Week 9: Brainstorming

These are notes from my first round of meetings with coworkers this week. My next step (which will be another blog post in a day or two) is to develop questions for my meetings with our Executive Director and Office Manager, based on these ideas and the questions from the grant.

Just as a reminder: I'm going to submit to New Belgium Brewing Company for BikeTexas Wellness Rides (and I'm looking for similar RFPs to complete my packet for class and also to submit to later on). Currently, we have 2-3 of these rides every year for TxDOT employees. We'd like to expand to 10 per year and invite more state agencies (Education, Comptroller, Legislative Staff, etc) to participate.

Wellness Rides

Benefits to participants:

• Fresh air
• Blood flowing
• Metabolism up
• We provide snack+water
• Learning how to ride in a group, in traffic
• Staff help by giving pointers throughout ride
• Learning how to shift gears, etc.
• They get an idea of what a bike-shop quality bike (vs. dept store bike) feels like

What we do:

• 3-6 mile rides, based in part on skill level of the group
• Teaching how to ride, how to ride in the group
• Provide promotional materials to the agency to promote the ride internally
• One-on-one time w/ BikeTexas staff for super-new people

Potential improvements:

• Energy drink/sports drink sponsor to provide more than just water
• [Note: I am skeptical about this-- I think that teaching people they can do short sessions of physical activity with just water, instead of Gatorade, Red Bull, etc, is actually a greater benefit.]
• Help them plan a route to work to try commuting once or twice a week
• Open lines of communication with BikeTexas for future questions/issues
• Pointers for commuting, choosing a bike, etc
• Develop brochure re: riding, nutrition
• Make it clear that inexperienced people are welcome
• Stickers, water bottle, travel mug—with a wellness ride logo
• Ride to lunch/breakfast
• Weekend rides

Similar reminder: I'm going to submit to Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield for BikeTexas KidsKup, but since those RFPs are currently closed and I can't access them, I'm writing the packet for class using the same format as the New Belgium Brewing grant, with the intent to adapt the data so gathered to the other RFPs as they open later in 2014. We have about 10 KidsKup rides in the spring and 3-4 in the fall-- this program is tied to the Texas Mountain Biking Racing Association series and they provide the venues, so our schedule varies with their schedule.

KidsKup 

(Everything here are things we'd like to add/change-- since I know this program better, I didn't have to ask as many questions as I did for the Wellness Rides and my notes reflect that.)

Rider packets thing to give away-- current ones have been the same for about 14 years:

• stickers
• safety books (will we still get those from TxDOT?)
• temporary tattoos
• different things so we can change it up
• coupon from a statewide business (HEB, Whataburger, Dairy Queen)
• Smaller kids seem to like bells; the fancy type would be great 
• Glow in the dark sticker
• KidsKup branded water bottles

Equipment:

• A twelve foot trailer (12x6x6 1/2) and/or small vehicle wrapped for KidsKup 
• Eight new tables, ice chest
• Online registration system - separate KidsKup Updates option for emails

More people to handle extra events while we are doing boothing events.

• Volunteers
• Staff

KidsKup-specific merchandise:

• Kids jersey
• t-shirts that they could wear to school
• Maybe a full kit for an end-of-year or season drawing among all participants
• Staff KidsKup t-shirts for us to wear during the event with the dates of the event printed on back

New medals or ribbons  

Some way to advertise at local schools before the event:

• Connect to SafeCyclist teachers?
• Provide materials, incl waiver/link
• Boys & Girls Clubs
• Parks & Rec dept

Some kind of a incentive for the kids to invite a new friend to come and ride. 

• How would we handle waivers?

Jersey (adult) giveaway as an incentive for parents to give us an email address 

• Register at each race they bring a kid to
• The more races they bring their kids to, the more chances at the giveaway

Other possible funding sources:

• Get sponsors for inner-city, low-income races in cities that don't have a TMBRA or similar race. 
• Also look for in-kind donations, esp. helmets
• Primal offered to make a KidsKup jersey-- can we see if it can be donated/discounted?
• What are we using that 15% from Primal for? Can it go to KidsKup?
• Increase our publicity for Dave Boyd Memorial Fund
• Look into funding from children's hospitals, Academy Sports, box stores, AMA (helmets)

Week 3: Adjusting Expectations

Since for the purposes of this class I'll be writing for the organization I work for, I thought I'd use this space to work through some ideas and expectations.

My initial intention for this class was to find funding for our KidsKup program (the picture here is from last week's race; we have one more before the funding runs out), which BikeTexas is actively seeking now. I plan to keep looking for grants that can fund KidsKup.

In the meantime, the grant that I mentioned briefly in class last week from the Aetna foundation sounds like a great fit for the kind of work BikeTexas does. Our education side has a five-hour curriculum for elementary students that has been presented to about 2 million Texas children over the last 10 years.

I started talking to a coworker last week about writing a potential proposal for the Aetna grant and making it as real-world as possible for something that BikeTexas could realistically do. We both started talking about afterschool clubs and bike rodeos, but that's not really the way that BikeTexas has conducted our education program.

To reach so many students, BikeTexas has trained 7000 Texas teachers over the last 10 years. We focus our efforts on training the trainers, so that we can multiply our efforts. A staff that has varied from 10-20 people at any one time couldn't have reached as many students if we tried to do all this ourselves. (We used the same approach in the pilot year of our university education program-- we held 5 webinars to train orientation organizers at 8 colleges, and reached about 3000 students in one year, with only 1 1/2 FTE staff working on the program.)

So, all the stuff that I talked about with my coworker the other day needs to be scrapped. It was fun and easy to get carried away with our ideas in a brainstorming session, but we have to frame those ideas inside what we can realistically do. We would have had to partner with schools and programs in the cities that the Aetna grant is for anyway (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio), but the kind of partnership that BikeTexas specializes in means we may never set foot inside a school.

Working through the process of reading over the RFP and tailoring it to fit both Aetna's mission and BikeTexas's mission will be a great practice in honing on exactly what each organization needs. I'm looking forward to finding other grants to use for this class and seeing how each one is a bit different and will require a different approach. It may be that some potential funding sources won't match up well with the one-step-away tact to bicycle education that BikeTexas uses.

Week 1: What's the Problem?

I work for BikeTexas, the statewide advocacy and education organization for biking and walking in Texas. (Our mission statement is to advance bicycle access, safety, and education in Texas.) Much of our education arm was funded for the last 10 years by Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grants from TxDOT, but due to changes in the federal laws that govern transportation funding, TxDOT decided not to renew any SRTS grants for 2013.

In some ways, this is a good thing. Being dependent on TxDOT for funding does put some limitations on BikeTexas' work and how we can use the funds, plus any groups that do not agree with federal funds supporting bicycle work are quick to complain about BikeTexas wasting taxpayer dollars, often opening us up to even greater scrutiny than that already required by law. So, there is something to be said for being released from those conditions.

However, the loss of the former grants has left the BikeTexas education programs unfunded. These programs teach bicycle and walking safety to elementary students across Texas (about 200,000 students per year) as well as giving support and encouragement to teachers, parents, and community leaders to host Bike to School days, Bike Rodeos, and other programs to encourage families to seek active transportation. BikeTexas considers these programs vital to fighting the obesity and diabetes epidemics among Texas children, especially low-income Texas children, and an economic alternative for families who may struggle to pay for a car to take children to school or other activities. By making cycling and walking attractive to young Texans, BikeTexas is investing in the next generation of healthy, active, fiscally smart Texans.

I would like to take a step toward finding funding for the BikeTexas Education programs. While I don't expect to find a source to fully fund the program in the scope of this class, I'd love to at least make a start towards a large source, and perhaps find a smaller source to fund at least aspect of the program. KidsKup, a mountain bike race for under-12 riders that serves about 300 children per year, is funded for the fall races right now but needs a new sponsor or grant for the spring 2014 series. For this class, I'd like to focus on finding a smaller grant that will keep the bike race running.