At the The White House, 66 Paora Hapi Street,   7:00PM

1. PRESENT:        Gerry Dance; Thomas Schwarz; Else Tutert; Pete Masters

2. APOLOGIES:  Lisa Rowland; Neville Peach; Jonathan Garlick

3.       CORRECTIONS TO LAST MINUTES: Committee agreed that the minutes of 24 February 2003 were a true and accurate record.  Accepted by committee (Thomas/Else)

4.       INCOMING/OUTGOING CORRESPONDENCE

•        Letter out to Taupo Gun Club dated 12/3/03 answering some concerns they have outlined in their recent letter.

•        Letter in from Taupo District Council dated 17/3/03 responding to our letter of 24 January.

•        Mark Burton MP’s secretary dated 11 March 2003 acknowledging receipt of our letter dated 11 February.  Correspondence to be brought to Mark Burton’s attention for his information.

5.       TREASURER’S REPORT

NIL

6.       MATTERS ARISING:

Constitution:

Pete said its ready to be formalised.  Alan Vane has prepared and sent to IRD for approval.  For the Constitution to be formalised and passed a meeting is required with at least 15 members plus Alan Vane present. Hope to arrange within the month, tentative date has been set for Thursday 10^th April 7:00pm location and confirmation still needed.

7.       SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:

Media and Promotion:

•        Jonathon absent.

•        Else presented another example of proposed stickers (SHARE THE ROAD, LOOK  FOR CYCLISTS) from Tauranga District Council.  Committee liked the sample.

•        No discussion on T-shirts, investigate in 6 months time prior to summer.

•        Discussion was had on the letters to the Editor, all thought the correspondence was great.  Thomas and Jonty were thanked for their letters.  All thought any publicity is good publicity, it is definitely raising the profile and awareness of cycling within our community and is being widely talked about.

•        Membership form was discussed, the present one is good and has served its initial purpose well, but in the future it was recognised a need to simplify and make it easier for possible new members to join.  Pete talked about a Postcard format, where as all people need to do is fill in their details and put a stamp on and send.  Will discuss concept again at a later meeting. 

Website:

•        Website is looking good and Thomas was congratulated for his efforts.

•        Thomas has made contact with the Kennett Brothers re funding for the Bike Taupo website, initial reaction was positive, however it was a week before the Karopoti Classic so they were a little busy.  Thomas is now waiting on more info from them.

•        Pete said he has been invited to the Taupo Mountain Bike Meeting on Wednesday night, it is assumed that talk will about how Bike Taupo and the Mountain Bike Club can form a closer association.

•        It was agreed that the next push with the website is to have more info on rides in and around Taupo, and more info on what’s happening in Town eg. Cycling at the Velodrome on Mon and Wed nights, Sunday rides etc

•        Then the next stage could be that the local cycling related clubs have their own pages on the Bike Taupo Website.

Huka Falls/Spa Park Track

•        Peter reported that the people they met with at the Gun Club were reluctant to agree to track until they had met with more members - this still yet to happen.

•        The Gun Club still have some concerns, particularly with their on-going use of the adjacent Landcorp land on selected days when they have their Club shoots.

•        Bike Taupo have been granted an easement over the Landcorp land, some conditions apply, which we are happy to meet.

•        Gerry has got an easement template from TDC not quite what were after, Pete will in turn speak to Alan Vane to see if he can assist in this area.

•        A letter has been sent back to them welcoming another on-site meeting to discuss all their concerns.

•        We made it quite clear that we don’t want to impede on the existing operations of the Gun Club but we still feel that both parties can carry out their respective activities happily.

Submissions:

•        Nothing to report, Neville absent

Membership:

•        Pete has been real busy in the last month with a membership drive there are now 95 members on the list on the website.

•        Getting non e-mail members listed on the Website was also discussed.  Thomas suggested maybe a dummy e-mail address, he will investigate.

•        There is still a lot of people that ride a bike in Taupo that we need to target to become members though.

TDC Cycle Strategy Team:

•        The Roading Engineer has been asked to prioritise the three State Highway projects that Transit  hope to carry out this year in the Taupo District.  The Roading Engineer would like to know Bike Taupo’s order of preference, which  1) Control Gates Bridge; 2) Napier / Taupo intersection with Arrowsmith Ave; 3) Wairakei cycle lane.

•        The Team have met with Nic Gurr, Manager at Opus re opening up Culvert at Rainbow Point, there were a number of concerns discussed ranging from safety to cost, to access.  Outcome of the meeting is that we will not proceed with investigating opening up the culvert, and Opus will look at other options of crossing the road at Rainbow Point, maybe a refuse island, and traffic calming measures.

•        Else talked about hopefully a new refuse island at the intersection of Taharepa Road and Kotare Road, further discussion was made by Pete with the idea of metal bars either side of the road lane, so cyclists can remain on their bike whilst waiting for a gap in the traffic to cross.

•        The Cycle Strategy Teamalso would like to see what projects Bike Taupo would like to see in the near future, this can be discussed at a later meeting. The first ideas where: Cycle lane/ shared path along the lakefront, Cycle lane along Mere Road and HeuHeu Street.

•        The Roading Engineer along with the Team has responded to Bike Taupo’s letter.

•        Bike lane delineation was also discussed and the team said that they are investigating a cycle lane from Tongariro Street along HueHue Street to the Doctors surgery and hopefully all the way along Mere Road.

•        Else reported that she has been approached by and to be involved with Kid Safe Week 2003.  The focus this year will be preventing cycling injuries.  She will report back to Bike Taupo once she finds out more with maybe Bike Taupo helping out in some way.

3.       GENERAL BUSINESS

No General Business

9.  NEXT MEETING:    

The Creative Café  Marama Arcade

Wednesday 7 May 2003 

7:00pm - 8:30pm

8.  CLOSE OF MEETING:       8:20pm