Feeding Saddles – FSSB#1 Spoiler

[Mikey]

Good morning gang. I wanted to announce that this year’s Freezing Saddles will be so much better than last year for 2 reasons. One, This year my wife will be joining us, AND two we want to take advantage of the FS energy to do some real good. I want to guage your interest for this so please respond. I was thinking of having the first FSSB be a charity drive called “Feeding Saddles”. I am going to create a crowdrise site for Freezing Saddles, and use our positive energy and positive publicity to raise real money for charity. If we could get donations of even a penny a mile, and 10-cents a day (0.01 per point) across the entire group we could raise a lot of money. I figure the funds could be split between local food banks and/or Phoenix bikes. We could have a contest to see which team brings in more loot, etc. I would love to be able to work with hozn to link the crowdrise site to freezing saddles. What does everyone think?

Topic

[dasgeh]

Love it. Don’t forget WABA.

[jrenaut]

Before rcannon jumps in – what are the liability aspects here? I’m all for raising money for charity but don’t want to open up BikeArlington to anyone else to tremendous legal liability.

[Mikey]

I figured by using a legitimate non-profit donation collection site like crowdrise, the members of the blog and Bike Arlington don’t actually handle any money. We would just use this forum to raise awareness.
All of the actual transactions would be on that site.

[jrenaut]

Yeah, but Bob has mentioned before that simply making this an organized thing beyond just some friends riding bikes may introduce the liability. Perhaps he or another lawyer would like to take over.

[dasgeh]

I would think that liability only attaches if there’s a requirement. If it’s encouraged and recognized, that’s different.

[Mikey]

so after playing around on Crowdrise, it looks something like this. The nature of the side bet and the charity campaign would be entirely voluntary, and entirely separate from this site. Individuals could sign up. Teams could register under the same event and sign up. It isn’t clear how to support more than 1 charity but I will contact the crowdrise folks to figure that out. Let me know what you think.

[Steve O]

Tiny correction: the competition runs through the last day of winter, March 19 at 11:59:59.99, not the first day of spring.

[rcannon100]

First, this is massive. And if we can make this work, sweet. 5 Pointless Points awarded to Mikey.

I am not an expert on this stuff. I am not an expert on this stuff. I am not an expert on this stuff.

I think the problem is when there is a fee for participation. You now have an exchange – you have a contract – and you have an organization of some type (whether it is a person or something else). You now have a contractual relationship and the potential of breaches of that contractual relationship.

With no fee and no organization, we emphasize this is a bunch of friends goofing off. No condition to particpate. No required fee. No contract. I think it is hard for people to have a complaint when it is 100% volunteer, no fee involved, no organization and we fully disclaim that all weeze are is all weeze are.

So now Mikey comes up with this voluntary way of Mitvah. Mikey is a Mench (look it up). I think this is ziskeyt.

I note that Crowdrise takes 5% off the top and then another 3% for credit card fees so that is 8% off the top.

I am not an expert on this stuff. But I think this is wonderful.

[peterw_diy]

Variations:

Pledge per subfreezing mile or mile ridden while snowing, using the Strava/meteorology connections in the bafs application…

[Raymo853]

Got a charity to suggest to be considered as a beneficiary. It makes food deliveries every Saturday throughout DC. Food for All DC. http://www.foodforalldc.org/wp/ Food for All DC has been around since 1984.

I even have the idea of suggest Freezing Saddle folks show up to make deliveries via bikes with some sort of bonus for the miles covered. Or maybe with cars if they don’t feel up to deliveries via bike.

[dasgeh]

@Raymo853 100841 wrote:

I even have the idea of suggest Freezing Saddle folks show up to make deliveries via bikes with some sort of bonus for the miles covered. Or maybe with cars if they don’t feel up to deliveries via bike.

I was just talking to DH about the possibility of taking a Meals on Wheels route with the bakfiets.

[Mikey]

Okay I’ve figured this out and FEEDING SADDLES – The FS Side Bet #1 is now live – even before you have finished hanging your Christmas lights!

But How do I sign up? Easy. . .
1) sign up for Freezing Saddles. okay done.
2) decide for yourself if you want to do some real good this winter and raise some cash for charity.
3) If you answered no to #2, no big deal, but consider supporting one of the riders in the group if you are able (not required though). If you answered Yes, then go to https://www.crowdrise.com/FreezingSaddles2015
– Once at the site, click on “SETUP your FUNDRAISER”. Now you have a choice to make. You can join a preexisting team, or create your own. Each team is set up to support a single charity. I have selected the Capital Area Food Bank. If you want to support the food bank, join my team. If you want to help another charity, then set up your own team.
You can browse the teams and their charities at the bottom of the event page before you join. You will be asked to either log in or set up a crowdrise account.
– When you find the team you like you click Join this Team, and fill out the important info. Please read the disclaimer, it merely repeats the FS 2015 disclaimer and adds a disclaimer that you are volunteering to support a charity and no one is making you.
– If you don’t see a charity you want to support or you want to go it alone, then pick “Start your own fundraiser”. Again you will have to login or set up an account with crowdrise, then you will pick a charity to support. If your charity is not on the list just contact Crowdrise to see about getting them on the list, or pick again.
4) Okay, so now you are registered what do I do now? – Let your friends know, let your co-workers know, let your family know. It should be easy for them to support you with a donation of as little as $10.
5) I have set my goal as $1000 since I want to ride 1000 miles during the challenge. I may fall short of that in mileage, but it’s no big deal. We do this as a group.

Things to remember:
– Teams here represent charities to support. you don’t have to coalesce into teams around your FS team – heck you won’t know that until early January anyway.
– You don’t have to do this, but it is fun, and you will feel good about yourself. And besides I bet you have always wanted to have your picture taken with a large novelty check at the FS wrap party.
– Let me know if you have any questions.
– If you are still unsure and want to know that specifics of how crowdrise works, contact them. I’m just using them for this because it is a safe way to collect donations without ever having to touch any money.

Start Here

[komorebi]

Newbie here (although I’ve been lurking for a little while). I just wanted to say that this is a brilliant idea. I’m still on the fence about signing up for Freezing Saddles, mostly because (1) I’ve never biked in winter before, and (2) I’m a wimp when it comes to dealing with cold weather. But if I do sign up, this side bet will be a primary reason why. (And even if I don’t sign up, I’ll definitely be donating and cheering from the sidelines.)

[dasgeh]

@komorebi 101206 wrote:

Newbie here (although I’ve been lurking for a little while). I just wanted to say that this is a brilliant idea. I’m still on the fence about signing up for Freezing Saddles, mostly because (1) I’ve never biked in winter before, and (2) I’m a wimp when it comes to dealing with cold weather. But if I do sign up, this side bet will be a primary reason why. (And even if I don’t sign up, I’ll definitely be donating and cheering from the sidelines.)

Just sign up. It’ll be fun.

And welcome.

[Arlingtonrider]

Mikey and Dasgeh – I don’t understand why Freezing Saddles participation should be an absolute requirement for Feeding Saddles. Shouldn’t we encourage support from the sidelines? And I especially don’t understand why we would want to encourage Freezing Saddles registration by people who have no intention of doing frequent winter rides.

[Author]

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