TORONTO CYCLING COMMITTEE

COMMUNICATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE

Meeting Minutes

Date of meetingThursday, September 23, 1999

Time7:00 p.m.

LocationCommittee Room 3, City Hall, 100 Queen St. W., Toronto

 ATTENDEES

Ms. Gillian Flower, Chair

Mr. Israel Chackowicz

Mr. Stephen Fisher

Mr. Ron Hart

Dr. Linda Perkin, Minutes

Ms. Jannette Porter

Ms. Marleen Van Laethem

Mr. Hamish Wilson

Regrets: Mr. Phil Pilch

1. Discussion of sub-committee recommendations to TCC, Sept. 21, 1999

(1) funds be made available for the printing, mailing and distribution of Cyclometer.

There is money in the TCC budget for Cyclometer.

(2) a web site for the exclusive use of the TCC be created.

(3) a staff person be designated for the Communications Subcommittee to provide any needed support and resources.

(4) an outline of available financial resources be created for the Communications Subcommittee.

These items were deferred at the TCC meeting. TCC recommended to UPDS that a staff person be made available.

Communications Subcommittee expressed concern about proceeding with Cyclometer without staff and resources, but was optimistic that resources would be forthcoming.

 2. Planning of first Cyclometer issue

General philosophical issues were discussed:

• What should the content be?:

1. articles based on TCC committee activities, or

2. articles of general interest to Toronto cycling community

The consensus was a compromise: TCC activities have first priority in each issue, then articles of general interest to cyclists and alternative viewpoints.

• Who can submit articles?

Cyclometer is the TCC newsletter, and articles by TCC members and City staff will primarily be featured in this publications. Contributions from other sources will be considered, but the TCC reserves the right to edit or refuse articles and to publish a rebuttal article in the same issue. In order to avoid conflict with other groups regarding editing decisions, Gillian suggested having TCC members interview these groups about their activities, rather than having them write the articles themselves.

• Print or Web?

Both will be produced. The Communications Subcommittee will produce a print version first, while investigating the web version. If we are part of the city web site: who has final control of content? what is the time from receiving electronic articles to putting them up on the web? can readers reply at the site via e-mail? Don Sugdens is the staff contact person - a meeting will be arranged with him.

• Should we maintain a mailing list or distribute printed version to bike stores, community centres, libraries etc.?

In the past, staff had control of the mailing list, but had to update it after each mailing (to prevent returned mail because of outdated addresses). The Subcommittee will look into maintaining a mailing list. Gillian will track down the old Cyclometer mailing list. Other suggestions for mailing lists:

people who applied for membership on the TCC

CAN BIKE alumnae

Toronto Police bike patrol

Waste Watchers volunteers: may be able to help by phoning to check correct addresses

• How can the public can communicate/feedback with TCC? (snail mail, e-mail, phone, fax). How is this responded to?

 Resources: In the past, the TCC gave an electronic, unformatted version of the Cyclometer issue to a staff person who passed it along to the Communications dep't for final layout. It must be a staff person who interacts with Communications. Barb Wentworth isn't able to commit to this project at the moment, but may still be a possible resource for the future. Hamish suggested that someone from Jack Layton's office might be able to interact with Communications. This will be followed up (see Action Items).

 The Subcommittee brainstormed about ideas for future articles:

• city staff: who, what, etc.
• how to reach the TCC: snail mail & e-mail addresses, phone, fax
• other numbers: taxi licensing, potholes, post & ring, CBN, ARC, TBN
• evolution of previous cycling committees into TCC, what's different?
• new, improved TCC (Jack?, Marleen & Stephen?)
• TCC subcommittees, advertise for public participation
• articles from affiliated organizations: NYCC, TBN, CBN, School boards
• road and trail safety ambassadors (4 regions)
• CAN BIKE (Dale) Jannette will coordinate - target 2nd issue in the spring, 2000.
• "ask Gordo" column
• cycling master plan - public consultation
• official plan
• car subsidies
• interviews of other groups, people, police bike patrol
• letters to the editor
• announce events in city from any group ("Ahead in the Bike Lane")
• Toronto's fall to #5 cycling city in North America
• new bike laws - with caveat that we are not lawyers. e.g. police ticketing for incomplete stops
• safety corner - new theme/tip each issue
• bike roadworthiness corner
• winter cycling
• cycling best practices from elsewhere

 Logistics for Submission of Articles:

- one destination for articles (Gillian)

- ideally electronic, but if not possible paper will be accepted

- articles must conform to Cyclometer guidelines (see attached information from Marleen)

- author must edit the article to meet word length maximum

- photos, diagrams, cartoons are encouraged

 FIRST ISSUE:Will be published in 1999

Editors: Gillian and Linda (with help from Marleen).

Article deadline: OCTOBER 7, 1999!!!

All articles should be sent to Gillian.

	Article	Author(s)	Size	Coord
1.	New, improved TCC	Marleen, Steve, Jack	major feature
2.	Community advisory group: NYCC, and formation of new groups	Ron	minor feature
3.	E&S Subcommittee	Issie	minor feature
4.	Network & Planning Subcommittee	Nina/Clay	minor feature	Steve F.
5.	Communications/Promotion Subcommittees	Gillian	minor feature
6.	Cycling master plan	Dan	major feature	Gillian
7.	Ambassadors: who they are?, what they do?	Sean		Gillian
8.	Car subsidies	Hamish	major feature
9.	Winter cycling in Toronto	Steve B.		Ron
10.	Safety corner	Issie	minor feature
11.	Ahead in the Cycling Lane	Gillian
12.	any funky stuff	all		Gillian

3. Announcements/ New Business

Marleen suggested that the subcommittee maintain a clippings file from the 4 main papers and community newspapers, internet, etc. and that these should be attached to TCC agenda. Hamish suggested the city may already be doing this in their clippings service to Councilors - can we piggyback off this service?

  Action Items:

Gillian:

talk to Barb after she talks with her boss to see if she can interact with Communications for us.

talk to Barb about Cyclometer mailing list (where is it?) and logos (copyright).

talk to Jack Layton's office to see if they can interact with Communications for us.

talk to Jack Layton's office about the newspaper clipping service

talk to Don Sugdens about the web site.

Hamish:

talk to Bicycle Bob about using his material in Cyclometer

All:

Articles for the next issue of Cyclometer must reach Gillian by OCTOBER 7, 1999!!!