This meetings blog is meant to keep everyone up to date to what was discussed at Velocipede collective meetings.

Collective Meeting Minutes - July 6, 2009
July 8, 2009

Velocipede Bike Project
General Meeting
July 6, 2009

In Attendance: Boson Au, Lars Peterson, Gabby Vigo-Meza, Steve Thomas (visitor, co-op), Barbara Carignan, Noah Bers, Anton Schaller, Anna Ricklin, Tim Barnette, Eric Voboril (visitor) Carlos (visitor)

Facilitator: Boson Au
Scribe: Tim Barnette
Minute-taker Lars Peterson
Timekeeper: Anon
Stack-Taker: Anna Ricklin

Reports:

Finance Report:
<see VBP Secretary Lars Peterson for financials>

Shop Committee Report:
Lars will build a case for special tools.
Tim: Could you make a list of what special tools we have. On forum, list on cabinet

Retreat:
Scheduled for Sat Sept. 12 10AM - 5PM
Noah: There is a state park nearby, camping possible?
Anna: We will get an independed facilitator
Boson: Will research Fusion Partnership’s services
Noah: There is a co-op member who is a facilitator, has expressed interest in helping out.

PR Report:
Retreat, business cards, T-shirts (proposals during this meeting)

Bike!Bike!
Three people have signed up so far.   Send Boson your details re:itinerary so that we can update the spreadsheet

Clinics:
Restart clinics in beginning of August.
There is at least on volunteer mech. who is interested in teaching a wheelbuilding class

Herring Run:
Boson and Noah took trailer to Friday night bike event, worked on kids’ bikes.
Meet at 5:30, got tools, got to park at 6:30, two hours

Tour dem Parks report:
was fun!  we didn’t have all the tools we needed for some high-end bikes, though
Many people asked, why no tip jar?
Proposals:

Business Cards:
(Tim showed around three designs)
Prices:
H.O.P. (100% recycled, soy ink, wind-power)
Color, two-sided, 2000ct.
1 side $200
2 side $225
Other prices:
1 side $125
2 side $200-$230
Discuss:
1. Design
2. Printer

(Discussion of design)
We will use the 4th design, with the map on the reverse side.
Proposal: Use House of Printing  >>AGREE
Boson: What is the turnaround? a couple of weeks
Tim can tweak final version as he sees fit

Demographic Stat Sheet:
Survey form for demographic information
Eric Voboril: This information may not be as useful as it might seem
Lars: This is begging the question, do we need to collect demographic information on race?
Noah: We can get gender information from the sign-in sheet if we need it

Steve: Self-identification is more important than visual survey
Eric: Anonymous survey cards? (All agree that this is a better idea)

Soapbox Racer:
(Noah read email from Matt K.)
Why use our shop?
Parts, Space
Lars: Is this sponsorship; do we get our logo on the side of the car?
(discussion)
Tim: How can we make a decision no,  we have a list of questions.

Tim: can we do this on a non-shop day?
Noah: are we adverse to Mike using the shop during non-shop hourse
Questions:    Non-shop hours only okay?
Where would he store it?

Discussions:

Staffing:
Boson: Summertime staffing woes. Skeleton Crew.
Tim: This is a discussion for planning meeting/retreat.
Noah: That’s not soon enough. We have staffing trouble now.
Lars: Google calendar is great. We need to use it more!
Eric: Is there an intermediate staffing level? Another communication level?
Gabby: Could we schedule a couple weeks in advance at the end of the meeting?
Tim: We do have two meetings a month…
Lars: would like to start up shop-helpers list, Google calendar (new calendar) Go For It

Women’s Night:
Every Tuesday night? Everyone agrees that this is a good thing. No word on when we will be able to staff it.

Bike Rack:
(This discussion was very confusing)
For artistic bike racks, we need a proposal for the permitting process.
Anna will look into parking-space-as-bike rack like in Charles village.

Discussion: Build-a-Bike Bikes are not for sale!
Can people “buy in” to the build-a-bike program?
Lars: Membership can be purchased, build-a-bike program is available to everyone.

We do not generally allow members of the co-op to take their build-a-bike bikes until we decide that they are completed. (No taking them home as-is)

Baltimore Bike Manual Project
Steve handed out a questionnaire about Baltimore cycling
Open a folder in the gray file cabinet for survey results> Lars

Carlos
works in a print shop, can produce materials for low price.
Gabby fundraising, discussion.  (See last month’s minutes)

Noah: specialty T-shirt
Consensus: Noah, Tim, Barbara, Gabby will form a committee.

Extra BikeBike transportation funds for bike transport fees?
Consensus> Okay

Donate extra bikes to Herring Run kids’ project?
Consensus> This is okay

Announcements:
Grassroots Bike Series :25th of July
Gabby will bring plates

Committee Meeting: 20th
General Meeting: August 3rd

Evaluation:
Steve: Reports could be delivered standing up for expedience
Anton: Need more background information
Anna: Tighten up process and respect the procedure
Eric: A number of discussions ended up as proposals,
Gabby: Facilitator should work harder.
Tim: Timekeeper needs to be assertive.  Too many side-conversations

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