BOARD OF DIRECTORS
John Taylor
Treasurer
John Taylor (everyone calls him JT) discovered BRNW as a participant a few years ago. It was the first time he or his wife Barb had ridden 50 miles in a single day, much less 7 days in a row. But after that they were hooked. Now they mix cycling in with hiking and rafting in the summer, while enjoying theater/music, adventure travel and skiing during other seasons. For them, a good year is defined as lots of time out under the sky, doing something in the fresh air.
After working 35 years in finance, JT retired to spend more time traveling, working on right-brain projects and saying yes to spontaneous invitations. He’s been involved with boards including Portland Center Stage and LEAP Adventures, as well as school foundations. Drawing from his experience as a river rafting guide, he loves to help others enjoy the great outdoors. His reasons for joining the board? “I love the commitment BRNW has to making their trips as fun, comfortable, delicious, convenient and enjoyable as possible. I signed up to help carry that on!”
Kim Conklin
Director
Kim is our caterer for BRNW, and has been providing food for our rides since 1994. Kim has specialized in catering off-site, large-group events since 1992, and has catered for many famous country singers such as Diamond Rio, Chris LeDoux and Reba McEntire. In recent years she has been solely dedicated to the food service needs of bicycle tours and events. Her passion is week-long events in remote areas, with great customers and co-workers. She is fortunate to have her son, Kyle Conklin, as her logistics coordinator and her daughter-in-law, Michelle, as her production assistant.
Kim says, “It has been amazing to work with Bicycle Rides Northwest for over 20 years, and I’m looking forward to serving the needs of BRNW for many more years to come!”
Charlie Jones
Director
Charlie, a fourth-generation eastern Oregonian, started road cycling tours in 2005. He considers tours his best activity of the last 15 years, because of the multitude of enduring friendships they’ve provided — including meeting the woman of his dreams, his wife Emelie, on Cycle Zydeco in 2010.
Because he considers Bicycle Rides Northwest the very best of the nearly 50 tours he’s done in North America and overseas, Charlie is eager and proud to be a new member of our board. He smiles when he states that his family has been promoting cycling for a century — as the mayor of Ontario in 1920, his grandfather was the first to pave city streets.
Charlie’s retirements are from 32 years as a high school physics/chem/math teacher in La Grande, and as a Commander, U. S. Naval Reserve (active duty: USS Semmes, DDG-18).
Connect With Us
Contact
Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter, to get all the BRNW news first.
Route History
Want to see everywhere we've been since 1987?
Click here for a PDF of all our routes since the humble beginning.