Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Last week of November was slow, as best I can recall, and sales corroborate that. We’re working through the kids bikes we have and will hopefully get more donations in the coming weeks.

We’ve got a half dozen regular bikes on the sales floor but with the wintry snowy weather we’re experiencing, I don’t see those moving quickly. Have another half dozen that need final approval.

This week we begin our M/W/F hours, which we’ll keep til the end of the semester and into next semester, as the colder weather tanks our demand.

The numbers:

Visitors: 48
Sales: 492.50

Memberships: 9 for $270

Tires/tubes: 16 for $95

Thanks!

The Land and Water Team met for its November monthly meeting on Friday, November 21, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM on Teams. This month, the team listened to a student conducting research on the usage of gray water systems in Illinois and other states and institutions. This research will help the team gain support from other organizations to potentially amend the Illinois plumbing code to permit the use of gray water in toilet flushing systems. The team was also updated on the status of the Florida Orchard Prairie maintenance, which will be taken care of by Red Bison, who is eager to work on this project. The team also discussed the pros and cons of maintaining our Bee Campus USA certification, which requires significant funds and effort to improve pollinator status, a task that is largely already accomplished by various campus groups. Attached are the meeting agenda and notes. 

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Snow! First significant snowfall of the year. Made for a messy commute in, but always better than driving.

This upcoming weekend is the Bike Project’s event Cranksgiving, a bicycle food drive. We have a bike trailer set up for canned food donations this week. Weather’ll be great for the event—projected to be 70°!

We’ll continue to tackle donations this week and get some more bikes done for our various programs.

The numbers:

Visitors:
Sales: $823.50

Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
Memberships: 11 for $330

Tires/tubes: 13 for $105

Thanks!

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

I was out Friday and Monday so this is a day late. I was in Berkeley, CA which has roundabouts at all of their side-street intersections. (Hint, hint.)

Pretty uneventful week otherwise. I’ll continue work on the containers and begin prep for our Kids Bike Giveaway event, which’ll be on 12/20. Look for flyers/advertisements for that next week.

The numbers:

Visitors: 106

Sales: $157.50
Memberships: 15 for $450
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Tires/tubes: 12 for $101

Thanks!

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Things are a tick slower now that the temps have dipped. I’ve been pulling from the abandoned bike containers for parts, mostly tires and saddles as those have been most in-demand. We have two bikes on the sales floor with a handful in the queue.  Our supply of checked-over Build-a-Bikes is returning to an acceptable number as well.

This week I’ll tackle the containers of bikes and work to get them organized between bikes we’re keeping and those we’ll have scrapped.

The numbers:

Visitors: 96

Sales: $1,224.39

Memberships: 19 for $570
Tires/tubes: 39 for $353

Thanks!

Morgan White reviewed the F&S and SSC records, and completed this final project report for the FLB greenroof.

The land and water team met for the first time of the academic year on Friday, September 26, 2025, from 2-3 PM on Teams with their new chair, Bridgette Moen. The team discussed when the upcoming iCAP 2025 will be released. The team also discussed project updates from the summer and refreshed the team objectives, goals, and current projects. The minutes and notes from the meeting are included here. 

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Busy as all get out. Sold all but one small bike for sale and moving Build-a-Bikes as fast as we can. Hope to have a few more prepped this week as demand for those is always high once we sell out of the refurbs.

More staff will be available this week, which should help with the craziness.

Returning abandoned bikes and getting some business out of that, which is welcomed. Plenty of folks that are retrieving their bikes are unaware of our space/offerings.

The numbers:

Visitors: 234
Sales: $1882.45

Bikes (refurb): 1 for $250

Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $100
Memberships: 23 for $690
Tires/tubes: 48 for $351

Email from Phillip Krein:

I wanted to update you on our EV charge infrastructure project. Tim Abrahamson supported us today from about 12:30pm to 2pm to gather circuit information in parking structures C10, C7, and B4. I owe Mike Brown an updated design report for our next-generation boxes, and of course we will not mount any new units until all is approved and Dave can inspect the setups. In the meantime, we learned the following:

In lot C10, four of our boxes can be supported without changes. The most likely plans place one each at the east and west columns on Level 2 and one each on those columns on Level 3.

In lot C7, it appears that five boxes can be supported.

In lot B4, we have chosen about all that are available (six units are in place).

For Krannert, there is one signed space where a unit can be mounted.

In F29 (the fire station and parking), it appears that four units can be supported, including three existing signed spaces.

In lot E15, there are NO receptacles that do not interfere with a walking path or equipment access path, so no units can be mounted there.

The total, including those in place, is 20 units. We are preparing 30 new units. I do have some plans for a few of them.

Philip Krein

We did observe that nearly all of these structures have potential for additional receptacle circuits, but this would require a project with wire pulls and infrastructure changes. Since we are talking about 120 V receptacles, such a project is routine, but obviously not trivial to set up and fund.