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
- Jerry created this page to ...
Page Statistics
Page Views: since creating on 20110920
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.