Summary of the March 24th volunteer meeting- thanks to everyone who participated!

TBAG recently had our first major volunteer meeting on March 24 at 7 pm at Boulders on Broadway.- thank you to all who attended and agreed to help on projects. We divided into four groups to brainstorm and plan programs to work on over the next six months or so. Click below for a quick summary of what was discussed and contact information if you want to get involved. It was great to see so many bikers excited to make a difference!

The Routes, Rides and Clinics Committee developed a handful of ideas for programs in the next few months. Individuals volunteered to lead some roadie training rides, beginner roadie group rides, and women’s beginner mountain bike clinic/ride. We’re planning to collaborate with Bicycle Saviours on some of their programs, including clinics. We also plan to connect with ASU to set up some informal bicycle commuter clinics, as well as to get on the docket to provide bicycle safety instruction to students during orientation. Also look for a possible upcoming trailer-building workshop and Bike Polo 101 workshop. Kate coordinated this committee, and she can be reached at Kate at biketempe.org.

The City Coordination/Advocacy Program Priorities group developed a list of three major priorities:

1. Bicycle friendly business program:
Goal: Develop and implement a program to encourage retailers and other businesses to support bicycling. The program is currently in the planning stages (steps: developing criteria for businesses, establishing benefits, implementation, promotion), and the group plans to meet again in upcoming months to shape the program, which we hope to have underway in the next three months.
2. Safety/mapping development:
Near-term project: Map recent accident report data to publicize high-accident areas and help with prioritizing bicycle-related planning projects. Once accident data has been received from the City (we’re waiting to hear from the Tempe Police), group members with expertise in this area will meet and work on map development.
3. Publicity and Education:
Publicity: TBAG seeks to respond to stories in the local news to represent cyclists’ perspectives by writing letters to editors and press-releases.
Publicizing City Programs: Efforts are underway to make all previous Bike Plans (1974-2000) available as downloadable .pdfs through the TBAG website
Education: Start a campaign to re-educate drivers and cyclists about cyclists’ rights on the road. In particular, we may start a lawn-sign campaign that helps spread a particular message in support of bicycling.

Rebecca coordinated this group, and she can be reached at Rebecca at biketempe.org

The Social Events Committee discussed several different types of events to help bring the bicycle community together in Tempe. We plan to continue with the bicycle themed movie nights at Boulders on Broadway, showing one film every other month or so. On alternate months, we plan to host handlebar happy hour events, touring the local happy hours by bicycle as we have done in the past. We also had several great ideas for new events, such as an annual charity event when we would team up with a local charity and invite the bicycle community to participate in a fundraiser. We discussed teaming up with the local Big Brothers/ Big Sisters group for their annual bowling fundraiser. Another idea that was popular with the whole group was a possible bike ride to the Scottsdale drive in theater.
Mark is heading up this committee, and you can contact him at Mark at biketempe.org for more information or to help out with social events.

The final committee was the Bicycle Give Away committee. TBAG recently entered into a partnership with the City of Tempe whereby all bicycles that are left on city buses (surprisingly this happens often) are donated to TBAG. Our plan is to refurbish these bikes, outfit them with the essentials (helmet, locks, lights) and then donate them to individuals in need of a bicycle for transportation. We have developed a relationship with COAR, a refugee relocation organization, based here in Phoenix to provide bikes that they can distribute to families in need. This program is just getting off the ground, but our hope is to expand the program in the future to work with other groups that could use bikes – stay tuned for more!
Stan coordinates this committee. Contact him at Stan at biketempe.org.

If you have interest in helping out, contact us! We plan to have another meeting in a month or so to see how progress is going on these programs. To get email reminders of events such as this, sign up for our spam-free moderated email list by clicking here!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the meeting!