live car-free with their four young kids: Rainy, Torrent, Dare, and Sanguine. Paul lived in Atlanta, one of America’s worst biking towns, as well as a few of America’s best biking towns: Palo Alto, San Francisco, Missoula, and now Eugene. Paul also serves on the Board of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland.

There are many other volunteer opportunities within GEARs. If you think GEARs should be working on a particular issue, please bring it to our attention. The best way to get involved is to attend a general meeting and/or ride and let others know your interest. We really do appreciate all the help we get.