Chapter Meeting Minutes 8-20-07

Meeting Date - 08/20/2007
Meeting Location - Blankets Creek Trailhead
Attendees - 19
Food Provider - Free Flite Bikes

Trek's Commitment to IMBA - Dan Thornton, owner of Free Flite, talked to the chapter about Trek's commitment to support IMBA in the future. Trek will give a proceed of every Trek bike and helmet sold to support IMBA in their ongoing needs of trail advocacy. Trek's new commitment has set a new bar for the bike industry to support the grassroots efforts that SORBA and IMBA provide for the future of the sport.

IMBA/SORBA partnership - IMBA and SORBA have committed to a 3 year partnership. IMBA needs SORBA for its strong grassroots effort of advocacy at the ground level. IMBA will in turn handle all the administration duties of SORBA so they can concentrate on more advocacy and chapter development. SORBA members will automatically become an IMBA member at their next renewal. SORBA will end up with 1500 new members as a result to the combined membership. Expect 6-8 months for this partnership to eventually be integrated.

Bike Patrol - Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day is on Oct 6th. Bike Patrollers are needed for assistance. All are welcome to help out. Contact Tim Feltner for more info. Bike Patrollers were reminded to log their hours.

Area 51 Fundraising - We recently received four $500 contributions from personal riders at Blankets Creek. Thank you for your contributions! Expect the fundraising tent to be set up at Blankets Creek Trailhead once we get a break in the hot weather.

Area 51 Trail Construction - A groundbreaking construction ceremony will be held at the next Chapter Meeting on Sept 10th. Stay tuned for more details. SORBA Pro-Trails will be doing the machine work for the new advanced loop. Volunteers will be needed for the finishing work. A Work party schedule will be available at the upcoming groundbreaking ceremony. We plan to have a work party every other weekend for the next several months until completion. The plan is to cut/finish half a mile of trail a month. Look for the Trail Work Party banner at the Blankets Trailhead or contact Jay Wilkes to be put on the volunteer distribution list. Construction will start mid September.