Commuters, et. al.,

I will normally reserve our minutes posting for those who are joined
members of the Commuters Group (go to the club web site to do this).
Since this was our first meeting, however . . .

Nine commuters inaugurate the group at Jim Funk's house on Oct 6.  We
will meet again on Thursday, Nov. 4, at the same house.  Directions
and a reminder will be given.  The meeting begins promptly at 7pm.

The Oct 6 meeting was largely to get to know each other and think
about what the group wants to do.  I was personally amazed at the
years experience in advocacy and commuting that each rider divulged.
Among the less than a dozen riders were more than two hundred years of
commuting experience.  Each of us is involved in some kind of local,
workplace, or national advocacy for cycling.  This should encourage
experienced advocates and commuters to feel at home, and should
encourage new advocates to get involved.  You will have excellent and
well-spoken mentors to guide your efforts.

We came up with seven areas of interest to ponder as possible avenues
for action by the group:

1.  Greater involvement and voice with the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Board
2.  Specific attention to attending County and City Board meetings as
individual cyclists/commuters.
3.  Focused attention on workplace advocacy, e. g. encouragng bike to
work and safe bike storage.
4.  Becoming a resource for those seeking information about commuting.
5.  "Inreach," or, organizing our internal groups and associates on a
more formal basis to become commuter advocates.
6.  One-on-One advocacy, helping individuals one at a time focus on
getting a bike, riding to work, etc . . .
7.  Helping BikeGainesville.org edit their commuter map of Gainesville
(shameless personal insertion by the temporary chair)

These were generally organized around the heading of "Putting
Gainesville on the Map" as one member crisply offered, making us a
leading example in bike commuting at all levels in the wake of our
ascendance ahead of Portland, Oregon in the U. S. census for having a
7% bike commuter population.

The group agreed to go home and ponder which of these areas we should
focus on as a group.  They will send their "votes" to the commuter
group alone, and we will discuss for next meeting how to approach.

Please join us for the next meeting if you are interested!

James Thompson
Temporary Chair
Commuter Group
Advocacy Director, GCC

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