Notes of the Membership Committee Meeting Held

April 12 , 2006 at
NC Lifeline, 200 Michigan Avenue, Vista CA 92084

Those present: Shirley Cole, Chairwoman of the Membership Committee, (Lifeline), and Phyllis Hall, NCTD staff support.

I.  Call to Order

    Shirley Cole called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.           

II. Approval of Minutes

    The minutes of January 11, 2006 were approved.

II. Old Business

Phyllis reported that they have the bus placards on the buses. She then gave Shirley copies of the articles that ran in the San Diego Home & Garden magazine and several local newspapers. She stated that these articles would be posted on the website and that they are archiving all of them in order to keep their history.

Phyllis mentioned that the TABNC email account was down for approximately a month, but hopefully that all of the correspondence would be retrievable. She stated that they have gotten a few new members, but that there is probably more once they obtain the email information that was missing.

Shirley reported that she read an article in the San Diego Union Tribune last week that was comparing the other counties of California and the amount of money that they were putting into transportation with their sales tax. She stated that it was a full penny in San Francisco versus one third of a half of cent here, which is one sixth of a cent. She questioned what the Transit Alliance could do to change this, and pointed out how San Francisco has the great BART system and people are able to get rid of their cars.  She also reported on an article regarding a program in Northern California where people can donate their cars for transportation, and in return, are able to get free hours on a car rental when they need a car. She stated that she would fax a copy of these two articles to Phyllis. 

Phyllis stated that this is something that maybe the Transit Alliance could start working towards and that perhaps the Transit Alliance Board could bring it up with their legislators. It was agreed that they would find out where to start with this, i.e., where does the lobbying begin, by asking Ted Owen. Shirley stated that after Phyllis has read the articles, they would decide who contacts Ted. 

IV. New Business

Phyllis reported that they are making progress on obtaining new members.

She then reported that the Communications Committee is revising the brochure at Gerry Seelman’s request that there be less text and more pictures. She also stated that Annie Cochrane feels they need to have a picture of a stressed out person sitting in traffic in order to grab the reader and get them involved.  

Shirley commented on how the original artwork that the Transnet Proposition promoted had some great pictures of frustrated people sitting in traffic that could possibly be used or duplicated. She then found some of these pamphlets and gave them to Phyllis.  

Shirley then commented on how "driving is no longer fun". Phyllis stated that  this was a great comment and could perhaps be incorporated into the brochure somehow, as well, pointing out that people are looking for fun. Shirley also agreed with having less text and more bullet points and a picture of an unhappy driver in traffic.

V. Next Meeting

Shirley announced that she would be on a sabbatical during the months of July, August and September, and it was agreed that they would cancel the committee meeting scheduled for July.