On Thursday at the Coalition's headquarters, 3 volunteers met with Nick Ray, Bike Week Coordinator, to discuss planning and preparation for Minneapolis Bike Week 2014. Bike Week is scheduled to take place the week of May 5th, 2014, and may include the weekend before, the weekend after, or both.
After giving a short history of the former Twin Cities Bike Walk Week, Nick explained that the Coalition is the new, more permanent home for this event, which will now focus on Minneapolis and bicycling. Goals for events include promoting all types of cycling (expanding the event’s previous focus on cycling for transportation) and focusing on engaging new cyclists. The Coalition’s goal is to act as a centralized home for resources.
Probable 2014 Bike Week events include (but are not limited to) a downtown celebration, bike to work day celebrations, commuter pit stops, Minneapolis Public School events, and free breakfasts.
The main goal of the meeting was to generate ideas for potential Bike Week partnerships. Partnership is defined as a group contributing to Bike Week in any capacity, which could mean contributions of time, money, goods, or other ways to participate. Probable 2014 partners that are already on board include: the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Metro Transit, Minneapolis Public Schools, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Transit for Livable Communities, Commuter Connections, ZAP, and Target Corporate. Many suggestions were made for other possible partners, and volunteers were charged with signing up to reach out to them, as well as continue to think of others to add to the list. Resources will be made available to help volunteers with this task.
More volunteers are needed to add to the list of potential partners, as well as to reach out to them. Down the road, we will also need help planning the events to take place during Bike Week.
If you are interested in volunteering, or would like more information, email Nick at [email protected].
This Work Group will next meet on January 9th, 2014, and has proposed meeting the second Thursday of every month.
