November 7 2010 Board orientation minutes

Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ Society

Board Retreat

Sunday November 7, 2010

Attendance: Alex C, Stephanie, Brett, Kevin, Keith, Adrian, Bernadette, James, Neil, Anna, David

Meeting called to order 10:30am

Review History of EBC

- Administrative Board to Governance Board (Chris entered at 10:45am) - Successes and Failures

   - longtime volunteers who were hired last year and moved to volunteer only since Spring
   - hired staff to coordinate BikeWorks volunteers – Alex has done an excellent job making volunteers
      feel appreciated and prepared; training classes held for volunteers were very helpful
   - BikeWorks volunteers were very good this summer!
   - summer staff (3)
   - event volunteers were somewhat lacking – need to work on volunteer recruitment and retention
   - Bikeology troubles, resource stretching and miscommunication
   - better advocacy on City planning issues this year; still not quite as firm as we could have been
   - built stronger allies on City Council

- Key players

   - Tooker Gomberg started on Board early on, became ED, (he certainly did a lot to help cyclists and cycling infrastructure)
   - Karly Coleman: past president, treasurer, office director, etc
   - Molly Turnbull: past president
    - Michael Kalmanovitch: past president, still very supportive, lots of connections within the
      community and media contacts and protests
   - John Collier: past president, currently our CANBIKE instructor
   - Past Board members who are still active: Brian Johnson, Bill Sellers, Serge Dupuis,
   - City of Edmonton Claire Stock and Claire Ellick: now gone and no one has replaced them thus we
      have no one to direct our concerns to (other than Active Transportation in general)

- Founders - Funders

   - City of Edmonton
   - Lottery Fund for Community Spirit grant (AB Govt)
   - Capital Grant (AB Govt) – quite large so we’re holding off on this for the 118 ave space
   - ACGL
   - private money (individuals and foundations) would be more likely to come in if we achieve
      charitable status

- Volunteers

   - Women Only Day at BikeWorks: (probably) Coreen came to Board a few years ago and noticed all
      men at the shop and offered to staff a Women-Only day to address the intimidation factor of the
      shop being a “boys’ club” or the impression that male mechanics are hitting on females or the male
      mechanics would sometimes just do it for a female
   - Coreen presented a sensitivity training (for women, minorities in general) but it was quite expensive
      so it was tabled
   - We’d like to expand on this day so that women feel comfortable coming all days of the week!

- Staff - How the organization was started - What items/ projects are being carried over?

   - Bikes on Buses in the past
   - 109st bike path (Rail Town) was drawn by EBC members on CAD and presented to City

Budget

 - not a lot of flexibility
 - more discretionary money for shop tools and supplies
 - $24,000 profit from BikeWorks (net from rent, etc); $27,000 in wages therefore $3,000 deficit
 - around $600 for staff development
 - full time staff is taking up half of our budget

Organization Politics

- we are 30 years old, so there are many people who have vested interest and personal interest
  in EBC’s current activities.  We need to be open and communicative about what we are doing and
  why so that everyone feels acknowledged and supportive of what we do
- documents:
   - stakeholder registry:

Other

 - EBC Wiki is publicly accessible and is a place for people to learn about the organizational
   structure (policies, meeting minutes, bylaws, etc)
 - Cycle Edmonton (advocacy website) – should we keep this as our year round advocacy site?

Mission & Vision

1. Brainstorm of 10 year dreams/goals

 - achieve charitable status (x2)
 - financially sustainable (predictable, reoccurring funding)
 - would like to be funding partners for future cycling infrastructure or implements
   (eg. Velo Quebec, Bicycle Victoria in Australia)
 - offer more non-mechanic learning opportunities on a predictable schedule = established
   education programs (partner with Metro to offer courses!) (x2)
 - consistent communication between BikeWorks policy makers (Board) and the BikeWorks volunteers
 - City no longer has Cycling Engineer therefore need to have increased advocacy to the Active Transport
   branch (x6), emphasis on multi-modal and integration
 - Expansion of BikeWorks branchs (x2) – this second location is critical for future expansion
 - Sponsorships and Bike-friendly businesses to get perks for members – this will encourage expansion
   of our membership and build our cycle-friendly community
 - reconsider the role EBC plays with Bike Month (currently an inefficient use of resources)
 - develop strong connections with other community organizations, woman’s organizations, inner
   city organizations, international groups/centres, community leagues, schools (Bike To School
   Day, gym programs to cycling, Sports Central, high schools specifically 16 year olds who are
   about to get their driver’s license), non-bicycle businesses (offer workshops, bike-friendly
   businesses, etc) (gets us exposure, membership, donations, service people beyond our current
   University crowd) (x3)
 - develop stronger connections with local bike organizations (stores, clubs)
 - volunteer management (recruitment, skill-building, retention, etc)
 - EBC information storage for digital archives
 - membership expansion, especially with new location (i.e. need volunteers around those locations)
 - integration of minorities into our community (x3)
 - event: winter bike day = hot chocolate give-away, bike lights give-away, etc – Deep Freeze Festival
   on 118 Ave would be good!  Winter Light Festival (3 months)
 - expansion of hours at BikeWorks and training

Sponsorship/partnership agreements

 - informal and we need to formalize so that each organization signs on and can pass this info
   on from year to year: Western Cycle, Velocity Cycle, United Cycle, ECOS, Music Is A Weapon, Sports Central

Committees

- Advocacy – Chair: Bernadette (interest: Keith, Kevin)

   - media relations
   - communications

- BikeWorks – Chair: Keith (interest: Kevin, James, Brett, Alex C)

   - expansion
   - communication of Board info and policies
   - integration

- Inclusion – Chair: Alex C (interest: Stephanie, Brett, Bernadette)

   - women
   - minorities

- Outreach – Chair: Alex C and Bernadette (interest: Keith)

   - community connections and events
   - sponsorship and connections with stakeholders
   - bike-friendly businesses
   - Bike Month connections – Adrian, Keith

- Information Management – Chair: Chris (interest: James, Brett)

   - membership
   - security of internal files
   - integration of website, google calendar/docs, facebook, twitter, other community calendars

- Volunteer -- Chair: Derek? (interest: Adrian, Steph, Kevin)

    - BikeWorks
   - events

- Education and Safety – Chair: Neil (interest: Steph)

   - quarterly calendar of events!  What we want to teach, coordinating facilitators, etc

Board Evaluation Points

 - Each Board member is to send in recommended evaluation metrics
 - how do we want to evaluate our actions this year?

Other Business

EBC 30th Anniversary event (mid-January?)

 - Silent Bike or Bike Culture Art Auction with a bicycle-powered concert
 - History of EBC with the milestones achieved
 - money from silent auction to go towards the funding of a public art piece or a summer event?

Event ideas

 - Youth Shop Days/Family Days
 -  

Action Items

Chris:

 - send Coreen’s proposal on Sensitivity Training to Board for review for re-consideration

Next Board meeting date

Wednesday, November 24 @ 6:30pm @ Copper Pot (David’s office, just north of Ezio Faraone Park on north side of High Level Bridge) or BikeWorks