Bike Board Members,
Please recall that a Vision statement must be our shared view of the 
future and must compel us to act.  A shared vision enables us to stay 
focused, to enjoy working together, and to be proud of our 
accomplishments. 
At our 2-Nov meeting we brainstormed vision statements.  Then, Bill 
Reger-Nash, Linda Cooper and I offered a summary that the BB did not 
accept.  Using the feedback from that cycle and the original list of 
ideas, on 1/8/2007, I recommended the following Vision statement:
/All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly 
anywhere, anytime for any reason.  Morgantown residents choose to ride 
bicycles for transportation as well as recreation.  Our state and our 
nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of bicycling to our health, 
our environment, our economy and our quality of life./
Nick Hein, Jim Rye, Greg Good, John Lozier and Jonathan Rosenbaum 
responded to my request for feedback.  Except for the addition of a 
comma behind the word "anytime", I'm not proposing any changes in 
reponse to their comments.  Following are summaries of their comments 
and my responses.
   1. Greg recommended adding a comma after "anytime".  I agree and will
      make the change.
   2. Greg, Jim, and John said the word "fearlessly" was redundant with
      "safely" while Nick suggested emphasizing "fearlessly".  When we
      gathered vision statement inputs at our 2-Nov meeting, Sonitt's
      input explicitly included "feels safe to ride".  Making cycling
      safe is a necessary but insufficient step to increasing cycling. 
      Based on authoritative info (Forrester, John, /Effective
      Cycling/), fear is the main factor that discourages people from
      cycling.  If we succeed at making cycling safe but don't eliminate
      fear, e.g. through education, we will probably not realize our
      vision for all Morgantown residents.  Unless we want to argue
      further to delete "fearlessly", I will retain it.
   3. John said the word "All" was superfluous.  Marilyn's input at our
      2-Nov meeting explicitly included "all citizens".  I agree that
      one could argue that "Morgantowners" includes all residents but
      one could also argue that it doesn't.  For example, consider,
      "Morgantowners choose to have parades on Friday evenings".  I
      think we'd agree that this is true but it does not include all
      Morgantowners.  I believe that including the word "All" in our
      vision statement says that if cycling is unsafe for anyone in the
      city, or if there are places in the city that you can't get to by
      bike, our job is not done.  Therefore, unless there is further
      argument to delete it, I will retain "All".
   4. John said, "The entire second sentence repeats much of the first,
      merely to detail 'any reason'".  When we gathered vision statement
      inputs at our 2-Nov meeting, Jim's, Betsy's, Bill's, Sonitt's, and
      Nick's ideas all explicitly included the distinction of
      transporation and recreation.  I believe deleting the second
      sentence loses their input.  Unless we want to continue to argue
      to delete the second sentence, I will retain it.
   5. John recommended replacing "All Morgantown residents can enjoy"
      with "Morgantowners choose to".  Before I make that change,  I
      need to hear from other members. If I accept John's argument that
      "All" is superfluous, then it follows that "Morgantowners" is
      synonymous with "All Morgantown residents".  Then, to say,
      "Morgantowners choose to" would be equivalent to saying that "All
      Morgantown residents choose to".   But, hey, I'm for everyone in
      Morgantown choosing to ride a bike rather than drive a motor
      vehicle and I can even visualize that.  With regard to "choose"
      versus "can enjoy", when we gathered vision statement inputs on
      2-Nov, Bruce's input explicitly included "enjoyment", and Nick's
      and Bill's inputs explicitly included "fun".  
   6. John said "the third sentence dwells on glory-seeking
      (recognition), a new and unnecessary concept".  Jim responded that
      it adds to the importance of what we are about.  It is also
      similar to what Jim proposed at our 2-Nov meeting although his
      input didn't say anything about national and state recognition.  I
      added the recognition clause as a hook into the Traffic Commission
      and the City Council.   Before I eliminate the last sentence, I
      need more input from the Board. 
   7. Jonathan suggested adding the sentence,  "We are a people using
      our own power for a cooler planet."  My reading is that the Board
      would not support lengthening the vision statement.  Unless
      anybody wants to argue for adding a sentence, I will not add it.
So, following is a proposed vision statement with the only change from 
that above being the addition of a comma: 
/All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly 
anywhere, anytime, for any reason.  Morgantown residents choose to ride 
bicycles for transportation as well as recreation.  Our state and our 
nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of bicycling to our health, 
our environment, our economy and our quality of life./
Perhaps I'm steamrolling on this.  I'm trying to bring it to closure.  
However, if this vision statement is not clear and if it doesn't compel 
you to act to realize it, then it is a failure.  If any one of us feels 
that "This is Frank's vision statement and not mine", it is a failure.  
If this is what you think, please reply to this message, either to the 
whole Bike Board or to me personally.  I will continue shaping this 
until it is clear and every member of the Board, including the 8 members 
who have been silent, adopts it as his or her own.  Or, I will turn it 
over to anyone who thinks they can do it better.  Please reply.
Frank