It’s old news now but while reviewing my blog posts since the beginning of the year, I see that I’ve neglected to specifically mention that I became a member of the MORC Board in January. We held an all-day annual meeting (retreat!) on January 5 and I moderated a webinar on what happened at it a week later.
Tag: <span>Mark Gavin</span>
A crew of MORC Gravity Advocates (a sub-group of MORC) spent much of Saturday working on the Cottage Grove Bike Park.
I took a few photos of Adam Buck, Mark Gavin, Chance Glasford, Mike Mullany, Andy Sinclair, and Colin VanDerHyde. Chris Braaten was there in the morning before I arrived.
If you show up to work, you get to test and play a bit.
Some photos of Chance (above) and Mike (below) doing both:
See the large slideshow of all the above photos plus a dozen or so more or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
In late Feb, I attended the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota‘s (BikeMN) third annual Minnesota Bicycle Summit on Capitol Hill, noting that I was "trying to get smarter about the state of bike advocacy in Minnesota…" (Blog post here.)
A few weeks later, for the same reason, I attended the Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota’s Day on the Hill which led to having lunch here in Northfield with Executive Director Brett Feldman and Northfield’s First Ward Councilor Suzie Nakasian in which we explored the pros and cons of forming a Northfield area regional bicycle council. (Blog post here.) Brett encouraged us to get in touch with BikeMN’s Executive Director Dorian Grilley.
So with that in mind, I attended BikeMN’s annual meeting yesterday at Park Tool’s new headquarters in Oakdale.
During the meeting, my eyes widened as we heard details from BikeMN staff and board members about the myriad of bike-related activities, projects, collaborations that they’re involved in. (See the Education and Advocacy pages on their website for a glimpse.)
Dorian is well-connected and versed in national bicycle advocacy issues so I was pleased to hear some of the latest news, including the repercussions from Trek CEO John Burke’s speech last fall at Interbike (my blog post here).
Afterwards, I did have a chance to talk with Dorian, as well as with Nick Mason, BikeMN’s Education & Technical Assistance Program Manager. Both offered their help to get things rolling in Northfield with a start-up of a local bicycle advocacy group and hopefully, one or more of their Bicycle Friendly Programs. (March blog post: Bemidji has earned ‘Bicycle Friendly Community’ status. Why not Northfield?)
And as I wrote back in March:
There are other [Northfield area] projects and developments that have a bicycle-component: the Northfield Depot; the East Cannon River Trail segment; the TIGER Trail (aka the Northfield Modal integration project); Safe Routes to School; the Gateway Corridor Improvement Plan; Northfield Roundtable’s Framework Plan; and the Cannon River Corridor recreational concept.
I also put on my mountain biking hat (helmet?) and with MORC Board members Reed Smidt and Mark Gavin, chatted with Dorian about how BikeMN and MORC could work more closely together. One idea: give communities with mountain bike trails and pump/jump/BMX parks extra credit when they apply for Bicycle Friendly Community status.
You can keep up with all-things BikeMN via their blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. And consider becoming a member. These guys rock.
Click and scroll through the photos either one at a time or via a slideshow. (Memo to self: use a flash when taking photos with my smartphone of people indoors.)
