I'll pledge $50.

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 9:09 AM, Ann Altstatt annaltstatt@gmail.com wrote:

Hello Think Tankers-- I'm passing on a message on behalf of the Santa Cruz Bike Church. We are testing the waters to see if any other organizations would be interested in helping us fund the BikeBike travel expenses for a fellow mechanic from a Oaxacan bike project. Read on!

Dear Bike Collectives,

I just spent a month in Oaxaca at CACITA, a center for "appropriate technologies" that focuses mostly these days on bike-powered machines (e.g. water pumps, corn grinders, washing machines, etc), but also has worked building composting toilets, solar ovens, biodiesel conversions, and low-tech grey water filters. They are an anarchist collective, whose members participated in the uprising in Oaxaca in 2006, and whose machines and workshops often go to benefit the indigenous communities in the area.

I am hoping to help their lead mechanic Eric (yes, he is Mexican despite the Viking name) go to BikeBike! There is simply no chance of CACITA paying for that voyage, but the Bike Church has already committed to paying up to $200 towards helping buy him a plane ticket. If we can patch together some more donations for a total of around $600, that should be sufficient. If your project can make a donation please reply ASAP to Steve at sschnaar@riseup.net. You can send checks to "the Bike Church" at 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (but please also email to advise you are sending it).

Also FYI I had gone down to Mexico originally in response to an email from El Machete, a project in Chiapas, in the city of San Cristobal. Perhaps you all got the same email in your collectives? Upon arrival I was disappointed to find the shop run by foreigners mostly from France, with lots of traveling punks from the US and Canada crashing there as well. I will not speak to any specific criticisms I have as I am trying to have a constructive dialogue with them about why I left, and in their defense they say they are a multinational collective including some Mexicans. But as I was not the only one there who had come in response to their email some months ago, and who was surprised to find a situation far different than I had expected, I thought it might be useful information for others.

Best wishes,

Steve Schnaar Collective Member The Bike Church 703 Pacific Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831/425-BIKE bikechurch@santacruzhub.org _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

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Thanks for passing this along, Ann. I'm not in a position to help in this case, but I do want to echo Ainsley and say this is a great topic of discussion for Bike!Bike!

In fact folks are already discussing creating some intentional space for revisiting the central Bike!Bike! organizing committee Ainsley mentioned, and in addition to that, addressing the possibility of creating some sort of working group for facilitating the attendance of Mexican projects. This would include translating invitations and announcements regarding the conference and other information, keeping track of communication between our network and the BiciRed, which is essentially Mexican equivalent of the Bike Collective Network, making visa application info available and facilitating the drafting of invitation letters, etc. Creating some sort of scholarship fund would be another task.

So please bring your ideas and experiences to Vancouver. Already at least a few people from the BiciRed are confirmed for the conference, and we intend to address this topic. I've been sort of at the nexus of the discussion so far, so anyone who can't attend but is still interested should feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll plug you in.

Dugan Meyer GDL en Bici Guadalajara, Mexico

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Ann Altstatt annaltstatt@gmail.com wrote:

Hello Think Tankers-- I'm passing on a message on behalf of the Santa Cruz Bike Church. We are testing the waters to see if any other organizations would be interested in helping us fund the BikeBike travel expenses for a fellow mechanic from a Oaxacan bike project. Read on!

Dear Bike Collectives,

I just spent a month in Oaxaca at CACITA, a center for "appropriate technologies" that focuses mostly these days on bike-powered machines (e.g. water pumps, corn grinders, washing machines, etc), but also has worked building composting toilets, solar ovens, biodiesel conversions, and low-tech grey water filters. They are an anarchist collective, whose members participated in the uprising in Oaxaca in 2006, and whose machines and workshops often go to benefit the indigenous communities in the area.

I am hoping to help their lead mechanic Eric (yes, he is Mexican despite the Viking name) go to BikeBike! There is simply no chance of CACITA paying for that voyage, but the Bike Church has already committed to paying up to $200 towards helping buy him a plane ticket. If we can patch together some more donations for a total of around $600, that should be sufficient. If your project can make a donation please reply ASAP to Steve at sschnaar@riseup.net. You can send checks to "the Bike Church" at 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (but please also email to advise you are sending it).

Also FYI I had gone down to Mexico originally in response to an email from El Machete, a project in Chiapas, in the city of San Cristobal. Perhaps you all got the same email in your collectives? Upon arrival I was disappointed to find the shop run by foreigners mostly from France, with lots of traveling punks from the US and Canada crashing there as well. I will not speak to any specific criticisms I have as I am trying to have a constructive dialogue with them about why I left, and in their defense they say they are a multinational collective including some Mexicans. But as I was not the only one there who had come in response to their email some months ago, and who was surprised to find a situation far different than I had expected, I thought it might be useful information for others.

Best wishes,

Steve Schnaar Collective Member The Bike Church 703 Pacific Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831/425-BIKE bikechurch@santacruzhub.org _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:

http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...