January’s Member Meetup

After drinks, a bit of light food, hey-there, and bike ogling — love the mix at Velo Cult — the meeting snicked into high gear. Michelle Kunec-North of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, herself a competitive off-road cyclist, led an open forum on ORCMP (dig in here). Questions, some tough, were asked, answers were offered, opinions tossed about, and members came away pretty delighted by the positive engagement. Yes, there’s skepticism in the air — particularly as it relates to opening up Forest Park — but the intent, progress, and opportunity shines through.

The news is that we’ll have an interactive map showing the city’s prospective off-road cycling sites in a few weeks— get ready to provide feedback! Stay in tune with email updates.

Ed Fischer then took a moment to brief us on plans to install some pretty slick DJ features — jump lines and a pump track — this summer at the Washougal Bike Park. Let the fundraising begin! Contact Ed at [email protected] to help (hint: t-shirts are on the way).

On to the elections!

It quickly became clear that mountain bikers, aside from Michelle, don’t enjoy public speaking. But after an equal measure of giggling and clapping as the candidates introduced themselves, Bob Lessard’s soon-to-be-patented Rapid Election Process saw four new board members installed (Erin Chipps, Susan Rotvik, Abby Watson, and myself) and another five reinstated (Ted Dodd, Bob himself, Chris Negri, Matthew Weintraub, and Andrew Yeoman). Jocelyn Gaudi and Jameson Watts continue into the second year of their two-year terms.

With that, a great big thank you goes out to Kelsey Cardwell, Inga Beck, Charlie Biggs, and Joe Carpenter for the talent and dedication they brought to the board. You’ll be missed.

A quick spell of musical chairs at February’s board meeting will decide our officers and the remaining directors’ roles for 2017.

As always, more to come.