Planet Common Ground Athens

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"Is it affordable?" is one of four questions U.S. Rep. Paul Broun says he asks himself before voting on a bill.

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Small businesses feeling pressure from ever-increasing costs and a struggling economy will feel even more pressure when payroll costs rise under a new federal minimum wage taking effect today.

Is it wrong to use social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to help promote your nonprofit group?

A debate on that topic is brewing among nonprofit experts, as some people express concern that marketers show a lack of respect for the purpose of social networks by intruding with messages about their causes.

Michael Gilbert, a nonprofit consultant, recently expressed concern on his blog Nonprofit Online News, that “instead of being a platform for the organization’s support and participation in communities of practice, instead of being a tool for empowering the connections and voices of their stakeholders, to many nonprofits an online social network is just another mailing list.”

But Kivi Leroux Miller, author of the blog Nonprofit Marketing Guide. says she thinks charities have the kind of material people want to learn about through social networks.

“I strongly disagree with this whole notion that nonprofits who want to use social networking as part of a larger communications strategy, including as a way to get their messages out and to reach new people, are somehow being disrespectful for even considering it,” she says.

“When you use social media/networking tools as they were meant to be used — to engage in real conversations where you neither control nor dominate the dialogue — then I see no problem with using them to talk about your cause and your work and to make new connections too.”

This topic was also debated during a recent online discussion sponsored by The Chronicle.

What do you think? Is your group using social networks to promote itself? Tell us about what has worked and what has been challenging as you approach social networks.

— Cassie J. Moore

Read our latest edition of e-news, which includes up-to-the-minute information about our latest efforts. Learn about our survey on how gas prices are affecting bike sales, progress on our plans for the Democratic and Republican national conventions, how we're connecting with governors and mayors, the new Bicycle Friendly State and Business programs, the latest REI/Bicycle Friendly Community grant awards, our new research & statistics coordinator, and much more.

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This is not Athens-related news at all, but it certainly confirms (as if there were any doubt) that Bob Novak is a jerk.

Way to be, anonymous bike messenger!

According to a new report from the Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits, the gap between the states with the most foundation assets and the states with the least continues to widen....

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we’re going to kick-off the 20th anniversary of Community Media Workshop. It was started in 1989, thanks to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation–which wanted to help locally funded community development groups to better tell their stories in the local news media.Not sure whose idea it was to go drinking but we are starting with a pub crawl, that kicks off at newsy hangout the Billy Goat, of Saturday Night Live “cheezborger” fame.     

There’s totally no reason to put this on the blog except that it’s still funny… and to say, come drink with us if you’re in Chicago and free from 5 p.m. tomorrow! (Billy goat is at 430 N. Michigan Ave. LOWER LEVEL. 

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The Classic Center just finished its most successful year since the theater and convention center opened in 1995.

Flagpole reports the following:

With county planning staffers pleading they have a full plate already, Athens-Clarke County Commissioners backed away last week from broadening a county “corridor management” study to include detailed design specs for crosswalks and bike lanes, and perhaps policies on signs, speed limits, overhead utility wires and bus access. But county staff and Planning Director Brad Griffin insisted the $42,000, consultant-produced study was never intended to be a design manual.

The slick 35-page study suggests a dozen categories for county streets: “urban institutional” streets like Lumpkin, for example, should have street trees, patterned crosswalks and landscaped “pedestrian refuge islands” at midblock crosswalks, it suggests. “Suburban commercial” streets (like Barnett Shoals Road) should have wide sidewalks separated from the road by a grass strip, and driveway entrances should be limited to one per business, it recommends.

...

Commissioners had bounced the study back to staffers for further work, but planning director Griffin told them last week he would need “a rather extensive timeline” and perhaps an outside consultant to revisit the study. That won’t happen soon; instead, Commissioners appear likely to approve the present study - now over a year old - as the basis for the future “complete streets” study they’d rather see. (“Complete streets” refers to street designs that accommodate all users, not just drivers.)

Other upcoming discussions may include updating the county’s Bicycle Master Plan (which designates plans for bike lanes) and whether to replace the planning commission (perhaps by BikeAthens, which has requested it) as the citizens’ voice on the MACORTS board. (MACORTS is the multi-county board that requests local transportation projects from the state DOT.)

We've long argued that we deserve a place at the table for discussions regarding transportation planning in Athens. Every recommendation BikeAthens has ever made (expanding transit service, installing more cross- and sidewalks, slowing traffic, and developing a connected network of bike facilities) would increase the safety and accessibility of Athens' transportation system. We look forward to a supportive vote and participating on the MACORTS board!

Newcomer Congressman Paul Broun blanketed his Georgia district with so many mass mailings that he burned through much of his annual office budget, a Capitol Hill newspaper reports. The Athens Republican was one of the biggest users of mass mailings in Congress, Roll Call reported Wednesday in a front page story. Broun, a hard-line opponent of big federal spending, won the July 15 primary election by 71 percent.

39 years ago, Neil Armstrong became the most famous person in the world.

He was an astronaut, of course, but there were dozens of people who could have done the technical work that Armstrong did. What Armstrong became was a spokesperson for an organization, a nation and a movement.

NASA did what many organizations do when picking someone to act as company spokesperson. They avoided risk, played it safe and chose someone who wouldn't make a ruckus.

What a shame.

Armstrong could have taught the world about science. He could have done work that would have won him a Nobel Peace Prize. He could have had a huge impact on his country and the world. Instead, he mostly disappeared.

Many organizations worry that if they put their clout behind an individual, he or she will gain notoriety and power and eventually double-cross the organization. So, instead, they go for bland.

As marketers, you already see the problem. It's like putting a tennis ball on the end of your sword. Sooner or later, people communicate with people. Sooner or later, your organization needs a voice. You take lots of risks when you market a product, and this one--the risk of an engaging and motivated spokesperson--is smarter than most.

Washington, DC -- That's one way, at least, to explain a recent decision by the EPA to lower the value attached to the life of the average American by 20 percent in the past five years. The Agency announced that an average American's life is worth $6.9 million today, vs. $8.5 million five years ago (in 2008 dollars).

The reason for this acknowledgment, of course, was not to confess how bad a manager Bush has been but to lower the value the Administration has to use when figuring out where to set health or safety standards --or determining whether it's worthwhile to act to prevent runaway global warming. The less a life is worth, the weaker the safety standards warranted to protect it.

It's not clear whether the EPA really has any scientific basis for this devaluation -- the experts it cited said their data did not support the change. But there is an important back story here. Right after Bush came into office, the Office of Management and Budget, under the leadership of regulatory czar John Graham, lowered the value of life used by the OMB even more drastically -- to $3.7 million. Then Graham tried to lower the value of the life of someone over 50 by arguing that the last few years of life had less value. This rapidly was dubbed "the senior death discount," and prompted then EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman to say that the EPA would have nothing to do with Graham's calculus of life's worth and his characterization of death as a money saver.

So EPA had held on to its historic valuation of life (in constant dollars.) But now, in yet another sign that Stephen Johnson is the worst EPA Administrator in history, he has caved in to the White House and started lowering the value attached to the average American. This discounting the value of life -- especially lives saved in the future -- is a central piece to the reactionary prospectus that Dick Cheney brought with him. It turns out, for example, that the biggest difference in how global-warming deniers evaluate the potential effects of global warming is not in their calculations of the physical or social impacts of warming -- those differ, but not by that much. What differs dramatically is how highly they value saving a million lives in a hundred years. Reactionaries attach a low value to each life -- say the current earnings of residents of Africa -- and then discount them by up to 10 percent a year. When you do this, you find that a life in seven years is worth only half as much as one today. In 14 years your child's value is only a quarter of yours today. And in 100 years a human life is worth only 1/100 of a percent of what it is worth today -- using Graham's $3.7 million figure, the value of saving a life in 100 years is a very modest $268. Interestingly, by this calculus the lives of the entire current population of the U.S. are worth only around $81 billion by 2108 -- less than what we spend today on the war in Iraq. Hardly worth saving, wouldn't you say?

Well, you might think that it's worth saving that life, but the people running the country right now do not -- and neither do the people who are advising John McCain.

Bikes Belong and Humana will bring 1,000 bicycles to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 25-28. We’ll also bring another 1,000 bicycles to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1-4.

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Tired of the treadmill? In an exercise rut? The key to success is to find a challenging but enjoyable exercise, so why not mix up your routine and try one of the unique activities Athens has to offer?

1. Play "frolf" at the Herman C. Michael Park Frisbee golf course. It's played much like traditional golf, minus the clubs and golf balls. Players tee off and try to get a disc/Frisbee into chain baskets. The best part: the 18-hole course is free!

2. Sweat out your impurities at a hot yoga class. Athens Power Yoga offers almost daily Power Vinyasa Yoga at its Chase Street studio. Moving quickly through the yoga poses in an 80 degree room gets intense but provides an internal and external work out. First timers can try the "Basics" class, offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 9 a.m.

3. Prepare for next year's Twilight Criterium with a spin class at Georgia Cycle Sport. A long-time spin fan, I have yet to try its daily, 1-hour classes. Try it out, and let me know what you think. If you get addicted, consider buying a pair of Specialized shoes to clip into the bike to enhance the work out.

4. Punch out frustrations at The Omni Club's very own fight club. Taught by an Olympic trial track and field athlete and a once ultimate fighter, the 1-hour "fight club" work out requires a lot of equipment -- heavy bags, tower bags, speed bags, stationary bikes -- and even more muscle. While this is not a work out for the faint of heart, the loud music and group environment will motivate you through.

5. And for a change of pace, try belly dancing! Offered in multiple locations, consider yourself warned that this Middle Eastern dance may result in the impulse buying of scarves, ankle bells and transparent clothing.

Of course, these are just five of the many unique fitness "adventures" in Athens. There are always ballroom dance classes, UGA's rock climbing wall and kayaking down the Broad.

What do you do to stay in shape in Athens?

ABH reports on some tangible progress toward the creation of a county-wide greenway network.
Thanks to the purchase of 7 acres near Atlanta Hwy, a tract named

the Rowland Natural Area and Preserve will become the keystone for a new greenway stretching from Ben Burton Park off Mitchell Bridge Road to the shops and restaurants in the Beechwood neighborhood.

"It's hugely significant, because that's your entry point," county Commissioner Carl Jordan said. "It's your gateway."

The tract probably would have been developed as apartments if the county had not stepped in to buy it, county Natural Resources Administrator Mike Wharton said.

Now, it will serve as a buffer between the river and surrounding developments, a green gateway for visitors entering Athens and one of the bookends to a new trail to allow westside residents to walk or bike while avoiding the car traffic along the city's busiest road.

Well played, Clarke county!

Bike accident victim urges UF students to wear helmets, read here.

According to [David] Sutton, bicyclists hospitalized with head injuries are 20 times more likely to die than those without, and wearing a helmet reduces your risk of head injury by 85 percent.

...the No. 1 reason why most people don’t wear helmets is that they don’t think it’s cool. “That’s 100 percent it,” Sutton said. “It’s like wearing a tie; people think they look dorky.”

Creating innovative strategies for social change is the focus of much of the widespread lip-service nonprofits and foundations give to the need for collaboration in the charitable marketplace.

But equally critical is the need for nonprofits to find ways to combine and share the cost of operating their back-office systems.

With the economy sinking and the cost of doing business rising, nonprofits face big challenges in running their shops efficiently and effectively.

Back-office collaboration among nonprofits could yield savings and efficiencies in securing and handling common business needs like paying rent and utility costs, providing employee benefits, operating software systems and databases, and working with consultants.

While far too few foundations will make grants to help nonprofits cover their operating costs, some foundations have been willing to invest in helping groups of nonprofits pay for products and services they can share.

Several years ago, for example, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C., paid for a handful of consultants to provide fundraising advice to groups that fight domestic-violence.

More recently, the foundation made a grant to help six water-conservation groups hire fundraising fellows for three years, provide them with training, and help pay for support services such as donor-database software they might share.

To help equip them to do a better job fixing the urgent problems our communities face, funders can make investments that spur groups of nonprofits to partner on back-office operations.

Through collaborations that help them reduce costs and operate more efficiently, nonprofits apply more of their time and resources to the larger job of making our communities better places to live and work.

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Todd Cohen, a veteran news reporter and editor, is editor and publisher of Philanthropy Journal, an online newspaper published by the A.J. Fletcher Foundation in Raleigh, N.C. Cohen has taught nonprofit reporting and media relations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Duke University, and regularly speaks on the topics of nonprofit media relations and trends in the charitable world.

The 2.1 release hits code freeze this week - and we're really excited about all the cool new features and improvements. For folks who haven't been following progress on the release with "baited breath" - some highlights:

• Joomla 1.5 and Drupal 6 compatibility
• Contribution Pledges (back-office and self-service)
• Multi-language / single site support (with thanks to Google Summer of Code and the Joomla team)

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If you have lived in Athens for any significant period of time between 1998 and today, chances are you’ve seen at least one of the transmogrified yellow, blue and red vehicles roving the city streets. These curious creations are the products of the Imagineering and welding acumen of long-time Athens musician, sculptor, cult hero and bartender Brian Smith.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Smith at Las Conchitas to talk more about the history of the “Spy Car” phenomenon in Athens. Like any good spy, he only told me what I needed to know. Here is what I uncovered:

A Subversive Beginning

Spy cars are the natural extension of one of Smith’s previous ventures, the “art car.” In 1991, Brian decided to “beautify” a dilapidated Buick station wagon. He painted the entire car black, including the windows, and added signs that read “radiation” and “pirate vehicle.” According to Smith, “there was nothing legal about this car.” Smith would later amplify his disregard for traffic laws in the form of a Volvo he converted into a “police vehicle.” Surprisingly, the vehicle, complete with working siren and fake dome light, never landed Smith in jail.

Enter the Yellow Submarine

Years after creating the police vehicle, while watching the famous Beatles movie Yellow Submarine, Brian was struck by a vision. The bright, primary colors featured throughout the movie provided the inspiration for a new type of alternative vehicle—one that would inspire and offend, challenge the status quo and, in some social circles, become it. In 1998, the spy car was born.

“I had wanted a Volkswagen bus since I was 13,” recalls Smith. “On Christmas Day when I was 17, my dad told me that my wish had come true—that there was a Volkswagen bus waiting for me in the driveway. I ran outside, more excited than I had ever been, but didn’t see anything in the driveway. I looked more closely and realized that my dad had in fact bought me the bus. The downside was that it was made by Hot Wheels.”

After several years of mourning, Brian recovered from his father’s prank and purchased a full-sized “goat puke green” Volkswagen bus from a mechanic friend for $600. The bus would become Smith’s canvas for the first ever “spy car.” He painted the vehicle bright red, blue and yellow and attached “weapons” like a “rocket launcher” on the roof of the bus (this addition would prove handy when the desire for shooting bottle rockets from a moving vehicle struck). At the time, Smith had no idea that his project would spark a mini-revolution in Athens.

A New Subculture Emerges

“Make mine like yours.” Hearing those words from friend Greg Baker, Brian realized that he had created something special. It was the first request for a spy car and Smith was happy to oblige. He added floor tiles to the roof of Baker’s old Toyota and welded the requisite fake weaponry to the vehicle. Now there were two spies in town. Over the next few years, Smith would build 30 spy cars in total—transforming everything from a large truck to a BMW 2002, which was totaled only one month after being converted.

The spy car phenomenon caught fire in Athens’ art community and reached critical mass in 2001 in the form of an official, police-escorted Spy Car Parade through downtown Athens. The parade marked one of the few occasions that the law was on Brian’s side. There were other, slightly less official (read: completely illegal) parades, such as the one that invaded the University of Georgia campus and made the front page of the Athens Banner-Herald.

In 2002, an Athens resident donated a vehicle to the Lyndon House Arts Center to be decorated by Athens guidance. A longtime supporter of the youth of America, Smith described the conversion project as “so awkward.” “Building spy cars is a very solitary, meditative act,” said Smith. “If you have to involve other people, it is best to do it ‘Juicy Fruit commercial style’—with a few close friends who are all your own age.”

The spy car conversion process was always a labor of love for Smith. The most he was ever paid for a conversion was $100 to cover supplies. “I did it for the kicks,” said Smith. Spy car owners were thankful to have their old beaters transformed into weird pieces of art, and Smith took pride in contributing to the landscape of Athens with his strange and wonderful creations.

While spy cars had become an everyday part of Athens’ scenery, not every Georgia town was so welcoming. Smith recalls a friend telling him about an incident at a McDonald’s in Madison, where a nervous patron called the police after seeing a spy car in the parking lot. The woman reported that the car had “dynamite all over it” and that there was a German Shepherd trapped inside. There was a German Shepherd inside the car, but he was just waiting patiently for his owner to return from a Chicken McNugget lunch. Nonetheless, the police arrived on the scene, bomb squad and robot claw in tow.

Vehicles with roof hatches and fake missile launchers naturally lend themselves to a certain amount of criminal mischief. One spy car was used in the kidnapping of 8-Track Gorilla, the local Athens karaoke cover song artist. The kidnappers coordinated the stunt with the 40 Watt Club’s management and drove a converted Volkswagen Jetta into the venue during an 8-Track Gorilla performance. They captured the gorilla, drove out of the club and onto the sidewalk on Washington St. Passing by the 40 Watt Club entrance, one can still see the spot where the car removed a chunk of the wall during the heist.

In another incident that went unreported, a spy car owner once drove his vehicle into an ex-girlfriend’s mailbox…on purpose. While Brian doesn’t blame the spy car for its owner’s destructive behavior, he admits that “the car probably gave him that extra fantasy element he needed in that moment.”

The Culture Submerged

Spy car owners weren’t the only ones causing trouble. The cars “were the victims of rampant vandalism,” said Smith. Spy car owners were frequently heckled by passersby who didn’t appreciate the vehicles as art. Smith attributes such hostility to an unconscious negative reaction triggered by the “subversion of a nationally historic symbol—the automobile.” Another possibility is that many people simply weren’t ready for such odd inventions. Brian recalls one befuddled onlooker genuinely posing the question “Is that one of them ‘Accu-Weather’ cars?”

While the exact reasoning behind the taunting is unclear, it became such a large issue that several owners actually “re-converted” their spy cars into regular, street legal vehicles. Other spy cars were destroyed in accidents, acquired by local governments or simply broke down over the years, but not before dispersing across the United States. From New England to Portland, Ore., one can find the remnants of a more innocent, charmingly inspired time in Athens’ history.

Athens’ Army of Spy Cars may have disbanded, but Brian Smith has not stopped creating. In addition to recording and playing in nearly every Athens band formed since 1995, Brian continues undertaking new welding projects and is always on the lookout for potential beauty in the unbeautiful. Smith’s most recent work is a collection of giant alien bug sculptures composed of scrap metal and other jetsam. While the bugs may not invade the town in the same way that the spy cars once did or allow angry ex-boyfriends to destroy ex-girlfriends’ mailboxes, they are quite a sight to see—and yet another oddity that makes Athens the unique, quirky community that it is.

For more information on Brian Smith or to contact him about purchasing an oversized alien lawn bug, visit his MySpace page.

The Sierra Club's Atlanta chapter recently got a threatening phone call, likely related to their part in a fight against a planned coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.

Chapter Director Patty Durand declined to comment on details of a police investigation, but acknowledged that a police report said that a man with a southern accent, possibly in his 30's placed a call on July 4th, saying:

"We need those jobs. You (expletive) communists have screwed us for the last time. You better have eyes in the back of your head because the bullets are coming."

On June 30th, a Fulton County Superior Court reversed an earlier administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit that had okayed the $1.2 billion project in Early County.

A group of area residents and environmentalists, including the Sierra Club who are fighting the project, say the plant will emit unchecked amounts of carbon dioxide, harmful amounts of dust, and other pollutants.

Proponents say the project will provide hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the poor rural area.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the battle over the LS Power Longleaf Power Station.

One of Beth Kanter’s insightful comments at our conference (and she said it way more concisely than this) was about the progression folks take on-line:

Baby steps=you’ve got an e-newsletter going.

Walking and chewing gum at the same time=you’re blogging.

You start to develop pimples=you’re developing a social networking site for your niche community, whatever that may be.

On that scale, a national site for community development pros is coming of age.

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When I first started talking about Permission Marketing ten years ago, marketers asked, "sure, but how does this help us?"

A decade later, marketers look at Wikipedia or social media or the long tail or whatever trend is finally hitting them in the face and ask the same question.

Here's the essential truth:

This is the first mass marketing medium ever that isn't supported by ads.

If a newspaper, a radio station or a TV station doesn't please advertisers, it disappears. It exists to make you (the marketer) happy.

That's the reason the medium (and its rules) exist. To please the advertisers.

But the Net is different.

It wasn't invented by business people, and it doesn't exist to help your company make money.

It's entirely possible it could be used that way, but it doesn't owe you anything. The question to ask isn't, "but how does this help me?" as if you have some sort of say in the matter. You don't get a vote on whether Google succeeds or whether your customers erect spam filters.

The question to ask is, "how are people (the people I need to reach, interact with and tell stories to) going to use this new power and how can I help them achieve their goals?"

A recent book by two esteemed business consultants offers more lessons from business for nonprofit organizations. This time, in an accompanying article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review they have teamed up with a nonprofit leader to analyze common practices of highly successful organizations, private and not-for-profit sector alike. I haven’t yet completed the book, but offer the following four principles they say that all interviewed leaders followed. After each one I include my comment.

The cost of service should always decline over time – in other words, it should cost you less over time to do the things you do, well. You should not have to reinvent the wheel – your routine activity should be like a fine tuned and efficient, precision machine! This allows you to do more with your existing resources.

Your market position defines your options – if you’re a big fish in a small pond, you will make the biggest splash. But if you’re a minnow swimming with sharks, you’ll get swallowed. In other words, focus on your strengths, and find yourself a pond that fits you if your efforts are falling flat.

Your client and funding pool does not stand still – recognize that your donors, as well  as the people who benefit from your services, have needs and interests that change over time. As a nonprofit, you are wise to be ahead of both. For example, if demographics are changing the face of your organization’s clientele, you either have to bring along your existing donors whose priorities may remain elsewhere, or find new donors who are interested in your emerging areas.

Simplicity gets results – once again, simplicity rules – trying to be all things to all people never works!

If you like these kinds of articles, you'll enjoy my monthly free e-newsletter. Sign up to receive it as well as other product and resource information here. Don't forget to verify your registration when you receive a follow up email  - I follow best practises to avoid SPAM and require a double opt-in.

 

Phone message warns Sierra Club 'bullets are coming' Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA - Jul 18, 2008 The call came in on July 4 — four days after the Sierra Club and other environmental groups won a lawsuit in Fulton County that prevented the coal-burning ...

Getting On Air, Online & Into Print 2009 will have, obviously, fewer journalists in it–because there are fewer, which not to put too fine a point on it, sucks. It’ll also have more bloggers in it.

Yeah–we’re taking some of our writer pages and devoting them to bloggers this year. Bless the Internet. We’ve got a new survey (link below) to make sure we’re still keeping track of folks appropriately. (more…)

Since we are in the throes of producing our annual directory of Chicago-market journalists, Getting On Air, Online & Into Print, pitchable is a pretty salient concept around the office.

BTW, Andy Huff from GapersBlock is polishing up an awesome tipsheet on how to pitch bloggers for us right now (I’ve seen the first draft, it is going to be very useful for folks and will show up online as well as in the 2009 guide).

As I was blogging yesterday about Latina Voices, I thought about a couple of other favorite by/for/about Latinos/-as sites and wanted to highlight two very different ones:

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The biggest obstacle many of us involved in fundraising have to overcome is our own mindset. Since our ultimate objective is to GET THE MONEY we set ourselves up to communicate the exact opposite of what we should. So starting now, think of your job as giving people what they want and need rather than raising money...because starting with the “go get the money” mindset is a trap! You are a “go-giver” -- you give people meaningful opportunities to give time or money to something that reflects their most personal values and interests.

There are many simple things you can do, right now, without any formal training, strategy or large output of resources to adopt this mindset and put it into action:

o Be a leader - your job is to facilitate and inspire matches

o Sell to the “right” people - focus your attention on the people whose interests and values fit your organization

o Make it easy for others to spread the word - explain what you offer and how to get involved, clearly!

o Have a clear “ask” - be specific - what and how

o Invite feedback and use it!

o Say thank you!

These simple tips are do-able; use them as checkpoints to guide you.

With gas prices surpassing $4 per gallon, bicycling has been making headlines all summer as a convenient, affordable transportation option. Bicycle retailers throughout the country are reporting increased sales. Customers are coming to shops looking for new bikes—especially commuter models—or bringing in old bikes for repair.

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