Board Members of Bike West Hartford, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN:46-1957958):
- Jennifer Boyd
- Mary Donegan
- Jack Dougherty
- Richelle Efland, Social Media
- Doug Fishman
- Ethan Frankel
- Tracy Frankel
- Jim Head, Treasurer
- Tom Martin
- Jason Wang
Ambassadors:
- Maureen Browne-Springer, Aviva Senior Living Activities Director and Cycling Without Age
- Thomasina Clemons, Aviva Senior Living resident and Cycling Without Age
- Dimitris Koutoumbas, CT Urbanists organizer
- Leo Pon, bicycle ride leader with CT Appalachian Mountain Club
- Adam Prizio, bike ride leader
- Kevin Sullivan, chapter leader of Cycling Without Age, West Hartford
Email: BikeWestHartfordInc@gmail.com
Mailing Address: Bike West Hartford Inc., 68 South Main St, Suite 101, West Hartford CT 06107
Board Guidelines, adopted July 2022:
a) The Bike West Hartford Board of Directors (aka the Board) provides leadership for the organization, and are selected by current Board members to serve for one-year terms. Our organization is open to all people who live, work, worship, shop, or play in West Hartford and support our goals. We strive for Board membership that represents the rich demographic and geographic diversity of our community, and we recognize our need to take further steps to reach this goal.
b) Board members agree to meet each month. We value the voices of all Board members, and seek to make decisions through consensus and compromise, with voting only if necessary by request of any Board member. We aim to maintain an odd number of board members.
c) Prior to the monthly meeting, each board member may submit items to the shared meeting document for discussion and recommended action. Although individual board members may submit an agenda item, we encourage Board members to share their ideas with others prior to the meeting, and jointly submit them if two or more wish to do so. Agenda items should address our organization’s goals and may take the form of any actionable item by the Board, such as:
- Endorsement of a position statement;
- Sponsorship of a community-building event;
- Recognition of an organizational partnership;
- Naming an official delegate to another organization;
- Request for expenditure of funds;
- Creation of a smaller working group;
- Or other types of actionable items by the Board.
d) Also prior to the monthly meeting, Board members are encouraged to write Announcements (including links to additional info) on the shared meeting document, for others to read if discussion is not necessarily required. Also, both the Treasurer and Secretary will regularly report items about finances and documents (including links) on the shared meeting document for others to read if discussion is not necessarily required.
e) At the beginning of each Board meeting, we randomly select a Facilitator, whose role is to ensure that all Board members’ voices are heard and that our meeting moves through our agenda in a timely manner. Over time, all Board members should take a turn as Facilitator.
f) During each monthly meeting, Board member(s) who submitted an agenda item are responsible for chairing that portion of the discussion (typically no more than 10 minutes). Also, the Board member who chairs that portion is also responsible for writing summary notes of key agreements and commitments by Board members on the shared meeting document, which becomes the official meeting minutes. The Board promotes accountability by writing what each member and the organization has committed to do in the shared meeting document. Board members may propose additional agenda items at a meeting only when the Facilitator agrees that all other Board members have had a turn and time permits.
g) Near the end of each monthly Board meeting, the Facilitator will finalize agreement on the date, time, and location of the next board meeting. Also, the Secretary shall certify the contents of the shared meeting document as the official minutes.
h) Supporting membership in Bike West Hartford is open to all people who live, work, worship, shop, or play in West Hartford and support our goals. Supporting members donate annual dues ($25 individual or $50 family) or volunteer time (3 hours per year). We encourage supporting members to participate in advocacy actions and community-building events, and to help the organization to plan future ones. Board members may invite a supporting member as a guest to attend a monthly board meeting to meet others and observe how it functions, unless the Board decides to have a closed meeting or closed discussion of a specific agenda item. Finally, any supporting member who wishes to be considered for selection to the Board may submit a written request to any current Board member, who must place it on the agenda for the next Board meeting, for consideration by all Board members.
i) In order to be agile and responsive to bike-walk-transit issues as they arise in daily life, we encourage all Board members and Supporting members to openly voice their opinions at public meetings, social media, the organizational website, etc. When voicing our individual opinions, we should identify ourselves as “a Board member (or as a Supporting member) of Bike West Hartford,” since people can only speak “on behalf of” or “as a representative of” the organization when the Board has collectively agreed on a position statement or named a delegate, which requires time for deliberation.