I'm Rob Levin. I'm the president for another three or four months. Then I pass the baton to Wendy, who you'll hear from after me. It's been an awesome year at Portland Trails. You're going to see some of what we've been up to on some of the slides. The whole point of this night, we say this is the best annual meeting in town because we don't bore you. So I'm just going to do, we're going to do some business upfront and then we're going to hit the slides. The first thing I really want to do before we do anything else is do a shout-out to our staff. I'm starting with Cara. Cara, wave your hand. Cara Woldrick, our executive director. She's just completed five years in March, or no, in April, right? We are so excited to have her. I had the privilege recently of conducting the performance review and saw so many glowing comments from staff and board, and she's so appreciated on the inside level. Some of you know her in the audience. If you don't know her, go up and say hi to Cara at some point during the intermission. She is just a superstar and we are so fortunate to have her for five years and for another 25 to 35. We're talking that over. Yeah, round of applause for Cara Woldrick. Then just wanted to quickly introduce the rest of the staff and thank them for another amazing year of dedication to the mission. Jamie Parker, where's Jamie? Jamie, 15 years. He started out as a volunteer, some contract time. He's our Trails and Active Transportation Manager. Most of you probably, I've never met someone who doesn't know Jamie, but if there's someone here, go and meet him so you keep the perfect score. 15 years. Daniel Bishop, stewardship and volunteer coordinator. Everybody say hi to Daniel. Daniel's been here three years and is a rock star dealing with difficult trails, difficult people sometimes. Now, he's this volunteer coordinator, so he does amazing things and there's lots happening in that respect. This is in no particular order. Jen Goldman, our Advancement Manager. Where's Jen? She work in the table back there. She is coming up on one year in June, I believe, and we are really fortunate to have her. She's brought up our game in so many levels with communications and development. So next is Kathleen Egan, who's been with us for five years, the development coordinator. Where are you Kathleen? All right. Then Catherine Buxton, where's Catherine? It's so I'm having. Yeah. Catherine's in the back. Shout out for Catherine. She's been with us two years now as the communications and outreach coordinator. I'm introducing, we are a small enough group that we want you as members or just supporters to know who we are first name basis. So go and say hi to folks in intermission or after the slideshows. Then last but not least, we've got Sheila Sullivan who's been with us for eight years on the school grounds greening. Sheila, thank you. Where's Laura Newman? Laura Newman actually may be the longest stint 17 years. She didn't want me to say that for some reason. So who did the math with me? I said each person's years. We, anyone know? We, if you add up everyone's tenure, we've got 56 years of experience on our Portland Trail staff and that speaks both to the dedication and commitment from people in their first year to people in their 17th year. So a huge round of appreciation and applause for our talented amazing staff. Okay. So now we have some goodbyes to make. We have three board members who are departing us. They're terms have ended, they're not departing in any other grand sense hopefully. Is Tom Farmer here tonight? There's Tom. Okay. Great. Tom's been on the board since 2005. Not too shabby. Trails committee stalwart from the beginning has donated tons of volunteer professional time as an engineer. And just rolling up his sleeves and getting out there and working has done so much over the years. And we're, we've had a great run since 2005 with Tom Farmer. So let's please give him a huge thank you. Yeah. Tom works just one other. He did a lot of work on the Bayside Trail. So if you were out there today or recently, you can think of him next time you go there. He worked on connecting Libby Town and the West Commercial Street Trail. So he's had his hands on lots of things. And the good news is he's staying right this down. Everyone, he's staying on the trails and active transportation committee. So we're not fully letting go of Tom Farmer. Then we've got, where's Steve Gall? There's Steve. All right. Steve Gall has been on the board since 2006. I mean, sorry, 2011, six years. And in that time, how many board meetings do you think Steve missed? Zero. One. I set you up, right?  He missed a meeting in six years. No, he was, you know, they're showing up for the board meetings. That's kind of the least we ask of a board member. And then they're serving on committees and really getting things done at the committee level. And Steve is a model, has been a model of hard work. He's been on just about every committee that we can think of. Development committee, he's chaired the finance committee. He was actually the chair of the executive director hiring committee for CARA. So we have him to thank in part for that. He's gotten our financial policies in shape in a way that we could only have dreamed of before. And he brings treats to committee meetings. So he knows how to butter everyone up that way. We will miss you, Steve. Thank you for your six years of really intense impacting service. So thank you, Steve Gaw. And before I forget, I have gift certificates for each of these three to Fleet Feet because we want them to keep walking healthy in a healthy way after they leave the board. We want to see them on the trails. So we hope to enable that with gift certificates to Fleet Feet. Last but not least, Tom Jewel, where's Tom? Tom Jewel. I expect everyone knows Tom or should know Tom. So I don't know what you guys were doing in 1992. I was graduating high school. Tom was starting his first tenure on the brand new Portland Trails Board. So Tom now is hanging up his hat after 1992 to now 25 years of service on the Portland Trails Board. I think I would like to see a standing ovation for Tom Jewel, 25 years. Tom, Tom, Tom. If you've ever been to Jewel Falls, one of our two waterfalls in Portland, that was donated by his family. And he's had such an impact at so many levels. We could have a whole evening just talking about what he's done, but we really appreciate Tom your 25 years, 1992 to 2017. Wow. So thank you. Thank you to all three and I said I'd fling these out. That's probably not the best way to, I'll hand these out. And with that, I'm going to, oh no, I have one more thing to do. Okay, this is an exciting piece of paper. This is a membership envelope. How many of you are already members of Portland Trails? Raise your hand. Okay, good, most people. Now, I'm not taking notes here, but anyone who's not a member, you can either volunteer to raise your hand or stay anonymous, but we would encourage you to go to the back and either grab one of these or Catherine has a card and she could make you a member in seconds tonight.  It's the foundation of everything we do and we would love to have you as a member if you haven't had a chance to join yet or maybe you've lapsed and we'd love to welcome you back into the fold. So please see Catherine. Okay, now I'm going to hand it over to Wendy Sewers that are incoming president. Hi, good evening. It's so nice to see all of you here tonight to help us celebrate the past years. Experiences and talk about what's going on in our city that makes it such a wonderful place to live. As Rob indicated, we'd love for everyone to know not only our staff, but our trustees, if at all possible. So again, many of you know us, but for those of you that don't, I'm just going to go through the trustee list. If you're here, if you could just raise your hand I would strongly encourage you to talk with these folks during the intermission. Hopefully walk away getting to know us better as well as getting to know the organization better. I'm going to leave two people off as I go through this list. Don't worry, I'll be back. So besides Rob who we've all met, I would just like to ask Matt Ball if you could raise your hand. I know you're here, back there. Andy Abrams is up here toward the front. Jennifer Kutchell was Jennifer able to make it tonight. Nate Dyer is here, definitely. Laura Greenstein is here. Bill Hall, Alex Yeagerman, Yvonne Moumé, Kate O'Brien, John Osborne, Matt Forsyth, and Stephen Wells. So that is the team that is helping to propel Portland Trails forward in obvious conjunction with the fabulous staff of Portland Trails. The two people that I left out are coming up their second term. So each of our terms is three years. They have served for six years and I'm so thrilled that they have agreed to be put forward to this meeting recommended for an additional third term as a trustee of Portland Trails. First is Rachel Alfond. So Rachel's here. Over her past six years, she has been so instrumental to ensuring that the events that Portland Trails holds have been successful. She's been a key, key person to getting the newsletter out in a timely fashion with really great information in it. And finally it has done some remarkable work in development to help ensure that Portland Trails has the funding necessary to keep all of our trails in great shape. So Rachel is up for election for a third term. Our other person up for election for also his third term is Mark Arienti. Mark, where are you? Back in the back. So Mark heads up our Trails committee and has certainly played a very valuable role in working to ensure that the trail system remains very well maintained and sustainable for all of us for future years. So we thank Rachel and Mark for their past service and I put forward a recommendation to this group to reelect them for one more term as a Portland Trails trustee. For that I need a motion from the floor. And a second. All in favor? Thank you very much. With that I'll turn the mic over to Matt who will give us our finance report. Thank you. They usually make the finance guy wear a tie so that's why I've got one. And just so you know Robin, 1992 I was 10 years old. So you were graduating high school which I like to point out to every chance I get what I was doing then. So Cara told me to be brief so I will be brief. We had a solid year thanks to exceptionally talented staff. We exceeded our annual appeal goal by raising over $118,000. You should clap for that, that's a big deal. So I think we remain on sound, financial footing, our balance sheet remains strong. We continue to find great success with our wonderfully talented staff, our really supportive volunteer base and we even raised our goal next year for the annual appeal based on the strength. So you'll be hearing from us again and we do appreciate all of your generosity and all you do to make Portland Trails so special. So with that, we'll turn it over to the fun stuff but thank you all for your support and thank you for joining us at this meeting. All right, thank you all for coming tonight. My name's Cara, I'm the executive director of Portland Trails here. Welcome to the annual meeting. We have now transitioned into the 15 by 15 portion of the evening. I wanna thank John and Space Gallery for hosting us tonight, Legion Square Market and Standard Baking for donating the great snacks. Thanks to our members, our volunteers, our staff, board members, fans, supporters, all of the raw, raw cheerleaders we have. We're 26 this year. It's not really one of those anniversary years that we're gonna go hog wild about but 25 was awesome and we're still recovering so thanks for helping us celebrate that. So we have a new property in Westbrook. We have a new website. We're gonna be focused on Habitat Conservation on the Presum Scout River Estuary in 2017. We are supporting some groups by doing some mini grants and placemaking and helping them to build community in their neighborhoods this year and we never take our eye off the ball when it comes to active transportation and supporting people walking and biking to get to where they need to go. And Sundays on the Boulevard will be starting very soon out on Baxter Boulevard so get your roller skates ready to rock on down Baxter Boulevard every Sunday from nine to four. Well, we create a lot of fun. We also have serious responsibilities. We have about 70 miles of trails. We're responsible for over 100 acres of conservation land that we manage and we like to balance that with lots of fun and different activities which many of you have engaged in. But tonight we are here about stories. We all have stories to share. Tonight you'll meet some amazing people who are brave enough to get up here and tell their stories under the constraints of the 15 by 15 format. And so just so everybody knows what that means. Each person has 15 slides. Each slide shows for 15 seconds and then it rolls on to the next slide. They don't get to control it. It just keeps going. For any of you that haven't done that, that means about three pages of 11-point font on an eight and a half by, not three pages, three lines of text for each. And so trying to convey important themes or life stories through those three lines is an intense and fun challenge. So I just at this point want to give a round of applause to all those folks that are gonna be giving presentation tonight. Combined tonight's stories reveal the character of our community. It's easy to see so often where our neighborhoods or city policies or transportation systems or schools where they could use improvement. It's easy to complain about what's wrong but it takes an entirely different spirit and set of skills to see the problem and then look for opportunity and start to act to change those problems. That's the spirit of tonight's presenters. These are the doers. These are the solutioners who resolve problems by creating positive processes and outcomes that strengthen the community. Portland Trails is honored to host some of Portland's rock stars tonight, both speakers and in the audience. It's their spirit and tenacity and humor and mindfulness that make the Portland Trails community unique. Thank you. And thank you to our audience. You have a role tonight. That's just as important. We need cheers and ride-ons and yee-haws and claps. But you also have stories to share and the whole set up here with the 15 by 15 being protractor style is that we have an intermission and during that time, that's the time for you to share your stories and don't be shy about sharing your stories or going and speaking with the presenters who have shared theirs because that's how we learn and that's how we grow by that exchange of ideas. So we'll make sure the intermission is long enough to get a drink, go to the bathroom and share a story or two. I'm thrilled to introduce tonight's MC and I'll give you a little taste of how we do our bios here. Tom Nozl did not give me his bio. We've made this up for him. Tom Nozl comes to Portland by way of McGill University in Montreal where he learned to bicycle year round and engineer things. Tom is surprisingly effective hockey goalie, drummer and knitter. Though many of you may have witnessed, his first knitting project was a hat that came out so big he had to wear it over his bike helmet. Earning him the nickname Acornhead. He does not own a car and recently moved to a new apartment solely by bike trailer. He loves the spotlight and we think he's practiced some new dance moves based on his Halloween costume, the wacky waving inflatable flailing arm tube band. So if any of the presenters need to buy a little time, we think Tom's prepared to do that dance for you tonight. So I am pleased to hand over the microphone to our emcee Tom Nozl. Takeaway is write your own bio if you are planning on presenting here in the future. It's a tough town to be anonymous in. Like you can't really get away with anything. So let's see, Rob already mentioned the weather and he stole my Seder joke. So I don't have much material to start off with here, but suffice it to say that I'm thrilled to be back as emcee. Particularly happy to be watching the presentations that are coming. We have an outstanding group of people from Portland who are doing some amazing work in Portland. So I'd like to get right to it first, reiterate the rules a little bit so that those are very clear. Tonight we'll be hearing 11 presentations from folks who are doing some cool work in Portland related to land conservation trails, active transportation and generally increasing the health and sustainability of greater Portland. For these brave people, they each have 15 slides that will change every 15 seconds at pre-timed. It's just under four minutes. And most of them have done nothing like this before. So cheer loudly, support them. We'll be hearing from six people and then we'll have a 15 minute intermission. Like Kara said, intermission is the time for you to get a drink and discuss what you've just heard and seen with other attendees. And then after the intermission we will hear from five presenters. So there's also some rules for the audience to abide by which is cheer wildly for each presenter when appropriate. Listen attentively and then discuss passionately. I have been asked to point out that there's a couple chairs up front, so don't be shy. It's a little steep. So if you got a younger neck, it might be good for you. And let's see, anything else I'm supposed to remind you of? Oh yes, the presentations will start when the bell has been rung. So if you're presenting, don't forget to ring the bell. That's the official start of your presentation. So without further ado, I would like to introduce a man who needs very little introduction. Jamie Parker has worked with Portland Trails for well over a decade after starting out as a volunteer shortly after moving to Portland. Jamie enjoys the challenge of year round biking in Portland, though he has yet to convince his children that this is a fun activity. He has managed to convince them that jumping in the ocean at least once every month of the year is a fun activity, that sailing season starts in early April, and that his music is better than theirs. It's parenthetical, that one's not true. He felt compelled to point out. But as much as he would like to, Jamie's aware that he can't partake in all of his kids' fun activities, which lately have included urban parkour, hotel tag, and other nuisance crimes. Jamie strongly believes that the city is our playground and that we can do more to make it fun, inspiring, creative, and beautiful. And since he's going first, let's give him a very warm welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, the wonder of the woods, the prince of the path, Jamie Parker. You all know Portland Trails provides access to beautiful open spaces throughout the greater Portland area. Hopefully you also know us for helping to create diverse and dynamic public spaces, including school grounds, water access points, gardens, pocket parks, and more. We hope you found places where you might stop and linger, see something unexpected, and experience a moment of delight. Just as we steward land for conservation, we also help to steward our communities. We hope we are part of creating a functional, resilient, beautiful urban landscape that supports many people's needs. As we stitch together a network of connections on the ground, we've been thinking about who benefits and how. Each neighborhood has its own needs, and the closer we look and the more we ask, the more we can prioritize improvements to the network. Linking hubs of activity connects the people that visit them. Bread crumbs along the way serve as enticements to walk and opportunities to linger. The top of Gould Street in East Bayside is an example of a neglected space, a potential barrier that has now become an enticement. Its major features were weeds, trash, and two no-loitering signs. But there was evidence of humans. Like many places, if there is a need, people will pass through regardless. Other neighborhoods have similar spaces, dead-end streets, dirt paths, shortcuts, or even functional but bland infrastructure that we can retrofit for a better experience. The first step is generating ideas. Ask the community for input. Who uses it? What do they want? Then refine that plan to reflect that. We strive to be inclusive and reach a diverse community in the process, but it can be difficult. And as an organization, we're committed to working on that. Once we had a plan, the very first thing I did was cut down those no-loitering signs. Not really, not really. The first thing I did was get city approval through every department, ensuring there was no cost to the city and PTA would maintain it, reached out to all the adjoining residents and businesses, and then I cut down the signs. A clean slate plus abundant salvage materials and a fluid design equals a happy meet. We got to work. One of our goals through this process is to show proof of concept. Portland has no shortage of creative, motivated people who can make something like this happen, given a willing city leadership and flexibility. It started to come together with a team of two, most of the rock work went in fairly smoothly. All materials you should know were salvaged locally and carefully curated for form and function. There were some setbacks. So that's me watching my day's work wash away in a flash flood.  But we press on. I met a lot of people working on this project over the course of a month or so. The very act of creating something can build community. Even if it starts with those, with means, time and privilege, our hope is that the space transcends those divisions by providing something for anyone who passes through to appreciate. The goal is to create a place with potential to stir interaction and possibly that moment of delight and to create something unique. Since so much of our built environment is homogeneous, but it doesn't need to be. People have the power to lead with a vision of what they want from their neighborhoods. Hopefully part of that vision will be my newest acronym, FAB, form, function, fun, art and beauty. Five things that we need a lot more of. Cities are cultural hubs with creative people and new ideas abound. There's really no limit to the cool things we can do in our communities working together. After dumpster diving for that gorgeous green planter, it's the space is ready for use. The folks from the Ann Vets next door were early adopters and they love it. They're meeting with me and some mural painters next week to see about adding a mural. Because hopefully these projects do become cumulative and stir other projects from them. I'd love to see phase two happen, narrow Gould Street down to 15 feet and green the edges. Small projects like this one won't change the world, but hopefully by creating inclusive, connected public spaces, we can help foster our best natures and throw in some FAB for good measure. Thank you. It was once said that to see what Jamie can do with some salvage granite and unskilled volunteer laborers to witness miracles and I think that's definitely true. I hope that's your last one today. Okay. Man, all the renovation and we couldn't get an ADA accessible stage, but next up we have got a friend of mine, Sam Herr, who brings with her extensive experience in the bicycle transportation industry working with the city of Boston Bicycle Programs, researching bicycle transportation and with her current work with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Sam is board president and founder of the new nonprofit Portland Bike Share Incorporated. She's been a bike commuter for 15 years and she has been working in the bike share field since 2012. When not working on bicycle-related projects and activities, Sam enjoys walking, hiking, traveling, cooking, yoga, and playing with her dogs. Her favorite foods include spinach, kale, and ice cream sandwiches. Appreciate the Oxford comma. And as a native to the Southwest, Sam still finds autumn leaves and snow on spiring. All right, let's go. Hi, I'm Sam. I'm the president of Portland Bike Share Inc. I believe that bicycles can change the world. How you might ask? Be bicycle transportation. And the fastest-growing form of bicycle transportation is bike share. Bike share is a convenient, low-cost, healthy, sustainable form of public transportation used for short trips. Anyone can unlock a bike from any location in the system, use it, then lock it back to any location in the system. Bike share is growing rapidly around the world. In North America alone, there are 121 cities with bike share systems and many more planned to roll out in the next few years. And it's also growing rapidly in the U.S., not just in big cities. Bike share is being implemented in smaller places with less people. 28 million bike share trips were taken in 2016, which is the same amount of people who rode the national Amtrak bus and rail system in the same year. Yeah. Bike share is for everybody. Professionals, college students, low-income residents, and tourists alike. Bike share also has the most equal gender ratio of riders of any bicycle transportation sector. Bike share equity across all categories is important to Portland Bike Share Inc. As we know, Portland has problems. And as we know, they're getting worse as more people discover how awesome our great city is. From traffic congestion and parking problems downtown to pollution and health issues, we must take action to do something about this. And bike share is part of the solution. Bike share systems are known to reduce traffic congestion and take care of parking problems, increase spending at local businesses, increase real estate value, provide accessible and affordable physical activity, reduce carbon footprint, and make our roads safer. The city of Portland has been interested in investigating bike share since 2012, but they needed someone to make it happen. In 2016, I founded the nonprofit Portland Bike Share Inc with the mission to plan and implement a bike share system for the Portland main area. And that's exactly what we're doing. We will launch a pilot season with 50 bicycles located on the Portland Peninsula. We will grow a system year by year, arriving at 400 bikes by year five in all of Portland and even including surrounding municipalities like South Portland and Westbrook. For our pilot year, we will select four to five station hubs. We'll make sure to offer free helmet rental program for folks who need them. We'll implement programs to ensure that low income, non-English speaking, unbanked residents have access and we're working towards a launch in 2018. Woo! We'll use smart bike technology that allows users the flexibility to lock bikes to any rack in the city while making stops and getting to where they need to go. And we have plans to include cutting edge smart e-bike technology that will add an extra electric assist as the rider pedals. To ride a bike, one can subscribe as a member or engage as a casual user on a pay-as-you-go basis. Users can locate an available bike and reserve it from their phone or computer and unlock the bike from their phone, keypad or RFID swipe card. Creating a bike share system is a big project and it's going to take all of us to make it happen. We need partnerships with the private business sector, corporations and public government. We need grants. We need personal donations. We need people with special skills to help us. We need media publicity and we need people to talk about how awesome bike share is with their friends. We don't just need bikes but rack stations, smart technology and people power. We have some partners already but we need many more big and small to make bike share a reality. Are you interested in being part of this transportation revolution? Sign up for our mailing list on our website, like us on Facebook and let us know if you'd like to get involved. I kind of think of bike share as like the gateway drug of active transportation because like Kara mentioned, I was in Montreal for a couple of years and they've had a bike share system for a long time and I know many tens of people who personally who I know who, I mean there's a lot more than that but that's who I knew who started with bike share and then went on to become more active and regular bike commuters. So it will be amazing if hopefully pull it off. Next up we have got Bill Needleman who is a lifelong Portland resident and a longtime employee of the city of Portland where he is currently the waterfront coordinator. A frequent trail commuter, Bill may be seen in most weather in almost any Portland neighborhood in search of the wild, the odd and abandoned places that Portland has to offer. Bill has a bachelor of science in geology from Boston College and a master of science in community planning and development from the Muskie School at USM and lives with his family in East Daring. Anybody? All right, I'm just, can everybody hear me? So I didn't know you could actually use words on the slides and that's probably good for you because these presentations that we've seen so far have been excellent and hats off to Sam. So the second time I've seen her presentation and it is inspiring. So I call my talk Commercial Street the place between the trails. And Commercial Street is, as we all know, access to the Portland waterfront. And the Portland waterfront extends from, as we talk about it from the Eastern Prom Trail to the Western Commercial Street Trail which will soon be built. And it accesses thousands of employees, hundreds of businesses and a myriad of activities that all center on the waterfront. In fact, Commercial Street is our trail to the water. It's for everybody, tourists, visitors, passengers, artists to the point that it bustles and it clogs where we go. But sometimes we go there because there is no bustle. Sometimes we go there to rest. Sometimes we go to have a little hope that when we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off there's an economy that will accept us when we are ready to take it on. And I am thankful that economy is there. Sometimes it's a little intimidating. It doesn't say don't come, it says be careful. Step carefully, watch where you go, keep your eyes open because you never know what you're going to see or what is happening around you. These gentlemen working on nets in the net yard have no choice, it's our only net yard. That one patch of pavement is critical to an entire industry and a legacy that goes back 400 years and more. But when you go you will see astounding things, acts of bravery. Just in the simple conducting of work these folks risk their lives and put on a spectacle for us. And it's beautiful and unique. The endurance and hardship that folks undertake when conducting work on the waterfront is nothing less than amazing to fish with small boats and big seas and all weather. Folks need spaces to work. Now if you stumble upon this gentleman pulling wire on the Portland fish pier and ask him to move aside, well I wouldn't. He needs to be there, there's no other place. But when you go you'll see acts of whimsy and seamanship, art and interesting things that don't need to be there but are there because someone had the time and took the care and just did it. There are other times when if you keep your eyes open the mackerel will literally swell out of the water between Merrill's Wharf and Union Wharf on a summer's day or an early fall afternoon and they'll just be there for you. And that's amazing. You can go down and you can watch a foreign sailor throw the monkey's fist to bring a ship alongside a pier in an unbroken chain that goes back 400 years on Portland's waterfront. And these folks, new manors coming to Portland waterfront using Commercial Street as their access and pathway to work. They have no choice but to use Commercial Street for that work and I am thankful that it is there for them. This guy uses the art trail with a forklift. Be careful, he'll be careful but go and watch his work and understand that he has no choice but that if you go down with your checkbook onto Wigery Wharf and ask if there's anybody selling lobsters these guys will probably welcome you with open arms because it is all of our trail to the water. Thank you. Thanks Bill for that beautiful presentation and for the perspective. Next up we have got Derek Pelletier and Marianne Welsh. They are part of a family that bikes. Derek and Marianne are a married couple and parents here in Portland. Marianne is an environmental consultant at AECOM and Derek is an environmental consultant at Ramball Environment, Environ. Both offices are located in downtown Portland. They live in the Deering Center neighborhood and their two children are students at Longfellow Elementary School. They're a single car family and commute year-round via bike or mass transit and they've been in Portland for 12 years. So everybody give them a warm welcome please. All right, so our talk feels like it's not quite as poetic as Bill's, that was beautiful but nonetheless, here we go. Laura Newman reached out to us to inquire if we'd be willing to share our story as you're on bike commuting family. We were a little surprised by her invitation because we think our story seems kind of boring. We're not biking across the country, we're just getting to school and work here in Portland. While we always say that we bike because we can, we did choose our neighborhood based on its walkability and bike ability. That's pretty obvious on nice days like today when you see the bike racks in front of Longfellow. This is one of three that overflows in the fall and spring and it's a great sight to see. Now we're always reluctant to talk about our transportation habits.  You all know the stereotype and these folks don't change anyone's minds. But here we are. Before moving to Portland we lived in Seattle where parking was expensive and the hills were everywhere. We got used to bike commuting year round and when we came to Portland we found a very bikeable town. I mean just look how flat our commute became. When we had kids we soon learned that getting around via bike in most kinds of weather draws some attention. We got mostly positive feedback but some was negative and some suggested that maybe we weren't being responsible like these, the bottom one's my favorite or this one. How do they hold on with their hands? After hearing a lot of these comments we couldn't help but start questioning ourselves. Safety was always paramount to us and we didn't feel like we were being reckless with our kids but were the risks too high? So I joked to Derek that we should write the New York Times ethicist and he did and then the New York Times ethicist wrote back and he pointed out if we wanted to be the safest we should drive a tank and we should also consider that bike commuting promotes this healthy active lifestyle to our kids and minimizes environmental impact. So since then we've expanded where we go with our kids on bikes. We bought a cargo bike which lets us tow our kids bikes when they get too tired and this has really expanded where we travel around Portland. The beauty of biking in Portland is that anywhere you have neighborhood streets you can string your own route together. That's off of major traffic routes. We almost never have to ride on Forrest Ave, Brighton Ave or Washington Ave because there are parallel routes along the neighborhood streets. For example in our neck of the woods Evergreen Cemetery provided a great option for our commute to our daughter Charlotte's daycare getting us off Stevens Ave and providing a quiet route that even she could ride at four years old. Both Marianne and I are fortunate enough to work downtown and appreciate the ease with which we can travel by bike from our neighborhood to our offices. Even in winter you can be rewarded with sunrises over back cove like this on the trip into the office. It wasn't, so this is great but it wasn't always like this for both of us. Marianne used to work out by the mall while she found low traffic routes to get past some of the unpleasant sections, biking out there is not some place we think to ride with our kids and that's a shame because there are neighborhoods out there too and it shouldn't be a privilege to get around by bike. So we feel pretty lucky to live where we live and have the easy commutes that we do and there are so many benefits of bike commuting that we have realized over the years and one of the big ones for our kids is the sense of accomplishment of getting from A to B even in less than optimal weather. I also love the independence and freedom that our kids get from biking. For them it's no big deal to bike to soccer practice or to our neighborhood library branch or further a field to downtown for a special treat but most especially I love the bonding that happens for us as a family. Biking is something that we can all do together. Granted our kids are young and they're gonna change and grow and have different opinions but for now traveling around town by bike offers a sense of adventure and brings joy to our everyday lives. Thanks. And next up we have Coco Casady who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and he recently moved to the US and he works diligently on his integration in the American society. He sets his priorities in improving his English and growing his social network through volunteering. Serving the community through and with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine fulfills his natural propensity to help others. A bike lover since childhood, Coco is part of a dedicated system of volunteers and a diverse group of professionals that diligently work with other organizations and public entities to make Maine's roads safer for both bicyclists and pedestrians. Coco joined the BCM in 2015 as a learner in one of the earlier sessions of the Bicycle for All Mainers Program. Today he's an accredited league cycling instructor and a volunteer board member at BCM. Please welcome Coco. Hi, good evening. Thank you for having me. I'll try my best to communicate clearly.  Well done. My name is Coco Casady, a new manor living in Portland. I love bicycling. I also love red wine but I don't drink and ride. I'm also a league bicyclist instructor and volunteer board member of Bicycle Coalition of Maine. I came in touch with the BCM by a flyer at Portland Adult Education and it was amazing because it was advertising a program called Bike for All Mainers and it was free and it provided a free bike for all the participants. I registered and eventually did a course successfully and with great enthusiasm and because of that the Bicycle Coalition maintained me and retained me and suggested me to come back as an instructor which accepted and I got involved more and more with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and they offered me to get accredited as an instructor as the LCI I would say and I accepted. I did it successfully with enthusiasm again and I got even more involved with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine being an instructor and bear with me. Okay, let's just jump there. Okay, who are the beneficiaries of this program? They're adults who have no means or very little means to be able to buy a bike to commute and they're also people who live in areas where public transport is not deserved. So because of that we believe that this program can be very helpful to those members of the community and also at this point in time we would like to increase the possibility and the capability of that program to have more people involved, especially ladies with kids or students or people who work on weekends who cannot always be able to participate. So we are working to extend the program with the help of the community of course and we believe that even if we produce a little bit of people who are kind of aware of the road safety, the exponential growth of people who are aware will help grow even a bigger community of safe bikers and pedestrians. The program runs for six months from May and we wish that all of you can get involved here and outside to donate not only money but bicycles, all bicycles that you don't use and I am a testimony that this program works and it's efficient and we really want you to be part of it in the future. Here we go. I hope every single maner takes you up on your offer for their bicycle. Next up we have Laura Newman who used to teach eighth graders how to write five paragraph essays before discovering her job at Portland Trails and then starting up the School Ground Greening Coalition in 2013. She lives in Portland with her husband, their two boys, a spotted dog and has discovered that the key to happiness is playing ice hockey. I concur. Thank you. This is so inspiring. Thank you to everyone who's gone already. Ooh, okay. Yes, what? Okay, all right, here we go. When you get to Lund, Sweden or Copenhagen, Denmark, everything in your environment tells you to get on a bike. The train at the airport says bring it on here and when you debark in Lund, you're greeted by this sea of bicycles. On the street, you're invited to take a break. A few sheepskins make a chilly ramp wall into an inviting seat for an afternoon glass of wine with a friend. There are many such solutions here, simple. These are resourceful people who love to be outside. There's no bad weather, only bad clothing. So at this school, parents know to leave their children with all the changes of clothing they might need.  There is an attitude of practical hands-on problem solving in simple, direct and economical ways. I totally get why Ikea now.   So I think that so many bikers went over this spot that it developed blisters that just never went away. My colleagues here at PT asked me to bring back pictures of cool bike racks, but I really couldn't find any unique ones because they were absolutely everywhere. I went to Lund to present at a conference with landscape architect, Sashi Meissner, who has been integral to our school ground projects here in Maine. Our first event was in a park and I was in a jet lagged haze, but these lights magically led our bikes out of the darkness. Ping-pong tables are a common sight at schools, parks, playgrounds and along bike paths. They are as standard there as swings and slides are here. Seriously, outside of school we came across this trampoline. Is it any wonder that Denmark was ranked number one on the Happiness Index this year? And these two things made me ridiculously happy. This giant pile of matches and the random five foot painted wooded radish we came across in the grass outside some apartments. There was a mushroom and an apple too. Reverence and love for the natural world are expressed everywhere from medieval wood carvings in the Lund Cathedral to these painted wooden posts at a playground in Malma. The beautiful and playful uses of logs and trees inspired us. Some of what we saw will be replicated on the playground at the New Hall School in the fall of 2018. Portland, Maine. Copenhagen has this mile long linear park which celebrates diversity and is filled with ideas and artifacts contributed by neighboring residents from over 60 countries. How might we do the same here? These Swedish Danish environments by design support the interplay of movement, work, fun and being outside plus one more thing. Fika taking a break and sharing time, conversation and something sweet with friends. So I would like to invite you to celebrate Fika with all of us, have conversations and in honor of Fika I brought some Swedish treats so I will be handing them around. Little almond cake, just come and see me. Happy birthday dear war, happy birthday to you. Without further ado, we will move on to the second half of the presentations. Kicking it off is Cara Woldrick who is the executive director of Portland Trails. Right, you're gonna have to clap again, just keep that in mind. Cara grew up in a much warmer place where outside time was a daily occurrence, riding bikes, kayaking, trail running, skateboarding, cross country skiing. They're all vehicles to experience the natural world firsthand. The Instagram account, Maine Urban Foraged chronicles her adventures in food preservation and foraging among Portland's trails and green spaces. Cara is convinced that places shape people as much as people shape places. She also believes that playfulness and laughter are key ingredients in all successful movements. So please welcome Cara. So before I start, thanks to Pete Kearney who's on the computer tonight making these slides happen. And he and I have just tried a new experiment so it's possible my first slide might stay up there for a long time or never show up. We'll just go with the flow on that one. We'll see. Before I start though, I should say that title of my presentation is if Portland trails ruled the world in Westbrook, Portland, Falmouth and South Portland. And this is non-sanctioned by the board of directors and the advisory trustees. And the list was really long. So I've only got 15 slides. So I've only got 15 here, but come back next year I might do the next 15 and they'll probably get more outrageous as we go. Pete, ready for the experiment? If Portland trails ruled the world we would complete the peninsula trail encircling Portland with a spur, with encircling Portland and with a spur to Falmouth. We'd also complete the 24 mile loop trail between Westbrook and Portland's downtowns. If we ruled the world, we'd Pandora eyes the Bayside Trail. From the Eastern Prom to the Transportation Center creating a corridor of unique Portland lighting and enticement that would be visible throughout the long winter. Trails would serve as ideal wildlife habitat and wild food corridors. This green infrastructure would benefit people and nature. Imagine the foraging opportunities. Municipal visioning and problem solving would be oriented toward maximizing creative inputs provided by the people who live and work here. Like all Portland trails projects our community's evolution would happen through people powered transformation. We can become visionary communities rich with our historic character and oriented toward the future. We'd plan for the impacts of climate change while completely eliminating our contribution to it. Winter is a core part of Maine's identity and needs to be fully considered as our cities and towns grow. In order to get a good return on our investment buildings and spaces should work year round not just for the summer. All new projects would celebrate the best of the long winter. By design they would block wind, maximize exposure to sunshine and use color and lighting to enliven places and they would support winter activities like skating trails. We'd put Franklin on a diet and we'd help state and high go both ways. Bayside, India, Manjoy and downtown neighborhoods would be reconnected by a narrower street, new commercial and residential development and greatly improve walking and cycling. Thinking about some of our historic plazas and squares like Morrill's Corner and Allen's Corner. Yikes. We would transform them into human scale neighborhood hubs that are still appropriate for the future demands of commuter transit. If we ruled the world, our municipalities would have more flexible codes and permitting processes that would allow for residents to help create the fun, unique neighborhoods they want by allowing for pilot projects, pop-up art, infrastructure and activities. We'd make bike share happen now. Visitors wouldn't need to rent cars and commuters could take transit into town and use bikes to cruise around. It's a no-brainer when you rule in an imaginary world with no financial constraints. Some schools only have 10 minutes of recess. The research is clear. We all learn better and are more productive when we move throughout the day. If we were in charge, 30-minute recess would be required for children in schools and adults in workplaces. Many local employers provide free or subsidized car parking for their employees and no incentives to encourage healthier options. If we ruled the world, employers would also have to offer free transit and bike tune-ups. If we were in charge, we'd close Exchange Street to private automobiles, allowing deliveries during restricted hours, but the rest of the time it'd be for walking and shopping and having a meal and enjoying the old port. If Portland trails ruled the world, everyone would fall in love. Researchers found that if someone shifts from a long-driving commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they'd fallen in love. So ditch the car, take a walk and fall in love. I was kind of hoping that was gonna end with, like, which is why I'm running for city council, but she didn't do that. Maybe next year. No, for real though, I've had the pleasure of working with Care a little bit more closely this year. And I gotta say, seeing more closely her dedication and her philosophy about why we do this and who we're making biking and walking easier for is really inspiring. So once again, to Carol Waldrick, I would say. And next up, we have got Tom Jewel, who is the co-founder of Portland Trails. Tom is a Portland native and one of the founders of Portland Trails. While studying as a biology major at the University of Southern Maine, he instigated a conservation project located at his old childhood stomping grounds that became what is now known as the Four River Sanctuary. In 1977, he worked as an intern at Maine Audubon Society that was then the owner of the sanctuary and authored the Four River Sanctuary Management Plan. His enthusiasm in discovering new trails and improving old ones remains unabated to this day. Tom works as a commercial real estate attorney in Portland and his professional experience and contacts are often put to use drafting and negotiating trail easements for Portland Trails. Tom is a long-serving member of the City of Portland Land Bank Commission where he currently serves as co-chair. This body helps fund the acquisition of open spaces in Portland. Tom has been married for 40 years and has two adult children that live in the area and three grandchildren ages 11 months to five years old. Tom and Madeline spend much of their weekends happily entertaining their grandchildren. When an unnamed waterfall adjoining the Four River Sanctuary came up for sale, soon after the creation of the preserve, Tom was in law school and prevailed upon his parents to acquire it with the intent to conserve this unique property. Upon the subsequent incorporation of Portland Trails some 25 years ago, the Juul family donated the waterfall which became Portland Trail's first land acquisition and later became known as Juul Falls. The annual meeting right before the 15 by 15 started was Tom's last as a board member. Let's give it up for Tom Juul, please. A couple of things first. Rob Levin mentioned that there were two waterfalls in Portland. There are two waterfalls, two waterfalls that are on the Portland Trail system but there's only one waterfall that's located in Portland. And so I've been to a lot of these meetings and I think the 15 by 15 format is a lot of fun but I've noticed that I thought has been a little light on the topic of trails in Portland. So I vowed to address that in one fell swoop. So please join me for a walk on the Forest City Trail. I've been a fan of Portland's nickname, the Forest City for a long time. Those two words captured my interest in conserving open spaces in the city but I was concerned that public recognition of this historic nickname was fading. During its first several years Portland trails was successful in constructing trails at several locations across the city but what was missing was connecting those into a larger network. After cobbling together a mixture of trails and sidewalks into a 10 mile corridor across the heart of the city I advocated for the route to be named the Forest City Trail and that it be the only white blaze trail in the network. Both came true. The Stroudwater River Trail marks the southern end of the Forest City Trail. Unlike almost all the other trails in the system the Stroudwater River had no existing path and we were able to plan our own route along the river. The first major project in the trail system was the footbridge over the Forre River connecting to the Forre River Sanctuary. The bridge is located on the tow path of the historic Cumberland-Alksford Canal which I may do a presentation on some year. At roughly 100 acres the Forre River Sanctuary is Portland Trail's largest property and it supports miles of scenic trails and at the northern end features Jewel Falls Portland's only waterfall. My family's donation of the then unnamed falls was Portland Trail's first land acquisition and years later the site adopted our family name. There was no quid pro quo. The evergreen woods along with the adjoining cemetery constitute Portland's largest open space. It offers a variety of habitats with wetlands, streams, ledges and its ponds mark the halfway point of the Forest City Trail. The railroad to the east forces the trail through Morrill's Corner. While at first blush one might consider it an eyesore I contend that its bathrooms, eateries and transportation links make the site an urban trail amenity. Most parts of the Forest City were pretty rough when we started out. My nominee for most improved trail is at Paz and we're still working on improving those through the Land Bank Commission. At the north end of the Paz property lies one of the lesser known bodies of water in Portland, Dolebrook and this bridge makes crossing it a pleasure compared to the rock hopping that was formerly required. Many years ago a purchaser of oat nut cereal could trade box tops for small parcels of land. The park is now mostly city owned and we have installed some major trail improvements including a new trail creating a loop through the woods. The Persumscott River preserve adjoins oat nuts part but has a sense of wildness that is immediately apparent when crossing his boundary. Raising the $1 million required to purchase this land was Portland Trail's first major fundraising campaign. If I have one hour to take a visitor to Portland to a wild and traumatic setting Persumscott Falls is the destination compelling scenery and abundance of wildlife highlight the northern end of the Forest City Trail. This presentation is a severe truncated summary of the seven hour walk that I lead each year on National Trails Day along the Forest City Trail. My guest host this year is our new Parks Director Ethan Hipple, space is limited. It's always the first Saturday in June. So sign up early and I hope I see you on the trails. I guess you could say I'm currently section hiking before a city trail but who's done it like a through hike in its entirety? Hands up, nice job, very cool. Someday, hats off to the jewel family though for seeing a chance to get a waterfall named after them and then going for it, you know? Not that many nice ones left without names so. So next up we've got Doug Malcolm who is the founder director of the Portland Wheelers. Doug is a father to three adult children. He's a registered nurse having worked most recently on the traumatic brain injury floor of New England Rehab Hospital. His passion for Portland Wheelers is a direct result of his love of biking, his clinical rehab experience and the need to get those with disabilities outdoors and having fun. Doug arrived in Maine from New Hampshire in the early 70s as a back to the land hippie drawn by Helen and Scott Nearing. When farming didn't work out and it didn't at all, in 78 he came down to Portland and I wanted to fact check this first but soon after starting Mary Meeting Chimney service launched just three weeks before the second oil embargo hit when everyone suddenly wanted to switch to wood or coal overnight and he had the only display ad in the yellow pages, remember the yellow pages, the business took off like a rocket. Soon, it's so cool. Soon it became Northern New England's largest operation of its kind. For 12 years it was quite a ride. Later, with a couple more businesses under his belt he founded and was first executive director of Maine Initiatives, a public foundation still going strong almost 25 years later. When not directing Portland Wheelers or riding his own bicycle, Doug likes to explore New England by motorcycle, paddle a sea kayak, hike public trust lands and visit his favorite main island, Vinylhaven. Friends describe Doug as a nice guy and a happy dude who whistles almost constantly. He's a big fan of gelato fiasco but he has too many favorite flavors to single out just one, don't we all? Please welcome Doug Malcolm. I've been looking forward to this. So here we go, no notes. I have to see what you guys have seen. So this is about a little non-profit. We got started three years ago. This is our third season. Here we go, have fun. So most of us can hop on a bike, we can hop on a trail, we can go for a ride but not all of us. The mission of Portland Wheelers is outdoor adapted biking fun for people with disabilities. This is a shot from the program we were inspired by down in the Cape but I wanna use it for our lingo. So the person in the front seat is called a wheeler. The peddler's called a pilot. Way back as a safety and we go out in pods. This is the trike we use. It's made in Netherlands, it breaks apart as you see. The front end becomes a standalone wheelchair. We can roll it into a facility or somebody's home, grab the client, bring him out, hook it up to the back of the bike, go off for a ride. It's the only way we can do the service. This is at Iris, this is a young man who's blind. This on Park Street across from Holy Donut. We give rides to people in all different kinds of disabilities, debility, dementia, all ages. This is Izzy, she's at the Morrison Center for kids preschool through high school who have developmental disabilities like feel alcohol syndrome, down syndrome. We give them very short rides, they have a blast. This is Barb, you can't see her head but that's Barb giving Bill a ride on the Eastern prom just to give you an idea. These are electric assist trikes so it doesn't matter what size or strength the pilot is, we can give rides to wheelers up to 250 pounds. This is Ray, is the pilot who's happier than Doris. Doris is getting a ride in Evergreen Cemetery. Last fall, the middle of October, she's celebrating her 100th birthday. We have two other centenarians who are 103 each and our youngest is six years old. We take couples out for rides. I always particularly enjoy riding with them because while we get great life stories from all our wheelers, just being with couples who've been together for decades, our oldest couple last year, we're in their 90s, they've been living together for 70 years. This is a program in Europe called Cycling Without Age. This movement's going all over the world now but what I want to show you, we want to get some of their equipment. These folks ride side by side, might be a couple, might be sister, brother, grandmother, granddaughter, or volunteers. Volunteers, what I want to say about the volunteers are wonderful, age range about 22 to 74. We steer a little bit more women than men, 60, 40. We had seven the first year, 20 the second and this year we'll have 40 to 50. We get the trikes around here in Portland, in town, in this trailer we just got last year, holds two trikes, it's an electric assist bike, we call it a tug. It's slow, it's cumbersome but we get a lot of good looks and it's a lot of fun. This you might remember from a couple of years ago, this is on Harbor Walk, looking out over Ocean Gateway and if you look closely you'll see a pack of wolves there. That's a sculpture put on by I think a young artist in Cape Elizabeth, it's a pop thing. These ladies are great, these are a couple of sisters, they're in their 80s, we give them a lot of rides. This is a little pond where Baxter Boulevard and the Payson Park meet. We stopped because I've never in 40 years in Portland seen more than two or three snowy egrets in the same place where there were 30 and 40 of them that day. This is Gaven who lives in the Deering Pavilion, very handy guy so he tricked out his electric, you know what I mean, and it's got lights, whistles, everything, he takes it down to the Oldport Festival and shows it off.  We have a great time, this year we'll give 300 wheelers, about 500 rides with about 40 to 50 pilots. Love your help and first trainings are this weekend. Doug was too modest to put in his bio that there's a children's book coming out about a gelato-loving chimney sweep that retires into a great, beautiful career of public service in his honor. So look for that on the shelves. No really, it's an amazing program, I hope that Doug gets some more volunteers tonight out of it. And finally, nope, not finally. Next up we have Andy Abrams. Andy's first connection to Portland Trails was at the 2002 Trail to Ale race back when the shirts were made of cotton. In 2006, Andy was looking for a place to roll up his cotton sleeves and get involved with the community. After some exploration he landed on Portland Trails and has loved it ever since. As a new board member, Andy has served on the committees covering marketing, communications, finance, development, Trail to Ale, and eventually served a term as president. For the first six years of his life, Andy's grandfather instilled in him a wonder of nature and sense of peace by exploring the outdoors. Portland Trails has helped Andy to realize how important this was to him and drove his desire to share the same with the community. Andy's home trail, Capisic Pond Park, where he lives with his, Andy's home trail is Capisic Pond Park, where he lives with his seventh grade son and wife, Priya Nadarajan. By day he works at United Way of Greater Portland and can be found running on our great trails as often as he can. So please welcome Andy Abrams. Woo! Woo! Good evening. So I have the privilege of honoring Tom Joel who is stepping off of our board after a very long stint. So let's begin. So honoring Tom Joel. Tom has been on our board for 26 years now and so we wanted to take a few minutes this evening to recognize Tom for some of his accomplishments. So, known as the man behind Joel Falls, in the mid-70s, Tom took the initiative to contact Maine Audubon after they had acquired the Four River Sanctuary. Having played there as a boy, he was the logical choice as the ultimate tour guide to get things rolling. As a recent college grad, Tom was already looking out for the conservation of land as he convinced his parents to purchase the piece of land adjacent to the Four River Sanctuary that was later to become known as Joel Falls. In 1977, he wrote the Four River Management Plan which was hand typed as you can see, influencing the protection of land around the Portland Peninsula. Tom's sense of time, land, and vision were apparent early on when he urged the planning of smaller increments of land. The year is 1989 and at a break during the Portland Shoreway Access Coalition meeting, Portland Trails was born and Tom was a part of that. The first vision map came out shortly thereafter. Remember this? As a longtime member of the Land Bank Commission, Tom modeled the partnership between organizations like the City of Portland, Portland Trails and other organizations. Partnership and collaboration have been very important to Portland Trails throughout its lifetime. 2011, Tom was present when Portland Trails received the Four River Sanctuary for Maine Audubon and his words still resonate with me. 100 years from now, people will come back to this place and it will still be green and open space for all to enjoy. Tom has built up great friend trips over the years, working on our trails and embodies the most well-rounded volunteer on our board at all levels. Here's Tom working with a five-year-old boy on the Oatnuts Trail, building the trail. Now 13, this boy has become part of Tom's legacy when he recalls this is the part of the trail that I built. Even L.L. Bean recognized Tom's work in 2009 when the company recognized him with the Outdoor Hero recipient award recipient. He's one of six heroes from across the U.S. that were recognized that year. Essential education for any trail-loving Portlander is Tom's 10-mile walk with Tom reminding us of our urban trails via stop at McDonald's along the way. Held on National Trails Day, Tom has inducted several hundred people at this point into his 10-mile walk. And many people that I've talked to have had the same reaction. 10 miles is a long hike, but wow, I learned so much. From his patient, long-held vision, the Forest City Trail opened in 2011. The one-day hike became something to be experienced every day by anyone at any time. Though missing Tom's great commentary along the way. It's fitting that as Portland Trails passes 25 years and one generation of Portlanders who have grown up on the trails that we honor the original who modeled the love of trails for all of us. Above is a note from Alix Hopkins, one of our early executive directors. Thank you, Tom. Three cheers for Tom Jewel. Hip hip. Hooray. Hip hip. Hooray. Hip hip. We have never passed up an opportunity to like do a hip hip hooray, that feels. Okay, we, moving on, we have our final presenter of the evening. We have Aaron Mitchell, who is the executive director of Renewal in the Wilderness. Ever since he laced up his first pair of hiking boots, Aaron has been walking the long trail that led him to his role as an advocate for the wisdom and wonder at hand in the wilderness. The miles he's covered with a pack on his back have taught Aaron the value of walking with levity in a heavy world. When he's not scouting for new experiences of renewal in the wilderness, Aaron was probably somewhere in Portland being a pedestrian, patronizing a local coffee shop, purchasing pints, or practicing card trips, tricks. And he's also a registered main guide. Just learned that. Thanks. And I had the privilege of being inducted into that hundreds plus on last summer's hike, through hike of Forest City Trail. And thank you, Tom, for guiding that. And that walk, along with the spirit of the trails themselves, were really keely, primarily inspirational in what I'm about to share with you. I love wilderness as a place. I love it. As an idea, as a metaphor. Wilderness as a resource for reflection, for perspective, for sustenance. I like going into back country places where the wilderness screams in my face, but I especially love the whispers of wilderness that beckon from the edges of urban walkways and the consciously curated pockets of green and roots and trees and trails. At the start of this year, I found myself sorely in need of those gentle whispers. I won't go into the particulars, but partway through January, I couldn't shake the sense that there was just a lot of ugly things happening in the world around me. Still, I also couldn't shake the stubborn belief that there's a lot of beauty yet to be gleaned in the world. And what's more, that there are a lot of hardworking people committed to making the world a more beautiful place. So in late January, I decided to invite some friends and also some strangers to start showing up on Saturday mornings to seek some inspiration from select sources of wilderness wisdom, to find some sustenance in our encounter with the elements, to experience solidarity from the company and conversation shared with other weary, yet hopeful, beauty oriented souls. Simply to go for a walk together. And it's been really encouraging on our walks, we've made space to invite moments of wilderness into our weekly rhythms as a context for practicing beauty in the midst of difficulty. While strolling the eastern prom, we've listened to Rachel Carson reflect on the dual nature of the shore, a place of harsh realities, yet also a world that keeps alive a sense of creativity and of the relentless drive of life. While lumbering along the trails in Baxter Woods on a winter day, we felt for the heat of the sun in the trunks of the trees around us. As we pondered, Aldo Leopold's reflection on the life cycle of the 80 year old oak on his land. Mary Oliver, the Four River Sanctuary, Sigurd Olsen, the Przomskiet River Preserve Annie Dillard, Jewel Falls, Dr. Seuss each have sustained our spirits with insights that met us at the confluence of our time together and our steps on the Portland trails. I love the remnants of wilderness that leap from the Portland trails. I love the insight of wilderness that leaks from cracks in the sidewalk. There's a comfort to be encountered when wilderness shows up and the best way to encounter it. I think is at a pedestrian pace on our beauty walks. We're committed to showing up to the delights and the dilemmas of the wild world to keep showing up to the practice of beauty in the midst of harsh realities. And I am heartened to witness the representation here in this place, this evening of the beautiful tapestry of work being woven together by conscious and creative pedestrians and peddlers alike. So wherever we stroll, wherever we roll on the trails and off, let's keep coming together to bolster each other's resolve, to sustain each other's spirits and to overwhelm the world with our own brand of wild beauty. Thank you. Can I say one thing? So I've got to take off because I'm actually going to guide a full moon 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. beauty walk in the Four River Sanctuary this evening. But if you're interested in the details, that's the why. If you want to know the when and the where, my friend Fiona has some details, has some information, that's Fiona there. Love to see you on the trails. Get out. Thanks, Aaron. That was a wonderful way to bring the evening to a close. We did it. I'd like to give a big thank you to each of our presenters, Portland Trails. Space Gallery, once again, CTN. Everybody that worked to make this night possible. And once again, a big round of applause please to everybody who presented and shared with us tonight.


Greetings. It's great to be here, even though I'm not there and we're not in Vegas. Well, maybe you are, but I'm not. And after years of pilgrimage to Vegas and DEF CON and other security conferences, primarily to speak about, well, privacy and security and inevitably Bitcoin, I never imagined that I would be doing this virtually. Especially not for the voting villages or voting village rather than the crypto and privacy villages where I normally hang out. But with that said, I have spent significant time in the voting village and I've even included a couple photos in this presentation to help bring us back to our in-person DEF CON days, which we will surely return to. But for now, our virtual con is our reality. So I hope this presentation helps to educate you and brighten your summer in safe mode. Please find me on Twitter if you have any questions. I'm at Cordero underscore ESQ. And with all that out of the way, let's get into it. A lawyer's reflections on elections. Let's get into it. So who is Cordero? That's me, the lawyer speaking now, providing reflections to those that will listen. And without reiterating my entire biography, I want to quickly go through a couple of these points. I'm a partner at Sublime Law, which focuses on business and intellectual property. I lead our emerging technologies practice group. And before joining Sublime Law, I worked at a forensics and cybersecurity professional services firm in Silicon Valley, as well as a large US law firm where I focused on privacy. I graduated ASU law with honors, focusing on law, science and technology. And I worked at ASU's innovation advancement program. But most relevant for today. I'm a former political candidate that has a story to tell that is part of a larger and more important narrative than any single election race or election case. So what will we not be going over today? What's not on the agenda? I will not be making a political statement in support of any party. I won't be re-litigating any lawsuit or critiquing any judicial officer. So with that out of the way, let's get into the agenda of reflections. First, I'm going to explain the structure of the American government, including state and federal similarities. Second, I'm going to introduce how my lawsuit came to be, the origins of the campaign and the lawsuit that followed. Three, I'm going to highlight issues and share the oddities of election law that I learned along the way. And fourth, I'm going to share some information and some resources for your reference. And finally, as you can see on the bottom, the overall objective here is to educate and broaden the community of people that can become experts in how the system works. So they can help improve it over time. Getting into it, democracy now. You may already know that the U.S. federal system has three branches of government. And to keep things simple and to appeal to DEF CON's global audience, this slide represents how the U.S. Constitution, through its different articles, structures the federal government. The system of co-equal branches of government is meant to accomplish an appropriate balance of powers, thereby achieving a level of accountability and independence that is good for governments. You can think of these branches of government as the rule makers, rule enforcers, and rule interpreters. There's more to the U.S. than the federal national government. There are state and local governments. The states follow a similar structure of government, using a state constitution and establishing co-equal branches of government. What is more important to understand is that these local state governments are typically much more impactful than the federal government in terms of your everyday life. So how do the national and state local governments share power? Let's take a look. Wow. This one might make your eyes glaze over, but stay with me. We know from before that it is the constitutions that inform us as to the sharing of powers between the federal and state local government. For instance, as you can see on the bottom of this slide, the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution declares, as we'll discuss more later, and I quote, the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. That's a mouthful and a very old sentence. We're talking 1776, right? So what does that mean? In other words, states have all powers not granted to the federal government under the Constitution. So conveniently, this slide gives some examples of the sharing of powers via exclusive and concurrent powers, and what should really be a Venn diagram. But let's just focus on this slide from left to right. The exclusive federal powers are things like coining money and declaring war, conducting foreign affairs. In the middle, we've got concurrent and shared powers, and those are things like taxation and establishing courts. And finally on the right, we have exclusive state powers, like conducting elections. And that's a little bit of a gray area because the federal government does have some administration aspects related to elections. And I wouldn't really call it a completely exclusive state power, but the states do control the elections and how they proceed. There's also providing for public safety, health and welfare. But the point of showing this slide is to demonstrate that state and local governments have much more power to influence communities than is often expected by its citizens. So let's explore some of those local powers some more. The impact lies locally. Just take a minute to take in the amount of powers and responsibility that is delegated to local authorities. We have budgeting, prioritizing, human resource functions, program management, taxation, ordinances and resolutions, charter and constitutional amendments, zoning and land use and eminent domain, regulating public health and safety as we previously discussed, and liaisoning to other governments. But for today, we want to focus on elections. So now that we've briefly examined some of the structural foundations of the American government, we have arrived at our next point on this journey of learning. And that is the second point in the agenda. Stories from my own campaign and related lawsuit while seeking a seat on the local city council of the city of Peoria, Arizona. Peoria, Illinois for all the Midwesterners listening. Shout out to sec KC, by the way. So why run? Well, I hope that the previous slides have established. At least in part that running for local office can provide a great platform to bring positive influence to your community. And specifically on this slide is my answer in quotes to this question of why run that I gave to the local newspaper Peoria Times. I talked about my campaign platform, community safety, more engagement and better protection of people's opportunities and legal rights. I also talked about my qualifications as a lawyer and my connection to the community. But what isn't on the slide or in the newspaper is clarification of what kind of candidate I was and how that impacted my chances of winning. And I don't mean what kind of candidate I was in terms of person or party affiliation, but from a procedural perspective. That is to say, I was a right in candidate to understand right in candidates. Think of Kanye West. He would most likely be considered a right in candidate for the 2020 presidential election. But he would not be considered an official right in candidate because he probably is not filed the necessary paperwork. Just as individuals often write in candidates like Jesus or Mickey Mouse, these candidates are not official. They cannot serve if they get to requisite number of votes. This is because they haven't complied with the other rules and regulations or filing of paperwork that might be necessary. So I was an official right in, meaning that votes for me would count and meaning that I filled out the extra necessary paperwork. But why was I right in? It's an unusual election that I took part in. And it also coincided with an unusual and unfortunate time in my own life. But I nonetheless found it important to carry on as you'll see in the next slide. Despite the fact that most right in candidates lose their elections, why continue? Well, as was noted by my alma mater here on the right side of the slide, I felt compelled. But more importantly, why I felt compelled was because of my care for the community and to carry on what others before me had started. For instance, Carlo Rocky Leon, who became a sort of mentor to myself and my sibling, had received honors from the National League of Cities and earned the respect of his constituents in my city for over 20 years. I wanted to carry that legacy forward and I would get that opportunity to try in 2018, or rather 2019. But let's first start with 2018. The background to the 2018 race, which I did not take part in. As I mentioned, someone I looked up to, Rocky, who was the Pine District Councilman for so long, he actually won the 2018 race, which I did not partake in. But unfortunately, a few months into it, Rocky's term was cut short. And due to health reasons, he was forced to resign. So this brings us to the background to the 2019 special election race. You can see there are two ballot candidates, Danette on the left and Randall on the right. And there's me, the right-in candidate in the middle. The story gets a bit more complex. During the election, Reigns drops out for health reasons. And it is reported that he has said about his medically forced withdrawal that having a very qualified right-in candidate makes his decision a little easier. This will allow the voters to have a choice in this election. Hopeful for voter choice. You can see Reigns quote there on the left and on the right. And perhaps Mr. Reigns knew something that I didn't at that time. In fact, it's interesting to note that Mr. Reigns was passed over by the sitting Peoria Council, who made Danette Dunn, the interim council member, and seemingly favored Dunn after publicly backing her at events in the 2018 race that she lost. Thus, it's very possible that Mr. Reigns may have already been aware of something afoot. But what was it? And this brings us to the controversy. Might not have been what Mr. Reigns was thinking about, but he was concerned with the city providing choice to its constituents. And I'd like to begin talking about this lawsuit by reading the introductory paragraph of our complaint, because this gives the high-level story of the lawsuit from my perspective. Though other lawyers may simply call it hyperbole, the ones listening in on the voting village will probably not. I quote, Most election experts across the United States of America agree that our election processes are vulnerable in a variety of ways. These are not limited to attacks on elections from outsiders. In fact, this statement of contest concerns an unscrupulous internal attack and misinformation campaign that led to an election result that is believed to be illegitimate. Indeed, a democratic state necessitates that its citizens are adequately informed by the state or at a minimum are not misled or misinformed by the state about election matters. So what really happened? You can see something there on the right about a postcard and we'll definitely get to that. But the allegations against the city are many and should be viewed as cumulative. The allegations range from enforcing inaccurate and outdated sign regulations against my campaign, withholding voter data, improperly removing my campaign signs, and inciting my campaign volunteers for irrelevant code violations. However, one of the primary controversies as it relates to this special election in 2019 is about a postcard. And specifically, the city overstepped its responsibility and improperly did so, not in accordance with the letter of the law by sending out a postcard under a pretext of an update. That update clearly helped the city's preferred candidate over all others. Essentially, the city of Peoria, despite having an agreement with the Secretary of State to handle the election procedures, took it upon themselves to release a postcard not in line with the letter of law on or around the day that the ballots arrive. As you can see on the right side of the slide, the postcard which the court ultimately confirmed was sent to voters not in accordance with the letter of the law appeared to many voters to be confusing and as an endorsement of the other candidate. For the record, this was an all-male in-election, and what's extra notable is that in order to win in the primary, you must win by a certain percentage, 50% plus one. And this is important because if there isn't a conclusive winner, then the general election would need to happen and all candidates would be on the ballot, including the right-in candidate myself. So, in that context, the content of the postcard becomes very clear in its motives, especially its timing. The postcard contained a message that wasn't meant to simply inform of all candidates, in fact it didn't inform of all candidates. It was meant to partially inform of candidate updates and ultimately discourage wasted votes on one candidate in exchange for the other known candidate on the ballot. Let's take a closer look. As you can see here, on the left is the law. This is a part of our complaint, and on the right is instructions that the Secretary of State, not the city of Peoria, the Secretary of State provided. And you can see the law on ARS 16343G, which is excerpt on the left side of the slide in our complaint, requires that notice of withdrawn candidates shall be made available by providing with the early ballot instructions, those are the things on the right, a website address for information regarding withdrawn and right-in candidates. So, on the right side, look what was provided by the Secretary of State. It's circled right there, a website address for updates about candidates. This follows the law, but this wasn't all that was done. This is all that should have been done, but let's look to the next slide to see what the city actually did in terms of notice to its voters, which we already know was in addition to what the state election law provides right here on this slide. So the postcards on the right and the details are clearly more than what is required. It states how Mr. Reigns is no longer a candidate and that votes towards him will not count. Don't waste your vote on him. He's not, he's out of the race. So the implication here is if you want your vote to count, it's to vote for a single person on the ballot than that done, or simply abstain from voting because a lack of awareness of another candidate.  And to have this postcard come out and simply provide of what seems to be a partial update, not in accordance with the letter of the law. From my vantage point, this is a clear violation of law. It's not just not the letter, it's a violation. And the court agreed in so far as the city was not following the letter of law, but as you'll see that didn't matter much in the end. So what did I request as a remedy anyways? I wanted the results set aside. I wanted to organize a general election as scheduled and required if primaries are inconclusive. And to get on the ballot of any new election. And crucially, I wanted to stop officials from exerting improper influence or engaging in misconduct. But what's really important to understand is that I did not want to file this lawsuit against my hometown. This is a painful experience, one that was awkward. And ultimately, just as I felt compelled to run as a writing candidate, I felt compelled to file this lawsuit for my community. And the hundreds of individuals that wrote my name on the ballot correctly, I might add, which is a feat. And because I saw something that I thought was wrong, I thought it was a violation, I wanted to have a judge take a look at it and make a determination for the betterment of our election system. But that's not exactly how the press covered the story. And it's not how the city view the lawsuit, either. So as you might expect, the city of Peoria maintained that they did nothing wrong. The city of Peoria and interim council member Dunn sought dismissal of the action. The city went as far as claiming that the court didn't have jurisdiction over the city due to perceived lack of service of process. And I'm not going to go into why I don't agree with those arguments, but I will go into some of the procedure. And this is for all the legal nerds out there. The case was set for a hearing on a motion to dismiss. But we ultimately received an expedited hearing on the merits after informing the judge through another emergency filing that the case was an election contest. And that we were entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the merits of the case within 10 days, according to Arizona law. The judge agreed and we were eventually offered an evidentiary hearing, but we were ultimately not successful despite that we believe there were multiple violations of law and that the city admitted in court for the application of inaccurate election related regulations against my campaign. Moreover, the press was not particularly kind, making the lawsuit appear frivolous and as a waste of resources, so much so that I was getting additional hate mail. Something you just get used to as a politician or a would be politician, I guess. Also, what's critical is that the judge did not believe the lawsuit was frivolous and did not order me to pay the city or done attorneys. I guess that's a small one. So, before discussing lessons learned, I want to turn to Montesquieu on the spirit of laws because it is relevant to how I feel in this instance as, well, they follow the spirit of the law, not the letter. But it's also relevant because it was required reading for our founding fathers. Montesquieu writes in reference to a brutal state with not much of a procedural due process in terms of a legal system. I quote, for one to have the passions of pleaders would be quite dangerous. The passions presuppose an ardent desire to see justice done, a hatred and active spirit and a steadfastness and pursuit of justice. To me, this quote stands out because I believe I was perceived as a threat, a political one. And upon making my pleadings be known in court, I was considered even more so, despite that in my heart, spirit and actions, I was simply seeking justice for the people. Maybe that is exactly why. But just as the local papers quotes of mine on this slide demonstrate, despite disagreeing with the decision, I decided to move on and not appeal for practical reasons, like money and time and futileness. Or perhaps, as in the words again of Montesquieu, each man should know that the magistrate must not hear of him and that he owes his safety only to his nothingness. So, no appeal. Alas, all said and done, I consider this lawsuit a small victory towards ensuring election integrity. And I hope the lawsuit encourages others to file similar legal actions. It should be noted here that if you're a voter, you probably have legal standing to sue. You don't have to have skin in the game like I did. So, if you see or experience suspicious activities or misconduct during an election, say something. Now we can get into the bigger picture and lessons learned. So this personal experience that I wouldn't really wish on anyone made me dig deeper into our electoral system. And from my research and experience, it has become increasingly clear that many human and structural problems exist, including how the branches of government share power related to elections and the jurisprudence related to how the courts decide matters and importance concerning election issues. Although I do not bring forward a complete solution, below are some of the primary issues that I believe we need to address as a society to ensure a more secure and fair democracy. We need to implement strong federal standards for protecting voting rights and eliminate pretext for stacking the deck. The case that really comes to mind is Rouge versus Common Cause, which is a 2019 Supreme Court case involving North Carolina and Maryland racial gerrymandering, which is, of course, redrawing of district lines to have a political guarantee of seats, say. And the court ruled against the plaintiffs finding that the partisan advantage is actually permissible in terms of intent behind district and choices, because this issue is to be left with the legislature and not to be decided with the courts. And the turning point for the decision was, there are no legal standards that are discernible. And they turn to fairness and they say fairness, as you can see on the slide, fairness is not a judicially manageable standard. And I just, I find that to be untrue because courts sit in fairness and equity all the time. So a decision like this, it makes a lot of people cringe. And I believe this is a 5-4 decision, meaning it was really close. And that means our Supreme Court justices were not in agreement. And so hopefully this case gets revisited along with some other cases. I don't have time to go into a whole lot of other cases, but what I would like to discuss is the pandemic election litigation happening in 2020. And as of right now, there are dozens and perhaps maybe by now hundreds of cases that over the past few months have been just ticking up in terms of numbers. And this really spells trouble. It could either be a good or a bad thing. It means people are fighting inequities or and I guess there's, there's each dispute will have a side to it. I just hope that a lot of these pandemic election litigations get resolved in the proper way because these are dealing with things like how do high risk individuals in a pandemic in a hot spot. Accomplish voting safely. This is not something that America should really be struggling with in 2020. It seems it seems beneath us and I really implore all those that are still listening to speak up about these election fairness issues and voting rights and become more knowledgeable on these topics. I'm not the top expert in this field. I, I'm a privacy lawyer, data protection lawyer. This is something I learned almost on accident. And so for all those that aren't on the front lines of the litigation, let's go to the bottom of this slide. I would say get involved in the fight for democracy and more secure elections by getting involved in different organizations like support fighting election disinformation, which is what the election and integrity partnership is doing EIP. And I love this idea because they are not focused on the candidates, what the candidates are saying. They're focused on content. So not necessarily political content, but content intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, focus or confuse voters as to election processes or delegitimize election results without evidence. These are certainly big ticket items and in challenges in 2020, especially with November, right around the corner, and with so much misinformation out there, not simply by as, as in this case, it was alleged that the misinformation was coming from the government. And I think that's happening probably throughout the government of the United States. But I think as it relates to a lot of disinformation, we have to be very wary of things we're seeing online. So do your part in encouraging others to be careful, those that might not be so digitally savvy as those that might be listening to this presentation. So I really want to close this with some concluding thoughts and not get too hung up on a lot of the other cautionary cautionary tales that are out there. And clearly, as I mentioned, there's dozens and dozens of them that are playing out in the courts right now. So be on the lookout for those things. Be aware of these things that are happening and speak up against them when you can. So to conclude here, this story and experience, it didn't make me lose faith in democracy. It wasn't a negative experience. There were negative aspects of it, that's for sure. There were painful moments, but speaking to constituents that felt like they were misled by the city, and they're asking you to help fix it. That was something, again, I felt compelled to do, and I did it. And we fought the fought, but we lost those battles. And I think the war is still raging on. So these are two lost battles, a lost election and a lost litigation. But I did learn a lot. It was a journey of learning, and I didn't think I needed it as a lawyer. But I did, and I'm glad I endured this. And some of the lessons that I learned are listed here so we can read through the slide together. Democracy is not perfect, right? It's made up of humans. You get things wrong. And it's not just institutions, right? It's not just separation of powers and that's it, everything's okay. And hackers know the persistent vulnerabilities of humans in pursuit of securing any information system, so it should make sense to all hear that humans need monitored closely, especially when democracy is at stake. Strengthening voting rights and securing elections will require hard work and advocacy, which usually means money and lawyers, and lots of it and them for better or worse. And election litigation, as I've come to find out is a beast of its own. Remember, I'm a data protection lawyer and not an election lawyer. This happened by accident. And knowing the importance of these cases, these election cases and the expedited schedules for resolution makes this fight for democracy very difficult without experts. If you see something, say something, if you're involved in helping advocate for voter rights, and you see something or you run for local office and you see something that you don't think is right, reach out. Reach out to me. I may not be the person to help you, but reach out to somebody that has more knowledge than you do. I perhaps would have done better in the litigation had I sought out an election lawyer early in the process, but that wasn't in the cards for me. I hope it will be for you if you ever find yourself in such a bind. And here's a bonus lesson might already know this one, but for those of you that get into politics, local or otherwise or find you or find yourself for whatever reason, speaking to the press, do not blindly trust them. Usually they're not interested in telling your story or sometimes not even the true story. And they are often interested in telling their own version of the story for their narrow reader base. And I can't hate them for that. They are making a living. That's their job. But do not trust them blindly. It will do more damage to you than good. I would bet on that. So, thank you so much. And I'm happy that I had this opportunity to do this, even if it was virtual. I really appreciate all of you that stuck it out and made it this long. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. If you have questions, please reach out to me. And as you can see here, my own lawyer on this case was also not an election lawyer on the left there. Brittany is another sublime law attorney and she's here with me on the left there at DEF CON 27 voting village. And we will return. So if you see us, make sure to say hello. We will definitely stop into the voting village and try to gain some additional knowledge as the years go on. So thank you all and have a great and fantastic rest of your summer.