March Meeting Minutes

Omaha Bikes

Monthly Meeting Minutes

March 2011

At the awesome Side Door Lounge HHH last night, Julie and I realized we never posted the March minutes. Thanks to the 30+ that showed up to support the OB HHH.  All had a great time and many $3 beers were drank.  Kudo's to Steve Jamrozy for opening up early and being a gracious host. 

Now to the Minutes:

In attendance: Bob Brindamour, Kurt Goetzinger, Joe Simoens, Shari Thompson (PACE), Craig Kelley, Chris Wolff (Trek), Sean Licari (Bike Way), Michael Grube, Robert Shaw, Mark Seipker (OPBC), Sarah Johnson (Greenstreet)

News

Matt, Tammie, Julie and Carlos are in Washington DC for the National Bike Summit.

Website project is on hold. The committee is reviewing the new direction in conjunction with the iRide website www.iridebecause.org. The website will include an online membership component.

The Race2reCycle event coming up on May 14. The big ride is a 174 tri-state challenge with a turnaround in Rockport, MO. A kids trike ride and a family ride are also part of the day. Start/finish at Midtown Crossing. The Landmark Group is putting on this event. There is an online sign up at www.omaharace2recycle.com, they are also on Facebook.

Aksarben Cinema is hosting the movie “Ride the Divide” on March 15 at 7pm. Tickets are $10 pre registration and $15 at the door; 10% of proceeds will be donated to Omaha Bikes! The club is working on a bike corral and having volunteers hand out Omaha Bikes information.

Omaha Health Expo is on April 30 and May 1 in the Omaha Civic – Mancuso Hall. The ride is Sunday morning and volunteers are needed to man a booth for the Saturday and Sunday event.

Existing Business

THOR Annual Meeting was held on Saturday, February 26, at the National Park Service on River Front Drive. Roxzanne Feagan was elected President. Committee leads were selected and breakout sessions brought some attention to the key areas, including social THORsday rides prior to the Psycowpath Saturday races, DEVO mountain bike development for kids, and maintaining trail systems.

Community Outreach is still on the move, with a couple places interested in becoming Bicycle Friendly Destinations. Sarah is looking for a one-page signup sheet for businesses to identify their discount/benefit agreement in writing. This can also be used as a mail-in form that any member can drop off a local businesses.

Advocacy: Emails and blog updates have been targeting the legislative moves around cuts in recreational trail funds. Also mentioned is the 3-foot grace rule being discussed for Nebraska, that law already exist in Kansas and Colorado. Craig also mention that Bellevue has passed the bill for Complete Streets. Michael reported that the UNO Advocacy group has met a couple times and is working on ideas. He also mentioned that UNO is interested in hosting a Bike Summit in the September timeframe, in conjunction with the wrap up of the Commuter Challenge.

Social Events committee is working on the first HHH of 2011, scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, details forthcoming. Sarah is checking on the Side Door Lounge. Also in March is the next Ladies & Gentlemen’s ride, slated for Sunday, March 27, pending Jolene’s plan. Check the Omaha Bikes calendar for more details. Local rides can be found on multiple blogs, the newest being www.grouprideomaha.blogspot.com posted by Mark Savory.

Education: The Traffic Skills 101 classes slated for Feb 26 in Lincoln were postponed. The rescheduled date is March 26. Plans are in place to offer adult bike education classes through Metro Community College, with tentative plans for a LCI Certified class later this summer.

Membership plans have moved out, along with the Website review, to the April/May timeframe. Along with the new Website, online membership will be available, with hardcopy forms also available to be hand carried to bike related events. The plan is to have a ‘more information’ form at the ‘Ride the Divide’ movie and hard copy membership forms available at the Health Expo.

Communications: Discussions included what to put on our Blog vs. Facebook. Sharing information via FB can include anything from sales, charity, rides, info, but our Blog needs to have an extra level of consideration. Events that promote shops, teams and clubs need careful consideration before we ‘promote’ it on our blog. If there are any questions, please contact our president or one of the committee leads.

Local Bike Shop info: The Bike Way is hosting a Swap Meet at their location on March 20, 11am-5pm. $5 for table space and all are welcome.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 12. We will have an update from the National Bike Summit!