IEBA was formed to get more people on bikes. The Redlands Bike BBQ was out on the street on market night helping people with there bike issues. Coming together made great sense. We provide all the paperwork so the co op can do what it does best. Plus IEBA has a successful program under it, feather in the cao as you will. Because there is this larger organization we can help other areas open bike co-ops. I think it's been a great partnership.
Since I work full time as an advocate and vounteer at the BBQ, it gives me a great perspective of what is needed plus you can speak for both sides of the challenges that occur politically and on the streets. A great example is sitting in on all these active transportation meetings where officials discuss making improvements. Never does it occur to them to think "I should bike to work". I throw that challenge out there. And when they say "Well, my bike is not in riding shape", I say " Bring it or donate it to the Bike BBQ". It works. We have kids form our Bike workshops coming down, we have the Boy Scouts doing a bike workshop there, we have a middle school class coming in June to tune up and clean all our kid's bikes.
When you share the same overall goal, getting people on bikes, and keep focused on it, it's not a big deal.
 
Mark Friis
Inland Empire Biking Alliance
P.O. Box 9244
Redlands, Ca 92375
909-800-4322
mfriis@iebikingalliance.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Drayton
To: The Think Tank
Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2013 3:30 PM
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Question - Role of Community Bike Shops in BikeAdvocacy

Oakland SPOKES is launching a hyper local/National Community Bike Organization (CBO) Campaign and is setting up a community bike lounge in partnership with Pop Up Hood Oakland to host “Bay Built Bikes” by East Bay Area Community Bike Organizations (CBO) and, local mechanics/builders and bike art vendors.


This Bike lounge will display and consign Bikes built by Bay Area mechanics as part of the campaign Headquarters for SPOKES National’s Community Bike Organization Project.  Our goal is to collectively advocate for earmarked City, State, and Federal Funding of our communities’ CBO Projects.  This lounge will have commuter accessories, and catered café fixings from Awaken Cafe, Bicycle Coffee, Numi Tea, and Rock the Bike smoothies in its cool Old town Location.   We will be having daily opportunities for you as **members to reserve space to do workshops, and host bike-related social events.    


Our soft opening will be held in conjunction with Oakland’s First Friday on May 3rd 2013. Following that, our grand opening will take place in the middle of the Bike to Work After Party and we will be hosting the official Bike to work “After Party -After Party”.  We plan to have DJ music by Abel Dee and special guests and perhaps some Bike Flix to keep the pedals turning.   


The lounge will have a map of the East Bay covering an entire wall as focal   accent.  This map will have pushpins for all the CBO’s. Bike routes will be marked out on the map in red and will begin from the SPOKES Community Bike Org Hub on the map along routes to each site pinned on the map.  This map will serve as a visual guide to patrons of where all our shops are located in reference to each other the hub and their lives.   The SPOKESHOP community bike lounge will also provide your organization with a space for exposure in Downtown Oakland where you can showcase your bikes, bike art, bike jewelry and swag for sale.


Each member shop or org will need to contribute their high quality logo and a “Bay Built Bike” or bike product(s) to be part of the for sale consignment exhibit.   We will highlight your logo, branding and location on a string of *banners in the lounge.   Your product or bike will be mounted on the wall or rack with a short bio of your organization and name of the builder or artist behind the product.  All sales will be tracked as consignment and you will have the opportunity to refresh your line of products as it sells.  Our goal is to help our businesses or organization further penetrate the bike movement and bike industry and send business as well as awareness to the customers in your community. Through crowd funding and a capital campaign, we intend to raise funds to advocate for bikes as part of community economic development.


In order to participate, we require you to be a **member of the Community Bike Collective.

https://sites.google.com/a/richmondspokes.org/about/programs-1/cbc


This successful model will serve as a hub of resources for cyclists in East Bay by providing them with maps and quick commuter tips.  


Increase your sales and impact while celebrating green mobility today. Join us now!


https://sites.google.com/a/richmondspokes.org/about/programs-1/cbc



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