Nick,

Ex-officio is Latin for "from the office".  Ex-officio members are members by virtue of holding another office.  For example, Jennie Selin who has been regularly attending the Bicycle Board meetings is also a City Council member.  Since the Bicycle Board exists by virtue of the Traffic Commission and the City Council, Jennie could be an ex-officio member of the Bicycle Board.  Similarly, David Bruffy is an ex-officio member of the Bicycle Board because he is Director of Mountain Line.

For Thursday, we're going to try to accomplish in 90 minutes what my experience with groups of similar size and scope usually take 8-24 hours to accomplish.  As an engineer, I'm sure you are aware that we must understand the problem and its root causes before we pursue solutions, otherwise the solutions are insufficient to solve the problem or worse, create more problems than they solve.  The goal of our Thursday meeting is to identify top priority problems, discover their root causes, then identify solutions to those top priority problems and organize to implement the solutions.

I for one, would love to hear your guest talk without constraint about bicycling in Germany.  I would like to suggest that the Bicycle Board members read Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany ( http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf ) to get the context.  However, I would like to do this separately from the agenda for this Thursday's meeting. 

May I suggest that we talk with you and your guest beginning at 8:30 on Thursday after we complete the agenda?  What do the members think?  Of course, if this doesn't work, we can explore alternatives.

Frank

director wrote: 
Good evening,
Although I'm no longer officially on the board (I guess that's what ex-officio must mean)  I'd like to submit my homework for voluntary grading as if I'm auditing a course....

Education;
In the 4th grade provide one full day of bike safety education - half-day lecture, half-day road with a police officer (based on German model)

In drivers' ed classes provide one hour lecture on vulnerable road users and code/courtesy when operating in their vicinity.

Enforcement:
Encourage and enforce speed limit laws for motorists.  These speed limits were set to maintain an environment where motorized and non-motorized road users could share safely.  Speed limits are UPPER limits, but are being treated as LOWER limits.

I was wondering if I come to the meeting if I could bring our exchange student and have him talk about the bicycling environment (riding and regulatory) in Germany.  His Mom commutes regularly to her job as a school teacher and he rides to his activities (but takes a city bus to school).

Nick

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Nick Hein
Director, Positive Spin
Morgantown, WV
ph 304-276-0213
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