Hello Adventure Cycling Board,
I’ve learned you’re facing challenging times and have made what you think is a wise decision.
May I tell you a story?
About 15 years ago I fell into bike advocacy backwards. I was a communications and media relations person who didn’t own a car. But I didn’t ride a bike either. You see I grapple with some tough health challenges that meant I thought I couldn’t ride anywhere useful. The bus and walking worked for me. I could no longer afford a car.
But I was part of a team that one a marketing contract for the City of Long Beach California which had just been granted a lot of money (by bike standards at the time) to help make the city more bike friendly.
And they’d hired a crazy guy from Texas to be the city’s Mobility Coordinator. His name is Charlie Gandy. For six months Charlie walked his bike with me whenever we’d meet up to talk about this brand new (to me) world of bike advocacy. We bonded over our love of good storytelling and getting those stories in the press.
You may have heard of the rise of Long Beach as a bike-friendly city. We had a lot of great story tellers for a time, including photographers, videographers, and media pitch people like me.
I ‘ll be honest, I’m writing because I’m friends with Jim Sayer on FB. But I’ve interacted with your org over the years.
This quote from your email newsletter broke my heart and baffled me:
“We are not bringing in enough new members because Adventure Cycling’s brand is perceived as older and pavement-centric and our programming is not well aligned with growing bike travel types (e.g. gravel, trail) and event trends (e.g. meet-ups and bike summits).”
Perceived? So what are you doing about it?
You have one of the most known and respected names in the bike-related world. Why can’t you serve both the older members and this new emerging markets?
Why couldn’t your iconic beloved office host other types of like-minded advocacy orgs and defray your challenging costs? If it’s going to take time to sell the building why not reach out and see? Maybe you can save it. Or maybe you can simple make some new stronger allies who know how to communicate with younger generations.
When I got into bike advocacy I kept scratching my head at the mostly male dominated sporty tribalism that seemed to shun anyone who couldn’t keep up. Why would you shun your growth market? People who used to ride, or don’t ride yet?
I certainly couldn’t keep up. But Charlie convinced me I could ride a bike again and I did. For about a decade in Long Beach I rode no more than 4-5 miles but it got me where I wanted to go on time. It took him 6 months to get me on a bike again. I hadn’t ridden in over 25 years.
When I started to complain about the lack of women in top positions in bike advocacy and being featured as speakers at conferences Charlie told me to stop complaining and do something. I launched PedalLove.org.
Charlie is now 67. I’m 61. I still have those health challenges, more than ever. Charlie grapples with being ADHD and at times depression. When the bike advocacy contracts dried for Charlie and my work could be done from anywhere we pivoted and relocated to WA state.
A year ago this month Charlie decided to launch his legacy goal: a state-wide hiking and biking trail across Texas. It’s called the xTexas Trail Project.
I agreed to help him by creating the website and doing the media/social media but only if he included horses and horse people, my original love.
Guess what? We launched under BikeTexas (which he founded 30+ years ago) and the response has been overwhelming in its positivity. We have almost 1,700 email subscribers in a year, from zero. People started sending donations immediately. We have people writing in daily to volunteer. We have 20 land owners who want the trail to go across their property. We have over 20 fantastic media placements (most of which are earned media).
Why am I sharing this? Because it’s time to tell yourselves and your constituents a new story.
Charlie was skeptical about horses. Guess what? Horse people are the most enthusiastic participants of the xTx AND they are the door to opening up conversations with big private ranches that can no longer support just grazing cattle for possible access across their lands.
We live in scary times. I know that. I have no idea what the future holds but I know that the bicycle is a tool for optimism.
Why not embrace gravel biking, trail biking, meet ups and bike summits. Your name says Adventure Cycling. Why not embrace a new adventure?
Best wishes for a sustainable future.
Melissa Balmer
Founder PedalLove.org
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