Growing Pains... b2p 2008

Memorial Day has, for me, been the day to kick into gear getting ready for the year's b2p. As we turned that corner this year, panic began to set in...

My highest priorities for the ride are to protect the safety of everyone involved, and the spotless reputation we have as a fundraising organization. It became clear that, in this stage of our growth, it would take a lot of work to insure both goals were met. As we headed down the stretch to July 4th, it became clear that I couldn't devote the time I needed to meet this challenge, and reluctantly stepped down hoping we could move on to a new level, with new leadership. Unfortunately it seems that was a little optimistic.

The decision I've come to is to close the ride for this year, rather than risk not doing it responsibly.

Naturally this was a tough call. Beyond just my interests, we have a whole lot of people who have a lot of time and effort invested in this. Notably, we have Edna Woods, who, as far as I can tell, almost singlehandedly pulled together all the volunteer help the riders enjoyed at the rest stops. We have all those volunteers who stood out in the rain, marked the routes, gathered the donations, many of whom I never got the chance to meet in person. We have Dr. Matt Lavoie and his team at the CND who enthusiastically supported our ride in many, many ways... and Wendy Thaxter, past director of the FND, who held our hand through our first years. Of course there are the riders and their sponsors.

My hope is this will simply be a "year off". Whether we just gear up next year, (even next Spring maybe?) with a fully established organization, or we're reborn in another form, I just don't know... but I'm not shutting the door on any possibility.

Riders: I will be returning any registration fees I have received, and will contact your sponsors to see if they would like their donations returned, or forwarded to the FND.

If you do not wish to receive more emails of this sort from b2p please take a minute and hit the "unsubscribe" button. Your name will be removed from the list automatically. If, however, you'd like to learn of any developments and keep up with our plans, just do nothing. Your name will remain on our list.

Thanks once again to the hundreds of people who have made this ride possible. You have raised over $120,000 to find a cure for Parkinson's, and hopefully, this is only the start!

...oh yeah. And, KEEP PEDALIN'!

-Ted

passing the torch...

Well, folks, this is a letter I hoped I'd never have to write, but, especially so soon, and at such a critical time in the growth of b2p... but I've had to make some very difficult decisions.

I've got to step down as (what Edna calls) the "Big Boss" of b2p.

This is for a large number of ultimately pretty personal reasons, but suffice to say that I have a lot of responsibilities and I'm at the point that something has to give. Unfortunately, that "something" has to be my active involvement in boston2portland.

I'm confident that this will be the beginning of the next phase of boston2portland's growth. The organization is on the verge of acquiring non-profit corporation status, the ridership is blossoming, we've worked out many rough spots and I hope we've built a machine with a life of it's own.

This means we need someone who can take over.

This involves providing communication and organization for the various teams working the ride, assigning and delegating tasks and jobs to keep the ride running smoothly, both in the months leading up to it, during the ride, and following up. It means continuing the relationship with the FND and developing Corporate sponsorship and underwriting.

To jump in immediately, you'll need to have (or be able to delegate to someone who does):

A good basic understanding of Excel and Word.

A good basic understanding of website design, using simple HTML and forms.

Experience with, or willingness to learn quickly, the 501(c)(3) process and an understanding of Non-Profit Corporate structure.

Experience with, or willingness to learn quickly, email "marketing", (specifically, Constant Contact).

I've tried very hard to "package" b2p in such a way that it could be scaled out easily to adapt to it's inevitable growth, and I think I've accomplished that pretty well. Taking this organization to the next level is certainly a project not to be taken lightly, but one that is certainly set up to be as efficient as possible. It is by no means a full-time job, but it is certainly a job.

I will do whatever I can to help make this transition as smooth as possible, and hopefully I will have time to work in some kind of advisory role.

I do not know for sure what this means for this year's ride, and my hopes are that it will roll right along with someone in my place. I promise that, within a short period of time, I will contact everyone with that information, once plans are finalized.

What this means to riders and sponsors:

Please hold off on collecting donations, at least for a few weeks.

The donations that have been collected and turned in, either on-line, or checks, are being held and not processed, pending final plans.

Your registration fees are also being held, and not processed.

Please be assured that we will handle this transition responsibly, and in the interests of all the people who have worked so hard for this ride. We will not leave you in "limbo", and will let you know as soon as we have a course of action in place.

I want to also take this moment to thank everyone who has made this ride, this crazy thought I had pedaling to work at Carson's Beach in South Boston back in 2005, such an astounding success.

Please don't hesitate to contact me for any information, to discuss your interests in helping drive b2p to the next level, or to voice your concerns. You can contact me at ted@boston2portland.com

-Ted

under 90 days!

hoo boy! so much to do!

b2p Non-Profit status: what it means

As you know, for the last year or so we've been working on getting our own tax-exempt status. It's been a long haul, and it looks like we're getting to the point of submitting our application to the IRS for our own tax number.

This is a 2-part process. First, we have to create a corporation, second, be approved for that corporation to have "not-for-profit" status.

This process, in addition to the personnel changes at the FND, means that we cannot give our sponsors a Federal Tax ID number, at this time, to claim their contributions as tax-deducible. We are working as hard as possible to make sure that we have this number in place by the year's end, but, as with all things involving the IRS, we cannot make any promises.

This will have an impact on your fundraising in a few ways... please keep the following in mind.

DO NOT promise that contributions will be "Tax Deductible". Rather, you can say that our status is "in process" and that they should receive a confirmation letter with our FID number by the time they file their taxes.

Please do NOT use the FND Tax ID number that has been available in the past. Contributions made to b2p are not, technically, covered under the FND number, only our own.

Contributions MUST be made to b2p. The FND is simply not able to accept and process the huge amount of check we generate.

I am, naturally, concerned that this will cut into our fundraising, and all I can say is that we're working as hard as we can to complete this process. We're caught in what my grandmother used to call a "pickle"... but that can't keep us from doing the best we can to raise as much as possible. This is a part of the growth process, and in spite of our remarkable success, growth is not always smooth or painless.

Do your best, and please, if you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me.

already 35 riders!

I always think back fondly to the first year and the 5 intrepid riders I saandbagged into coming with me... ha!

Here is the current list:

Kristen Britt 30

Deborah Maxner 30

Carl Maxner 30

Katie Clark 50

Stephen Connors 50

Robert Connors 50

Stephen Montano 50

Robert Theberge 50

Geraldine Arege 100

Ethan Bickford 100

David Britt 100

Gary Chase 100

Robb Corduck 100

Megan Decker 100

Steven Durkee 100

Kellie & Matt Gentile 100

Jim Gibson 100

Dana Hodgkins 100

Karen Kustra 100

Tom Lenihan 100

Bill Lyons 100

Julian Modesti 100

Austin Myerson 100

Meg Nolan 100

Dan Nolan 100

Patrick Nolan 100

Tom Robinson 100

Paul Schroder 100

John Schroder 100

Gina Walker 100

Tom Walsh 100

Nate White 100

Bob Woods 100

Chris Woods 100

Sign up now, and start getting your sponsors lined up early! As an old friend of mine used to say, "Now is the time to get them to commit to the concept... then you just have to reel them in on the details!"

...if you signed up and don't see your name here, drop a note to registration@boston2portland.com

THANKS to Jennifer and Keith Woodward for their help with registration!