Dear FY19 SWATeam members, As another academic year is about to begin, we want to first thank you for all of your help moving campus toward the goals outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). Each of the six SWATeams worked on multiple recommendations last year, and after careful evaluation by the iCAP Working Group (iWG), several recommendations are under consideration now at the appropriate campus units. Additionally, several prior SWATeam recommendations are continuing to show progress, such as the Solar Farm 2.0 project, which is likely to be approved by the Board of Trustees this fall.

Now, the iWG is gearing up for the drafting of the 2020 iCAP. Last year, we have received a lot of feedbacks from the SWATeams and the student body about the 2015 iCAP, our successes, and our areas for growth. After extensive consideration, we have reorganized the SWATeams as announced in the iSEE newsletter earlier this month. Soon we will be updating the email lists, so please do not be concerned if you are removed from a SWATeam email list and are planning to stay on the new team; all returning members will be added to the new SWATeam email lists, as they are created.

If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to discuss this further. We thank you for your time, your enthusiasm, and your continuous efforts!

Sincerely,

Ximing Cai and Morgan White

iCAP Working Group, co-chairs

Facilities & Services (F&S) updated the Near Far Without a Car flyer (or CarFree Flyer) in August 2019. This flyer lists the alternative modes of transportation available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It also consists of essential safety information, such as SafeRides, SafeWalks, DRES shuttles, Bicycle Safety Tips, Bike Registration, etc.

F&S has partnered with several departments across the University to distribute the information in this flyer to thousands of old and new students. For example, this flyer will be distributed to more than 3,000 incoming international students during their mandatory check-in at the International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS). F&S has also partnered with MTD to distribute this flyer to students at the Quad Day.

The Facilities & Services (F&S) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) submitted the application to renew the Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) status for UIUC on August 21, 2019. The University expects to retain its Bronze-level BFU certification with this application. Please see attached the complete application that was submitted to the League of American Bicyclists (LAB).

All, Welcome Week technically might be this week but last week really felt like it here at the Bike Center. Our visitor numbers were higher, a lot of people in for registrations and lots of bike sales.
If our refurb bike sales hold steady from last week, we’ll be out of bikes before the semester even starts. While not great, it’s also not our mission to just sell bikes. Where’s the education in that?

This week it is business as usual with the exception of Friday when we will be closed for Staff Training for all Campus Recreation employees. Obviously we’ll try to crank out some builds. We’ve still got a large pile of wheel donations to get through. That’ll help with the constant storage issues.
 

The numbers:
Visitors: 75
Sales: $2,349
Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 12 for $1,835
Tire/tubes: 6 for $45

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

Followig a lengthy email exchange between Morgan and Cynthia, they decided that the University of Illinois will be taking command of the overall organizing for Light the Night (LTN).

See the meeting notes from the first group meeting for LTN 2019.

University of Illinois organized a meeting for all participating units - UI, CBC, Urbana, Champaign, MTD, CCRPC, TBP, and CCB. Please see attached the notes from our meeting.

All, Monday and Friday of last week I was out of the shop. Student staff covered for me with minimal issues. We’ve been selling bikes pretty steadily now, and that number will likely only rise the closer we get to the school year starting.
Big thanks to Todd for clearing out the huge pile of scrap bikes. More room is always good!
This week we have a LTN discussion so we can get moving on that and a TBP-UIUC meeting. Additionally, I’ll be reorganizing the back of the shop since we have so much new space, setting up a staff meeting for my student staff in advance of the crazy semester rush, and processing the inventory that came in late last week.

The numbers:
Visitors: 45 (computer trouble kept that number lower than it actually was)
Sales: $1,215.00
Memberships: 3 for $90

Bikes (refurb): 6 for $925

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

All, I was out of town on Friday and Monday so this is a little belated.
Last week was good. We’ve been selling bikes a little more steadily. Tally of For Sale bikes: 16. We’ve got a few more that need final safety checks to get going so I’ll hope to get that number a little higher, especially as we approach the beginning of the academic year. On Thursday morning I did a Rodeo on campus with Cynthia and a couple of the student staff. It went really well! Kids seemed jazzed, enjoyed riding the bikes, and the basketball court was perfect for the skills course.

No issues having the students cover for me and thanks to Todd for grabbing the scrap.

This week I’ll be out on Friday for a Campus Recreation Staff Retreat. I’ll have Chris or Theo cover for me. We’re short on some supplies so I’ll get an order in with one of our suppliers for consumables.

The numbers:

Visitors: 69
Sales: $743
Memberships: 8 for $240
Bike (refurb): 3 for $320
Tire/tubes: 14 for $81

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

Hello all,

Thanks for coming to our last meeting. For those of you who could not make it, no worries. Our next steps will be weeding the rain garden. I am still working on a list of plants with pictures, but in the meantime I have attached a updated list of the names of all the plants that should be there and notable weeds. Anythings you weed can be thrown into the lawn, if it happens that there are a lot of weeds that have been pulled still throw them onto the lawn, or perhaps a small tarp if anyone has one, and let me know so we can send Grounds to pick it up. 

As far as trees go, we are still going to go ahead and try to pull all tree saplings out. We discussed that this will likely be easiest after a rain. If they just aren't coming up and digging them out does not seem viable, at that point we can have Grounds come herbacide. 

We are going to continue this process likely until mid Fall, at which time I am hoping we will have plugs to put in. 

I am also working on an event that we can do at the start of the school year to get more volunteers out and helping around the rain garden. I will have more news on that soon.

Thanks again for everyone' your help! If you have nay questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to shoot me an email.

Best,

Vince

 Vet Med Rain Garden Plant Identifier Doc

Please see attached the VeoRide ridership data for July 2019.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the July 2019 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 992.8 Megawatt hours. See attached file.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and MTD agreed to contribute $1,500 each to purchase bicycle lights for Light the Night event.

On July 25, 2019, Morgan White confirmed that Sarthak Prasad will be the primary contact for Light the Night for F&S.

All, Things were slow-to-comfortably-busy last week. A new employee started. On Tuesday I picked up 30+ bikes from JSM. Only about 1/3 of the bikes were of any quality. The rest we have been steadily scrapping. Consequently we’re pretty maxed out on our scrap bins. One of the good bikes was built up in record time on Friday. A Structural Engineering PhD student rolled in around 2:30 – 3 and finished building the bike a little after 5:30. Most of the bike was in good condition. While he worked I spoke with him about getting engineering students into the Bike Center to try some physical, practical applications to their studies. While he couldn’t get students in to CBC himself, it was encouraging that he agreed it would be a good idea.

I spoke with my Parking Dept contact. Abated bikes have been collected. There are significantly fewer collected than in prior years. Whether that is due to VeoRide, education/awareness, or simply a diminished area of collection (due to construction), it’s hard to say. Bottom line is less work for me and my staff!
This week I’ll be taking Friday afternoon off. I’ll be out of the office on Monday and Tuesday of next week as well. Chris will cover hours. Next week’s report, accordingly, will happen on Wednesday.

The numbers:
Visitors: 75
Sales: $1,282.90
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $810
Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $50
Memberships: 2 for $60
Tires/tubes: 17 for $89

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

Good Afternoon,

Thank you to everyone who came to our meeting yesterday. I am happy that we are going to get started! Here is a quick recap:

• Our plan for this early stage is simply weeding the area as much as we can. Anything that is not listed as part of the original seed mix or as serving a purpose can be pulled out.
• Special attention should be paid to tree saplings you spot. I told Brent about this and he said he would send Grounds over to specifically herbicide the trees. In the meantime, we can try to pull these out after rain showers to make things easier. 
• I plan on updating the plant identification sheet I sent out and hopefully we can get a laminated copy to place near the rain garden for anyone who is out there. I know the first sheet was a bit hard to read, so until I get the new one with pictures figured out, I have attached a simple list of what should be there and some examples of what shouldn't be there (if you see something out there that is not on the list, feel free to weed it) 
• Most of you said that you'd just go out during your lunch breaks to weed a bit throughout the week, that works for me. I know most you know each other in some form or another so if you'd like set up some sort of schedule feel free, I'll leave that up to you all.
• As the weeds get pulled out we will start to see how much space we have to put in plugs. We might even be able to get gallon plugs to put in late Fall or Spring that will have a better chance of staying alive. 
• When the school year starts I think it would be great to see if we could get some more volunteers and set up some day where bunch of us go out and do some work at the same time and make an event out of it. More info on that to come.  

Thanks again for everyone's help! If you have any questions or comments related to what I stated in this email or just in general feel free to email me.

All my best,

Vince

 Vet Med Rain Garden Plant Identifier Doc