[*BCM*] Opinions on move by MassBike

[Jon Niehof]

I apologize for jumping into a community in which I have not
participated before, but I do feel an obligation to shed some
light on what I feel are some misperceptions and
miscommunications. I wiped my feet on the way in, honest.

Here's where I fit into all of this: on January 5, Dorie held an
open meeting to discuss interest in forming local chapters of
MassBike, as a means of improving MassBike's effectiveness at
serving local and regional needs rather than just statewide. Due
to the weather, only three people showed up, all from the fairly
immediate vicinity of Boston. I was one of those three; none of
the others have posted on this topic here (nor to the MassBike
list). We are the ones who are working to start a Metro Boston
chapter of MassBike and so are about as "official" as one can
get for an organization that doesn't yet exist.

The purpose of the meeting on Wednesday was to pose a few
questions regarding the potential nature of the group and to
listen to what people had to say. Those of us organizing it
spoke very little; Dorie spoke primarily to explain what
MassBike is about and how the chapters work. The one sole thing
determined before the meeting was that this group would be a
chapter of MassBike; MassBike made the first move and we
responded to its invitation. So any statements about "This will
be a facilities group," "This won't be a facilities group,"
"This group will make doubling MassBike membership its goal,"
"This group will not work with Critical Mass," etc. are either
inferred by people present (or not present!) or statements of
one person's desire. No such decisions were made by the group as
a whole nor by the organizers.

I am disappointed to find that providing a minimally-moderated
meeting for cyclists to express their concerns and hopes has
resulted in mischaracterization of both that meeting and the
pseudo-organization behind it. And I am extremely disappointed
that those who passed on the mention of BCM at that meeting
chose to not communicate what I said very clearly at the end of
said discussion:

Regardless of differences in organization (or lack thereof) and
philosophy between MassBike and Critical Mass, people active in
Critical Mass are welcome to participate in the Boston Metro
chapter, and I encourage those of you who have contacts with
Critical Mass [which on this list would be basically
everyone...] to invite people to come and see what's going on.

Those interested in knowing when meetings and the like are
coming up can sign up for the announcements list at
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/massbike-boston (it'll go
out on the massbike lists too, at least for awhile). If you were
at the meeting on Wednesday and left an e-mail address you'll be
added to the list as soon as I do the data entry.


		
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