Partner coops seems interesting, twice the beaurcracy, half the fun? /smile

So I'm guessing people go to BikeBike to learn from other places and people, and from what I hear, to party. Maybe even to get away for a while, like a vacay.

The further you go, the more you might learn, but the environmental and costs go up, maybe exponentially.

Personally, I've not gotten to a BikeBike, mostly because of cost.

We have in DC area, the Bike Summit, for legislation in the US of A*****...

I've mentioned to one coop the possibility of hosting a BikeBike in the DC area, maybe surrounding the Bike Summit, for those who prefer to get a little greasy, instead of policy wonks only...

The Summit is expensive too, but has many more commercial interests, afaict, building infrastructure, manufacturers, lobbyists, professionals, etc...

Combining some who would go to that, maybe synergistically might be interesting to consider, like doing errands, combining activities in a trip, saves in the long run, less back and forth, but personal energy management, conflicting interests (including money, attention, etc) might surface, perhaps badly.

Also in the DC area is a regional organization WABA (Washington Area Bicyclists Association) and the 5 or so coop like places, TheBikeHouse.org, PhoenixBikes.com community bike shop/mostly youth program, MountRainierBikeCoop (not sure exact web link, it changed, but easiliy search/google able), GearinUp (spelling) newish DC youth program, and VeloCityCoop.org, and maybe some startups, school/college clubs, etc... No velodrome, yet! (hoping frame building, Atomic Zombie like hacking bikes develops... even for track bikes instead of just fixies, tall bikes, etc /LeanOnTelephonePoleToStayUpRight)

CritMass has low attendence for a city, metropolis of this size, about 100 people per month, last I knew, basically when it was first Friday, not much after switching to Last Friday, or 4th Friday, I forget, and keep forgetting...)

Bike Share exists, but mostly for tourists... Heavy expensive bikes and lobbying to keep it that way, imnsho. It gets people biking, and I used the predecessor bike share before they upgraded to the current one. They have bike lights, dynohub, and stations in DC, Arlingtion VA Alexandria VA, and Maryland (? never seen, but don't see why they wouldn't),

Bike Film Festival Has been in DC, but stopped after 3+ years, much to my shagrin... Restarting that, and combining that with BikeBike might make a nice party environment. Environmental Film Festival and some other events, (coining Million Biker Ride?) might be good to partner with. If BikeBike is only 5 days, or a long weekend, adding the rest to make it a full week, might help. Bike Summt and Caucus is probably a week. Locals mostly only have a free ride to do photo ops with congress, afaict, but not done that... Cost prohibitive, and my tolerance of BS, an essential ingredient of politics, is probably rather low, but whatever (almost, IANAL and don't play one online, etc..)...

All this leads up to a money issue. Would the infrastructure exist to host a BikeBike around here?

WABA might be central, but likely has it's hand full anyway. As a fiscal agent, might hold funds and do disbursements, etc... As a mediator amongst the mostly competing coops and bike orgs, might help, but it is not without it's own biases. A membership org, some costs and volunteers can volunteer a certain number of hours for membership. Stuffing envelopes parties exist, iirc, and other events, mostly etoh involved are central, afaict..

MtRainierBikeCoop and Phoenix are probably the oldest of the coop/community bike shops, TBH and Velocity probably about the same age.

I've wandered between most of them, trying them for what they are good at, and leaving some that I can't get along with. They have their place, I hope to some day have one of my own... Sober, clean (drugs at least) and disability + poverty friendly, etc... Kids capabile but not over run with them, that adults have to change their behavior too much... Smurf rule is dififcult to adhere to after smashing ones fingers, knuckles with a tool, etc... Social and stimulus levels (autism like) managed friendly like...

Natural light instead of florescents, air conditioning, out of too much sun, etc... Learning as much, if not more than telling, commerce and money based...

Anyways, I can't throw washington dc area into the hopper, I don't speak for such organizations, just been loitering so long...

As far as myself going to a BikeBike or a regional one, the once every 3-5 years is interesting, but hink of college students, who graduate before that period comes up. Volunteer say 4 years and not get to a big national/international event, just regionals...

My sleep is such that many couch surfing/ warm showers arrangements would not work, hosting, or visiting/ as a guest... Getting away from people, distractions and odd noises keeping me up, in unfamiliar areas would be an issue... Hotel expenses prohibitive, and that is one of the advantages of hosting, stay at home, but the extra work involved may be exhorbanent. Events aren't the greatest for me to try to organize, because I might melt down, with social stress, etc... Paid work as a disabled person, isn't possible. So your average ED position, is not happening. Requires major life change just to try to spend too much time on other people's issues, imo.

So what might work?

Savings, somehow. Volunteer work / sweat equity, for say a year and get a free trip to an annual regional.

Local foods, grocery, GLUT like Food Coop, perhaps.

Gleaning and other bike to a farm and get what can reasonably be saved, instead of wasted, also adds a trip to the country, and/or urban farms, learning about the fuel like options locally. Oranges are nice, apples get tiring, Maple Syrup great, but requires mountains and/or cold, Seafood fun, salmon great, lobster, if I'm not allergic, all these food things are local to some places, not others, and transporting food around the world to keep citrus flowing year round is difficult, environmentally unfriendly, etc, but eating meat, going vegan (can't, but interesting concept), all contribute to the costs involved in living, travelling and events...

Also utility bikes, like on a touring list, carrying a surf board, tools, moving sofa's/ futons, camping gear, tables, flyers, chairs, shop stools, signage, etc somewhat logistically difficult. Hilly mountainous areas (colorado, appalachia, etc) might limit some getting around, for old guys/gals such as myself, not to mention some wheelchair bound disabled. (hey, they got wheels too, just not all inline)... Oxygen levels in high elevations, high plains, say arizona, might effect some breathing, moisture content, rainy seattle, or too sunny/ warm/ rock lobster sun exposure also interesting, one trip I could not adjust well to too much good weather, in cali... I needed my down / bad weather to be mood congruent... /smurk

So other groups have to fund poorer ones, should language (don't should on yourself, much less others) and some other issues with the redistribution of wealth, and lack thereof... Cycle of poverty is difficult, breaking out of it, disabled are basically vow of poverty, like religious orders, but commanded, instead of volunteered...

Motorcycle to a bicycle event, might be an option, getting a trailer/sidecar and bike rack in addition to combine and ride locally. Safe storage/ parking, and anti non meat motor sentiment would be a liekly issue, mostly with twenty somethings and below, older might understand what it is like to be huffing and puffing too much, feeling like it might kill one to do what used to be relativily easy. (even a century), which reminds me bike clubs, riding groups, potomac pedlars, ohbike, and others, black women bike, and others, might be good partners and sponsors...

Commercial bike shops and other for profit enterprises benefit in having tourism, afaict, large scale protests, might detract from the tax base in law enforcement and crowd control costs....

But I digress, hosting seems interesting, wonder if it will happen in dc in my lifetime... /cough /wheeze /SanfordAndSonLikeDrama /ByeWheezy, /etc

Ateending some BikeBike before taking on hosting probably required, as training, planning and other experiences...

Presenting might be interesting. Hosts probably have a standard, these are your host organizations and services they typically offer type base package developed. Even to be considered to be a BikeBike host city/ town... Schools, off season probably have some infrastructure allready in place. College towns, UVA Charlottesville, VA, UMD College Park, Georgetown, GeorgeMason, Arlington and Fairfax (15? miles out) plus Gallaudet, and UDC plus others, Catholic, American, universities, some probably host off season conferences and have lower cost hosting than your average hotel costs. Youth Hostels exist for tourists, Appalachian Trail type access for routes, GreenWay and chinatown type accepts bicycles on bus infractstructure might help too), Public transit options for bike on rail/train/ bus/ etc a necessity. Amtrak does a little, but needs more, IMO. C&O Canal and GAP rails to trails for getting to an event, back and commuting, say to free Hiker Biker Campsites for the primative camping people, and really green folks...

Bike building conferences would also be interesting.

So, I guess just thinking out loud. Maybe put on a wiki website for massive editing over time, not really even draft level, typing out loud...

On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 7:56 PM, Andrew Shooner <ashooner@gmail.com> wrote:

it seems that the trend there is bike Co-Ops with members and Co-Ops that are semi-for-profit (or at least focus on sales). Personally these do not seem like a very inclusive models.

Hey Erk. I don't think we've met, and I appreciate the discussion. In my experience, this is not accurate. I like the concept of addressing the inequitable access to the community. In terms of access to BikeBike, I think this has a lot of potential. Some brainstorming:

Travel Grants (independent group)
Very conventional. Probably would need some kind of fiduciary body to manage, then you get into taking and evaluating applications. bleh. One advantage I guess would be that it would probably be the most consistent model.

Travel Grants (from BikeBike!)
If the grants were connected to the bikebike conference itself, and was either a mandatory or optional part of the registration fee, that could be an effective fundraising effort. This might require a bit more lead-time in the BikeBike conference organization, though. Also, I don't know who that would work financially.

Partner Shops
Two or more shops/collectives distant from each other get paired up, and they pool their resources to send/bring one or more from each team to the national conference. This could be cool b/c it is way more interpersonal and organic. Would need to watch out for this becoming a paternal 'adopt-a-shop' scenario. It would be better for similar shops (economically, constituents, mission) rather than one supporting the other. I like this idea in that it can lead to new attendees breaking out of the comfort zone of their team and interacting more with the broader community.

From the perspective of my shop (Broke Spoke, Lex KY), we'd probably find plenty of support in either of those scenarios. We'd be more than happy to pay a fee that went to creating a more geographically diverse conference. If we had a partner shop, our community would get behind bringing us together for a conference as well.

-Andy

On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 11:33 AM, erk magosh <emailmyremail@gmail.com> wrote:
Angel,

" I attended a couple conferences recently that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to attend by signing up to volunteer at each conference."

One thing I think we want to avoid is setting up a caste system of people who pay and people who volunteer (indentured servants). At BikeBike everyone should be volunteers, it's a conference of problem solvers, and we can all come together to make it happen. No one is making money, so it should be on the conference as a whole to take on the work. One of the main goals should be to help build something and leave the city and the collective in better shape than we found it.

"Personally, I believe that bike collectives have grown enough to the point where there are enough organizations that there can be a stronger focus on cohering the regional bike bikes and the zine zine (hey, any more info forthcoming with that?), with the centralized international bike bike happening only once every 3-5 years in the name of giving people with low incomes and collectives who want to send some core volunteers the time to save up to attend, and to reduce the impact of long-distance travel on the environment"

I don't disagree with anything you said, and we may want to think about the environmental impact of people traveling from all over the country (BTW driving alone in a car <9 hours has less impact than flying on a full plane the same distance).
I however have gone to a few B!B!SEs (South East) and it seems that the trend there is bike Co-Ops with members and Co-Ops that are semi-for-profit (or at least focus on sales). Personally these do not seem like a very inclusive models. Especially in a region that is still heavily segregated(I did miss the B!B!SE in Atlanta, so I'm sure it was much different there). With this I think it would really benefit folx from the South East to be exposed to ideas of the larger group. Especially the collectivism of Latin America. I would say we could plan on only going to the annual international B!B! if it is in your region, and save money for it for the years it is not. However I think that would rely on the schedule being done a couple years a head. With the life expectancy of Bike Collectives I don't think that is realistic. (If you are from the SE and disagree with me, please let me know. I'm sure folx are working for social justice everywhere.)

My org really doesn't have money to spend on sending volunteers anywhere. We are focused on youth, so if we had money it would probably go towards sending youth to the Youth Bike Summit (YBS) or sending our youth mountain bike team to a meet.

thanks for adding to the conversation,
-erk

On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 5:48 PM, Angel York <aniola@gmail.com> wrote:
I really like this idea! Here are a couple of thoughts:

- I attended a couple conferences recently that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to attend by signing up to volunteer at each conference. Food was included. (I was really impressed by OSB conference; more details on the ways they focused on equity available if you're interested)

- I was able to attend a Bici! Bici! in Southern California once because our bike collective paid the bus fare to travel for the only two people interested to travel all the way from Northern California. It was a great experience, and I still remember it years later.

- I have never been to Bike! Bike!, but I've attended a couple regional Bici! Bici!s, because, in addition to the hardship of buying a ticket to a faraway place, I am a person who values being able to transport myself by bike, as I would expect some non-attendees are, and I have trouble getting past the environmental barrier of traveling such a long distance, even for what I know to be an amazing event with people I'd love to meet, see again, get to know, share with, learn from.

Personally, I believe that bike collectives have grown enough to the point where there are enough organizations that there can be a stronger focus on cohering the regional bike bikes and the zine zine (hey, any more info forthcoming with that?), with the centralized international bike bike happening only once every 3-5 years in the name of giving people with low incomes and collectives who want to send some core volunteers the time to save up to attend, and to reduce the impact of long-distance travel on the environment.

Angel York

On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 2:42 PM, erk magosh <emailmyremail@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey y'all,

I have been throwing around ideas about travel equity after our trip to Mexico. For me a citizen of the US it was easy to get down there and was very affordable. I started thinking about why that was, and how it doesn't apply to everybody. Below is some suggestions that I have come up with. Most of these suggestions would really be up to the BikeBike hosts (Detroit in 2016), but the travel fund could be something we could start easily with donations. It is a rough draft and I'm looking for feedback (there has only been 5 minutes of feedback so far). Most of these ideas would take a bit of work, but I think it would be worth it to allow as many people to participate in BikeBike as possible.

let me/us know what you think,
erk

BikeBike Travel Equity:

Suggestions to Offset Inequitable Travel Cost and Barriers

Summary: In an aim to make BikeBike more inclusive we should help address travel inequities. Travel can be much harder/more expensive depending on what side of some imaginary lines a person was born on or what system they have to live in. We should encourage those with privilege to help those with less.

1.    Registration: registration fees should be very malleable. Folx that can pay more should be encouraged to support folx that cannot.

a.    For some participants the registration fee is very cheap for all the services provided, others it may be a large expense.

2.    Travel funds should be created ahead of time to help folx with Visas/other travel expenses.

a.    Donations or excess registration fees could create these funds.

b.    Example of need: A Mexican Citizen needs to pay $300 USD just to apply for a visa to the USA. If they do not get approved they do not get the money back. For a US citizen with steady work this might not seem like a huge loss, but that works out to $5,100 MEX, which could be 3 or 4 times a person’s monthly housing cost.

3.    3 meals (and snacks) a day at BikeBike.

a.    Eatting out is by default expensive, but if you come from a country with an unfavorable currency exchange it is even more so. Even without that exchange, some people don’t have money to blow on a luxury like eating out.

b.    This creates a bit more work, visiting BikeBikers should be encouraged to help cook and take any other loads off the hosts.

c.     An alternative may be providing access to the kitchen when meals cannot be provided.

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