“I moved to San Francisco in the summer of 2000 and I promptly joined the SF Bicycle Coalition. That was a no-brainer,” board member Shirley Johnson said of her initial involvement with our organization. “I wanted to support the great work the SF Bicycle Coalition does for improving bicycling in San Francisco.”
Shirley pretty quickly became engaged, volunteering in a number of ways.
“I started getting involved as a volunteer by coming to Volunteer Nights,” Shirley said. “I also volunteered for Valet Bike Parking, precinct walking and visiting businesses to encourage support for bike lanes.”
As meaningful as Shirley’s early volunteering was, she just kept ratcheting up the ways in which she could work with the SF Bicycle Coalition to improve the state of biking in our city.
“Eventually I started the BIKES ONboard project, with the expert guidance and support of SF Bicycle Coalition staff, to advocate for more bikes on board transit,” Shirley said. “I’m impressed with the dedicated and knowledgeable staff at the SF Bicycle Coalition and I’m proud to be part of this great organization.”
Shirley is excited to play a role in the all-volunteer board’s important tasks this year and next.
“The first half of this year, the personnel committee focused on hiring our new executive director, Brian Wiedenmeier,” Shirley said. “Now that we have our new executive director in place, the strategic planning committee will shift into high gear to develop a process and timeline for updating our strategic plan.”
With board meetings open to all members, Shirley is a big proponent of folks rolling by those meetings to stay informed. In fact, she attended many such meetings before winning election to the board last year.
“This is an exciting time and we’ll be looking for member input to help shape the future direction of the organization,” Shirley said. “We’ll keep members posted about ways to provide input over the coming months.”
Members elect half of our all-volunteer Board of Directors every year. This year, voting opens on Nov. 14 and closes at Winterfest on Dec. 4. Voting will also be available online during that time, and in person at our office (1720 Market St.)
