Posted Minutes from Federal Interagency Bike Group Meetings

[Egoodman]

Minutes from first meeting below, and minutes from meetings #2 thru #5 are attached.

______________________________________________________________________________

Federal Interagency Bike Working Group Kick-off
Meeting Minutes

DATE:April 13, 2015, 6-7 pm

LOCATION: Ford House Office Building, Room 108

Attending:
Alison Ackerman (Phone)
Eric Bradley (Phone)
Lauri Bowes (Phone)
Mimi Diez – AOC (Phone)
Stephen Nightingale – NIST (Phone)
Cheryl Hawkins – EPA (Phone)
Mercedes F (Phone)
Bailey Vanderpool
Tove Anderson – AOC
Jamie Herr – AOC
Marty Shore – AOC
Nancy Skinkle – AOC
Eric Goodman – AOC
Randy Petermon – LOC/CRS
Jim McCarthy – LOC/CRS
Mitchell Wylling – FEMA
Stephanie Cummings – FTC
Andy Clarke – League of American Bicyclists
Nate Graham – goDCgo/CapitalBikeshare
Grace Oran – goDCgo/CapitalBikeshare
Eric Rosenberg – Dept. of Commerce
Kate Meyer Olson – State Dept./WABA Bike Ambassador

The meeting commenced about 7:05 PM.

➢ Overview and Introductions:
Folks on the phone and around the room introduced themselves.
Marty Shore started out asking: Who are we? He noted that he had sent out a list of identified goals. He explained that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is working to be a Bicycle Friendly Business. He feels that a goal of this group is tto share best practices. The AOC will share what we are doing, and we want to learn from all of you. We want to have good communication between the groups.

➢ Working Group Goals Discussion:
Marty Shore asked others to share their goals.

Randy Petermon noted that Library of Congress has poor facilities for bicyclists. He said that AOC does all the work in our building, and we would like them to improve bike facilities. He also noted that there are no Capital BikeShare stations on Capitol Grounds.

Jamie Herr noted that the law will not allow commercial bike stations on our campus, and also there is the issue with BikeShare loading trucks coming onto our campus and the screening requirements. AOC is looking into other locations, working with DDOT and we are looking at areas around Capitol South.

Cheryl Hawkins with EPA chimed in on the phone and noted that improving facility infrastructure is her goal. It was noted that this was a common theme, and a woman from White Oak echoed the need for infrastructure improvements.

Eric Rosenberg encouraged folks to get more involved in their agency to affect infrastructure changes.

Steven Nightingale from NIST volunteered to set up a mail group. Eric Rosenberg thought that there was a FedBikes group that already exists. He will check if there is an existing group that we can use.

Reimbursement for bicycling was brought up as a topic/goal: The government currently allows $20/month, but reimbursement needs to be documented with receipts. One person said that you need to collect $120 of receipts for 6 month of reimbursement. Kate Meyer Olson noted that at State, they are not strict about having all the receipt documentation. Jamie Herr noted that at the AOC the cost of administering the receipts would likely out way the benefit. She noted that AOC legal staff feels that you could combine bike and transit benefits. Jamie will get a written legal opinion and she will try and distribute the opinion to the group.

One participant noted that we should get one agency to work it through, and then roll it out to the other agencies.

Andy Clarke noted that there is a bill every year put forward by Congressman Earl Blumenhour for the bicycle benefit.

The folks at goDCgo noted that FCC, HUD, and EPA have a bicycle commuter benefit. Kate Meyer Olson noted that NSA also has a commuter benefit that can be used for bicycling.

➢ Logistics and Next Steps:
Marty Shore asked how we can continue the group forward. We should discuss the logistics of this group. What should the frequency of our meetings be?
Marty would like to meet quarterly. Stephen Nightingale noted that we could have daily online dialog.

Eric Rosenberg noted that there is a tremendous constituency of federal worker bike commuters. He noted that we could have a day of meeting at the annual National Bike Summit.
There was a suggestion of a Facebook group. Another person said that he would not use Facebook. LinkedIn, Google Groups, and Yahoo Groups were all mentioned.

Eric Rosenberg said that we should put articles in our agencies newsletters and publications.

Nate Graham suggested a case study for bikeshare and bike parking. There are a number of stories that could be shared among the group.

Eric Rosenberg noted that commerce in their new facility will be a lot better because of input.

There was a questions about what agencies have parking for folks who come to their buildings for meetings.

Kate Meyer Olson noted that State has share bikes for their employees, and they can use them to go to meetings. National Park Services have a share bike program as well.

There was a discussion about crowdsourcing for infrastructure. Nate Graham noted that a lot of the low hanging fruit for infrastructure has been plucked, and new infrastructure could be costly.

Marty Shore noted that the purpose of this group is to form a coalition and to share stories so agencies can use these best practices examples.

A participant suggest that we have an event with bikes provided by our agencies, to promote office bikes.

Stephanie Cummings said she was interested in knowing what agencies are doing liability.

Ms. Olson noted that the State department has an Earth Day tour of their bike facilities planned.

Marty Shore noted that the next step would be to form working groups.

Several people express that sharing events would be great.

It was noted that we need an email listserv.

Marty Shore confirmed with the participants that we should meet 4 times a year.

Other suggestions were to do an event, consider a Federal Biking National Bike Challenge Group, write articles about this group.

Jamie Herr said that we will send out another Doodle poll for next meeting.

There was a suggestion to have someone from NIH participate in the group.

There was a suggestion to have a meeting further out from the center of DC. Maybe NIH.

The meeting adjourned about 7:15 PM.

[sjclaeys]

Glad to see another bicycling coordinating group joining Alexandria’s in posting their minutes to the forum. Hope fully it will start a trend!

[rcannon100]

Funny. I dont recall seeing any traffic about this on the official Federal Interagency Listserv. Where are you guys announcing and organizing these meetings???

[americancyclo]

@rcannon100 150129 wrote:

Funny. I dont recall seeing any traffic about this on the official Federal Interagency Listserv. Where are you guys announcing and organizing these meetings???

You did come up at the meeting today Bob!

[rcannon100]

Your @#$%@#$. There was a meeting today???

I give up. Seriously.

[americancyclo]

@rcannon100 150165 wrote:

Your @#$%@#$. There was a meeting today???

I give up. Seriously.

Meeting was thursday.
I almost told them to show up at Java Shack to settle the beef, but wanted to wait til you were back to fighting weight.

[rcannon100]

@americancyclo 150178 wrote:

settle the beef

Huh? What “Beef”?

[ShawnoftheDread]

@rcannon100 150181 wrote:

Huh? What “Beef”?

Bob’s a veggie. #triggered

[Bastille]

Thanks for setting this up!

@Egoodman 150120 wrote:

Minutes from first meeting below, and minutes from meetings #2 thru #5 are attached.
______________________________________________________________________________

Federal Interagency Bike Working Group Kick-off
Meeting Minutes

DATE:April 13, 2015, 6-7 pm

LOCATION: Ford House Office Building, Room 108

Attending:
Alison Ackerman (Phone)
Eric Bradley (Phone)
Lauri Bowes (Phone)
Mimi Diez – AOC (Phone)
Stephen Nightingale – NIST (Phone)
Cheryl Hawkins – EPA (Phone)
Mercedes F (Phone)
Bailey Vanderpool
Tove Anderson – AOC
Jamie Herr – AOC
Marty Shore – AOC
Nancy Skinkle – AOC
Eric Goodman – AOC
Randy Petermon – LOC/CRS
Jim McCarthy – LOC/CRS
Mitchell Wylling – FEMA
Stephanie Cummings – FTC
Andy Clarke – League of American Bicyclists
Nate Graham – goDCgo/CapitalBikeshare
Grace Oran – goDCgo/CapitalBikeshare
Eric Rosenberg – Dept. of Commerce
Kate Meyer Olson – State Dept./WABA Bike Ambassador

The meeting commenced about 7:05 PM.

➢ Overview and Introductions:
Folks on the phone and around the room introduced themselves.
Marty Shore started out asking: Who are we? He noted that he had sent out a list of identified goals. He explained that the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is working to be a Bicycle Friendly Business. He feels that a goal of this group is tto share best practices. The AOC will share what we are doing, and we want to learn from all of you. We want to have good communication between the groups.

➢ Working Group Goals Discussion:
Marty Shore asked others to share their goals.

Randy Petermon noted that Library of Congress has poor facilities for bicyclists. He said that AOC does all the work in our building, and we would like them to improve bike facilities. He also noted that there are no Capital BikeShare stations on Capitol Grounds.

Jamie Herr noted that the law will not allow commercial bike stations on our campus, and also there is the issue with BikeShare loading trucks coming onto our campus and the screening requirements. AOC is looking into other locations, working with DDOT and we are looking at areas around Capitol South.

Cheryl Hawkins with EPA chimed in on the phone and noted that improving facility infrastructure is her goal. It was noted that this was a common theme, and a woman from White Oak echoed the need for infrastructure improvements.

Eric Rosenberg encouraged folks to get more involved in their agency to affect infrastructure changes.

Steven Nightingale from NIST volunteered to set up a mail group. Eric Rosenberg thought that there was a FedBikes group that already exists. He will check if there is an existing group that we can use.

Reimbursement for bicycling was brought up as a topic/goal: The government currently allows $20/month, but reimbursement needs to be documented with receipts. One person said that you need to collect $120 of receipts for 6 month of reimbursement. Kate Meyer Olson noted that at State, they are not strict about having all the receipt documentation. Jamie Herr noted that at the AOC the cost of administering the receipts would likely out way the benefit. She noted that AOC legal staff feels that you could combine bike and transit benefits. Jamie will get a written legal opinion and she will try and distribute the opinion to the group.

One participant noted that we should get one agency to work it through, and then roll it out to the other agencies.

Andy Clarke noted that there is a bill every year put forward by Congressman Earl Blumenhour for the bicycle benefit.

The folks at goDCgo noted that FCC, HUD, and EPA have a bicycle commuter benefit. Kate Meyer Olson noted that NSA also has a commuter benefit that can be used for bicycling.

➢ Logistics and Next Steps:
Marty Shore asked how we can continue the group forward. We should discuss the logistics of this group. What should the frequency of our meetings be?
Marty would like to meet quarterly. Stephen Nightingale noted that we could have daily online dialog.

Eric Rosenberg noted that there is a tremendous constituency of federal worker bike commuters. He noted that we could have a day of meeting at the annual National Bike Summit.
There was a suggestion of a Facebook group. Another person said that he would not use Facebook. LinkedIn, Google Groups, and Yahoo Groups were all mentioned.

Eric Rosenberg said that we should put articles in our agencies newsletters and publications.

Nate Graham suggested a case study for bikeshare and bike parking. There are a number of stories that could be shared among the group.

Eric Rosenberg noted that commerce in their new facility will be a lot better because of input.

There was a questions about what agencies have parking for folks who come to their buildings for meetings.

Kate Meyer Olson noted that State has share bikes for their employees, and they can use them to go to meetings. National Park Services have a share bike program as well.

There was a discussion about crowdsourcing for infrastructure. Nate Graham noted that a lot of the low hanging fruit for infrastructure has been plucked, and new infrastructure could be costly.

Marty Shore noted that the purpose of this group is to form a coalition and to share stories so agencies can use these best practices examples.

A participant suggest that we have an event with bikes provided by our agencies, to promote office bikes.

Stephanie Cummings said she was interested in knowing what agencies are doing liability.

Ms. Olson noted that the State department has an Earth Day tour of their bike facilities planned.

Marty Shore noted that the next step would be to form working groups.

Several people express that sharing events would be great.

It was noted that we need an email listserv.

Marty Shore confirmed with the participants that we should meet 4 times a year.

Other suggestions were to do an event, consider a Federal Biking National Bike Challenge Group, write articles about this group.

Jamie Herr said that we will send out another Doodle poll for next meeting.

There was a suggestion to have someone from NIH participate in the group.

There was a suggestion to have a meeting further out from the center of DC. Maybe NIH.

The meeting adjourned about 7:15 PM.

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