Dear Fellow Cycling Enthusiasts, Bike Club Leaders, and Greater Madison Bicycling Advisory Council Members,
During the question & answer session at the Moving Bicycling Forward meeting this past Wednesday, someone (pardon me for not remembering who it was- it was an excellent question) stood up and asked how bicycling clubs could be better represented and involved in bike advocacy in Madison. There are so many different bike clubs and groups around town, which is wonderful. But it is not easy for people who aren't in the know to access them. For example, how do I find out about a club? How do I know that it will be the right fit for me? Is there one place that I can search club membership fees, ride schedules, and contact information? If I want to form a new club, how do I get started, and how do I find interested members? I have one idea that could be a solid inroad toward answering all of these questions; It's time for the cycling clubs in and around Madison to form a regional bicycling group/club coalition. This way regional cycling clubs can pool their strengths while remaining autonomous. One arm of the coalition could have cycling advocacy as its mission. One model that could be used is MACSAC <http://www.csacoalition.org/>, the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. Before you read on, check out their website. <http://www.csacoalition.org/> MACSAC is a clearinghouse for regional CSAs and serves the CSAs and the community by: having a comprehensive list of all MACSAC-member CSA farms on one website, distributing information about the different CSAs (mostly via web), having a great map interface<http://www.csacoalition.org/our-farms/pickup-locations-map/>, sending out a quarterly e-newsletter, holding an annual bike-to-farm fundraising bike ride that raises $$ to help subsidize CSA memberships for folks who otherwise wouldn't have the means to afford them, selling T-shirts and publishing an original cookbook. MACSAC works with related private and public organizations to further the mission of the CSA movement. They also host an annual open house, where each member-CSA is represented and can educate the public about their farm/CSA programs and recruit new members. On top of all of the above, MACSAC has successfully negotiated with the major regional health insurance companies to offer rebates for CSA memberships, because we can all agree that having access to and eating healthy food helps people stay healthy. There could be a similar rebate program for membership fees to a bike club- biking certainly helps people stay healthy! Imagine being reimbursed by your health insurance for 50% of your bike club membership dues. Maybe MACSAC could even help the cycling club coalition get started. If a critical mass of folks are interested, I would be happy to try to set up a discussion/meeting session with MACSAC organizers and a consortium of bike club member/leaders. Please forward this email to anyone that you think would be interested in forming or participating in this type of coalition effort, especially club/organization leaders that I couldn't find email addresses for. -India Viola -- WeAreAllMechanics.com [email protected]
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