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WABAAnnualMeeting2011

Page history last edited by jerry 12 years, 6 months ago

WABAAnnualMeeting2011

 


 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA.org);s

annual meeting, with elections for board,

and annual report type business...

 

 

 

Body

 

TheBikeHouse.org and EOTR Mobile Clinics

 

TheBikeHouse.org got an award

for East Of The River type mobile clinics

done by volunteers over the last three seasons

(late Spring?, Summer, now ending at Fall).

I didn't get up, as didn't want to be photographed

and for some reason not really invited

despite doing 5 EOTR mobile clinics, only two of which

I wrenched some, mostly talking bike lore

and being the entertainment...

The guys pulling the heavy and sometimes top heavy

trailers weren't there last night, and many people came

out to volunteer, though the levels were variable,

as were the number of people requesting help,

early clinics had some stuff kids might have dredged

out of the river, and difficult as a new volunteer

to say, we can't fix this, besides the fact that we

weren't pulling parts across town in bike trailers,

just some tools and limited supplies.  Two instances,

one kid needing another replacement wheel

and another a small brake caliper part, to get

back on the road.  Sites were distributed around the

EOTR, mostly shopping malls and parks,

one in RiverSide was neat, with a small farmers market

running at the same time, (Don't FEED The Bikers

They Might Come Back" ;-D ,they moved that location

from a school on the hill ARGH, many locations

near the new developments: Anacostia Library,

Deanwood Rec Center, Penn Branch Shopping Center,

showing new stuff going on.  Most of which at

BikeShare locations too...  Overselling too expensive

bike sharing, IMO...

 

SE vs NJ

 

Like New Jersey, South East and a little

of North East in EOTR gets a bad rap,

people only see the expressway Typical NJ "What Exit?",

and NJ is the Garden State, has beaches, farms,

and all sorts of other landscape that most people

traveling through don't see...

 

Some of My Other Writings and Back Story

 

I'd written about South East in a similar vane,

but talking drugs and stuff, related to Franklin Shelter,

TheseHallowedHalls (others? too?)

and St. Elizabeths' Summer Concert Series

StElizabethsSummerConcertSeries , IIRC,

with Street Sense, and was wanting to find

out more about the area, not to trash it,

but to reality check some more...  Limited

time and limited visits, say to Fort Dupont

Park Summer Concert Series, last year

FortDupontSummerConcertSeries2010 and

this year FortDupontSummerConcertSeries2011 ,

and even my first reporting on

Farmer's Markets, between Sherwood Hall

in Mount Vernon, Fairfax County shuttering

for the season and going to Old Town Alexandria

OdetoaFarmersMarket

it's easy to make snap judgments  about a people

and places, without actually living there, just

visiting...  Reporters try to get impressions

and convey the tone of a place,

sometimes difficult to process giving

very limited time on site, previous

experience, and sometimes just plain

bias and stereotyping...

 

Assumptions

 

But one would make assumptions about a lot

of places.  Some reasonable ones would be

safe water and food, just like a car, bicyclist need

to fill up the tank to keep going, but you

need to plan your stops, time of day,

day of week, and time of year too...

 

Football season started and the EOTR

near HillCrest last Sunday was not heavily

attended by guests, the volunteers outnumbered

the guests, in which we had some time to

socialize, instead of other ones swamped with kids,

overrun by kids really, some demanding,

this last one having one of the most polite

kids I've ever met...  And grateful people

too, introducing themselves and likely getting

a lot of personal attention, this time, where

other sites, people would be lucky to find

someone to talk to, and a clipboard with sign in sheet

and a waiting list.

 

I guess I should learn all of SE / NE

and any culture, is not the same,

go figure...

 

Health And Food Stores

 

Ambulances went back and forth Sunday,

and it was pointed out that would be me

with the local place I got some breakfast,

I prefer to support the local shops

that have character, diners and dives,

instead of chain stores, like Subway

but locals and others seem to know,

you have to choose carefully, risking

food poisoning, I guess I'm too trusting,

naive or so tired of the threats and risks,

experienced locally, that while I felt

bad afterwards, it could also be because

I don't eat that type of food, turkey bacon

eggs, cheese, home fries, etc that often

and when I do eat out, or the way

people normally do, I tend to feel sick

afterwards, like at conferences...

 

 

Remember Original Topic, WABA Annual Meeting

 

 

Anyways, the WABA meeting recognized

EOTR work done by TheBikeHouse.org,

some other awards done, advocacy,

a new booklet about the development process,

a talk by a civil engineer, also soccer mom

biker, elected a new slate of board members,

some of which I'd met before, and talked some

of the issues, albeit very limited time for

actually bringing up any issues,

(need a membership discussion email list!),

slides likely to be on their blog

(I asked for a copy as my phone camera

memory went out while taking photos

getting there, Arlington to Silver Spring's

Civic Center near City Place Mall)

and then commuting back through Rock Creek

Park late at night, not too bad, made it there

and back alive.  I had rather bright tail lights and

a good headlight, going off the 25 mph road

to trail when it got really busy later down

the Rock Creek Parkway, below the Zoo...

 

Bike Convoy?

 

It would be nice to convoy back with some people,

but I couldn't dynamically route plan while

talking with some of the old guys,

(Unsolicited Advice: learn from old bikers,

they are alive and have experience surviving on the roads,

though don't necessarily need to be as carmudgenly (sp? )

as myself, at times, nor as much of a clown either...)

 

Patch Ups vs My Hoods

 

WABA is taking more seriously the bad design trouble

areas, based on real data instead of just

"I want a bike lane near my house"

which I think should use more local knowledge

as the 10 staff people, while it seems like a lot

of paid staff for a small membership non profit,

they don't even cover all of the Freedom Plaza

much less, Back To Work Day Pit Stops,

most of which assume people work in the city,

instead of around the beltway, or reverse commutes,

or working evenings, or part time or at home,

volunteer or disabled and commuting to other life events

instead of just work...

 

Anyway, one of the Annual Meccas, besides

BicycleFilmFestival (BicycleFilmFestival2011 )

which is more fun than most business type annual

meetings...

 

 

Conclusion

 

Summary of experience or similar

 

Consider joining, if you aren't already a member,

help them top 1000 new members this year?

$35/ year individual membership,

and just learned this year you can do

a certain number of volunteering events

or bike valet in lieu of membership fees

(now you tell me...)

 

And get people introduced by jurisdiction,

in meetings, or before and afterwards,

say home and most commuted to/

toured, raced, worked, etc so people

can put names and areas with faces

instead of assuming everyone knows

each other already, as board members

and paid staff tend to do ...

 

 

 

Discussion

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

Page History

 

20110920 Jerry

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