Recently I've talked to a few individuals who had a fundamental misconception about what we do at Positive Spin and I thought I might be able to clarify things here. Our mission statement is: "We provided service and support to area citizens who choose sustainable transportation to make Morgantown more livable." Our goal statement is: "To reduce motor vehicle traffic in Morgantown by 80% before 2040." Nowhere in these statements does it mention anything about money. That's because we treat money as a tool to accomplish our mission and attain our goal. A few people have implied that selling bikes, asking for dues, soliciting donations and charging for memberships somehow tarnishes their perception that we are doing this for charity. However, just because we are a non-profit doesn't mean we are a charity - in fact charity is very low on our list of priorities. Most people are driving themselves to bankruptcy - one unnecessary car trip at a time. It costs $1/mile to operate a car, of which 70 cents comes from the owner (fuel, insurance, repairs, etc) and 30 cents comes from the community where the car is operated (paving, lost tax revenue, emergency services) and many non-monetary costs are incurred like air/water quality loss, environmental damage, road-kill, degraded health and added weight.
When you ride a bike you save yourself $1/mile in improved health alone. The savings for walking are more like $4/mile. In addition you avoid the driving costs (saving $10,000/yr by some estimates) there are many non-monetary benefits like calmness, more free time and better sleep. Positive Spin can teach anyone how to save large amounts of money. We provide service and education to help anyone achieve these savings and benefits. Anyone who recognizes what we are offering won't mind making a donation to Positive Spin as a percentage of the money they save. We're still waiting for this idea to sink in. In the meantime we're recycling bikes, charging dues and asking for monetary donations to pay the bills that come with having a building where we can provide the services that provide these benefits. The money that we collect isn't making anyone rich. In fact because of the move last year I've been unable to pay myself anything since November. With Spring riding weather arriving we've seen our revenue start to grow, but only to the point where we can pay past-due bills. There still isn't enough to pay a salary yet. In the meantime I'm doing administrative, management and mechanic work for free that would earn me a large salary (paid gratefully) at most for-profit businesses.
Many of you have expressed gracious thanks for the work that I do. I appreciate that greatly, but the thing that would mean the most to me is to see members of the community take over the administrative work and get more involved in the long-term planning and conduct of business here. Sustainable transportation is important enough that the business that serves as its most enthusiastic advocate should have more than one voice. If I leave would you want to lose what I've helped start, or are you willing to be part of seeing that it continues?
LATE UPDATE: Joe Sallmen has volunteered to be treasurer! Is there anyone else who can help? We need a volunteer coordinator, Secretary, Membership chairperson and Board Chairperson.
When you ride a bike you save yourself $1/mile in improved health alone. The savings for walking are more like $4/mile. In addition you avoid the driving costs (saving $10,000/yr by some estimates) there are many non-monetary benefits like calmness, more free time and better sleep. Positive Spin can teach anyone how to save large amounts of money. We provide service and education to help anyone achieve these savings and benefits. Anyone who recognizes what we are offering won't mind making a donation to Positive Spin as a percentage of the money they save. We're still waiting for this idea to sink in. In the meantime we're recycling bikes, charging dues and asking for monetary donations to pay the bills that come with having a building where we can provide the services that provide these benefits. The money that we collect isn't making anyone rich. In fact because of the move last year I've been unable to pay myself anything since November. With Spring riding weather arriving we've seen our revenue start to grow, but only to the point where we can pay past-due bills. There still isn't enough to pay a salary yet. In the meantime I'm doing administrative, management and mechanic work for free that would earn me a large salary (paid gratefully) at most for-profit businesses.
Many of you have expressed gracious thanks for the work that I do. I appreciate that greatly, but the thing that would mean the most to me is to see members of the community take over the administrative work and get more involved in the long-term planning and conduct of business here. Sustainable transportation is important enough that the business that serves as its most enthusiastic advocate should have more than one voice. If I leave would you want to lose what I've helped start, or are you willing to be part of seeing that it continues?
LATE UPDATE: Joe Sallmen has volunteered to be treasurer! Is there anyone else who can help? We need a volunteer coordinator, Secretary, Membership chairperson and Board Chairperson.
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