April 2013 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Research Assistance Request - Bikecollectives.org Think Tank
by J Stewart 06 Apr '13

06 Apr '13

Hello Think Tank - I am doing research on the use of bicycles, collectives, and group rides this semester at Tulane in New Orleans, the site of Bike!Bike! X. To complete my project I am collecting information from websites and email requests. Some of you may have seen my message previously, sent from jstewar6(a)tulane.edu. I am aiming to create a geographic analysis map or two, not dissimilar to yours on Google, that also includes the date of the founding of the organization. I plan to use this location and date information for an analysis of the progression of US collective bicycle organizations with other spatial data. The information on bicycle collectives provided on your website is pretty extensive. It has been suggested among the responses I have already received that you guys have a fairly current dataset and that it might be updated to included founding date of the organizations. Then, this might be shared with me for my use in this project. I am writing to explore that option with you. Having put some effort into creating this and other data sets, I acknowledge that the data has some value. Perhaps we could negotiate a partnership. If you have some interest in the final analysis, I would be happy to share this, provided you would be willing to permit me to use the product of the data for my own presentations and products as a student as well. Sincerely, Jordan Jordan Stewart Architect, LEED AP Urban Studies Pre-Doctoral Fellow City, Culture, and Community Tulane University http://tulane.edu/ccc/ jstewar6(a)tulane.edu C: 415-297-0941 Also news.jstewart(a)gmail.com.

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Thank you!
by America Recycled 06 Apr '13

06 Apr '13

We have reached our fundraising goal!! Thank you to everybody who donated and spread the project around. The outpouring of support we've received in the last couple of months has been such a surprise, and not only will we be able to focus on bringing you this film now, but we've also seen how many of you out there really care about what we're doing. The morale boost is just as valuable as the cash. As many of you know, the USA Projects web site has been experiencing crippling technical difficulties this last week, at the worst possible time for our project. Many donations were not processed. They finally fixed it yesterday, and have given us an extension until Friday so that everybody who wants to contribute is able to. If you donated last week, make sure it went through on your credit card. If it did not, then try again-it should all be working now. This is great news. We have reached our goal, but we can continue to accept donations to get closer to fully budgeting the film. All funds will go toward making this movie live up to our vision in every way possible. So this should be the last time we bug you about this fundraising campaign. We have six days left to bring this to the next level. Keep spreading the word! noah and tim

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How to Teach "Hands-off"
by Geoff Heath 02 Apr '13

02 Apr '13

I think I put this request out 6 months ago but I figure I'll try again; Anyone have notes from the Bikebike 2010 workshop "how to teach hands off"? I'm making a document on teaching in the bike shop and would love to know what happened in said workshop. Thanks! -- *Geoff Heath*, Mechanical Director The Winnipeg Repair Education N' Cycling Hub 1057 Logan Ave. Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N8 www.TheWrench.ca

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Revenue Statistics spreadsheet
by Matt VanSlyke 01 Apr '13

01 Apr '13

For those of you attending the Alliance conference call this afternoon, I wanted to remind you that there is a spreadsheet on the WiKi that details financial and revenue info for those shops that added theirs (thank you!). It is on the 'Organizational Models' page and the direct link is http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Revenue_Statistics Anyone can view the spreadsheet and also should be able to enter data. But if you have trouble with access send a request for permission. Matt VanSlyke

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Fwd: Fwd: The ULTIMATE program handbook!
by Angel York 01 Apr '13

01 Apr '13

---------- Forwarded message ---------- I have nothing down on paper. We take advantage of school playground markers to do a couple of fun things, though. A series of parallel lines we use for the slow race. The idea is to have each bicyclist take a lane, everyone starts on "go" and the last person to go over the end line is the winner. This is for demonstrating basic bike control. We use adjacent double circles on playgrounds and connect them for a figure-8 right of way activity. Connect the double circles with chalk to make a figure 8 with no lines in the x marking the center of the 8. Start with one bicyclist at the top and bottom of the 8, and they ride toward the center, communicating with each other on who goes first if they reach the x at the same time. The activity can be use for that and for teaching bike control and the "ghost rider" between each bicycle if you add more bicyclists. I'm assuming you already have the Oregon Bicycle Transportation Alliance's Safe Routes for Kids, a Bicycle Safety Program Curriculum, which has detailed instructions for teaching kids ~ 5th-6th grade age. It has some very good activities and lessons. Christal

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America Recycled needs your help
by America Recycled 01 Apr '13

01 Apr '13

Hey there, We're in the final week of our fundraising campaign to produce a feature-length film about our two-year bicycle journey through radical subcultures of the American South, and we're just over 80% of the way to our goal. Thank you to the 87 supporters who have so far contributed to this project. By financing this project directly through our audience, we're able to retain complete creative control and bring you the story as we actually see it, rather than bow to the agenda of a studio or sponsor. Watch the trailer and support us here: http://www.usaprojects.org/project/america_recycled These last six days will be the most crucial ones, since if we don't reach our goal the project receives no funding at all. This depends on every person who believes in America Recycled. Since we are recipients of the USA Creative Vision Award, all donations are doubled, and contributors are awarded accordingly. A donation of $25=$50 and gets you a digital copy of the film upon completion AND a beautiful photo print from the project. Of course higher donations receive other fancy things, and all donations are tax deductible. If everybody who watched one of our videos gave us just a dollar, the entire budget of this movie would be raised and we'd have seed money for the next one. Take a minute to think about what you spend money on throughout your day from a coffee or beer to a movie or concert, and consider how much this project is worth to you. The arts do not fit so neatly into the money economy, so it's up to you to decide how much importance to give them. If you're unable to donate or already have, reach deep into the back of your mind to think of other people in your life who would be inspired by America Recycled. Choose two or three of them and write them a personal email with a link to the trailer and fundraiser. Thanks so much for your support over the last two years. We've poured our entire selves into this project, and it's going to show in the feature-length film. We can't wait to bring it to you. And in celebration of April 1, we have launched a new business in case this doesn't pan out. With the housing market still in a state of uncertainty, we've broken into the igloo racket. Have a look at our new business here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwMrz4m499E -Tim and Noah

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Online Collaboration Tool
by Jesse Doud 01 Apr '13

01 Apr '13

Hi everyone! During a bike tour of New Zealand over the past three months, I visited the collectives and kept hearing about this tool called Loomio. Now I've settled in Wellington and started working with the team building the software. Loomio.org started when members of the occupy wellington movement found that some individual voices were drowning out others in general assembly meetings and started making a free online tool that would promote equity and direct democracy in decision making amongst groups. A year later and they have 3000 groups signed up from all over the world, most recently Wellington city council. The feedback we're getting is that it reduces the amount of emailing to come to decisions. I think that could be a helpful tool for bike collectives, not as a replacement to meetings, but as an additional consensus building resource for the in-between, internety times. Here's the website: https://www.loomio.org/ Here's a demo of how the tool works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIEyNNcXbZA Anywho, I'm obvs really jazzed to be on the loomio team, just wanted to put it out there amongst you fine folks! Cheers, Jesse

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