Valley Moves… Ahead
Valley Moves Meeting Minutes
9/25/08
7 – 8 pm
Valley moves…ahead!
Joshua Schwartz, Exec. Dir. Of MRVPD, presented a recap of the Go Vermont campaign and emphasized that Valley Moves can be instrumental in getting the word out about this van pool/ commuter solution for sharing rides in Central Vermont.
Josh also told us that the Mad Bus will be back this winter and several expressed confusion around this. There will be a Mad bus meeting in October to discuss winter service. Josh also explained that there is some renewed interest in year round routes and Sugarbush supports this idea. Currently it runs the Snow Cap Express, between Montpelier High School and Sugarbush Ski Area. GMTA has plans to bring this to the voters at the town meeting in March. It would not go into effect until 2010. This would provide a bus and discussion centered on inherent problems with busses, the lack of flexibility and the advantages of the “Go Vermont” van pools.
James Foreman has offered to write an article for the VFN website and the Valley Reporter (10/9) about the van pooling/car pooling issues and he will work with Craig Goss and Rob Williams to provide sign up capabilities to link people and ideas, specific to carpooling/vanpooling on the VFN website.
This was a good opening into a discussion of leadership in the coming months. Laura proposed the formation of small working groups to take on areas of interest. These would include the Mad Bikes of Waitsfield and the Valley Walk and Roll Festival, Van and car pools for commuters and a Safe Routes to School group to look at safe crosswalks to tie in the Village Path, movie theater and pizza restaurant in downtown sections of Waitsfield.. This could include the use of speed tables which delineate and separate cross walks on the road. New members will be sought to join each working group via the VFN website, VFN retreats and VR articles.
Valley Moves Working Groups:
1. Van Pool/Car pooling: James Foreman & Erin Russell-Story, co-chairs, and Joshua will continue to work on the Van/Car pool ideas and getting the work out and helping for networks. Laura Brines, Sue Frechette and Dara Torre are also working on a crosswalk project.
2. Mad Bikes of Waitsfield Steering Committee: (a Town of Waitsfield appointed committee) Bobbi, Laura, Liz, Sue, Kari, Peter Lazorchak and Troy Kingsbury.
3. Valley Walk and Roll group: Dave Cain, Laura Brines, Bobbi Rood, Liz Weller, Sue Frechette…
4. Safe Routes to School: Dara Torre will facilitate this group. Dara is writing an VR article for 10/2 issue, which will link Valley Moves with the Valley Safe Routes to School efforts.
A new meeting model was also proposed and agreed upon.
Working group members will volunteer to take turns attending monthly meetings of VFN and providing working group reports and taking minutes for a group list of Valley Moves working groups via e-mail. The VFN Chairs group meets on the second Friday of each month, 7:45 a.m. at the Wait House. Bobbi Rood agreed to cover the next VFN meeting in October. Laura and Bobbi officially resigned as Valley Moves Co-chairs, and embrace this new Valley Moves structure. It is possible in the future that new Co-chairs will emerge…in the meantime, we are excited to see how this new structure works!
Valley Moves Umbrella Meetings 4 x a year:
It was agreed that the Valley Moves umbrella group would meet on the second Thursday of the first month of each quarter beginning in January. meeting with subsequent meetings in April, July and September. Working groups will meet as needed. A working group can call a special meeting of the Valley Moves umbrella group anytime. This will be posted on the VFN website and the Chamber calendar.
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