Meeting Summary Sept 10, 2026
Attending: Hultgren, Clark
As Hultgren and Clark were the only members able to attend, an informal discussion of some of the items on the meeting notice took place. Here are the takeaways:
The website updates by Palmer as assisted by Hultgren were underway with the expectation that they would be complete by next week.
The Bike Mansfield table at the Sept 26th Mansfield Festival will be staffed by Hultgren and Clark (at least) with assistance from other members. Hultgren will send out an invite with the setup time – the booth is to be staffed from 2 to 6pm. A LBS gift certificate drawing will be held between 5 and 6 pm with the winner not having to be present. The activity will be two easels for booth visitors to write on. One will be “What would you like to see done for bicycling in Mansfield” (Your Wish List); and the other easel will be “Bike Mansfield needs help with Social Media, Cycling Wiithout Age & Membership Outreach” (Our Wish List). To get a ticket for the drawing, booth visitors will have to write something on either easel. Activity photos should be displayed in and on the booth, along with samples of Bike Mansfield logoed merchandise. Free water bottles (Bike Mansfield & Cannondale) will be available as well.
Since rides are not being scheduled by the MCNR, Juniper Hill Village and Senior Center, a new strategy for giving rides to mobility challenged seniors in the Maple Road/Warren Circle/Silo Road area was discussed. With the cooperation of the staffs of each establishment, Bike Mansfield could send a pilot and the trishaw to each establishment for a couple of hours on a given time and day each week on a rotating basis (examples: MCNR on Monday afternoons, Juniper Hill on Tuesday afternoons and the Senior Center on Wednesday afternoons. Doing it this way would mean no rides have to be scheduled exactly, and once the word is out that the rides are available on those days, residents/visitors could take rides as they desire. This could also possibly take place on Saturdays, when there might be more visitors to the areas. However, this may require two people from Bike Mansfield to be on site at the designated times, so that persons who show up for a ride when the pilot and trishaw are out on a ride can be informed as to when the next opportunity to start a ride will be. A Bike Mansfield delegation should meet with the staff at each establishment to see if this scheduled/non-scheduled ride approach is worth a try. It was also thought we should meet with the Town’s new Recreation Director for her input/assistance with this project.
The 3rd mini-grant we got from CRCOG and the DOT has tuition for at least 2 people to be trained as LCI’s. Since the League’s Safe Cycling class is a prerequisite to attend an LCI seminar, we think Bike Mansfield should conduct a Safe Cycling class here in Mansfield this winter or early spring. Several of our members (and other local cyclists) have either taken or helped instruct a recent Safe Cycling class, so this should be doable. One of us will talk with the scheduling people at the Mansfield Community Center about getting a room for the indoor part of the class. The minimum number of attendees is probably only about 6 (recently the registration fee has been $50 per person), and Bike Mansfield has funds to sponsor at least two people (and possibly more) to make this class possible.
Finally, we noted that the off-the-bike sessions we instruct for the 4th grade bike ed program could use some “spicing up”. Kate England and Bridget Moriarty should be consulted to help accomplish this.
The informal meeting was concluded at approximately 7:45 pm.
Lon Hultgren, Sec-Treas
Bike Mansfield