Athens in Motion Commission

MEETING MINUTES December 9, 2021 Athens in Motion Education & Communications Sub-Committee Aimee Cheek (guest) Teresa Friedlander, chair Randy Halsted Scott Long Daniel Sizemore Blaine Van Note 1. Teresa called the meeting to order 4:38 pm 2. Aimee Cheek – Social Media Presentation Aimee is a media specialist for Leisure Services. She gave a brief overview of how AiM can make better use of Facebook and Instagram. She recommended we set up a business account for Athens in Motion on Facebook and link it with our Instagram account. She also recommended we use an app called Canva to create our content. It has a scheduling feature so posts can remain on hold until we are ready to publish them. Better content and user engagement are most important goals for social media. Once we have our communications strategy finalized, we should aim for three or four posts per week. Emphasize quality over quantity. 3. Bike Friendly Communities Discussion (2 attachments) Teresa shared the League of American Bicyclists’ rubric for scoring the bicycle friendliness of cities and towns. Medallions range from Bronze (Athens) to Diamond (Utopia) The components of the rating scale are: Enforcement Education Engineering Key Outcomes Evaluation Encouragement Cooperation between Athens in Motion, Traffic Engineering, Transportation & Public Works, Leisure Services, Law Enforcement, and Mayor & Commission will drive levels of success. 4. Proposed Communication Strategy (attachment 3) Daniel shared a proposal from Toole Design Group to develop a communication strategy for Athens in Motion. The cost for the work is $11,400, which would use most of our budget for the current fiscal year. There was discussion about the budget process: do we need to spend the entire $12,000 by June 30, 2022? If we only spend part of the budget, will our budget for the next fiscal year be reduced? Is there any carry-over of funds allowed, etc. Daniel will get clarification and report back to the Education & Communications sub-committee. Toole can complete the work within the fiscal year. Bike Athens’ Executive Director, Scott Long, needs an FAQ brochure for Athens in Motion and has for some time now. As the TSPLOST 2023 campaign moves into the political realm, this will be extremely helpful to his organization. Toole’s proposal has two components: Task 1: Branding and Marketing Templates for all communications across all media ($5,000) Task 2: Communication and Outreach Strategy ($6,400) Randy moved, and Blaine seconded, that the Education & Communications sub-committee forward the proposal to the full Athens in Motion Commission with the stipulation that Task 2 is of higher priority than Task 1, if the Commission does not wish to spend the entire budget. The motion passed 4-0. 5. Next Steps Teresa will forward the meeting minutes plus attachments to full Athens in Motion Commission. If necessary, we can schedule a special called meeting early in January to vote on this in advance of the regular monthly meeting. Daniel and Teresa will discuss details and next steps by phone tomorrow. 6. The meeting adjourned 5:38 pm Attachment 1  The League of American Bicyclists Building Blocks of a Bicycle-Friendly Community Levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond ENFORCEMENT - Law Enforcement/Bicycling Liaison (yes/no) - Bicycle-friendly laws/ordinances in places (scaled from none to excellent) EDUCATION - Public Education/Outreach (none to excellent) - Annual offering of adult bicycling skills classes (1 – 12) - % primary and secondary schools offering bicycling education (0 – 80%) ENGINEERING - Bike access to public transportation (none to excellent) - Total bicycle network mileage to total road network mileage (0 – 70%) - Arterial Streets with bike lanes (0 – 90%) KEY OUTCOMES - Ridership (% people commuting by bicycle) (0 – 20% of ???) - Crashes per 10K daily commuters (>370 – 50) - Fatalities per 10K daily commuters (>4 – 0.2) EVALUATION - Population served per bike program staff person (>77K – 10 or fewer) - Bike plan up-to-date and being implemented (no, maybe, yes) ENCOURAGEMENT - Active bike clubs and signature events (no, yes) - Bike month and bike-to-work events (none to excellent) - Active bicycle advisory committee (no, maybe, yes) - Active advocacy groups (no, maybe, yes) - Recreational facilities (bike parks, velodromes, etc.) (not likely to very likely) Attachment 2 Attachment 3