Annual Meeting and Banquet: What really happened

The Bloomington Bicycle Club held its annual meeting and banquet on Saturday, February 1, 2014, at Bloomington Convention Center. For the last couple of years we’ve met at the Convention Center, which seems to fit our needs very well.

This time the evening began with the business meeting. President Jim Schroeder called the meeting to order and welcomed the attending members and BBC guests.

The first item of business was the election of officers. This was the first election under the new by-laws adopted last year. Dan Fowler, chair of the Nominating Committee, was unable to attend, so treasurer Jerry Arveson introduced the slate of candidates for the three positions to be filled for new two-year terms: President, Jim Schroeder; Secretary, Kathy Cummins; and Officer-at-Large (new this year!), Stan Ellis. All three were elected unanimously. Jerry Arvesen continues as treasurer for 2014 -- the treasurer position will be up for election in 2015, as will the vice presidency, which became vacant when Dan Fowler decided to resign for personal reasons. The board will presumably appoint someone to fill that slot until the next election.

Treasurer Jerry Arvesen then presented a Financial Report in the form of a PowerPoint overview of the BBC's 2013 finances, The theme of his presentation was "RAIN ride supports the club!"  Aside from RAIN expenses, the club's largest expense is the grants we give.

In conjunction with Jerry's theme, Jim put in a plug for RAIN volunteers, noting that mileage is reimbursed for RAIN volunteers. Jim also noted that the club ought to decide what to do with some of our  cash on hand. We can afford to make a meaningful gift to the city or county, such as one in support of the bicycle/pedestrian bridge over I-69. The club will be looking at that in 2014.

Brett Nelson, chair of the grants committee, announced the 2014 grant award winners, and introduced the winners who were in attendance at the banquet. This year's grantees are deCycles, for its 2014 Key West-to-Bloomington youth bicycle ride; the Monroe County Active Transportation Committee, for a Bicycle and Pedestrian Map project; BCT Management Inc. (the Buskirk-Chumley Theater), for a screening of Breaking Away and related film festival activities; Bloomington Parks & Recreation, to support Bloomington Bikes Month; Stepping Stones, Inc., for its Bike Active! Program for homeless youth; Bloomington Cooperative Services (Bloomingfoods), for a wellness program/bike to work incentive; Harmony School, for Harmony Bike Club and a public bike repair station; City of Bloomington Planning Department, for the Bloomington Bicycle Education Corps; and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington, to support its expanded Club Riders Bicycle Club.

Finally President Jim Schroeder reviewed the achievements of the BBC board of directors in 2013 and its goals for 2014. Institution of regular bi-monthly meetings was successful, with six board meetings held in 2013. A new chair of mountain biking was added to the board (Dan Hickey). Further positions Jim would like to see filled are marketing and safety and education.
Jim and other club members worked on the issue of ride waivers, getting legal advice on behalf of both the club and RAIN. A new waiver has been developed based on the recommendations of the lawyers and our liability insurance company. All club members must sign the new waiver when they register, and non-members will be required to sign a waiver each time they ride with us on an official BBC ride. After three rides with us, non-members must join the club. Also new on the club registration form is provision of an in-case-of-accident (ICE) number. The club ride schedule will be set soon--the annual meeting for this will be held at ride coordinator John Bassett's home in February. New possibilities for rides in 2014 are monthly dinner rides. John and Ron Brown have been organizing ride maps into GPS format. Allan Edmonds had expanded our media reach to Facebook, with a BBC club group that so far has 50 members. RAIN, our moneymaker, is July 12, 2014. Fifty to seventy volunteers are needed on the day of RAIN, plus others before the ride. The RAIN committee itself logs 200-300 hours during the year and on RAIN day to pull off the ride. Volunteer early to pick your spot!

In addition to the grants, we have also donated money for Bloomington's Open Streets program and the Buskirk-Chumley's tie-in movie following the No Good Horrible Ride, and Bicycle Indiana. We give back to the community.

For our own fun and feasting, the club held three free food events: the post-RAIN picnic at Cascades, the pizza party, and the winter banquet.

Referring again to a possible large grant to the city/county for a bicycle/pedestrian bridge, Jim has communicated with various officials and thinks there is a good outlook for progress to be made this year. Perhaps a monetary gift from the BBC can be used to help with feasibility studies. Club-member suggestions were solicited for placement of 14 share-the-road signs that Monroe County has purchased.

Jim closed by noting that advocacy by all club members in support of local cycling should be a priority. Club members are encouraged to not only express their opinion that cycling matters to neighbors and acquaintances, but also to let government committees and elected officials in on BBC cyclists' point of view by attending meetings or even joining citizen's committees in the city or county.

After Jim’s remarks, Tammy Berger, event coordinator, announced that dinner was served and reminded attendees to put their raffle tickets into the boxes for various prizes. Photos of BBC rides and other 2013 events prepared by Klaus Rothe played on the screen during the meal.

After dinner, Jacqui Bauer, City Sustainability Director, and Vince Caristo, City Bike/Pedestrian Director, gave a presentation on the City of Bloomington's Civil Streets program.

Altogether we had fun and informative evening with friends. Now if winter would finally retire, we could get on with the biking season, set to start March 1.

Thanks to Secretary Kathy Cummins, whose minutes formed the basis of this report.

Annual Banquet and Business Meeting

With temperatures in the single digits it's time to be thinking about seeing our fellow cyclists at our annual meeting coming up on Saturday, February 1.

Here's the Tentative Agenda circulated to the board by President Jim Schroeder.

Welcome and call to order – Jim Schroeder

Nominating Committee Report
- proposed slate of candidates for 2014-2015: President–Jim Schroeder, Secretary–Kathy Cummins, Officer at Large–Stan Ellis
- motion for additional nominations from floor, second
- discussion
- motion for acceptance of additional nominations, second (if any)
- motion for voting for Officer at Large, Secretary, and President, second
- vote

Financial Report – Jerry Arvesen

Grant Committee – Brett Nelson
- announcing of grant awardees

President’s Remarks – Jim Schroeder

Dinner – Photo Slideshow of BBC 2013 on screen by Klaus Rothe

Desert & Presentation of City of Bloomington’s Civil Streets program – Jacqui Bauer, Sustainability Director and Vince Caristo, Bike/Pedestrian Director

End-of-Season Pizza Party

Tuesday evening marked our first annual (I hope!) fall, end-of-season pizza party. The club gathered at 6:30 PM at the Café Pizzaria on Kirkwood Ave for fellowship, food, and a brief business meeting. Club president Jim Schroeder presented our completely revised by-laws for formal approval of the club membership. After brief discussion they were approved unanimously.

Highlights of the new by-laws include five elected officers instead of four, staggered two-year terms instead of one-year terms, only elected officers (not committee chairs) have a vote in official decisions, a method of impeachment, and a vision statement. Committee chairs will continue to sit on the executive committee, with a voice but not a vote. All vestiges of the idea of a racing team were removed. Club officers will have their dues waived during their term of service.

The process of updating the by-laws goes back to the previous administration when then club president Keith Vogelsang initiated a review of club organization. The proposal went through several iterations and occupied the executive board off and on for a couple of years. John Bassett chaired a small committee including Jerry Arveson and Allan Edmonds to put together a near final proposal, which the board approved, with some changes. Finally Kathy Cummins gave the draft a thorough editing before the proposed document was distributed by email to all club members. We hope the new by-laws will serve us well over the coming years.

At the meeting club touring director John Bassett quietly distributed tokens of thanks to club members who had volunteered to lead club rides over the course of the last season.

Then we all turned to food and conversation. Soft drinks, salad, pizza, and brownies were provided to all.

Photo by club photographer Klaus Rothe

As we began to leave Jim offered free for the taking snack items left over from RAIN whose expiration dates had now passed. This being the Café Pizzaria, the IU basketball game was on in the background (with the sound off). In the picture above you can see Stan keeping an eye on the game. The game was too close to call when we left. But when we got home we found that IU had eked out a 73-72 win.

This may be the end of the official season but many club members will be going out for afternoon rides whenever the weather cooperates. I'm looking forward to breaking in my new lobster gloves later in the winter.

Our Road in Our Town

A few years ago BBC member Jen Miers initiated our participation in the Monroe County Adopt-A-Road program. Under her guidance we adopted a mile-plus section of Old 37, just southwest of town, from the south end of Walnut Street down to just over the bridge over Ketcham/Smithville Road.

The group meets at the former Better Way Moving just south of the Walnut/new 37 stoplight, about ¼ of the way along, where we sign waivers, don bright-colored vests and gloves provided by the county and each take a pair of bags, one for trash and one for recyclables. Then about half of us start at each end and work our way back to the middle picking up "stuff". The November 2 job was the last of the year. We had 8 folks out, which was just enough to accomplish the job in slightly over an hour. The weather was cool and pleasant, but warm enough to start to work up a sweat after you bend over from the waist perhaps 100 times.

A larger group will be needed next March when the club gathers again to pick up after a long winter, typically far and away the biggest job of the year. (This year in March it took 13 club members over 2 hours to do the job.) Usually a group goes out a total of 4 times a year, with a goal of contributing to the community and to keeping a section of county road that we ride on frequently clear of trash.

A special shout-out to Jen for starting this program and for shepherding it along for the last four years or so! She's always there with encouragement and advice, picks up and returns the equipment used, and even provides light refreshments afterwards.

Grant Thank Yous

From time to time our Grant Committee hears from the non-profit groups that have received BBC grants. I thought club members might enjoy them, so I'm including here some representative thank you notes. Click on the notes to enlarge them.

BBC Grant Program

As many club member realize, the BBC has an active grant program, funded by profits from our Ride Across INdiana.

As a new committee gears up for the next grant application process, now would be a good time to look back at this year's grants.

Janice Arveson, chair of the grant committee for the last few years, reports:

For 2013 the Bloomington Bicycle Club awarded $10,127 to 11 non-profit organizations, seven of which are new recipients of BBC grant money.  Different ways we'll see our BBC money at work around town are:

• A Summer Cycling Program at The Boys and Girls Club 
• 13 Share the Road signs in Monroe County
• Tricycles, locks, tubes, and a pump at The New Hope Shelter
• Support of the Bike to Barn ride on March 30th
• Prizes and counters at Bikes Week, May 16-20, sponsored by Bloomington Parks and Recreation
• Lights and bicycle repair supplies at the Bloomington Community Bike Project
• More safe cyclists:  The Red Cross partners with IU parking operations and receives bicycles for homeless Veterans.  Our grant will outfit 15 bikes/riders with a light, lock, reflective vest and helmet.
• Bike racks at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Bloomington Hospital, Monroe County United Ministries, and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard.  The BBC purchased bike racks at cost from Revolution Bike and Bean.  This ensured high quality racks, prevented redundant shipping costs, supported a local bike shop, and ultimately reduced the expense from the grant budget.  We are very grateful to Revolution Bike and Bean for their generosity and enthusiasm in helping us with this project.  Please support them and express your appreciation next time you shop there!

Thanks to all members of the BBC for supporting these worthy organizations through your dues, RAIN registrations and jersey purchases.  The grant committee consists of Janice Arvesen, Jerry Arvesen, Carol Bodnar, Mike Bodnar, Sue Perin and Linda Woods.

Janice has now stepped down from chairing the grant committee after doing an excellent job for several years. Recently the BBC board approved Brett Nelson as committee chair for the coming year. I suspect he'll be asking for volunteers to serve with him on the committee. Perhaps you would like to be part of this effort.

Bryan Park to Spring Mill

By John Bassett

The touring ride on Saturday, October 5, from Bryan Park to Spring Mill, was an original creation by Nathan Rogers.  It was designed as a multiple distance event to appeal to riders of various abilities and was a complement to last month’s Spring Mill to the Ohio River ride.

So, here is our situation / response question for the day:

Situation:
• It is late in the riding season and your legs are a little weary
• You are at Bryan Park at the Saturday ride start time, and it is raining
• It is forecast to rain off and on all day
• Your ride choices are 43, 54 and 94 miles
• You need to clean the house

What do you do?

Response:
• Plan on cleaning the house on Sunday
• Go Long

I captured Saturday on the Garmin GPS as shown on this map and profile.

We left Bryan Park as a group of a dozen or so promptly at 10:00.  We proceeded down 446 in a steady, light drizzle.  Our first regroup was at SR 446 and Chapel Hill Road about Mile 19 on the map.  At the Guthrie Road turnoff, about half the group, including Craig, Laraine, Dr. T, and Klaus, followed Clair’s lead and turned west making their ride into the Hoosier Hills 60K – and a wet one at that.  Four other feeble-minded riders (L to R below: Dana, Nathan, Catherine, and Jim) and myself headed on south to Bartlettsville Road bound for Spring Mill State Park.  Catherine, an Indianapolis native, was in Nashville on a holiday and had decided to join the BBC ride.  She turned out to be a sub-eight-hour RAIN rider and was a great addition to the group.

We followed a pretty standard route south along Bartlettesville Road, past Bedford North Lawrence High School, then west along US 50 to Tunnelton Road, before veering back south on the Buddha Bypass.  There is a lot of new pavement along Buddah Bypass extending all the way down across the East Fork White River Bridge to Spring Mill State Park.  We took the secret bicycle entrance into Spring Mill, and pedaled through the park to bypass a piece of SR 60.  Exiting the park onto SR 60 we followed Grissom Road west into Mitchell.  Light rain continued.

I had searched the Subway Restaurant web pages and identified a store in downtown Mitchell for lunch.  Unfortunately, after peddling around the block, we realized it had closed, or moved, or whatever.  This left us a bit of a pickle.  Catherine noted a convenience store down the street that turned out to have a small sit-down café, so we decided to try that.  I had an excellent homemade sandwich; the ladies opted for some hot waffles and coffee.  Dana was a bit dismayed when her plate was cleared away before she got to lick up the remaining syrup.

Once you are south of the East Fork White River, it is important that your route back north directs you back to a bridge.  Nathan’s solution on this trip was to use the Stumphole Bridge located west of SR37.  This involved biking north from Mitchell on Meridian Road, west on Yockey Road, north on Old 37, then west along Art Gallery Road to New SR 37.  Crossing SR 37 on Blue Spring Caverns Road we pedaled west across seemingly endless sinkhole rollers.  A couple of turns later we crossed Stumphole Bridge at map Mile 63.  I had last done this on a bicycle maybe 30 years ago when it was an old iron bridge.

Crossing the bridge we tuned north and picked up a nice tailwind up to SR 450.  SR 450 was more familiar territory being on the southward leg of the Williams Covered Bridge Ride.  A short time later we were back in Bedford and made a quick refuel stop at the Countrymark on 16th Street about Mile 70.  By now the pavement was dry, and the radar indicated the remaining rain in the area was headed to the north.  This was good news.

Nathan’s way home followed a new route north from Bedford.  We headed out east on SR 58 and tuned north on GM Drive past the Powertrain Plant.  This would also have been the return route for the 54 mile route.  We followed Broomsage, Mt. Pleasant, and Judah-Logan Roads northward.  About Mile 80 I was back in familiar territory again at the base of the long hill up to Judah.  A last brief rest stop at the BP at Judah and we headed back north on Old 37 to Bloomington.

This was a fun ride as the five long riders managed to stay together the entire day.  The Garmin measured 94.7 miles, with over 6,000 feet of climbing.  Nathan led his first BBC ride and did an admirable job with the new route.  Jim, a Terre Haute resident and now BBC member, finished his tenth consecutive Saturday club ride.  Dana showed her usual prowess for distance rides, and we might even have picked up a new club member in Catherine – overall, a great day – even with the rain.
Time for a little house cleaning - after I get the bike cleaned up.