The draft promotional material for this year's Ride the Right Way Day (Monday, April 16, 2007) is on the CAT home page, http://www.car-free.org. This is a draft announcement for this event because so far the only sponsorship money is coming from Genesis Bicycles. Hopefully we can line up some more sponsor money from at least one other bike shop this year..
So far, Genesis Bicycles, whose participation is worked out directly with CAT Director Steve Schmitt, is the only shop with any money flowing to CAT in the last several years or planned for this year. Last year, Tomias Hinchcliff, the owner of Genesis Bicycles in Easton gave about $2,500 to CAT.
This was arranged through a number of opportunities any one or all of which could easily be replicated by any other bike shop. The right person or people need to ask in the right way.
Those of you who patronize bike shops other than Genesis, please propose these ideas to your favorite shop owner or manager.
Sponsor Ride the Right Way Day.
Genesis paid $500 to sponsor the event last year and has already contributed $500 this year to sponsor the Tenth Annual Ride the Right Way Day. There is no reason that other shops could not also contribute $500 and co-sponsor this event. This is the kick-off event that sets the stage for cooperative efforts between our 30 some LCIs, our bike shops and our police departments. You will note that Genesis Bicycles is clearly shown to be "the"sponsor in the current draft of the promotional information, which is why this email requires immediate action. If anybody thinks they can get Scott Kleinshuster at BikeLine, Karen & Peter Nestor at Nestor's, or Mark Bowman at South Mountain Cycles to co-sponsor the event, we can re-write the draft of the Ride the Right Way Day promotional material and media release to indicate that, but you need to move fast. We can also add any other shop spokesperson to the list of speakers on Monday, April 16, 2007, too.
This is the first of many opportunities this year for bike shops to help boost the regional bicycle educational effort by sponsoring or otherwise giving cash or other assistance to CAT.
Advertising on the front of the LANTA buses
a couple of years ago Steve Schmitt worked out a deal with Keystone Media for space on the front of the buses. Tomias Hinchcliff, the owner at Genesis, bought space on 30 buses and an advertisement that is half the CAT logo + slogan and half Genesis logo + slogan has appeared on these buses ever since. Currently the price for this would be $50 per bus. About half of that would be income for CAT. This one-time charge for a space that would normally carry a hefty monthly advertising charge. This is an unbelievable advertising opportunity, one no other shop has picked up on, despite efforts by the CAT office to explain the opportunity. Please consider trying to sell this to your favorite shop decision maker.
Organizational Membership in CAT
Ask for $100 to join CAT. Benefits include listing on our Lehigh Valley Bicycling Website (lvbike.info) map of the region's bike shops, plus continued referrals from our instructors to those who take our classes or visit our facility.
CAT Days
Genesis held a CAT Day one Saturday last year and gave CAT 10% of the proceeds. We received over $1,100 dollars although it was a rainy day and Tomias did not have a particularly great retail day. He was still happy with CAT as we held rides and education at his shop and many people who came through and bought stuff said they did so to support CAT, or because they heard about the event through CAT or wanted to participate in the educational events at the shop.
Sponsorship of mechanic classes, road one testing, the BBC or basic bikeEd
Genesis sponsors the mechanic classes by paying for bagels and cream cheese plus a beverage for all participants. They gave CAT $400 for this in 2006. They also offer a $20 coupon off the cost of the class to anyone who buys a new bike. One person exercised this option. Genesis offers a one time 20 percent discount to all graduates of this class when they buy park tools or accessories. Similar arrangements could be made with any bike shop for road one testing, sponsorship of the BBC (it costs about $100 to run the BBC on a Thursday evening and $300 on a Saturday) or our one hour bikeEd class.
Sponsorship of Celebrate the Bicycle Day
Cogan Blueprint has offered $200 to sponsor this event at Charlie's Clearing on the Lehigh Canal Towpath in Bethlehem in late May on a Sunday. Pitch it to your favorite shop. depending on the weather many people attend and bike by this event. we normally get excellent media coverage, too.
LCI Ride Leader Program
Lastly but perhaps most significantly is the opportunity to sponsor shop ride leaders. Genesis has rides led from their shop at least once every day Spring, Summer and Fall. They do this because it sells bikes, service and accessories. Genesis pays for all their ride leaders to join CAT ($25).. they pay for all their ride leaders to join the league of american bicyclists ($35). they pay for all their ride leaders to take road one testing from CAT ($35). and they pay for all their ride leaders to participate in the League Cycling Instructor certification seminars ($200). They do all this so that their ride leaders (6 in 2006 & 5 more in 2007) enjoy a million dollars in liability coverage from American Specialty, the insurance carrier for the League. They do this so their ride leaders are confident and teach the right stuff. Only Mark Bowman of South Mountain Cycles has ever sent a ride leader to CAT, in that case for Road One testing. There is great potential for improvement.
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CAT Office
60 West Broad Street #97
Bethlehem, PA 18018
cat@car-free.org
610 954 5744
Please consider joining CAT today!
Download CAT's Membership Application:
http://www.car-free.org/guts/MembershipDriveLetter.doc