NMMBA Board Meeting – Minutes February 8th, 2023

Attendees:

Board: Tim Reicha, Chad Jordan, Chad Schut, Kate White, Kim White, Mike Walters, Tom
White, Tim Jenema, Brian Pugh
Absent: Steve Mentzer, Michele Andrews, Heath Day
Winter trails chair: John Roe
Guests: Patrick Cotant – DNR Unit Manager Forest Management Unit (Traverse City FMU)

DNR Forestry Management – Guest: Patrick Cotant

Patrick reviewed signs that are placed adjacent to recreation trails that are intended to informtrail users of upcoming forestry events. These signs describe Selection-cut Techniques,
Harvesting, Thinning, Clearcutting, and Tree Marking. We discussed using these signs prior to a
forestry event that will impact our TCTN trail system.
The Forest Management Unit will be conducting their yearly open house in June. This event
provides an opportunity for the public to interact with the FMU to better understand forestry
events and their sustainability effort. The FMU does their best to manage the expectations
between all user groups
When a forest harvest event occurs at or near a designated trail, the FMU plans an aesthetic
treatment surrounding the trail. It is not feasible to maintain the integrity of unmarked or
ghost trails when a forestry event occurs.
When timber is harvested that results in usable material, the majority of the lumber stays local
which further shrinks the carbon footprint due to elimination of cross-country lumber shipping.

Traverse City Trails Festival (TCTF)

For the 2023 TCTF, the venue will be relocated from Ranch Rudolf to Timber Ridge and the
date changed from July to September 9 th . TCTF will transition from a TCTN centric activity to an
event run by the entire NMMBA organization. Stone Hound Brewing will continue to be the
lead sponsor.
A lot of good discussion relative to the following: reasonable maximum participation levels,
mixture of trail types (single track, open track, two track, forest road, etc.), wave starts (time
trial, self seeding method, # of waves, etc.), including both race and tour, sponsorship model,
race lengths (example 15/24/30).

TCTF planning and organization will be an ongoing discussion at all of our following Board
meetings. Many of the volunteer positions required to execute the race have been identified
but there are still some strategic positions that need to be filled.
Winter Trails – John Roe
John reminded the team that he is narrowing his focus on winter trail activities and wants to
remind everyone to include him on all relevant NMMBA winter trail communications. John and
Kate discussed email filters in Club Express relative to John’s winter trails email account.

Bike Leelanau – Chad Jordan

The Herman Park Pump Track is progressing well. The units will be shipped late April to early
May. A simplified one-page MOU is being developed. Heath will coordinate a crew to help with
the pump track installation. 1/3 of the designated area at Herman Park for the pump track will
be utilized leaving 2/3 of the area for future expansion. John Roe suggested that the MOU
could be forwarded to Andy Blodgett for a cursory legal review.

Glacial Hills – Tim Reicha

Waiting to hear the results of a Spark Grant that was previously applied for. A fund raiser will
be conducted to cover the cost of wrapping the storage trailer.

TCTN – Brian Pugh

A preliminary budget has been developed for VST TREE Phase 2. Various avenues for
fundraising and timing were discussed. The TCTN Committee will also discuss timing for
implementing the various elements of Phase 2. It was suggested that starting with the new
restroom might be a good plan of attack.

Website Progress

Tim to discuss how to eliminate Mail Chimp with John and Kate. Member, Non-member, and
Interest groups were also discussed.

Garfield Parks and Rec Commons sub-committee – Tim Reicha

Sub-committee meetings to begin Feb. 22 to define scope and fundraising opportunities.
Working to identify routes to rebuild trails prior to the professional build becoming a reality. A
maintenance plan will also be discussed.

TrafX Trail Counters

Tim R explained that Glacial Hills will be purchasing 5 TrafX Trail counters to capture trail usage
data at Glacial Hills along with a 3 year subscription to storage, support and reporting. Glacial
wanted to let NMMBA chapter trials know that there is a discounted price available to submit a
larger order in case other trails wanted to purchase trail counters. None were interested at this
time.

League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB)

Michigan Mountain Bike Association (MMBA) has been dissolved and has transferred its
resources to the League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB). The LMB will be organizing a committee
that will represent mountain biking interests and will be looking for representatives from
regional Michigan mountain bike organizations. Further discussions relative to NMMBA
participation and support.

Trailforks

A Trailforks Content Specialist & Outreach representative has reached out to NMMBA to ask for assistance with improving Trailforks mountain biking maps in Northern Michigan. There was
agreement that this is something that NMMBA would like to support. TIm will connect John Roe
to the Trailforks team to start by differentiating winter trails from summer trails.