Salem Bicycle Club
General Meeting Minutes
April 11, 2026
Painter’s Hall
Call to Order- Board members present: Debbie Miller, Steve Budde, Tim Newman, Ken Freeman, Juan Lopez, Terry Robbins, Robin Robbins, Colin Benson, Jim Miller
Approval of Minutes: March Minutes were approved unanimously
Financial update- Tim Newman passed out financial summaries to review and noted that our current total operating account fund is $38,670.59. The CD was allowed to expire and will be reviewed after the Monster Cookie funds for 2026 are complete. Tim mentioned that the CD has done well with $752.00 in income since January 2025.
Rides Committee- Terry Robbins reports rides are scheduled through May currently. Gravel rides started every other weekend and Independence start rides will begin every other Sunday soon. The special event rides were reviewed and 4-5 out of 8 allowed were approved. Terry noted some routes also approved in Sisters in June that are opening up as training rides for some members. Juan Lopez has been doing ride verification and it is going well so far.
Membership- Robin notes that membership has gone up from 289 to 298 members, which is a high point for the club.
Spokes-Colin Benson notes that we had 1832 Spokes sent and 875 openings for a rate of 47.7 %.
Safe Routes to School- Debbie Miller reported an update from Jacob Lippert. The first bike trailer made its official debut in March at Lamb Elementary. It was affectionately named Heron with a fleet of 35 Trek Bikes aboard. There were some glitches as the internal storage system dislodged during transit and several bikes needed repairs. SBC helped get the bikes fixed and ready for use in time for classes. Also, the decal was delayed due to illness, but got done in time for the next scheduled classes and the trailer will be highlighted at this year’s Monster Cookie event. Safe Routes to school secured funding to make the family mini-cookie ride free for all riders and will even be there to supply some bikes if needed for riders from their fleet. SRTS is working on obtaining overall funding as well as funding for their second trailer and bike fleet by securing funding from several sources, including an intergovernmental agreement to secure federal funds for personnel and equipment as well as a $50,000 grant through the Trail Blazers foundation. SBC donated $8000 for the first fleet and secured a grant from Iron Man because of our volunteer work there for another $2000. In addition, SBC board approved another $2000 this year to be used for bike vouchers for students to help them secure their own bikes for home use. SRTS continues to appreciate volunteer efforts from SBC members to support their bicycle education in schools.
Iron Man- Juan Lopez notes that SBC will again be staffing bike rest stop #2 on July 20th. We need 30 volunteers and 7 have registered so far.
San Juan Tour- Steve Budde reports that this is going well and the event will run August 10th through 14th.
Monster Cookie Update- Ken Freeman talked to us about what the Monster Cookie does for the club and the community, including providing 40% of the funds necessary to run the club plus money for supporting bicycle related advocacy in the community.
Ken noted that Dave’s Killer Bread generously donated 500 bagels and 2000 snack bars for our ride. Scratch donated our electrolytes this year amounting to 20 bags valued at about $800.
Registrations for MC-50 are going well above our usual pace and approaching 500 already and growing at a rate of 4-5 new registrants per day. Our pre-registration ends April 22. We typically get about 15% of our registrations on the same day of ride, so the turn out this year should be very good and may reach 600 or more riders.
10 volunteer spots are still open, mainly helping with crossing. If we don’t get enough volunteers, we will likely have to hire for some positions.
Change in mailing address: Tim Newman was able to secure a new mailing service which has the advantages of having a physical location rather than a PO box so future presidents, treasurers, or bookkeepers do not have to use their own personal address. This is especially useful for things like tax forms. It is also a cost savings. The board obtained a vote approving this via email prior to this meeting.
Next meeting: Wednesday May 13th, 2026 6:30 PM via Zoom