SW Trails PDX
Minutes
March 22, 2012
The Watershed Building in Hillsdale
6388 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland OR 97239
Attendance: Don Baack, Sharon Fekety, Michael Kisor, John Morris, Glenn Bridger, Katureh Pennington, Peter De Crezendo, Cole Trusty, Virginia Hendrickson, Craig ,Lee Buhler, Carl Fink
Don called the meeting to order at 7:00pm
Lee made a motion to approve the agenda. Katureh seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.
Don said the application for the 501c3 has been submitted or will be shortly.
Chris reported that the got $65.00 in donations at the March SW Trails hike.
Cole talked about the brochure for the Red Electric Trail. He handed out the latest draft. Cole asked people to give him comments. Glenn asked what program was used and Cole said Scribus. Peter suggested removing some underlines. Don said SWNI had requested that their logo be removed from the sponsors sections. We will try to add other sponsor logos. Glenn asked about the time line. Cole said we would like to have it completed by September. Don suggested having Laura Foster or another copywriter to look at. Peter asked if we need to have it done by the election and Don said it would be nice but not necessary.
Peter talked about the video for the Red Electric Trail. He said one major consideration was the target audience and how to motivate them. They also have to decide what the goal of the video was, the length of the video how it would be publicized and the distribution. He said due to things like YouTube the distribution is much easier these days. (added later, we are a member of the Intertwine and we can distribute the video and brochure through that organization) He said another thing to consider is who will appear on the video and will it be only interviews and other items such as scenes along the trail and maps. He said he would like to have it done by election time as it may have more influence. Don asked how long and MichealMichael suggested 5 minutes. There was a consensus to have it between three to five minutes. Glenn suggested two videos showing the two different aspects of the trails. One would be from the viewpoint of walkers and one to highlight the land. Glenn pointed out that it was easier to get people to watch shorter videos. Peter pointed out that TV advertisers spend a lot of money for 30 second commercials. Sharon pointed out that they can be effective due to repetition. Peter pointed out you could get the repetition effect on the website and brochure. Peter said it was important to do work before the video such as determining the right questions. Don asked people to think of questions Peter suggested the following people for the video: Laura Foster, Don Baack, Bob Stacey, Nick Fish, Earl Blumenauer, Ginny Burdick, Ronda Zakocscox, Mike Roach, Beth Madison. He asked people to think of other people to appear in the video.
SW Trails lawyer Carl Fink gave a training on Conflict of Interest. He said this was a prerequisite for the 501c3 filing. Carl said the IRS wants to know if an organization does lobbying. Carl said SW Trails activities are not a problem. However, it was important to train the board on what we can and cannot do. He said non-profits can lobby within limits. He said there is direct lobbying and grassroots lobbying. He said if we talk to representative on general trail issues that is education. However, talking about a specific legislation or a candidate for election is lobbying. He said what we are doing is outreach and education. If we do lobbying in excess, we have to report it to the IRS. He said according to the rules you can spend 20% of the first $500,000 on lobbying. This can get very complicated. However, SW Trails will probably never get there. He said people can still support candidates and measures on their own. Michael asked for the definition of Grassroots Lobbying and Carl clarified. Don pointed out we are lobbying the city to increase funding for trail improvements. Carl said it was not clear if asking for a budget increase would count. He said his gut reaction was it was not but he would check it out.
Don said July 22nd will be the date for the Sunday Parkway event. He held up a map for the preliminary route. There was one route for bikes and one for walkers. Don said there will be plenty of opportunity for volunteering on the walk. There will be booths set up along the way. There will be places for people to park at several locations. Glenn suggested police presence at Chestnut and Terwilliger intersection. Peter asked how many people there had participated in these and he was the only one. He said people can start at any place they want to. He said it can draw tens of thousands of people. However, as people are spread out it does not look like a mob of people. Don suggested working out a deal for parking at the bottom of the tram. Peter said it is a very fun event.
Don displayed a report on the Sellwood Bridge construction plan by Mike Pollan of Multnomah County. He said construction has already started. There are about 26,000 vehicles using the bridge everyday. He said during construction there will not be any left turns off the bridge. They will route the traffic north on Macadam and loop around. Peter asked what would prevent people from turning left off the bridge. Don said he did not know what the barrier would be but there would be one. Sharon pointed out it was interesting to walk over the Sellwood bridge as you can see the construction.
Don talked about walks Virginia Hendrickson led March Lee will do April and Sharon will do June. Carl said he may do May.
Don said the park trail plans for Marquam did not include a trail to OHSU .
Don walked with PBOT and neighbors around Jackson Middle school and other places in far southwest to look at locations routes for possible green streets. He pointed out some of the routes on the SW Trail maps. He will do another walk around and invited people to join the walk.
Don said there is a group within PBOT to look at alternative standards for local streets. Don will participate. He said there will be several people on city staff as well as volunteers from southwest. Glenn said this was very important to improve pedestrian improvements in SW. He said we have not seen any improvements in southwest despite the relatively prosperous times. He said someone has to seriously look at the issue.
Don said the Barbur Concept Plan and Southwest Corridor Plan are continuing.
Don said Ed Fisher will be here next month to talk about his trip to Europe to look at pedestrian and bike improvements. Glenn described the trip to Europe and he said there is a lot we can learn from it. He said the trip was done about three years ago. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn from other countries.
Craig talked about a trail issue on 25th and Seymour. Craig said he was walking back on the city right-of-way and a neighborhood came out and swore at him. There was debris on the trail. He said they told him that they still had liability and they complained about vegetation that was removed. He said he was bothered because he was physically threatened. Don suggested talking to Amanda Fritz. Michael said someone planted a hedge on Multnomah Blvd and he was told that was a code enforcement issue and they are complaint driven. Don said Mike Leafed was the person to call.
Don said there was a TV in Umpqua bank that had community events and asked if we thought it was a good idea to post SW Trails events on it and people thought it would.
Glenn talked about a trail in Beaverton that was in trouble according to an article in the paper He said it is important that we be pragmatic on what we can and cannot do and do things more efficiently. Michael said PBOT is working with the Ashcreek neighborhood to improve safety on Garden Home Road.
Don said he has done a drive around with a blind person to discuss pedestrian issues. Don said they will do a drive around with another disabled person. Don said it was important to put paved extended shoulders on Maplewood Road when it is improved.
The meeting was adjourned at: 8:56
Respectfully submitted
Lee Buhler
SW Trails on Facebook
Comments are closed