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 Board Candidate: Daniel Weise
Email me at Daniel@WeiseForCBCDirector.com.
Every time I leave my house on my bike, whether for a commute, a ride with my biking buddies, or a trip around the block with my son, I know that I could come back injured, or not come back at all, without it ever being my fault.
I’m running for a board seat because I want to ensure the new board continues the club’s embrace of advocacy to make biking safer for everyone. We need safer and more bike routes, well maintained roads and trails, more alert, aware drivers, and more bicycles on the road. The club has proven its mettle in all these areas, and has the size and power to continue getting results as it strives to do more and more.
My involvement with the club started during the battles with the city of Lake Forest Park over improvements to the Burke Gilman Trail. I attended a hearing for the Conditional Use Permit which had testimony by many, many people. One testifier directly challenged one council member saying (in effect) “your house encroaches on the BG, are you going to recuse yourself or open the city to a future lawsuit?” By protocol, the council member couldn’t reply, but it was clear to me that LFP’s council was not acting in good faith, and I was one of the first to donate to Cascade’s lawsuit fund when it opened for business to improve the BG. Since then, I have donated to other CBC projects, and helped fundraise for the Education Foundation. (I learned later that speaker who motivated me was David Hiller, CBC’s advocacy director.)
Advocacy changes the laws and culture to work for us, and not just for cars. For example, bicycle trails, road diets, traffic signals that detect bikes , harsher penalties for Driving While Distracted, and the “Idaho rolling stop” all improve safety, and all require government action in the form of laws and budgets. The Cascade Bicycle Club must continue its leadership in advocacy, as well as its collaboration with other advocacy groups such as the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.
My career and my bicycle have travelled together. While a graduate student at MIT working towards my Ph.D. in Computer Science, my sole means of transportation was my bike and the subway system. For many years I commuted by bicycle to my job as professor at Stanford University. I biked less while leading a group in Microsoft Research. Since leaving Microsoft to pursue other interests, I’ve annually logged thousands of miles on my bike. I serve on the boards of both non-profit (I’m currently a board member at Climate Solutions) and for-profit organizations. I understand governance, strategy, tactics, and group dynamics.
As a board member, I will also strive to create an extremely transparent board and governance system so that all club members can be sure that everyone at the Cascade Bicycle Club is working in their best interest and in the best interest of the club.
Follow and question me at http://www.WeiseForCBCDirector.com
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