Charitable Efforts

Patrick

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I've been thinking about this for a year or so.

So many of us give to the sport we love. Mentoring, advocating, educating, time, and money.

I posted that I was amazed at the people riding 6MR after the rain. Their bikes weren't muddy.
Well, maybe 6MR sheds water now because of @jdog and a focused team that has been working for the last 5 years made it that way.

The White trail, Sterling, LM, The Commons, @chainsawer's personal mission, the unstoppable South Jersey crew (@pooriggy 😛), and the real South Jersey Crew.
Yeah, i know I didn't get everyone, cause wildcat, the tourne, .......... Second Life Bikes, Trenton bike exchange,......all the JORBA and Palisades MTB people that work at the highest level.

The number of hours put into NICA may not be calculable.

What about other causes outside cycling? We, as a group, can have a huge impact wherever we focus our efforts.
Reflecting on some of the posts over the years, we are an altruistic group.
I do acknowledge that we can participate in events that support a cause - let's take it to the next level.
PS- if you can write grant applications, we need you!

I'm glad our community reaches out for their friends and other personal causes.
A few $$ from many people can make a huge difference.
In today's world, a like, or follow, may push a cause up the search results.

So a couple of questions.

Should we pick a cause? or a couple?
Something we could point to on socials and say this is how we make a difference?

Should we have "Champions" of causes - in a dedicated forum? Self appointed.

Or does this just work better on FB or other socials?

I've been working in the food security space for a couple years.
Urban gathering from the local shops (Wegmans, Randazzos)
and harvesting with America's Grow A Row (local, amazing person - also cyclist)
They are looking for people to give time - the most precious resource.

What are our causes?
How are you getting people involved?
Should we pick a cause and focus? For a year? longer? shorter?
 
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Patrick said:
Should we pick a cause and focus? For a year? longer? shorter?
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Picking a cause to support would be extremely difficult. Since mtbing has brought us all together, why not support/promote that?

Given the popularity of mtbing, support from riders is not great, financially and volunteering wise. So few, do so much.

If every mountain biker was a Jorba member and volunteered 3x/year at their local trail, mtbing would be that much better for everyone.

For those that do support, Thank you!

If you are not a Jorba member, please join and support mtbing in NJ. 😀

FB_IMG_1723233006282.jpg
 
I don't disagree with @pooriggy - and that is one of the better reruitment/advertisements I've seen.

The question is why doesn't JORBA have 2,000-3,000 members.
@Norm and @jmanic looked at some of the reasons.

We should all give a volunteer day or two per year, and have a membership - tools, supplies, insurance, safety equipment are only getting more expensive.

My wife doesn't MTB - she'll do a little rail trail (when her knee is working again) - hence the food security choice for us.

The goal might be more along the lines of finding people with similar philanthropic interests?
 
If "we" pick a cause it seems unlikely the "we" will put our hearts into it. But when each of us picks our cause, we can follow our hearts.
I volunteer at the Bike Exchange in Ewing NJ. I get to handle, fix, triage, stack, and organize hundreds of bikes and parts. I even market the odd pieces to you!
The Bike Exchange is part of the Boys and Girls Club of Mercer County. With an all volunteer staff, our sales proceeds go to funding after school programs in the inner city. I consider the after school aspect as the right intervention at the right time. Kids learning STEM instead of what they might learn unsupervised after school let's out.
So my heart being into bikes translates into kids being steered in a good direction.
The Bike Exchange has so far funded $1.5 million to the Boys and Girls Club. To me, this effort feels more like fun than giving.
 
Here we go again - as a cycling site don’t we have enough of a fight keeping cycling alive and present?

Why do you continue to divert from cycling on here @Patrick ? Do you feel you are drifting from cycling but want to maintain the relationships you made while riding?

There is a lot I do outside of cycling - especially for charity - this does not seem to be the place to project that. Further - we are bonded by cycling, why divide/separate us by trying to unify with an outside cause?

Let’s push JORBA and keep the trails alive.
 
Johnny Utah said:
Here we go again - as a cycling site don’t we have enough of a fight keeping cycling alive and present?

Why do you continue to divert from cycling on here @Patrick ? Do you feel you are drifting from cycling but want to maintain the relationships you made while riding?

There is a lot I do outside of cycling - especially for charity - this does not seem to be the place to project that. Further - we are bonded by cycling, why divide/separate us by trying to unify with an outside cause?

Let’s push JORBA and keep the trails alive.
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I think your being a bit of a DICKHEAD lately when it comes to @Patrick. You do know you can ignore him right? How is a post about charity any worse than one about cars, beers, wines, cats, etc. Give it a rest.
 
huffster said:
I think you’re being a bit of a DICKHEAD lately when it comes to @Patrick. You do know you can ignore him right? How is a post about charity any worse than one about cars, beers, wines, cats, etc. Give it a rest.
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I respect your opinion, and frankly feel others agree - but let me answer your question.

@Patrick has become the face of this site as well as what appears to be the primary administrator of said site - which is also the primary discussion board and sponsor of JORBA. I think we know what JORBA does, so I will defer to their website.

I think Patrick gets a head of himself very easy - this is a primary example. First off, who anointed him the head of the MTB community to make a decision
Like this? I would think this would be more in line with @Norm or someone from JORBA like @Frank or @KenS

Further - if Patrick is the spokesperson for this site, he should know better IMHO. He is pushing members both of JORBA and the site away - I have discussed this in other threads.

If Patrick wants to be the spokesperson he needs to handle the heat and criticism- a lot of us put time and money into JORBA and the trail system - I have been at it since 1997 when @Frank first started - who said @Patrick can take the goodwill of this board, Jorba and the MTBNJ community and start to use it for his charitable purposes? That is an BOLD move. Even further - have the knowledge to know this will be an incredibly difficult task to get everyone aligned on?

Make no mistake - I do not think he should be the person behind the wheel of the site - I have zero issues with him being a member but it seems to me he has either taken the controls or has had them provided - I think that is dangerous given the proximity of the site to JORBA.

Feel free to look through the Six Mile thread for serious concerns of mine.

Is MTBNJ now going to support JORBA as well as a second charity? It seems to
Me there are more than enough issues for JORBA to handle.

Signed - Dickhead
 
Thanks Tim - I read what Johnny says, not how he says it.
He can't ignore me - the system won't let him.
Nor should he, if he is going to make an opposing case.

Today was my 34th wedding anniversary - my wife said Go Fishing, and then we'll celebrate.
Awesome day it was. Crew just left.

I posed a couple scenarios -
  • Act as a group
  • Have Champions, which may pull in some people - ie someone has a cause, they post up, and see if they can find people of like mind
  • Leave it to facebook

Since the only response I got was we should only support jorba, and MTB, I must have done a horrible job at describing the options.
Iggy did a nice job - let's stick with MTB - i'm assuming he means and the needs of the community -
cause at last check, we are here for those who need a bit of help from the extended community. Monetary, Time, moral support.

Since Johnny got likes from Frank, Norm(Joe), FLJim. Bill. 1Speeder and K2FM (sorry, I don't think I know your names) - there must be something to it.

Quick shout out to stb Kev also - when I do something I shouldn't he txts me and reminds says that I may be out-of-line,
or shouldn't be typing the first thing that comes into my mind. This wasn't the case here.
I actually have been thinking about recruiting for the causes I support. Extending it to "let's talk about our favorite causes" seemed reasonable -
since it isn't about me.

The goal was to find common purpose between us. Connections.
If the answer was leave that somewhere else - I'm fine with that.

Pretty sure I mentioned that the free flow of ideas was encouraged in my workplace.
It is hard to stop.
 
Patrick said:
Pretty sure I mentioned that the free flow of ideas was encouraged in my workplace.
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I approve this.

For the record, to anyone who cares, I have no problem with anything Pat is doing. Dude has more likes than me so what can I say?

It takes a village and shit. I like Johnny too. Y’all should mud wrestle or something.

Also it’s like a ghost town in August. Content is good.
 
Role reversal....

How do we get other organizations to help promote JORBA? So many user groups out there outside of cycling.... Boy/Girl scouts, bird watchers, 🫣hikers, etc..

I've started a bit on my end since my kids are being actively recruited for those organizations, but maybe we're missing out on some quid-pro-quo 🤷
 
Matt_ said:
Role reversal....

How do we get other organizations to help promote JORBA? So many user groups out there outside of cycling.... Boy/Girl scouts, bird watchers, 🫣hikers, etc..

I've started a bit on my end since my kids are being actively recruited for those organizations, but maybe we're missing out on some quid-pro-quo 🤷
Click to expand...

This deserves its own thread - and probably should be idea generation, then a smaller group goes with it, then loops back with recommendations.

Just found out there are a few items that need to get done in jorba-world first.
 
I do what I can to help the local animal shelters. Most folk love kittens and puppies. Even Mr. @pibbles. Just sayin'.

And because I'm an old piney with some old observations (written in "authentic frontier gibberish") that maybe a marketeer can use.

1. Used to print quantities of the JORBA DIRT newsletter and drop them off at LBSs. There was one issue that I printed stacks of, several times (thanks PEPCO), because lots of people were grabbing them.

2. The Bunny Hugs pages saw the most traffic of all the pages on the old JAR website. Tech tips and etiquette pointers, mixed w/ some humor was an easy sell. Believe it or not, the "how to fix a flat" was a surprising standout. It didn't generate a huge influx of new members, but it did generate a lot of good will.

3. I'll stop now. Please don't volunteer me for anything. Thanks for listening.

 
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