From: Keith Oberg <koberg@verizon.net>
Date: Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 6:48 PM
Subject: RE: info on assisting Bikes for the World
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Hello Barrett, thanks for your email.
Heres an off-the-cuff reply, and lets brainstorm further.
First, we have no affiliate in Austin. You could check with Bikes Not
Bombs, a Boston-based non-profit. I believe they have contacts in
Austin. Or check with Robin Stallings, an old friend and most recently
executive director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition (headquartered in Austin). Robin
and I served on a board together in the late 1980s, providing the non-profit
status for Bikes Not Bombs, and he may retain some of those local contacts.
Bikes for the World does have volunteers and potential affiliates across the mid-Atlantic and mid-West regions, but things are still fairly centralized here in the greater Washington DC area.
Re distribution of your materials, BNB may be a better partner for that, especially in Ghana, as the international program is headed by a former Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana. Wed be glad to include materials in a container, or provide addresses for African partners, but currently there are few, and the two that come to mind I judge unlikely to be interested. Check out www.villagebicycleproject.org and www.psouganda.org for further info.
Which brings us to your third point. Wed of course welcome any assistance in publicity, for ourselves and for the movement of which we are a part. Although we are one of the newer groups (of half a dozen or so), we are now the largest, and have been asked to place shipments produced by other groups, or introduce them to our partners, owing to our 100% record in getting shipments into the countries we are seeking to assist. The reason for our success, I believe, is our methodology, which requires that new partners be invested in the success of the project through paying a share of direct shipping costs ahead of time. While this screens out many smaller, poorer organizations, it ensures that groups dont walk away when shipments encounter delays, and extra storage and other port fees, in Customs.
Lets brainstorm more, and see if there is a story line or angle that one of your publications might find interesting. Maybe, for example, interview some bicycle donors about their bikes, their use/history/emotional significance, and then follow those bikes overseas, and get the stories on their eventual destination and use?? Or the growing affluenza epidemic, as seen in the cycling area??
All the best,
-k
Keith Oberg
Director
Bikes for the World
3108 17th Street North
Arlington VA 22201
Tel-fax 703-525-0931
"A bicycle can get someone someplace...like from poverty to self-sufficiency."
From: Barrett Brown
[mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 2:47 PM
To: yvette@bikesfortheworld.org; info@bikesfortheworld.org
Subject: info on assisting Bikes for the World
Hi, Yvette-
I'm the head of an organization called Project PM which is in the early stages of setting up a program to assist with sustainable development in Africa and developing efficient ways for other orgs to do likewise, and I had a couple of questions for you. First, is there a local chapter of your org in Austin? Secondly, we're preparing an educational program whereby we plan to distribute information on easily-implemented but little-known engineering projects involving pumps, water wheels, and other simple procedures by which to improve the productivity of African villages, and we were wondering if your organization would be interested in distributing those pamphlets by way of your partnered organizations on that continent. We'd also be interested in learning about other ways by which we could assist your organization; I write for Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, and a variety of other publications, so at the very least I could help to increase awareness of what you're doing and how others could help.
Please get back to me at your convenience if you'd be
interested.
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302