Council of Advocates 2024 First Quarter Update

The Wisconsin Bike Fed Council of Advocates held its first meeting of 2024 on March 7th, hearing from a number of guest speakers including: the Bike Fed’s own Events Coordinator, Heather Rainer, on 2024 Bike Week in Wisconsin, and Executive Director Kirsten Finn on legislative visits coming up this summer. 

Other speakers included Travel Wisconsin’s Jeff Anderson on an upcoming Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant program webinar, as well as WisDOT’s Chris Squires and Matt Schreiber on WisDOT’s 2050 Active Transportation Plan which served as the primary content for the meeting. A little more on each of these topics below: 

• The JEM grant program is a Wisconsin Tourism backed effort to provide funding for non-profit organizations around the state to be used towards events and promotional efforts. Learn more about the JEM program by visiting Travel Wisconsin’s JEM webpage here. 

• According to WisDOT, The 2050 Active Transportation Plan will be a statewide long-range plan focused on human-powered modes of transportation, such as bicycling and walking. The plan will evaluate active transportation opportunities and needs in all corners of the state, resulting in policies and actions that will align with Connect 2050, Wisconsin’s statewide all-encompassing transportation plan. The Active Transportation Plan will also include updated versions of Wisconsin’s Bicycle Transportation Plan and Wisconsin’s Pedestrian Policy Plan. You can read more about the Active Transportation Plan and other long-term WisDOT efforts by visiting their website here. 

To find out more about Bike Week 2024, please visit the Bike Week page on our website.

For more information on legislative visits near you this summer, or if you have an event you would like your area legislators to attend, please contact Collin Mead or Kirsten at collin@wisconsinbikefed.org and Kirsten@wisconsinbikefed.org, respectively. 

If you are interested in attending the upcoming JEM webinar, please reach out to Jeff at JAnderson@travelwisconsin.com. 

Lastly, if you are interested in learning more about WisDOT’s 2050 Active Transportation plan, please reach out to Collin at collin@wisconsinbikefed.org and he can get you more detailed information. 

Interested in Joining the Council? 

Since the Council of Advocates was first introduced at the start of 2022, our membership has continued to grow, with 59 counties now represented. While this is great progress, our vision is to have a member from each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties – if you’re interested in advancing cycling and trails initiatives in Wisconsin and from a county that does not currently have representation, please see which counties are still needed by viewing our past article on the status of the council.  

If you are interested in joining the Council of Advocates, or have any Council-related questions, please contact our Government Affairs Manager, Collin, at collin@wisconsinbikefed.org.