The iCAP Engagement Team met on Thursday, October 2nd, from 4pm-5pm via Microsoft Teams. First, the team reviewed and refined this year's priorities, then moved into a discussion on ways to share these initiatives with the campus community in a digestible way.

The meeting minutes are attached.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

All,

Last week was the conclusion of the bike retrieval period for abandoned bikes.  We got three claims in the 11th hour, which was good. I’ll begin organizing the leftovers this week, with help from my staff. We are critically low on some used parts, so this is fortuitous timing.

Elsewhere, I have two new staffers starting this week—just in time for October!

The numbers:

Visitors: 94
Sales: $1,319.25
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $100
Memberships: 24 for $720
Tires/tubes: 28 for $153

Thanks!

From Aaron Madrid:

Afternoon all,
Thank you for your time today. I just wanted to recap a few action items and next steps from our call. 
1. Aaron will reach out to the parent who emailed in and offer to have a conversation and see if we can find some additional solutions for their student.

2. Aaron will coordinate meeting between geofence team, operations team, and Sarthak to discuss parking locations outside of bike racks in the coming week(s)
3. Gameday Geofence Activation
    a. Geofence will activate as a "No Parking Zone" 4 hours ahead of kick-off.
    b. Geofence will transition to a "No Ride Zone" 2 hours ahead of kick-off.
    c. Geofence will deactivate 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game.

I think this will position us to ensure we're maximizing the access for the community to gameday activities while reducing the number of errant vehicles.

Let me know if there are any questions or concerns regarding the items we discussed on our call today.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Last Wednesday was Bike To Work Day! It was a success. Had good weather and good turn outs at the stations I visited.

Light The Night is tomorrow evening. Should be good weather—if warm—for that, too!

We are busy but it’s not mayhem anymore—that’s a plus!

We are low on used tires, as is common this time of year. I’ll roll over to the Urbana shop to see if they have any to spare.

The numbers:

Sales: $1,735.35
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50

Memberships: 38 for $1140
Tires/tubes: 31 for $286

Lawn signs have been placed to advertise Bike to Work Day and Light the Night.

The Tree Campus Advisory Committee met to review the overall program and committee membership. 

• The new Campus Landscape Architect, Bridgette Moen, joined the committee. 
• Team members discussed potential additions to the committee, including students, faculty, and staff.
• Justin Vozzo shared a status update on the tree grant.
  • Picking up several trees - 90 planted total this year
  • Ryan is heading up the F&S side, Stirling is helping to manage the contracts
  • Justin is hosting some tree plantings across the state, Urbana and in Macomb
  • Two events each spring and fall for next tw o years
• The South Arboretum Woods rehab has several plants being added, and there are student employees funded by the SSC.
• The Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) is doing another plant installation this fall, and works with volunteers. They also installed interpretive signage.
• The Urban Wood Reuse program is going well.  The new mill is here, and they are working to hire more students.
• The Committee began reviewing the goals in the 2024 Tree Care Plan.
  • The Tree Keeper Inventory is complete for F&S, and it is still in progress for the Arboretum. 
    • There is also the ARC GIS inventory - which pulls from Tree Keeper
    • Ongoing to keep it up to date
    • Tree surgeons are responsible for logging them into the system
    • Assistants are responsible for logging the stump removals - the sub-foreperson goes in to remove it and change it to open or vacant site
    • When it is removed it is no longer counted in the inventory
    • When a new tree is planted - working with the vacant sites and updating those, planning and potential planting spots and adding the new tree in there
    • We need to identify opportunities to update the existing inventory
      
      • Longer-term - should do an update - including the diameters of the trees - should update that, changes over time
      • Might need to be a tree expert - how to appropriately update it regularly - tree health - arborist or someone who knows a lot about trees
      • Potentially it could be through dendrology - students could potentially do DBH measurements and baseline health questions
      • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Justin is working on developing an arboriculture class, could do some tree inventory as part to that class 
    • ​​​​​​​Set a goal in 2025 Tree Care Plan to develop a comprehensive plan for handling tree inventory updates: get a plan together for how to do a regular update and comprehensive update.

Here are the assigned roles for Light the Night 2025:

Station Notes:

• Green & Lincoln will also be the MTD Bike on Bus Rack Demonstration Site
• All stations will have some Project 529 Bike Registration Forms and Stickers

Timeline & Tasks:

• Event Date:  Tuesday, September 16
  • Rain Date:  Wednesday, September 17
• U of I personnel will deliver lights, tables, chairs, lawn signs, and sandwich boards to each station.
• Station Managers should be at their stations by 3:15 PM.
• First shift volunteers will arrive at 3:30 PM, and second shift volunteers will arrive at 5:15 PM.  Make sure they have a Bike Month t-shirt and light set if they want/need them.  They will also need a brief verbal training on the following:
  • Orientation of the station (where people enter and exit)
  • How to install lights
  • Brief recap of Rules of the Road
    • Ride with traffic
    • Stop at stoplights (and stop signs)
    • USE YOUR LIGHTS AT NIGHT – that’s why we’re installing them!  It is legal and safe.
  • Sending people to take the ATP survey
  • Directing people to other resources
• Tear down at 7 PM
  • Leave tables and chairs for U of I personnel to pick up
  • Remaining lights, lawn signs, sandwich boards, and Bike Month & ATP materials need to be returned to Sarthak/F&S

This article advertises Bike to Work Day on September 10th. Between 7:00 - 10:00am, welcome stations will have free shirts, drinks, and snacks.

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