BikeAllentown meeting minutes August 20, 2009

 

In attendance were, Brian Sherry, Steph Sherry, Joyce Marin, Ed McCartan, Fritz Walker, Matt Tuerk and John Sharpe.

 

-Myth Buster, at the start of each meeting we'll break the ice by debunking commonly held myths.

True or False, Do gasoline taxes pay for all streets, state roads and highways?

False, property taxes pay for city streets. Joyce said that one large truck will cause the same amount of damage driving down a city street as 18,000 automobiles. I've attached a very good article that breaks down the cost and depending on how you look at things it's 0.20 to 0.70 cents per gallon is subsidized. Motor vehicle users do not pay their way, as most would like us to believe.

 

-Website - We reviewed Ed's work on the web site. Everyone thought it looked great. Need to provide links to twitter, blog, piccaso/flickr, facebook, greenways/allentown, CAT, LWA, PennDot bike safety and laws. Long term, to unify the look and feel of all of our sites by using the same fonts and colors.

-Bike shops, discussed contacting other local bike shops to see if they would like to sponsor us. Bike Line Allentown is already a sponsor, they will give 5% off the purchase of a bicycle and 10% off other bicycle related items, just say your involved with BikeAllentown. (Brian is this correct?) Brian will contact South Mountain bicycle shop. I'll ask Sean Christ if he can talk to the shop owner of Madera Bicycles on 7th street, Brian may ask as well.

 

-Mission statement was discussed, Fritz will formalize and will send out for review. It was agreed that the mission will be for the greater Allentown area, rather than being limited to the city of Allentown.

 

-Logo, we reviewed different logo ideas. Steph will ask a graphic artist that she knows if he can help.

-Business meetings will start to be on the forth Tuesday, the next business meeting will be September 22 7:00 pm at city hall, third floor conference room.

 

-Scheduled social get together were discussed and agreed upon. The first one will be on Sunday, September 13, 3:00 pm at the Allentown Brew Works. Bike riding to the social is highly encouraged. Other possible locations include the Liberty Street Tavern and the Hava Java coffee shop. Future dates and locations to be determined.

-New route and time change for the September ride. The ride will be on September 11 with three starting points and times, CCC @ 5:00, Muhlenberg College @ 5:30 and the Ritz at 5:45. Fritz and Matt will work with the colleges to encourage students and faculty to participate in the ride. The ride will go down Hamilton street, loop around to come down 7th and zigzag over to the 19th street area. Matt will send out the route for review and will work on a new flier. We should try to have hand outs for paces of interest (museums), dinning (menus) and shopping.

-Bike rack photo shoot on September 4, 12:00 at city hall. Steve, Matt, Ed, Brian and I will help.

 

-Univest Grand Prix Team time trials, September 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p..m. Rather than volunteering for the race, it was decided that we would set up a table at 11th and Hamilton streets. This is near Matt's house. Ed will order a 4' by 2' banner which will have BikeAllentown.com on it. Ed will also provide t-shirt iron on logos, each of us will have to provide our own shirt. The logo will be white and the shirt will be black. Does that sound good to everyone? We will try to have BikeAllentown, CAT, LWA, Greenways/Allentown hand outs. Some of us should ride the course before the roads are closed at 10:30. Possibly riding strange bikes, colorful clothing, body paint, flags and so on which would draw attention to our group. Be creative and silly.

 

 

Thanks everyone for coming out. A very productive meeting indeed. Please make corrections as needed.