Yay Bikes! launches new website and membership program!


On top of completing some top-notch community work in 2011, Yay Bikes! has also devoted considerable time to developing our organizational capacity during these past few months. And now, the spoils are ours (and yours!). Behold!


NEW WEBSITE—Today is a day of great rejoicing, for we have launched a New Website and it is Good! We hope it will allow you to get a better picture of who the hell Yay Bikes! is and what the hell it is we do...because we admit that it's been difficult to ascertain heretofore (ahem...!). Unfortunately, the forums have been a casualty of this upgrade, if only temporarily — as you're probably aware, they are old and ugly and don't really work all that well. So we'll need to make some substantial revisions before relaunching them this spring, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact me to participate in the forum upgrade and/or to sponsor it. In the meantime, comment on this post with any suggestions for improvement on the site or forums; we really appreciate all feedback as we work out a few kinks here and there.

NEW FOUNDING MEMBERS CAMPAIGN—That's right, you can actually join us now. Like, officially! You'll even get a card with your name on it, just like the cool kid card of your dreams way back in middle school! The first 200 members of 2012 will receive a "Founding Member" designation on their membership card, plus ride free on all Year of Yay! rides and get other goodies randomly throughout the year. For only $25 per person, this is a sweet-ass deal.

NEW BOARD MEMBERS—Ray George assumed Chairmanship of our board in November and promptly invited Jim Coleman, Bill Ferriott and Emily Burnett to join us. Thankfully they all said yes! We're so excited for the new blood that we're flirting with other folks as well, so if you are interested in board leadership contact Ray for a (no-guarantees) conversation. We're particularly interested in hearing from women and minorities, as our board is weak in the area of diversity.

Clearly it's an exciting time to be on the Yay Bikes! team, and we invite you to join us this year as we transform traffic in Central Ohio. Let's finally DO THIS, eh????!!!!!!!

Comments

  1. I liked the older yaybikes. I am not sure why they are charging membership fees. They do not explain what they are going to do with my membership fees except that I will get some vague junk back from them (a card, and some limited edition button). Sounds like a politicians talk.

    Very disappointed. I thought yaybikes was towards promoting cycling at grassroots level. If they have difficulty in managing servers, they can move their forums to Google Groups for free.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the comment! Comments like yours will help us improve our organization.

    First off we are truly disappointed that the forums are not part of the new site. Yet. We are assessing the time and talent to convert the forums to another system or resurrect them within the new site, but we need help. To convert them will take time and/or money. We hope that HELP will come in the form of volunteers who can help convert and maintain the system.

    That leads me to our membership program. In the past few years we have rolled out the Bike to Work Challenge and How We Roll which is aimed at getting people on their bikes for commuting and to experience Columbus. To continue and expand these programs we need member support through volunteering and donations.

    Our mission is:
    Yay Bikes! is a 501c3 grassroots member organization that promotes bicycling for transportation in Central Ohio. Our vision is that people here ride bicycles for as many trips as possible. We therefore work to create opportunities for personal and community transformation through innovative campaigns and unconventional partnerships that promote bicycling as an alternative to driving.

    Take a look at our website and review the different ways we are helping the cycling community in Columbus and you will see why we need member support.

    Thank you,

    Ray George
    Board Chair
    Yay Bikes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the forums have been updated and converted to the new website layout and will reappear soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The forums are back and have been tucked under the "Community" menu item.

    I was encouraged by the overwhelming number of people who became founding members on launch day. Wow!

    Anyway, change is never easy, but it is always inevitable. Thanks for loving us enough to weigh in with your comments!

    Mike,
    Yay Bikes!

    ReplyDelete

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