ACA Board of Directors meeting minutes

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

recorded by Sandy Raphel, ACA Secretary

Location: Bike Texas, 1902 E. Sixth St., Austin, Texas

Present: Gilbert D. Martinez, Wes Robinson, Stanton Truxillo, Susie Truxillo, Gary Holliday, Eileen Schaubert, Tommy Eden, Fred Meredith, Sara Deshong-Baker, Michael Portman, Greg Ritter, Pete Dahlberg, Sandy Raphel

ACA President Gilbert D. Martinez began the board meeting at 6:34 p.m.

There were no voting items on the agenda.

Agenda discussion item 1: Adventure Cycling Association’s initiative to create a U.S. bicycle route system. Should ACA support? Does the board support the effort?

Stanton Truxillo made a motion to support Adventure Cycling’s effort to develop a U.S. bicycle route system. Greg Ritter seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Since a donation from Austin Cycling Association would be difficult at this time, Stanton made a motion to add a paragraph to the website and e-newsletter with a description of the effort and a link to the Adventure Cycling website. Gary Holliday seconded the motion. A friendly amendment was made to allow Gilbert Martinez to draft the description. Stanton accepted the friendly amendment. Gary seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Wes Robinson suggested using Facebook and Twitter to send out the message as well.

Agenda discussion item 2: Developing a policy to handle requests for helmets, as well as a specific request from Keith Byrd with Social Cycling Austin. The request is for adult helmets in exchange for volunteers at ACA events.

Wes Robinson volunteered to draft a policy for helmet requests and send to the board for suggestions and discussion at the May board meeting. Any suggestions should be sent to Wes before the next board meeting. Keith Byrd’s request for a few helmets in exchange for volunteer time was discussed. Eileen Schaubert suggested creating an adult rodeo/education event and utilizing the volunteers. Michael Portman offered to underwrite 100 adult helmets for Austin Cycling Association. Eileen and Michael will work together on the details and discuss at the next board meeting.

Vice president’s report: Monica Leo was unable to attend the meeting and sent the VP report via email. The main items from the report: The ACA May general membership meeting will be a hosted ride from the Waterloo Ice House on Burnet Road. The June meeting will have Annick Beaudet as the featured speaker with the proposed location of either Zilker Hillside Theater or Waterloo Park. Monica has commitments from volunteers for 18 breakfast stations for Bike to Work Day. The costs were low this year. ACA’s cost for updating and erecting the street banner was $325. REI is covering an additional $300 of the cost. A group of volunteers has requested $50 to help cover the cost of food. Monica will send an article to be posted on the website, with a link to the city bike map with breakfast stations marked on the map.

Treasurer’s report: Gary Holliday handed out copies of the P&L statement, balance sheet and financial tracking document. Gary reports $14,576 in the account, after the T-shirt order; $6,982 was also written off. Contributions from membership are falling but are projected to come back up next month, with the Armadillo Ride. Patti Hill has done an excellent job has by getting more commitments for contributions to ACA and the Armadillo Ride this year.

Armadillo Hill Country Classic report: Stanton Truxillo, Armadillo co-chair, reports that we might need volunteers for backup delivery drivers and rest stops. In case of bad weather, we might need a backup SAG, and he will inquire about a standby school bus. Mellow Johnny’s will have a coffee truck at the ride start in the morning. Stanton reports 292 registered riders as of the day of the board meeting.

Education report: Wes Robinson, education director, reports that the Education Committee did not meet in April but is scheduled to meet May 12. On the agenda, they will be developing the Bicycle Diversion Program, offering the classroom portion of Traffic Skills 101 via the City of Houston’s website, www.bikeed.org, and Spring Youth Instructor/Skills Instructor courses. TS 101 April 16 and 17 classes were canceled. Sessions on April 23 and 24 had two classes, held at Mellow Johnny's and REI Gateway. TS 101 classes will be held on May 14-15, May 21-22, June 18-19 and June 25-26.

Legislative liaison’s report: Tommy Eden reports that the Legislative Liaison Committee has been reviewing the results from the City of Austin’s efforts to comply with its Complete Streets Policy. The committee found that it has been compliant. Tommy would also like to see more ACA representation in meetings.

The board requested that Tommy draft proposed recommendations for the bike boulevard and circulate before the next board meeting. The recommendations will be discussed at the May meeting.

Ride director’s report: Greg Ritter reports that he needs more help with Classic Rides. He also reports that the Bikenanza fundraiser and bike show was a big success with 17 bikes entered and 40 people attending the event. Greg will also be planning a Food Ride; details to follow.

Membership report: Susie Truxillo reports 1,029 individual members, including 43 new memberships from people signing up for the Armadillo Ride. Family memberships bring the total to 1,229. Susie reports that the trend seems to be going from households to individual memberships.

Southwest Cycling News report: Fred Meredith requests that contributions and content for printing be sent to him when they are ready. Please do not wait until the deadline. Fred reports that he has been producing page proofs.

Web team report: Eileen Schaubert, reporting for the web team, says more content and articles are needed for the website, as are more people with the ability to enter items on the site. Seventeen bike shops will be giving 20 percent discounts on helmets for Bike Month, with links to the shop being added to the website.

Yellow Bike Project report: Pete Dahlberg reports that the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday, April 28. The grand opening of the new headquarters will be on Saturday, June 1. On the day of the festivities, YBP, in conjunction with the Austin Public Library will host a Bike-in Book Swap at the Terrazas Branch Library. In the afternoon, Austin Bike Zoo will parade from the library to the grand opening festivities.

Wes Robinson made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Gary Holliday seconded the motion.

The meeting adjourned at 8:41 p.m.

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