July 12, 2023 | 7:15pm
Metro MTB Public Meeting
Wheel & Sprocket - Franklin
4 Board Members in attendance

40 Attendees

Mission Statement

Metro Mountain Bikers is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to safeguarding the future of mountain biking through the preservation and promotion of responsible off-road bicycling opportunities.  Which includes the education, sponsoring events, trail construction, and trail maintenance.

Board Members

Chris Shay, Co-Chair                                                             
John Slawny, Treasurer
Melissa Clark, Secretary
Kevin Eccles
Tom Hartman – not present

Lindsay Carlson – not present

Thank you to our host, Wheel & Sprocket!

• Thanks for letting us use their space for tonight’s meeting!
• Thank you for tonight’s discounts for Metro MTB Members!
• Wheel & Sprocket has donated $5,000 for our trail building projects!

Trail Fairies of the Month Award for June: Bob Meurer and Ron Stawicki!

• The Bob and Ron duo started over a decade ago when they teamed up to advocate for dedicated mountain bike trails at Minooka Park. 10 years later, they’re still advocating for Minooka's MTB Trail, leading the trail maintenance and build activities.
• June has been a special month for Minooka with the celebration of the trail’s 10th year anniversary, dedication of the Burch Barn and approval from Waukesha County Parks to build a new section of trail for the ‘Green Bailout.’ Wasting no time, Ron and Bob, organized and led 4 weeks of June Thursday Evening trail workdays to get this new section of trail cut and completed! All we celebrated and accomplished this month is because of these two outstanding Trail Directors!
• Fun fact: It took 2,936 hours when Minooka was originally built, to build 5 miles of trail purely by hand!
• Bob and Ron, thank you for all you do for Minooka and Metro Mountain Bikers!

Minooka:

• New green bypass has been added. This was requested by NICA folks to keep the youth riders’ wheels on the ground. The green bypass was completed just in time for the WORS race to get thousands of wheels.

Milwaukee County:

• This spring we were able to mark 1 new trail a Kletzsch Park. Potentially start building this fall, depending on environmental review.
• Trails Coordinator, Jessica Wineberg, took a new position. They are currently interviewing to fill her position.
• Right of Entry Permit will be issued to Metro MTB tomorrow.
• Oak Hill 3 & 4  workday will be led by Marty on Sunday morning.
• We took Milwaukee County Parks out to Hoyt to review where trails are caving in and flagged a reroute.

Ozaukee County:

• We are looking for Ozaukee County Trail Stewards and Trail Directors. Please reach out if interested!

Heritage:

• Our Heritage Trail Director, Steve Schoen, is working on the green trail
• Steve and his crew are out working almost every weekend if folks want to get some trail work in.
• Dirt Waves volunteer crew working on some hard-core stuff:
• Young Guns trails just opened last weekend!
• We had 200 riders out last weekend checking out the new trail!
• Currently working on 3 more trails we hope to open this summer:
• Gunslingers – a true double black diamond trail, for expert riders only.
• 2 more Intermediate Trails: Dirt Waves & Flow Rider
• There will be a Grand Opening to the trails – probably this August once the trails are approved and opened.
• Phase 3: A Progressive Skills Parks: Small intermediate skills for folks/ kids to learn these skills.
• Metro has re-joined IMBA as an Affiliate earlier this year and because of this we are able to submit for IMBA grants.
• IMBA has a program called Dig-In, a Matching grant which matches up to $5,000.
• We are looking for a total of $21,000 to fully-fund the Skills Park.

Treasurer update: we have a New Treasurer, John Slawny!

• Membership remains flat. We currently have 155 current members.

We need your Help!

• We have more trails, more events, and have more to get done on more trails! Some areas where we really need more support are:
• Events: Neon Nights, Heritage Grand Opening
• Need Trail Stewards at Pleasant Valley and Port Washington Trails.
• Approaching sponsors and donors
• Coordinating with NICA
• Membership mailings
• Organizing and leading Group rides
• Milwaukee County: especially – expanding our community engagement.
• Becoming a Metro Board Member – Fall Elections for the 2024 Board!
• We have an open position right now for Co-Chair. Position’s role is to assist the Chair with the Goal that the Co-Chair will be the future replacement of the Chair.

Expanding the number of Board Member positions

• A lot of different rolls and a lot of different skills sets are needed to make our organization work.
•  Board will be voting to possibly add 1-2 more positions to the Board for 2024.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm