Olympia Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee welcomes new members

The Olympia Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) met on Wednesday, May 17, to orient its new members.

The five new BPAC members, Margaret Slighte, Jeremy Mott, Robert Vanderpool, Sean Ferguson, and Tom Dillon, were appointed during a city council meeting last March 29.

BPAC Staff Liaison Michelle Swanson led the discussion and welcomed the new members.

“It's so great to meet all of you, and thank you so much for your willingness to serve on this committee and dedicate your time,” Swanson said.

Swanson discussed the committee’s goals and processes and emphasized equality within their system.

“There are really three underlying principles to parliamentary procedure that I think [is] worth sharing with all of you as you're entering into this realm. The first is that every member of the committee has an equal voice,” Swanson declared.

She also added that the other two principles were ‘the group is the final authority’ and the chair is a servant of the group, and ”you don’t have to agree.”

“Some chairs will choose to hold off and share their opinion until everyone else has spoken in order to give the group space to talk freely,” Swanson noted. “Some of the best decisions get made after someone has expressed an unorthodox opinion and it gets discussed.”

Swanson continued that the act of raising contrasting concerns usually results in a more thoughtful group discussion.

“I really appreciate the diversity of perspectives you all bring and one of the most rewarding experiences of being a part of this advisory committee is hearing from the different members and talking about different issues and how educational that's been for me,” BPAC Chair Bethany Roth expressed.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) was created to advise the City Council on encouraging biking and walking, to participate in developing plans to make Olympia easier to walk and bike in.