May 24th 2023 | 7:00pm
Metro MTB Meeting
Location: Milwaukee County Park's Wil-O-Way Underwood facility in Tosa 
5 Board Members in attendance

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Chair
John Slawny, Co-chair                 
Melissa Clark, Secretary
Kerry Norman, Treasurer – not present
Tom Hartman
Kevin Eccles
Lindsay Carlson – not present

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Raised Grain Brewing, John Slawny, Nick & Shaunie Meulemans and Melissa Clark for tonight’s refreshment donations

Recent Events Recaps

April 22nd Earth Day Trail Clean Up

• We had a great turnout of 30 volunteers to help us clean the litter up on our Oak Hill trails.
• Trail Clean-up days are a great opportunity for families/ youth to get Metro MTB trail volunteer hours.

May 6th International Women’s MTB Day Event

• We had at least 100 attendees and another 2-dozen or so Volunteers and vendors.
•  Event included: Pre-ride stretch with Today Wellness, Mini-women’s skills clinic with Revolve MTB, Long jump competition hosted by Ninja Mountain Bike Performance, Non-drop women’s rides for 3 skills levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). 
• Minooka Night riders volunteered to do our grilling and food serving and bike maintenance. Thank you, Night Riders!
• Event was hosted at Southern Kettle Moraine’s John Muir Trail this year, a non-Metro trail. Attendees were very pleased with John Muir trails being a great central location between Milwaukee and Madison. The trail system offered something for all levels/ all skills.
• SKORR (the new Southern Kettles Off-Road Riders) group was there and the trails were in great shape! We encourage folks to follow SKORR and become Members to support these great trails! Note: Metro MTB and Leadership was involved in building and creating this trail system. Many of our Volunteers are also part of SKORR and maintaining the Southern Kettles trails.
• An Event feedback survey was emailed out to attendees earlier this week. For those that joined, please complete the survey for a chance to win prizes from Ninja MTB.

IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) - MMB is now an IMBA affiliate. 
Metro was Charter Member of IMBA in the past. Why we left IMBA:

• Cost was significant per Member to be part of IMBA. Much of the Charter cost was for their website, membership tools and insurance. When Metro became a 501(c)3 non-profit, we had obtained our own Website, Membership software and Insurance. So, we were double paying for these organizational expenses being an IMBA Charter Member.

Metro re-joined IMBA this month as an Affiliate Member. 

• Affiliate Membership allows us to manage and keep our Membership dollars and donations, while benefiting from IMBA’s expansive network of resources. 
• Important – IMBA is NOT taking over dues - all dues go to Metro, and 100% stays with Metro.
• Re-joining IMBA allows us to submit for IMBA grants and utilize them as a resource. 

We encourage Members to follow IMBA on Link-in and social media. A lot of great resources. Download the new book for Free from IMBA’s website- geared more for landowners.

May Trail Fairy of the Month: Kayla Weiss!

• Kayla did her first ever trail work day at Heritage Trails MTB Trail at the end of last year and she hasn’t missed a weekend Heritage trail work day since! She currently holds Metro’s best Trail Work Day streak outside of our Trail Directors!! In fact, her new found love for trail work led her to creating a Facebook Group for sharing regional MTB trail work days: WI MTB Trail Work Network! Join and help sustain and maintain your favorite local trails! 
• For those that made our event at John Muir, Kayla was there with Ninja Mountain Bike Performance! She planned and led our longest jump competition! She also reached out to Athletic Brewing Company for the N/A beer raffle package and free samples for our event!
• Metro is 100% Volunteers, and when a friend of Metro reaches out to say, “hey! Can I do some fun jumps competitions at this years event? And BTW, I’m reaching out to this company for a donation for your raffle.” - this is HUGE!

Milwaukee County Trails Update

• We have a 5-year renewal with potential 15-year contact.
• New clause in this year’s agreement for Metro MTB to use machines.
• Parks gave us a list of 11 Milwaukee County parks to look at for future bike opportunities (trails, pump track)
• Craig Ruhland has volunteered to be a new Trail Steward for our River Glen MTB Trails.
• The County is working with us for trail expansion at Kletzsch park.
• We would love to move more towards a bike preferred lines like we did with Kegel-Alpha 2.0.
• We’d love for someone from group join Friends of Kletzsch Park to help approval process for more trails.
• Milwaukee County Parks has budgeted for 2 staff to go this year’s IMBA summit. This is a great investment of staff for mountain biking trails.

Heritage Trails Mining Proposal – change of plan

• Washington County and Lannon Stone are not moving forward with a mine at Heritage Trails Park. The mining project would have funded our mountain bike project. Now that there will not be mining revenue, Washington County has stated that they want to help fund mountain biking at Heritage Trails Park.
• We have 3 flow trails we are finishing once we get the County to approve.

Waukesha County - Minooka updates

• We have an approval for a Green re-route to the finish, the new “Green Bailout.” from Waukesha County. We have an okay to re-do redo some features.
• Erik’s employees are volunteering to cut green exit. 
• Ron and Bob will be scheduling some mid-week June trail work sessions.
• Next Tuesday Erik’s is hosting a Demo day at Minooka.

Club Positions – Help Wanted

• Trail Stewards for Ozaukee County trails (Port Washington/Guenther Park and Cedarburg/Pleasant Valley)
• Membership
• Social Media
• Events
• Treasurer & Co-Chair Roles

Insurance Renewal

• Overall insurance cost remained the same as last year.
• Cost for Events (non-race events) increased considerably. Prior our Members were no additional costs for events, non-members were an additional $3 per event.
• Our renewal quoted us a $8 per person cost, regardless of membership status, for Events such as Women’s Day and any social group ride we lead.
• We listed 3 events for the year in our insurance renewal. We will be unable to host additional social rides due to the cost increase per person for any events and rides we host.

Non-Metro PSA’s:
June 17th – West Allis Bike Rodeo looking for children’s skills instruction and bike repair volunteers . 67th & National; 10am-Noon
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050d4facaf2ba5fc1-west#/

July 8-9th – WORS race at Minooka “Colectivo Coffee Bean Classic”
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/wors/colectivo-coffee-classic/

 July 18  - Ride to Ferda Balls (Minooka Night Riders) https://facebook.com/events/s/ferda-balls/211855168289818/?mibextid=Gg3lNB

Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm