www.cambr.org

Chicago Area Mountain Bikers

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

September 13th , 2006

Two items regarding writing on Nature and Outdoor writing in the Chicago Sun-Times that are kind of disappointing.

1) Gary Wisby, who wrote many articles on nature, and the environment, for the Sun-Times, is retiring/moving on to other things.

2) The Sun-Times is considering dropping the Sunday Outdoor Column and news and notes, and only running it on Wednesday. Although Dale Bowman columns cover a lot on hunting and fishing, he also has devoted many columns and news/notes items on Chicago Wilderness, issues at local Forest Preserves and environmental columns. It would be disappointing to have it run only once a week, with probably even fewer columns devoted to issues that the Friends of the Forest Preserves, CAMBr and Chicago Wilderness are interested in.

If you have an opinion on this, it may be voiced at inbox@suntimes.com or by calling (312) 321-2663.

Dale Bowman has written several great articles on CAMBr's restoration work as well as on mountain bike advocacy in the Chicagoland area and the Palos area trails. Dale is one of a few people that posts our trail work dates and special events! We need MORE of his good writing and reports not less!!!

Take a couple minutes to send a short email message or make a phone call to the Chicago SunTimes and voice your disapproval.

~> ~> ~> ~> ~> CAMBr TRAIL WORK DATES <~ <~ <~ <~ <~

Trail work dates are scheduled in advanced, with permission and under the supervision of the Forest Preserve District in Cook County, FPDCC Master Steward or the Landmanager in other designated areas. NO INDEPENDENT WORK PERMITTED AT ANY TIME. VIOLATORS ARE SUBJECT TO THE LAWS IN THAT AREA. In Cook County is can be considered a felony.

** Mt. Forest Island [Palos] –

September 16th Saturday

September 24th Sunday

September 30th Saturday

October 15th Sunday*

** Oswego’s “Ride n’ Groom” (not a workdate) –

September 17th Sunday

October 8th Sunday*

October 14th Saturday* - PICNIC

Dress for the weather, bring workgloves, hydration and seasonal specific needs - insect repellent, heavy gloves, raingear, change of clothes. Starting time is 8:45AM SHARP at the Staging Area.

WORKDAY LOG NOTE: When signing the workday log – Print all your information clearly - Accurate accounting is your responsibility and requires complete and readable entries. (Worksite leaders – a copy of the required landmanager paperwork and CAMBr paperwork to be emailed to Ed Bartunek before 10:00 Wednesday morning.) Not responsible if worksite leader does not provide data as required, the responsibility falls on the worksite leader.

* - for 2007 hours

~> ~> ~> ~> ~> Other CAMBr DATES <~ <~ <~ <~ <~

Oswego Picnic Volunteers NEEDED:

October 14th (Saturday)

The picnic will be Oswego’s (SWK) first and they could use some additional help at the next couple of workdays in preparation of this event. Contact Russell Rogers rrogers854@yahoo.com to lend a hand at the picnic and by all means, get out to the next couple of workdates.

Poker Ride Volunteers NEEDED:

October 22 (Sunday) – if you would be interested in helping out at this end of the trail building year picnic and awards presentation contact Ed Bartunek at edbartunek@msn.com for now until we can get a Poker Ride Event Chairman.

Who we need right now:

Food prep, registration, setup, takedown, music, facilitators

… there will be more positions, if you think of something you’d like to do let us know

~> ~> ~> ~> M E M B E R S H I P <~ <~ <~ <~

NEW MEMBERS

Chet Edgington, Kristine Carlos, John Kelly

RENEWING MEMBERS

Marv and Mary Boehm, Ron Harrison

Renew your membership today! Unsure of your status?

Email: membership@cambr.org or call 708-749-8488.

~> ~> ~> ~> S U P P O R T E R S <~ <~ <~ <~

SUPPORTING BIKE SHOPS OF THE WEEK

-- The Pony Shop

743 Chicago Ave Evanston, IL 60202

-- Cycles-n-Sports

6559 W 111th St Worth 708-361-0440

Know a shop or are you a shop interested in being a CAMBr sponsor, sponsoring a trailwork date, contact either Ed Bartunek edbartunek@msn.com or Sara Hupe cambrbikeshops@comcast.net for information.

BIKING SUPPORTERS OF THE WEEK

-- KHS Bicycles

Al Robertson 800-347-7854 x267

-- SRAM

1333 N Kingsbury Chicago, IL 60622 312-864-8800 www.sram.com

-- Forest Preserve District of Cook County

www.fpdcc.com

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Support the bike shops and businesses that support CAMBr.

CAMBr’s goal for 2006 – 100 new IMBA members, JOIN IMBA TODAY!

Don’t forget to renew your membership – it’s critical.

www.imba.com

www.imba.com/membership/index.html

Occasionally we will post the Chapter stats for the current trailwork year.

CAMBr’s work year runs October 1th through September 30th.

CURRENT YEAR / 2006 TRAIL WORKDAY STATS

As of 09/13/2006:

Number of Volunteers = 140

Mt. Forest Island = 17 workdates, 1345.50 hours

Oswego = 07 workdates, 116.25 hours

Deer Grove = 02 workdates, 119.00 hours (Deer Grove numbers include another trail user groups participation - for which CAMBr is very appreciative)

Putting it into monetary terms, which landmanager and commissioners understand, at $18.05 per hour, CAMBr has donated $28,532.54 to the area trails and from that, $26,434.23 specifically to the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. That would be something like one full-time employee doing the same work. Not bad.

Armed with these numbers and the upcoming FPDCC budget hearing coming into play in October, call your commissioners and give them the numbers, then ask them to continue working with the forest preserve to get more recreational activities into the preserves, especially mountain biking, moving the district in the positive direction it as been going the last three years

AND

ask for their support for additional mountain biking activities (12 Hours of Palos, race series, special expos), and new trails. Facilities at the staging area? Yes, we need a toilet and changing area.

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CAMBr works hard to update the e-mailing list, filtering frequently the members who have asked to be removed or have shown no activity for two years. We strongly feel that unsolicited e-mailings violate privacy or interferes with effective use of the Internet.

If you object and do not wish to receive such e-mailings or your email address was included in our list by mistake, we offer a way to remove yourself from it. Simply reply to this message with word "CAMBr Remove" in the Subject Line and in the message area provide your full name (or company/organization) and the email address you wish to have removed. We ask for this information only because some email addresses are difficult to track in our database. Sincerely, Keeper of the email lists.

Thank you,

.. working and protecting the trails and preserves ... educating the trail users ...

Ed Bartunek

Chicago Area Mountain Bikers [CAMBr] Executive Director www.cambr.org
International Mountain Bicycling Association [IMBA] State Representative -Chicagoland Area www.imba.com
Master Steward-Trails Forest Preserve District of Cook County www.fpdcc.com
DesPlaines River Valley / Palos Restoration Projects

Office - 708-749-8488
Mobile - 708-209-6511

Be aware of your surroundings, respect your surroundings, support the people, organizations and businesses that support our efforts - always wear your helmet when riding.

This message including all attachments transmitted with it, is for the use of the addressee only. It may contain proprietary, confidential and/or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message or attachment. If you have received this message in error, delete it and all copies from your system immediately.