As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort by the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call or email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how this partnership will look.

Best,

Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150 Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7 Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org mailto:Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide http://openstreetsproject.org/blog/2012/02/21/open-streets-project-releases -best-practices-guide/ ! A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to establish a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy community at large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac e-of-cycling-in-america-69372

We invite you to join in the conversation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org http://www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households. _______________________________________________ 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 rg

Keep in mind, too, that the AWB is working on merging with the League of American Bicyclists and Bikes Belong [1]. I won't speak for them, but I don't necessarily trust right now that from an organizational standpoint, they (or the successor organization) will have the resources to cash checks their goodwill would write.

I second Godwin's statement about the differing end goals; as community shops, we work at a retail level that advocacy organizations -- or at least, the ones I'm most familiar with -- don't. I think, too, that before we can as a group of collectives start working with a national-level agency, we need to share what works at our local levels. The Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen is doing gangbusters community shop work, but we can't easily contribute to a partnership with AWB. What we can do is work with the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates and let the rest of the BCN know what we did, how we did it, and hopefully what worked, what didn't, and why. This sort of grassroots action plays directly to our strengths.

That said, I would love to see this discussion continued in Vancouver, particularly if AWB/LAB/BB sends a squad to Bike!Bike! and makes it easier for us to send representatives to ProWalk/ProBike.

--Ryan S.

[1] http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012/02/new-national-plan-to-transform-bicyc...

I think the ABW is doing great things! We've (Community Cycles in Boulder, CO) used their resources/help/guidance since they were the Thunderhead Alliance. They (and LAB and Bikes Belong) have been supportive of our efforts.

I agree with all of Jonathan's comments especially the ones abt how we can benefit as collectives. CC is also an advocacy organization and we're growing like crazy and making big differences in our community. The support of the Alliance absolutely gives us much higher level resource and credibility. (FYI: CC was one of the shops that received the donations of fixtures, racks, etc that Jonathan mentions below. CC has a small space and these items have much helped us...but that's a side note)

BUT: I understand the concerns that not all of us are advocacy orgs, not all of our goals, etc are 100% the same to AWB, but bottom line, they're looking to put people on bikes as we are. Yes, we have different ways to go abt this, different philosophies, different reaches, different community-oriented goals specific to where we're located -and that's fine. We all cater to our communities and that's what makes us really succeed at what we do.

I would love if someone from AWB could come to Bike Bike so we can continue discussing these possibilities/concerns/questions/needs/how we can work together...all that good stuff. When CC started 6 yrs ago, I felt like orgs like the League and Bikes Belong were so up there, so out of touch with collectives, so inaccessible but I've seen change that Jonathan describes. While there's still higher level advocacy efforts that might not pertain to all of us, they definitely have put grassroots back into their efforts.

I don't think there's any veiled agenda or a desire to take over the little guys. I just think they realize the work we do and that working together -them at their level, us at ours- only makes our efforts stronger and our voices louder.

Wanda

Wanda Pelegrina Caldas Community Cycles, Boulder's only non-profit bike shop Become a member today. using the secure online donation form. Thanks!!

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:09 -0600 From: jonathan@slcbikecollective.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

Godwin, This is an open discussion, there is nothing closed. Let's help them keep it open. The Alliance wants to keep all the information free and open, on an international level. They want to help smaller organizations get started, and they want to help larger organizations grow. In particular, they are experts at helping organizations get their non-profit paperwork done, find spaces, find people, build a sustainable organization that is able to raise funds -- regardless of what their goals are. We have an opportunity to help the Alliance help us, which is fill in the gaps in their current knowledge base, specifically how Community Bike Shops and youth programs work. Which will enable them to help more organizations like ours get started.

What is the catch, how would the Alliance benefit? As organizations grow, such as Community Cycling Center (Portland), Recycle-a-Bicycle (NYC), and the Bicycle Collective (Provo - Salt Lake - Ogden), we need higher level resources to grow that we are willing to pay for -- as a result we are paid members of the Alliance. Again, we weren't forced into it, their member resources are just that good.

Here is a fun example of something the Alliance did; a little while ago one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world contacted the Alliance and asked them which non-profit Community Bike Shops they knew of needed a donation of [brand new] fixtures (bike display racks, counters, displays, etc.,...) that they decided not to use for all of their concept stores. Raise your hand if your Community Bike Shop could have used a donation like this!

Keeping an open mind and an open heart, please read the following redundant mission statements:

"The Alliance for Biking & Walking creates, strengthens and unites state/province and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations." "The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones."

Now let's take a deeper look and put faces to the young people behind the Alliance for Walking and Biking ("Alliance"). This is most of the staff (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/about/C190), which lacks a new Communications Coordinator who ironically is from the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

Frankly, they are a small bunch of young, idealistic, bike obsessed, passionate people who strive to get more people riding bikes more often and get paid virtually nothing compared to the energy they give. Most republicans would call them a bunch of dirty hippies. Sound familiar? It does to me, because that is how I describe the people from Community Bike Shops including myself.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453

c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

Personally I love this quote from Steven seagal's film, Under Seige II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc). While crude, it gets to the point. So let's start with identifying some assumptions.

"Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend Bike!Bike!""Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend Bike!Bike! represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the National Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the National Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the Youth Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the Youth Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations are members of TheThinkTank email list" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations represented on the TheThinkTank email list actually read their email" All of these assumptions have a common truth hidden in them, which is that there is no single forum that will accurately represent all of "us." The only thing we can strive for is that all of "us" reach out in all forums, including calling people, and give enough time for information to trickle out to those that aren't represented in the known forums above.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Godwin ! goodgodwin@hotmail.com wrote:

This involves all of us, why not keep the discussion open for now? My first thoughts are that an alliance (with the alliance) would be of interest, however a partnership may be going too far. We have similar interests and possibly end goals, however I feel that our immediate goals are very different.

The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones.

From what I have understood of the AWB is that the primary interest is advocacy in general while to me, the BCN exists to help people start up their own collectives and keep them going. While most of us are likely advocates and want to promote cycling (and walking I guess), that I feel comes second or is even a byproduct of what we do.

I'm not sure where this would go in the end but we had some initial discussions at last year's Bike!Bike! concerning creating stronger ties between our organizations and possibly making the organization more formalized. There seemed to be some interest, however there was some backlash at the thought of a having a parent organization to encompass all of our organizations. The consensus seemed to be that this would not be of interest, however creating a third party organization to help with research and funding may be. Perhaps this is where such a partnership could take us.

My other concern is that the AWB is a US/Canada wide project, while it's awesome to hear that we've been included up here, the BCN has been helping organizations world-wide. I'm not sure how such a partnership would effect these relationships.

I really like that we're talking about this! Is there any chance that anyone from the AWB will be able to make it out to Vancouver this June? It would be a great opportunity to get this discussion going in person and gauge the feelings of the general community.

.godwin

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:47:54 -0400 From: Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org

Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort by the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call or email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how this partnership will look.

Best, Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator

Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7

Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide! A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org

Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to establish a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy community at large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac...

We invite you to join in the conversation.Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115

w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856

www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

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...

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...

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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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...

There are two wonderful things about community bike shops that will ensure their continued existence. The first is that they are* like weeds* (pioneer plant species). They can grow anywhere, don't need much water, and are essential to restructuring (healing) the soil. The second great thing about community bike shops is that they are *like infectious diseases*. They have no regard for income, skill level, skin tone or creed and will make anyone and everyone lovesick for bikes. As long as ABW and the bicycle advocacy machine don't begin to think of themselves as a landscapers or doctors trying to tidy everything up, and instead considers themselves *coauthors and biographers *helping to write/tell the unfolding story of bicycling, we'll all be okay.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Wanda Pelegrina Caldas < wanda@communitycycles.org> wrote:

I think the ABW is doing great things! We've (Community Cycles in Boulder, CO) used their resources/help/guidance since they were the Thunderhead Alliance. They (and LAB and Bikes Belong) have been supportive of our efforts.

I agree with all of Jonathan's comments especially the ones abt how we can benefit as collectives. CC is also an advocacy organization and we're growing like crazy and making big differences in our community. The support of the Alliance absolutely gives us much higher level resource and credibility. (FYI: CC was one of the shops that received the donations of fixtures, racks, etc that Jonathan mentions below. CC has a small space and these items have much helped us...but that's a side note)

BUT: I understand the concerns that not all of us are advocacy orgs, not all of our goals, etc are 100% the same to AWB, but bottom line, they're looking to put people on bikes as we are. Yes, we have different ways to go abt this, different philosophies, different reaches, different community-oriented goals specific to where we're located -and that's fine. We all cater to our communities and that's what makes us really succeed at what we do.

I would love if someone from AWB could come to Bike Bike so we can continue discussing these possibilities/concerns/questions/needs/how we can work together...all that good stuff. When CC started 6 yrs ago, I felt like orgs like the League and Bikes Belong were so up there, so out of touch with collectives, so inaccessible but I've seen change that Jonathan describes. While there's still higher level advocacy efforts that might not pertain to all of us, they definitely have put grassroots back into their efforts.

I don't think there's any veiled agenda or a desire to take over the little guys. I just think they realize the work we do and that working together -them at their level, us at ours- only makes our efforts stronger and our voices louder.

Wanda

*Wanda Pelegrina Caldas* Community Cycles http://communitycycles.org/, Boulder's only non-profit bike shop Become a member today. using the secure online donation formhttps://communitycycles.org/index.php?option=com_dtdonate&task=authorizenet&Itemid=166.

Thanks!!

---

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:09 -0600 From: jonathan@slcbikecollective.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

Godwin,

This is an open discussion, there is nothing closed. Let's help them keep it open.

The Alliance wants to keep all the information free and open, on an international level. They want to help smaller organizations get started, and they want to help larger organizations grow. In particular, they are experts at helping organizations get their non-profit paperwork done, find spaces, find people, build a sustainable organization that is able to raise funds -- regardless of what their goals are. We have an opportunity to help the Alliance help us, which is fill in the gaps in their current knowledge base, specifically how Community Bike Shops and youth programs work. Which will enable them to help more organizations like ours get started.

What is the catch, how would the Alliance benefit? As organizations grow, such as Community Cycling Center (Portland), Recycle-a-Bicycle (NYC), and the Bicycle Collective (Provo - Salt Lake - Ogden), we need higher level resources to grow that we are willing to pay for -- as a result we are paid members of the Alliance. Again, we weren't forced into it, their member resources are just that good.

Here is a fun example of something the Alliance did; a little while ago one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world contacted the Alliance and asked them which non-profit Community Bike Shops they knew of needed a donation of [brand new] fixtures (bike display racks, counters, displays, etc.,...) that they decided not to use for all of their concept stores. Raise your hand if your Community Bike Shop could have used a donation like this!

Keeping an open mind and an open heart, please read the following redundant mission statements:

"The Alliance for Biking & Walking creates, strengthens and unites state/province and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations."

"The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones."

Now let's take a deeper look and put faces to the young people behind the Alliance for Walking and Biking ("Alliance"). This is most of the staff ( http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/about/C190), which lacks a new Communications Coordinator who ironically is from the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

Frankly, they are a small bunch of young, idealistic, bike obsessed, passionate people who strive to get more people riding bikes more often and get paid virtually nothing compared to the energy they give. Most republicans would call them a bunch of dirty hippies. Sound familiar? It does to me, because that is how I describe the people from Community Bike Shops including myself.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

---

Personally I love this quote from Steven seagal's film, Under Seige II ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc). While crude, it gets to the point. So let's start with identifying some assumptions.

"Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend Bike!Bike!" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend Bike!Bike! represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the National Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the National Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the Youth Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the Youth Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations are members of TheThinkTank email list" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations represented on the TheThinkTank email list actually read their email"

All of these assumptions have a common truth hidden in them, which is that there is no single forum that will accurately represent all of "us." The only thing we can strive for is that all of "us" reach out in all forums, including calling people, and give enough time for information to trickle out to those that aren't represented in the known forums above.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Godwin ! goodgodwin@hotmail.com wrote:

This involves all of us, why not keep the discussion open for now?

My first thoughts are that an alliance (with the alliance) would be of interest, however a partnership may be going too far. We have similar interests and possibly end goals, however I feel that our immediate goals are very different.

The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones.

From what I have understood of the AWB is that the primary interest is advocacy in general while to me, the BCN exists to help people start up their own collectives and keep them going. While most of us are likely advocates and want to promote cycling (and walking I guess), that I feel comes second or is even a byproduct of what we do.

I'm not sure where this would go in the end but we had some initial discussions at last year's Bike!Bike! concerning creating stronger ties between our organizations and possibly making the organization more formalized. There seemed to be some interest, however there was some backlash at the thought of a having a parent organization to encompass all of our organizations. The consensus seemed to be that this would not be of interest, however creating a third party organization to help with research and funding may be. Perhaps this is where such a partnership could take us.

My other concern is that the AWB is a US/Canada wide project, while it's awesome to hear that we've been included up here, the BCN has been helping organizations world-wide. I'm not sure how such a partnership would effect these relationships.

I really like that we're talking about this! Is there any chance that anyone from the AWB will be able to make it out to Vancouver this June? It would be a great opportunity to get this discussion going in person and gauge the feelings of the general community.

.godwin

---

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:47:54 -0400 From: Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort by the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call or email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how this partnership will look.

Best,

Mike Samuelson *Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator* Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150 Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7 Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guidehttp://openstreetsproject.org/blog/2012/02/21/open-streets-project-releases-best-practices-guide/! A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to establish a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy community at large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac...

We invite you to join in the conversation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households. _______________________________________________ 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... _______________________________________________ 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...

---

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

_______________________________________________ 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...

---

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...

Personally these are not issues I'm worried about at all with any kind of partnership with the ABW. I believe Jonathan has more than proved his motives to us all and I have a deep respect for everything he has done; I'm just concerned if this partnership makes sense. What I'm most concerned about is the assumption that community bike shops are not advocacy organizations, I don't agree that the mission statements, as they currently stand, are redundant.

I'm hoping that we will see a more formal proposal at some point so that we can avoid making any further assumptions, and even better, that we might speak with someone in-person in Vancouver (no not all shops will be there, but it's also not the place to make final decisions, rather a place to gauge opinion and spread the word).

Weeds are persistent but also vulnerable and only tend to thrive where the soil suits them best, we can probably improve our prospects with a little more preparation and tending as needed, maybe this is a way in which we can get that done, .godwin

Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:17:07 -0500 From: joshua@healthykidsinitiative.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

There are two wonderful things about community bike shops that will ensure their continued existence. The first is that they are like weeds (pioneer plant species). They can grow anywhere, don't need much water, and are essential to restructuring (healing) the soil. The second great thing about community bike shops is that they are like infectious diseases. They have no regard for income, skill level, skin tone or creed and will make anyone and everyone lovesick for bikes. As long as ABW and the bicycle advocacy machine don't begin to think of themselves as a landscapers or doctors trying to tidy everything up, and instead considers themselves coauthors and biographers helping to write/tell the unfolding story of bicycling, we'll all be okay.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Wanda Pelegrina Caldas wanda@communitycycles.org wrote:

I think the ABW is doing great things! We've (Community Cycles in Boulder, CO) used their resources/help/guidance since they were the Thunderhead Alliance. They (and LAB and Bikes Belong) have been supportive of our efforts.

I agree with all of Jonathan's comments especially the ones abt how we can benefit as collectives. CC is also an advocacy organization and we're growing like crazy and making big differences in our community. The support of the Alliance absolutely gives us much higher level resource and credibility. (FYI: CC was one of the shops that received the donations of fixtures, racks, etc that Jonathan mentions below. CC has a small space and these items have much helped us...but that's a side note)

BUT: I understand the concerns that not all of us are advocacy orgs, not all of our goals, etc are 100% the same to AWB, but bottom line, they're looking to put people on bikes as we are. Yes, we have different ways to go abt this, different philosophies, different reaches, different community-oriented goals specific to where we're located -and that's fine. We all cater to our communities and that's what makes us really succeed at what we do.

I would love if someone from AWB could come to Bike Bike so we can continue discussing these possibilities/concerns/questions/needs/how we can work together...all that good stuff. When CC started 6 yrs ago, I felt like orgs like the League and Bikes Belong were so up there, so out of touch with collectives, so inaccessible but I've seen change that Jonathan describes. While there's still higher level advocacy efforts that might not pertain to all of us, they definitely have put grassroots back into their efforts.

I don't think there's any veiled agenda or a desire to take over the little guys. I just think they realize the work we do and that working together -them at their level, us at ours- only makes our efforts stronger and our voices louder.

Wanda

Wanda Pelegrina Caldas Community Cycles, Boulder's only non-profit bike shop

Become a member today. using the secure online donation form.

Thanks!!

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:09 -0600 From: jonathan@slcbikecollective.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

Godwin, This is an open discussion, there is nothing closed. Let's help them keep it open.

The Alliance wants to keep all the information free and open, on an international level. They want to help smaller organizations get started, and they want to help larger organizations grow. In particular, they are experts at helping organizations get their non-profit paperwork done, find spaces, find people, build a sustainable organization that is able to raise funds -- regardless of what their goals are. We have an opportunity to help the Alliance help us, which is fill in the gaps in their current knowledge base, specifically how Community Bike Shops and youth programs work. Which will enable them to help more organizations like ours get started.

What is the catch, how would the Alliance benefit? As organizations grow, such as Community Cycling Center (Portland), Recycle-a-Bicycle (NYC), and the Bicycle Collective (Provo - Salt Lake - Ogden), we need higher level resources to grow that we are willing to pay for -- as a result we are paid members of the Alliance. Again, we weren't forced into it, their member resources are just that good.

Here is a fun example of something the Alliance did; a little while ago one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world contacted the Alliance and asked them which non-profit Community Bike Shops they knew of needed a donation of [brand new] fixtures (bike display racks, counters, displays, etc.,...) that they decided not to use for all of their concept stores. Raise your hand if your Community Bike Shop could have used a donation like this!

Keeping an open mind and an open heart, please read the following redundant mission statements:

"The Alliance for Biking & Walking creates, strengthens and unites state/province and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations." "The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones."

Now let's take a deeper look and put faces to the young people behind the Alliance for Walking and Biking ("Alliance"). This is most of the staff (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/about/C190), which lacks a new Communications Coordinator who ironically is from the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

Frankly, they are a small bunch of young, idealistic, bike obsessed, passionate people who strive to get more people riding bikes more often and get paid virtually nothing compared to the energy they give. Most republicans would call them a bunch of dirty hippies. Sound familiar? It does to me, because that is how I describe the people from Community Bike Shops including myself.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453

c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

Personally I love this quote from Steven seagal's film, Under Seige II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc). While crude, it gets to the point. So let's start with identifying some assumptions.

"Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend Bike!Bike!""Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend Bike!Bike! represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the National Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the National Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the Youth Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the Youth Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations are members of TheThinkTank email list" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations represented on the TheThinkTank email list actually read their email" All of these assumptions have a common truth hidden in them, which is that there is no single forum that will accurately represent all of "us." The only thing we can strive for is that all of "us" reach out in all forums, including calling people, and give enough time for information to trickle out to those that aren't represented in the known forums above.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Godwin ! goodgodwin@hotmail.com wrote:

This involves all of us, why not keep the discussion open for now? My first thoughts are that an alliance (with the alliance) would be of interest, however a partnership may be going too far. We have similar interests and possibly end goals, however I feel that our immediate goals are very different.

The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones.

From what I have understood of the AWB is that the primary interest is advocacy in general while to me, the BCN exists to help people start up their own collectives and keep them going. While most of us are likely advocates and want to promote cycling (and walking I guess), that I feel comes second or is even a byproduct of what we do.

I'm not sure where this would go in the end but we had some initial discussions at last year's Bike!Bike! concerning creating stronger ties between our organizations and possibly making the organization more formalized. There seemed to be some interest, however there was some backlash at the thought of a having a parent organization to encompass all of our organizations. The consensus seemed to be that this would not be of interest, however creating a third party organization to help with research and funding may be. Perhaps this is where such a partnership could take us.

My other concern is that the AWB is a US/Canada wide project, while it's awesome to hear that we've been included up here, the BCN has been helping organizations world-wide. I'm not sure how such a partnership would effect these relationships.

I really like that we're talking about this! Is there any chance that anyone from the AWB will be able to make it out to Vancouver this June? It would be a great opportunity to get this discussion going in person and gauge the feelings of the general community.

.godwin

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:47:54 -0400 From: Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org

Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort by the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call or email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how this partnership will look.

Best, Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator

Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7

Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide! A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org

Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to establish a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy community at large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac...

We invite you to join in the conversation.Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115

w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856

www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

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Here's what I wrote privately to Mike Samuelson from the Alliance recently on the topic:

"I'm curious to see how this whole Alliance conversation goes. Mostly, what occurs to be as potential improvements for local non-profit bike organizations like CBPO in this discussion is better leveraging the power of large numbers on things that we all need. Things like:

• Could we lower our insurance costs if we could buy into some kind of

national group plan?

• Could we set up a discounted pricing structure for nonprofit shops on a

limited range of items? (We try hard not to compete with local commercial bike shops, but still sell a very stripped-down list of basic and hard-to-find items. It would be great if we could get some kind of reduced group pricing on those kinds of items.)

• Could we set up discounted fee structures for financial vendors (e.g.,

PayPal/Square), beyond what they currently offer?

And just to mention it, I think that most top-down planning and structural ideas will be extraordinarily difficult to implement across any significant number of nonprofit shops, e.g., best practices for Open Shop, standardizing Earn-a-Bike programs, etc."

Hoping to make it to Bike! Bike! this year!

Matt

Matt Martin Executive Director Community Bike Project Omaha Manager Omaha B-cycle 525 North 33rd Street Omaha, NE 68131 402-957-2454 www.communitybikeproject.org

On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 5:36 PM, DancesWithCars danceswithcars@gmail.comwrote:

I've traveled around the Washington DC area (few times to Baltimore) to different Coops, Community Bike Shops and Youth Programs volunteering when I can, and I'd like to see what ABW (I think I met or saw Jonathan at the BikeFilmFestival one or more of the three years in Washington DC) thinks of the grass roots work by Critical Mass and other similar Kidical Mass, etc...

Something like the Democratic National Committee/ Republican National Committee or forming a Bike National Committee and declaring the party line is something many would be cautious about for the reasons others have already stated plus Gridlock in large organizations (not unlike Congress/Parliament, eh?), funding over people, and non profit vs. profit models.

If as large member organization, ABW wants more members, (AFL + CIO comes to mind) what are the rates that small and individuals can and would pay to participate/ join? What are the volunteer rates that people participate to become members? How many Coops and other places have people who can not pay memberships? But may have some time to help, and learn even if they don't have money to donate or contribute? Limited Income/ Senior and Student Rates are common methods for this in many non profits member run organizations.

Can everyone afford to go to Bike!Bike! or Bike Summit? No. I live here and can't but for disabled reasons. According to the League, there were only two main events open to the public, a ride with Congress and a meeting.

The summit held the non open meeting and now it's reported out and decided?

What is the memorandum of understanding? Who are the authorities that speak for all? I certainly don't, even for the organizations I go to, some of which aren't even really coops anymore, the collective methods were too slow and painful for many, that top down is what is becoming the default, instead of what I spent over a year volunteering to help create, as some were starting, much less all the customers who come in the doors looking for help with bikes, clubs, riding groups or roads or other infrastructure on up to Advocacy (usually means write your Congress / Government person, a free action item, BTW...

I can see that WABA (Washington Area Bicycle Association and other regional organizations around the country and world are probably good places to start MORE community organizing, if say we have a transportation bill that is going to kill us financially and / or otherwise practically with construction, detours, train/ trolley tracks on roads, etc...

But a top down approach probably isn't going to work, IMO, in the long run. Both bottom up and top down, and middle around probably are necessary, and There Will Be Rebels, CM or otherwise, that aren't going to want to do what others are going to do, following other leaders, (or we would be driving cars/trucks/ SUV's, no?) so I look forward to hearing what others think on this list and elsewhere, even when we aren't on the chopping block from Congress..

(yeah, more Abbie Hoffman than Exec Dir material)

On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Joshua Hoffman joshua@healthykidsinitiative.org wrote:

...

There are two wonderful things about community bike shops that will

ensure

...

their continued existence. The first is that they are like weeds (pioneer plant species). They can grow anywhere, don't need much water, and are essential to restructuring (healing) the soil. The second great thing

about

...

community bike shops is that they are like infectious diseases. They

have no

...

regard for income, skill level, skin tone or creed and will make anyone

and

...

everyone lovesick for bikes. As long as ABW and the

bicycle advocacy machine

...

don't begin to think of themselves as a landscapers or doctors trying to tidy everything up, and instead considers themselves coauthors and biographers helping to write/tell the unfolding story of bicycling, we'll all be okay.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Wanda Pelegrina Caldas wanda@communitycycles.org wrote:

...

I think the ABW is doing great things! We've (Community Cycles in

Boulder,

...

...

CO) used their resources/help/guidance since they were the Thunderhead Alliance. They (and LAB and Bikes Belong) have been supportive of our efforts.

I agree with all of Jonathan's comments especially the ones abt how we

can

...

...

benefit as collectives. CC is also an advocacy organization and we're growing like crazy and making big differences in our community. The

support

...

...

of the Alliance absolutely gives us much higher level resource and credibility. (FYI: CC was one of the shops that received the donations

of

...

...

fixtures, racks, etc that Jonathan mentions below. CC has a small space

and

...

...

these items have much helped us...but that's a side note)

BUT: I understand the concerns that not all of us are advocacy orgs, not all of our goals, etc are 100% the same to AWB, but bottom line, they're looking to put people on bikes as we are. Yes, we have different ways

to go

...

...

abt this, different philosophies, different reaches, different community-oriented goals specific to where we're located -and that's

fine.

...

...

We all cater to our communities and that's what makes us really succeed

at

...

...

what we do.

I would love if someone from AWB could come to Bike Bike so we can continue discussing these possibilities/concerns/questions/needs/how we

can

...

...

work together...all that good stuff. When CC started 6 yrs ago, I felt

like

...

...

orgs like the League and Bikes Belong were so up there, so out of touch

with

...

...

collectives, so inaccessible but I've seen change that Jonathan

describes.

...

...

While there's still higher level advocacy efforts that might not

pertain to

...

...

all of us, they definitely have put grassroots back into their efforts.

I don't think there's any veiled agenda or a desire to take over the little guys. I just think they realize the work we do and that working together -them at their level, us at ours- only makes our efforts

stronger

...

...

and our voices louder.

Wanda

Wanda Pelegrina Caldas Community Cycles, Boulder's only non-profit bike shop Become a member today. using the secure online donation form. Thanks!!

---

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:09 -0600 From: jonathan@slcbikecollective.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking

and

...

...

Biking

Godwin,

This is an open discussion, there is nothing closed. Let's help them

keep

...

...

it open.

The Alliance wants to keep all the information free and open, on an international level. They want to help smaller organizations get

started,

...

...

and they want to help larger organizations grow. In particular, they

are

...

...

experts at helping organizations get their non-profit paperwork done,

find

...

...

spaces, find people, build a sustainable organization that is able to

raise

...

...

funds -- regardless of what their goals are. We have an opportunity to

help

...

...

the Alliance help us, which is fill in the gaps in their current

knowledge

...

...

base, specifically how Community Bike Shops and youth programs work.

Which

...

...

will enable them to help more organizations like ours get started.

What is the catch, how would the Alliance benefit? As organizations

grow,

...

...

such as Community Cycling Center (Portland), Recycle-a-Bicycle (NYC),

and

...

...

the Bicycle Collective (Provo - Salt Lake - Ogden), we need higher level resources to grow that we are willing to pay for -- as a result we are

paid

...

...

members of the Alliance. Again, we weren't forced into it, their member resources are just that good.

Here is a fun example of something the Alliance did; a little while ago one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world contacted the

Alliance

...

...

and asked them which non-profit Community Bike Shops they knew of

needed a

...

...

donation of [brand new] fixtures (bike display racks, counters,

displays,

...

...

etc.,...) that they decided not to use for all of their concept stores. Raise your hand if your Community Bike Shop could have used a donation

like

...

...

this!

Keeping an open mind and an open heart, please read the following redundant mission statements:

"The Alliance for Biking & Walking creates, strengthens and unites state/province and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations."

"The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and

encourage

...

...

communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones."

Now let's take a deeper look and put faces to the young people behind

the

...

...

Alliance for Walking and Biking ("Alliance"). This is most of the staff (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/about/C190),

which

...

...

lacks a new Communications Coordinator who ironically is from the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

Frankly, they are a small bunch of young, idealistic, bike obsessed, passionate people who strive to get more people riding bikes more often

and

...

...

get paid virtually nothing compared to the energy they give. Most republicans would call them a bunch of dirty hippies. Sound familiar?

It

...

...

does to me, because that is how I describe the people from Community

Bike

...

...

Shops including myself.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote

cycling

...

...

as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a

cornerstone

...

...

of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective

provides

...

...

refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community,

focusing on

...

...

children and lower income households.

---

Personally I love this quote from Steven seagal's film, Under Seige II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc). While crude, it gets to

the

...

...

point. So let's start with identifying some assumptions.

"Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend Bike!Bike!" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that

attend

...

...

Bike!Bike! represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend

the

...

...

National Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that

attend

...

...

the National Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend

the

...

...

Youth Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that

attend

...

...

the Youth Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations are

members

...

...

of TheThinkTank email list" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations

represented

...

...

on the TheThinkTank email list actually read their email"

All of these assumptions have a common truth hidden in them, which is

that

...

...

there is no single forum that will accurately represent all of "us."

The

...

...

only thing we can strive for is that all of "us" reach out in all

forums,

...

...

including calling people, and give enough time for information to

trickle

...

...

out to those that aren't represented in the known forums above.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Godwin ! goodgodwin@hotmail.com

wrote:

...

...

This involves all of us, why not keep the discussion open for now?

My first thoughts are that an alliance (with the alliance) would be of interest, however a partnership may be going too far. We have similar interests and possibly end goals, however I feel that our immediate

goals

...

...

are very different.

The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and

encourage

...

...

communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones.

From what I have understood of the AWB is that the primary interest is advocacy in general while to me, the BCN exists to help people start up their own collectives and keep them going. While most of us are likely advocates and want to promote cycling (and walking I guess), that I feel comes second or is even a byproduct of what we do.

I'm not sure where this would go in the end but we had some initial discussions at last year's Bike!Bike! concerning creating stronger ties between our organizations and possibly making the organization more formalized. There seemed to be some interest, however there was some backlash at the thought of a having a parent organization to encompass

all

...

...

of our organizations. The consensus seemed to be that this would not be

of

...

...

interest, however creating a third party organization to help with

research

...

...

and funding may be. Perhaps this is where such a partnership could take

us.

...

...

My other concern is that the AWB is a US/Canada wide project, while it's awesome to hear that we've been included up here, the BCN has been

helping

...

...

organizations world-wide. I'm not sure how such a partnership would

effect

...

...

these relationships.

I really like that we're talking about this! Is there any chance that anyone from the AWB will be able to make it out to Vancouver this June?

It

...

...

would be a great opportunity to get this discussion going in person and gauge the feelings of the general community.

.godwin

---

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:47:54 -0400 From: Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking

and

...

...

Biking

As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort

by

...

...

the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call

or

...

...

email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how

this

...

...

partnership will look.

Best,

Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150 Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7 Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide! A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to

establish

...

...

a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy

community at

...

...

large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac...

...

...

We invite you to join in the conversation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote

cycling

...

...

as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a

cornerstone

...

...

of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective

provides

...

...

refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community,

focusing on

...

...

children and lower income households. _______________________________________________ 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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...

...

_______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing

list

...

...

Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank

email to

...

...

TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription,

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...

...

visit:

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...

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...

...

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list

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email to

...

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...

...

-- Joshua Hoffman

Safe Routes Organizer Rosedale Development Association Rosedale Healthy Kids Initiative 1403 S.W. Boulevard Kansas City, KS 66103 913-645-7826

---

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-- DancesWithCars leave the wolves behind ;-) _______________________________________________ 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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Karen,

Thank you , I agree with your main point that there needs to be a focus on capacity building at the local level for community driven bike initiatives. I also agree that local bike initiatives do reach a broader spectrum of ridership than the quote “advocacy” organizations. Bicycle Longmont has taken the initiative to focus almost exclusively on occasional and recreational riders, otherwise known as the 80% of people who own bikes. We’ve had a great deal of success, but we’ve got a long way to go.

It would be helpful if this new merger produced a toolkit new and struggling organizations could use to build new and reinvigorate existing organizations.

Also – in the long term, the League/Alliance should consider developing a “Local Advocacy Council” that would be advisory to the combined League/Alliance Board of Directors. The local advocacy council could be comprised of community bike shop orgs, advocacy orgs etc. The members could be representative of and elected to the council by an electorate based on annual budget of member organizations, community bike shops etc. as reported on their IRS 990 form. Doing this would insure a cross section of organizations and possibly perspectives.

The council could/should develop their own mission, but one part could be to foster new local initiatives/organizations/bike shops etc. and provide support and be a conduit for Board action and sounding board for League/Alliance policy changes.

This example is copied from Rebuilding Together – USA, www.rebuildingtogether.org . I established an affiliate in Minneapolis St. Paul in 1997, and served on the National Affiliate Council from 1999 – 2001. It’s a great model. Their affiliate council was advisory to the board and handled policy changes as well as the nonprofits’ name change from Christmas in April to Rebuilding Together.

For more info on a case study in capacity building and why it’s important keep reading.

I’ve volunteered for about 4 years with Bicycle Longmont and have been the president for the past year and a half. Bicycle Longmont was founded in 2001, however some in the community say it goes back to a group of casual cyclists who started meeting in 1993. Officially, though, we grew out of the City of Longmont’s planning processes that included updating our local land use plan and writing a multi-modal transportation plan. Bicycle Longmont officially registered as a 501c3 non-profit in 2003.

From 2003 to 2010 Bicycle Longmont focused on Bike to Work Day,

advocating for better bike facilities, and promoting the League’s agenda with much success.

In December of 2010 the Board met and agreed we needed to grow the capacity of our organization in order to remain relevant. We decided we wanted to continue advocating, organizing community driven, grassroots rides, and wanted to open a community bike shop. In order to do anything more than what we’d done previously, we needed to build capacity.

We contacted the League, Bicycle Colorado and other bike organizations to find out if there were any capacity building trainers, funding sources, or just someone to talk too. We attended the National Bike Summits and also the Colorado Bike Summit, we learned lots about legislation and why organizing is important, we even beat our chests with the best of them, lamented the misunderstood cyclist, but ultimately learned nothing about building a healthy bike focused organization.

It was apparent that even though we were dues paying members of LAB and Bicycle Colorado – we were on our own when it came to capacity building. By January 2011, we looked around the community and asked our selves what’s working and what’s not. Our organization was floundering but our community organized rides were growing. Being in the West, we grabbed our bootstraps and began pulling.

We needed money to accomplish our list made in 2010. Therefore, we developed two fundraisers: Longmont’s Bike Film Festival and a community cruiser ride called the G’Knight Ride. The film fest was our best bang for the buck and our cruiser ride was very expensive but very successful. We planned for 200 cruisers and nearly 1200 casual riders showed up. The ride attracted predominantly married middle class families with average household incomes of $87,000, between the ages of 33 – 45, who had 1 to 2 kids and considered themselves recreational cyclists.

With the proceeds we were able to fund and expand our Bicycle Valet service, Kid’s Holiday Bike Program – we gave away nearly 450 bikes to low income kids, the visibility of the G’Knight Ride allowed us to expand our number of volunteers. Our volunteer led – volunteer organized rides exploded from 3 – 4 per month to 10 – 12 per week. Our largest weekly cruiser ride “Bike Night” increased from an average of 80 people per week to 100 people per week. We are now working toward starting our non-profit community bike shop and developed a partnership with a local bike racing club and Mall owner to conduct a weekly road/Crit series.

Our second annual G’Knight Ride will happen on June 16th 2012. We hope to be in our new bike shop by August and we hope to add volunteers and increase the capacity of our board and organization.

You would think being successful and developing a funding source is testament to organizational capacity. In actuality, it’s not. Our organization is still fragile. I lay awake at night worrying about whether our success is a flash in the pan or sustainable.

We still need to attract more dedicated volunteers. I still struggle to inspire and motivate our board members to follow their passion.

To relate this back to the League and the Alliance merger, we hope this merger will create some dedication toward capacity building for local initiatives. We hope that other organizations can learn from what we’ve done, what others have done and can be lifted up and supported by this new “super advocacy machine”.

We lifted ourselves up by our bootstraps in order to survive. We created the fundraisers because our attempts at getting grants, donations, or even regular dues paying members failed. We know there are other organizations like ours, who either are or can be successful, too. We just need a roadmap and a conduit to share our stories. So far, in my limited experience, this forum is the only place I’ve found where the trials and tribulations are celebrated and lamented in community.

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 9:36 AM, Karen Overton karenovert@gmail.com wrote:

The beauty of partnerships is that they create the opportunity to pool resourses and build upon the strengths of each partner. The draft agreement does not include clauses that impact decision-making at a local organizational level, so those fears have no way to manifest themselves. Very few financial resources are being committed. It assumes that start-up efforts piggyback upon existing activities and assumes staff time that is already being dedicated to collective capacity building.  Using the plant metaphor, the seed has been planted and begun to sprout. For this initiative to truly blossom, we need to educate and create broader consensus among community groups - which is what is happening now- set priorities & create a plan of action on how best to partner in a mutually beneficial way

• which the draft agreement offers a starting point - and then raise money

to fund the needs (specific publications, workshops, etc.) that meet the needs of BCN members - which is proposed in a way that allows us to build trust by starting small.

I am interested in this partnership for 3 main reasons. First, as the former director of Recycle-A-Bicycle, I spent years giving advice to start-up initiatives and brokered many local partnerships with time and resources to help them grow. Most of those local initiatives failed after a few years. I never had the capacity to spend the time/resurces on helping these efforts as much as they needed. At the time, RAB was in survival mode. A group whose primary goal is to help build the capacity of start-ups and then advise on sustaining them is greatly needed. Luckily, RAB is currently able to support at least 9 local initiatives through partnerships with public schools, the health department and community based organizations (none of which interfere with internal decision-making).

The first Youth Bike Summit surprised us at RAB. We had planned this as a way to support local activity and did not dream that it would attract so many people from across the country. This demonstrated a very strong desire for the need to share ideas among youth bike education groups. In order to build on this energy, I believe that a partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking would be beneficial.  This group has resources on building organizations, works at a national level, and is making the effort to better understand our community work and figure out how best to design a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The fact that we all introduce people to bikes is the first step in creating a base for advocacy.  Our community efforts reach a much broader spectrum of people than the advocacy groups attract. Advocacy efforts would benefit from a more diverse base. However, this is not an attempt to coerce people into advocacy campaigns they do not have a voice in. What is interesting is whether and how cooperation on a capacity building level can lead to a more inclusive political process.

In my humble opinion, we are rolling in the right direction. Karen Overton

On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Mike Samuelson Mike@peoplepoweredmovement.org wrote:

...

I think Joshua's last sentence stated what we are trying to do better than I could have.  The Alliance does not position ourselves as "experts".  Through our programming, we try to share the successes of local organizations, and provide a space for discussions on topics that interest them.

Just to reiterate, we don't have a hidden agenda, and to provide new opportunities while not tampering with the resources that have already been created.  I appreciate those of you who have taken the time to respond with your thoughts, and I'm looking forward to hearing more people's opinions.

Best,

Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150 Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7 Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide!  A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Joshua Hoffman joshua@healthykidsinitiative.org

Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:17:07 -0500 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

There are two wonderful things about community bike shops that will ensure their continued existence. The first is that they are like weeds (pioneer plant species). They can grow anywhere, don't need much water, and are essential to restructuring (healing) the soil. The second great thing about community bike shops is that they are like infectious diseases. They have no regard for income, skill level, skin tone or creed and will make anyone and everyone lovesick for bikes. As long as ABW and the bicycle advocacy machine don't begin to think of themselves as a landscapers or doctors trying to tidy everything up, and instead considers themselves coauthors and biographers helping to write/tell the unfolding story of bicycling, we'll all be okay.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Wanda Pelegrina Caldas wanda@communitycycles.org wrote:

...

I think the ABW is doing great things! We've (Community Cycles in Boulder, CO) used their resources/help/guidance since they were the Thunderhead Alliance. They (and LAB and Bikes Belong) have been supportive of our efforts.

I agree with all of Jonathan's comments especially the ones abt how we can benefit as collectives. CC is also an advocacy organization and we're growing like crazy and making big differences in our community. The support of the Alliance absolutely gives us much higher level resource and credibility. (FYI: CC was one of the shops that received the donations of fixtures, racks, etc that Jonathan mentions below. CC has a small space and these items have much helped us...but that's a side note)

BUT: I understand the concerns that not all of us are advocacy orgs, not all of our goals, etc are 100% the same to AWB, but bottom line, they're looking to put people on bikes as we are. Yes, we have different ways to go abt this, different philosophies, different reaches, different community-oriented goals specific to where we're located -and that's fine. We all cater to our communities and that's what makes us really succeed at what we do.

I would love if someone from AWB could come to Bike Bike so we can continue discussing these possibilities/concerns/questions/needs/how we can work together...all that good stuff. When CC started 6 yrs ago, I felt like orgs like the League and Bikes Belong were so up there, so out of touch with collectives, so inaccessible but I've seen change that Jonathan describes. While there's still higher level advocacy efforts that might not pertain to all of us, they definitely have put grassroots back into their efforts.

I don't think there's any veiled agenda or a desire to take over the little guys. I just think they realize the work we do and that working together -them at their level, us at ours- only makes our efforts stronger and our voices louder.

Wanda

Wanda Pelegrina Caldas Community Cycles, Boulder's only non-profit bike shop Become a member today. using the secure online donation form. Thanks!!

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Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:37:09 -0600 From: jonathan@slcbikecollective.org To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

Godwin,

This is an open discussion, there is nothing closed.  Let's help them keep it open.

The Alliance wants to keep all the information free and open, on an international level.  They want to help smaller organizations get started, and they want to help larger organizations grow.  In particular, they are experts at helping organizations get their non-profit paperwork done, find spaces, find people, build a sustainable organization that is able to raise funds -- regardless of what their goals are.  We have an opportunity to help the Alliance help us, which is fill in the gaps in their current knowledge base, specifically how Community Bike Shops and youth programs work.  Which will enable them to help more organizations like ours get started.

What is the catch, how would the Alliance benefit?  As organizations grow, such as Community Cycling Center (Portland), Recycle-a-Bicycle (NYC), and the Bicycle Collective (Provo - Salt Lake - Ogden), we need higher level resources to grow that we are willing to pay for -- as a result we are paid members of the Alliance.  Again, we weren't forced into it, their member resources are just that good.

Here is a fun example of something the Alliance did; a little while ago one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world contacted the Alliance and asked them which non-profit Community Bike Shops they knew of needed a donation of [brand new] fixtures (bike display racks, counters, displays, etc.,...) that they decided not to use for all of their concept stores.  Raise your hand if your Community Bike Shop could have used a donation like this!

Keeping an open mind and an open heart, please read the following redundant mission statements:

"The Alliance for Biking & Walking creates, strengthens and unites state/province and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations."

"The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones."

Now let's take a deeper look and put faces to the young people behind the Alliance for Walking and Biking ("Alliance").  This is most of the staff (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/about/C190), which lacks a new Communications Coordinator who ironically is from the Bloomington Community Bike Project.

Frankly, they are a small bunch of young, idealistic, bike obsessed, passionate people who strive to get more people riding bikes more often and get paid virtually nothing compared to the energy they give.  Most republicans would call them a bunch of dirty hippies.  Sound familiar?  It does to me, because that is how I describe the people from Community Bike Shops including myself.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

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Personally I love this quote from Steven seagal's film, Under Seige II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4trPZFUwc).  While crude, it gets to the point.  So let's start with identifying some assumptions.

"Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend Bike!Bike!" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend Bike!Bike! represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the National Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the National Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations attend the Youth Bike Summit" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations that attend the Youth Bike Summit represent everyone else." "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations are members of TheThinkTank email list" "Representatives from 100% of all Community Bike Organizations represented on the TheThinkTank email list actually read their email"

All of these assumptions have a common truth hidden in them, which is that there is no single forum that will accurately represent all of "us."  The only thing we can strive for is that all of "us" reach out in all forums, including calling people, and give enough time for information to trickle out to those that aren't represented in the known forums above.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Godwin ! goodgodwin@hotmail.com wrote:

This involves all of us, why not keep the discussion open for now?

My first thoughts are that an alliance (with the alliance) would be of interest, however a partnership may be going too far. We have similar interests and possibly end goals, however I feel that our immediate goals are very different.

The mission of the Bike Collective Network is to strengthen and encourage communication and resource sharing between existing and future community bike shops. Collectively we can improve a bigger wheel as opposed to re-inventing smaller ones.

From what I have understood of the AWB is that the primary interest is advocacy in general while to me, the BCN exists to help people start up their own collectives and keep them going. While most of us are likely advocates and want to promote cycling (and walking I guess), that I feel comes second or is even a byproduct of what we do.

I'm not sure where this would go in the end but we had some initial discussions at last year's Bike!Bike! concerning creating stronger ties between our organizations and possibly making the organization more formalized. There seemed to be some interest, however there was some backlash at the thought of a having a parent organization to encompass all of our organizations. The consensus seemed to be that this would not be of interest, however creating a third party organization to help with research and funding may be. Perhaps this is where such a partnership could take us.

My other concern is that the AWB is a US/Canada wide project, while it's awesome to hear that we've been included up here, the BCN has been helping organizations world-wide. I'm not sure how such a partnership would effect these relationships.

I really like that we're talking about this! Is there any chance that anyone from the AWB will be able to make it out to Vancouver this June? It would be a great opportunity to get this discussion going in person and gauge the feelings of the general community.

.godwin

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Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:47:54 -0400 From: Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

As Jonathan mentioned, we have been in discussions about establishing a partnership with the Bike Collective Network as part of a larger effort by the Alliance to work with Community Bike Shops. I encourage you to call or email me with your thoughts and ideas as we continue to determine how this partnership will look.

Best,

Mike Samuelson Member Services and Open Streets Coordinator Alliance for Biking & Walking

P.O. Box 65150 Washington, DC 20035

Phone: 202-449-9692 x 7 Mike@PeoplePoweredMovement.org

The Open Streets Project has just released the Open Streets Guide!  A great resource for anyone looking to further open streets in their community.

From: Jonathan Morrison jonathan@slcbikecollective.org Reply-To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:43:32 -0600 To: The Think Tank thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Partnership with the Alliance for Walking and Biking

We have been working with the Alliance for Walking and Biking to establish a partnership that will help Community Bike Shops grow and achieve their goals, as well as help bridge the gaps in the bicycle advocacy community at large.

http://bikeportland.org/2012/03/26/community-bike-shops-are-changing-the-fac...

We invite you to join in the conversation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households. _______________________________________________ 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... _______________________________________________ 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...

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-- Joshua Hoffman

Safe Routes Organizer Rosedale Development Association Rosedale Healthy Kids Initiative 1403 S.W. Boulevard Kansas City, KS 66103 913-645-7826

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