Rider Update

Here's where things stand. If I have left something out feel free to add on at the blog:

NEXT MEETING:
February 9th
6:30-7:30pm

University Branch, Seattle Library
Located at the corner of 50th and Roosevelt Way NE

Site Coordination:
- Jesse is coordinating workdays with the East Bay HFH affiliate.

Wheels:
Matt Dupre is coordinating a day for those that need bikes to meet with Ron.

Fundraising:
- An Americorps member with Habitat is willing to set-up an Ebay account for us to sell items for fundraising
- Mike Eader is organizing Art Sales. His idea is posted on the blog.
- Laura is seeing about us having a screen printing party for t-shirts to sale.
- Erica is seeing about a space to have a fundraising house party.
- Film showing at the UW to raise funds

Training:
- Slow Sunday's with NOVA (info on blog)
- Other personal training outlines can be found on the Blog
- Ride-opps calendar: it would be good to have someone keep a calendar
of local ride opportunities for people to train, accessible via the blog.

Operating Costs Sponsorship:
This is an area that needs some work.
We need a rough analysis and estimate of operating costs for the trip.
Any volunteers? Josh is willing to work on finding sponsors.

Media and Outreach:
- Erica is doing up a press release.
- Nova's networking with Cascade for riders and support
- We will have a table at during Bike to Work Day via Starbucks
- Jesse has spread the word like mad. Can you provide a list of who you have contacted, so we don't double dip?

Upcomming rides...

July 12-13 STP (Seattle to Portland) 204 miles over two days (or over
three if you take the STP Un-Classic) If anyone knows someone that
can sleep a few people in Centralia or Portland maybe a bunch of us
could go. They require registration, but I would prefer to "pirate"
the ride. You follow but don't use their facilities (water, etc) and
are self-supported.

There's also the World Car-Free Conference in Portland in June 16-20
that has a free day, otherwise it's a hefty registration unless you
join the World Car-Free Network.

April 22: Daffodil classic http://www.twbc.org/events/daffodil/
and various sundry and unsundry events as well (world naked bike ride, anyone?)

http://www.spokespeople.us/
Rides are first Saturdays starting March 1. You are welcome to come to
a ride in March, April May June or July and bring material about RGBG.

Nova's Sunday Slow Ride

Slow Sundays
When: 1pm meet-up, 1:30pm ride bikes (Sundays)
Where: Cal Anderson Park @ the fountain
Why: to ride bikes! There may be times when we have to wait up for folks, or help them fix flats, but it'll be a good chance to meet people, enjoy riding your bicycle, and get to know the lay of the land that is Seattle. Another goal is for everyone to feel more comfortable riding in traffic!
How: at a reasonable pace. It may feel slow to some, but hopefully it's just plain relaxed and comfortable enough for everyone. Our rides generally include multiple stops for food/drinks/exploration, as well as chances for latecomes to catch up. Mileage runs anywhere from 6-25 miles, but at a pace so comfortable you'll find yourself surprised at how much ground you've covered!

Be well, N*

1/9 Meeting Outcomes and Rider Updates

1/9/08 Meeting Outcomes and Updates:

Riders
Couple new riders... one down,
Amanda Steinhauser has decided not to join. Bad timing for her.

Nova Clawson
Mike Eader
Josh Coffman
Dave Sanford
Elis Wooton
Erica Weiland
Jessamyn Bateman-Iino
Matt Dupre
Jesse Card
Elise Cope rgbgseattle@gmail.com

Tasks
If anyone has any helpful leads for leads for a particular persons tasks,
it would be great if you could email them!

Nova Clawson: netwrok with Cascade Bike Club, goodwill shirts for screenprint, post Slow Sunday and training info on blog
Mike Eader: Mike hinted at putting together an art fundrasing event? ehh?
Josh Coffman: Josh is a few states away-- he could help with media outreach or sponsorship, ehh?
Dave Sanford: reference for training: http://www.aidslifecycle.org/training/.
Elis Wooton: sourcing support vehicle, contact City Year for fundraising support
Erica Weiland: looking for fundraising party location, contact Dignity Village
Jessamyn Bateman-Iino: Jessamynn has bands she can network with for a fundraising show
Matt Dupre: Site Coordination
Jesse Card: Site Coordination, RGBG stencils and screen printing
Elise Cope: email RGBG logo to Jesse for, send riders sample email for fundraising, email experimental college green course info, see about official Habitat event, establish online donation system

Fundraising
- handed out RGBG and HFH EKC Fact Sheets. (Mike, Jessamyn, Dave and Josh still need em)
- potential fundraising workshop next week
- resources: I REALLY reccomend y'all check out this site for your fundraising initiatvies. Use the link at top to get more specific... http://www.aidslifecycle.org/fundraising/

Let's Build Some Bikes!I will be contacting the following riders soon to set up a date for us all to visit Ron at Sharing Wheels, and begin building our bikes:

Mike Eader mikeeader@hotmail.com
Josh Coffman coffmanjoshua@gmail.com
Elis Wooton elis.wooton@gmail.com
Jessamyn Bateman-Iino mousethespiffy@aol.com
Matt Dupre mdupre@nmu.edu

Current Needs:- Short bio and headshot of riders. Can everyone submit these by this Monday? That would be most helpful :)
- Sponsorship for operating costs
- Media networking: spreading the word to websites, newspapers, radiostations, et. al.

If anyone can take any of this on... let me know!
If anyone needs anything... I'll get you what you need!

And Also: Check out this course through Experimental College. It's cheap:
http://depts.washington.edu/asuwxpcl/catalog.php?sec=courses&category=HOUSE%20and%20HOME%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&num=1727

Some Thoughts on Rider Fundraing

Everyone agrees that raising $2,000 is a daunting task at first.
So far the general consensus from riders is that group fundraising events are prefer ed-- as such the whole $2,000 is not all on an individuals head.
We will all need to raise money on our own however. With a personal "ask", being comfortable with why you're asking for $ is essential. Renovate your mindset around asking for money: what stops you? Know that it's not a YES or NO
to you personally-- but to the cause. People have all sorts of reasons for not giving. If your going to make things up prior asking someone for $, make things up about why they WOULD give, not why they won't. We're not concerned with people not donating. Doesn't mean they will or they won't... rather we're just commited to people making a contribution. It's not personal.

Present your cause as an opportunity for others... not as a favor or a personal need. Really, that's what it is... it's an opportunity for someone to make a difference. Get your donors present to what making a positive contribution provides for themselves and their lives. Ask questions... Let them do the talking!

Meeting Tomorrow Night!

Wednesday, Jan 9
6:30-7:30pm (time has been changed as the library closes at 8pm)
University Branch, Seattle Library
located at the corner of 50th and Roosevelt in NE.
http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=branch_open&branchID=27

Please be prepared to review your findings from assignments.
We need to take this to the next level and the current ten of us are the foundation!

My cell phone is MIA,
if you need to reach me use my work cell #:
425.5907351

Thanks... see you tomorrow! Bring friends!

Elise

Rider Training Developement

In response to my assignment on providing a training schedule, I was not able to recover the schedule I used in 2005. After looking around at several things on the web, I think the information at http://www.aidslifecycle.org/training/ is good. There schedule can be slid forward a couple of months to start now and to accommodate that we are going in July and August rather than June. There is a lot of good information here, but the key things are getting started, and building up seat time. People should be looking at the weekly time commitment and planning accordingly. It does impact everyone’s schedule, and especially on weekends with longer rides. It is a good idea if folks make a paper copy of the plan, and then record their rides to see how they are tracking the plan.

Right now I am doing some riding in my basement on a trainer. I look forward, though, to starting some early spring riding. It may still be cool, but once you get going its not so bad. Especially important is the social aspect of riding with friends. Look forward to an e-mail net where we can start letting people know about RGBG training rides. We might do things such as converge at Log Boom Park (the top of Lake Washington on the BGT) and then ride a while together. Longer trips can be around Lake Washington, out into the Snoqualmie Valley, up to Snohomish and on towards Arlington, or south along the Green River Trail or the Maple Valley trail.

I won’t be at the meeting on Wednesday, but look forward to reading about it.

Thanks,
Dave Sanford

Wednesday, January 9 Info Session

7-8 PM
Location TBA (Amanda is working on it... if you have any suggestions let her know!)

Meeting Agenda:
- New Riders (two new riders! We're at 9 now)
- Review Tasks
- Fundraising
- Defining Affordable Green Housing
- Training
- Let's Build Some Bikes!

If you have anything you would like to add to the agenda let me know!