In 2006, Portland's bike-fun organizers found themselves dealing with more and more bureaucracy and paperwork. Events like Carfree Day, the Multnomah County Bike Fair, and the World Naked Bike Ride were requiring insurance, alcohol permits, tax ID numbers, mailing addresses, and bookkeeping.

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For years, the City Repair Project had generously provided these things for us. As events got bigger and involved more nudity and tall-bike jousting, we decided it was best for both groups to part ways. Those of us who found ourselves putting our contact info on noise variances, balancing budgets, and just generally trying to keep things legal got together and formed Umbrella in late 2006.

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Ever since, we've been popping up to provide protection when needed and disappearing when not -- just like an umbrella.

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BOARD

Ben Foote, president

Adam Zucker, treasurer

Ben Chaney, secretary

Kirk Paulsen

Lale Santelices

Meghan Sinnott

Sue Tsoi

Early Umbrella board members, January 2007. [Photo: Dat Nguyen]

(left-to-right: Carl Larson, Steph Routh, Matt Picio, Heather Williams, Steven Kung, Micah Waldstein)