Saskatoon Cycles Dec. 2018 newsletter

Nov. 23 AGM at the Bike Doctor

We would like to extend a big thank you to the Bike Doctor for hosting our AGM on November 23.We had a good turnout that enjoyed a social time with pizza, 9 Mile Legacy beer and wine before the meeting.

Reflections on a year of activities and financial affairs helps us to realize that we have made great strides in many ways to advocate for safe cycling for all ages and abilities.

Besides the Bike Doctor we are thankful for many of our sponsors who have helped us during this year:

• Astro Towing for wonderful towing services
• Dave Denny who allows us to meet at the Drinkle building
• SignSmith who has recently supported our new signage for the Bike Valet
• FCL who provides free parking for our bike valet trailer and is a partner at the Bike to Work day, and;
• The City of Saskatoon who provided funds for Bike to Work Day and for the activities that we did as part of the Winter City Strategy.

The Saskatoon Cycles Board Directors for 2019 are:

• Jerome Nicol
• James Arnold
• Brodie Thompson
• John Dosman
• Ingrid Larson
• Erin Edwards
• Cathy Watts
• Baxter Kawula

Also, at the AGM, the issue of the need for more bike racks downtown was raised by one of our members. At the City of Saskatoon Active Transportation meeting on November 29th, this matter was discussed. At this point, 250 conversions (including downtown and BIDs) have been completed (conversions are the retrofitting of the old city parking meters into bike racks). The City is currently reviewing the conversion project and best placement for bike racks. If you have thoughts on bike rack placement, please contact: cycling@saskatoon.ca.

The Future of the Bike Valet

One of the topics of great interest at the meeting was a report on the future of the Bike Valet. In seven years, we have become a victim of our success. We parked over 6300 bikes at 13 festivals with 900 hours of volunteer time. We calculated a saving of 29 tons of greenhouse gases and we assisted the City Active Transportation Plan mandate of encouraging people to ride bikes.

The contractor (Felipe and Kaleb) that many of you worked with was funded by the festival fee schedule. They were responsible for set up, take down and the day to day operation. Volunteer recruitment was handled by our operations manager. We made a small profit but it was used for repair and maintenance of our equipment and supplies.

The volunteer time over and above the actual bike parking shifts that were behind the scenes are not sustainable for another season. In order to keep things running smoothly there were many volunteer hours spent which included management, supervision, problem solving, communication with festival organizers, and administration which were shouldered by a very few board members.

Through discussions at the board and a focus group of experienced bike valet volunteers we have developed three options for the future of the Bike Valet:

• Our first and favoured option is to hire a full-time manager for six months. This position would require marketing  skills, volunteer recruitment and co-ordination, day to day operation, volunteer orientation and general management of the valet. We would like to pay about $25,000 for this position. It would run from mid-April to mid-October. We see this option as growing the bike valet to about 25 festivals.
• The second option is to provide the bike valet service to the three largest festivals. Jazz, Taste and the Fringe. This will also require a manager for these 25 festival days of the valet.
• The third option is to rent out our racks, tagging system and trailer to anyone who wants it. The festival would be required to set up, take down and provide their own volunteers.

The second and third options are not our preference, however, without funding for a manager we are stuck.

We have developed a business plan and have spent considerable time talking to the City, festival organizers, Tourism, and other potential sponsors. Hopefully we will have an update in the new year of the option we will pursue.

Winter City Strategy

Saskatoon Cycles has received some funding this past year for a few winter city strategy events that were enjoyed by many. Bike Art, Winter camping, Winter cycling workshop, and a bike valet for the Winteruption performance “Spin”.

This year we are hoping to have another Bike Art show Jan 19-26 at the Farmer’s Market, a winter cycling workshop in partnership with The Bike Doctor and possibly an Ice Cycle.

Volunteers are needed to help with these events. Please send a message to

info@saskatooncycle.org if you can help.

T-shirts

Thanks to Erin Edwards who has recently taken over the t-shirt sales and delivery. Purchase on-line at our web site: saskatooncycles.org

Volunteers needed:

At the AGM we also mentioned the two-hour volunteer.

Here are some ideas of 2-3 hours of volunteer gift hours to support safe cycling in Saskatoon. Please contact us at saskatooncycles.org, if you are interested in a short volunteer shift.

• Do you have graphic design skills?
• Would you like to write something for the newsletter?
• Would really enjoy teaching a learn to cycle course through the community association (paid position) for kids, families, women, new Canadians?
• Could you help with a Bike Swap? A Friday night and Saturday in April.
• Would you like to lead a slow roll?
• Help with opening of bike art show?
• Lead an Ice Cycle

We also need volunteers on Jan. 19 to set up the bike art at the Farmer’s Market, and on

Jan. 26 to take down the bike art show.

Our new donation box for Saskatoon Cycles is a WORK OF ART!

Many thanks to Trent Watts who created the structure and to Miranda Jones,

a local artist who painted it. The plexiglass box was repaired and incorporated into

this very attractive addition to our fund-raising activities.

Donations are always appreciated through our website as well.

Winter Bike to Work Day

The City of Saskatoon is planning a winter Bike to Work Day in January as part of the Winter Cities Shake-Up.

For more information, visit Saskatoon.ca

Re-Imagine Education

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, in partnership with twenty community groups, have undertaken an initiative called Re-Imagine Education. Re-Imagine Education is a bold initiative asking us to challenge our views of what education looks like today and what it could look like in the future. The current strategic plan for education, Saskatchewan Plan for Growth: Vision 2020 and Beyond, is quickly coming to an end. It has outlined some important goals, but the time has come to begin redefining a vision for the evolution of public education in our province.

We encourage our members to participate in the survey, the link can be found here: