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.
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.
Ever since, we've been popping up to provide protection when needed and disappearing when not -- just like an umbrella.
BOARD
Adam Zucker, president
Sue Tsoi, treasurer
Ben Chaney, secretary
Ben Foote, past-president
Kirk Paulsen
Lale Santelices
Meghan Sinnott

Early Umbrella board members, January 2007. [Photo: Dat Nguyen]
(left-to-right: Carl Larson, Steph Routh, Matt Picio, Heather Williams, Steven Kung, Micah Waldstein)