Join us in celebrating YOUR success in moving MoBikeFed forward!

MoBikeFed members & friends,

I hope you will join us in celebrating YOUR achievement--MoBikeFed's membership and fund raising drive has now wrapped up and we have EXCEEDED our goals:

• 202 new members added in May & June, MORE than reaching our goal of doubling our membership in that period
  
• $11,090 raised December-June, MORE than reaching our goal of $10,000

Many, many thanks go all of you who have joined MoBikeFed, made donations, or given gift memberships.

Thank you for putting up with the annoying mail and email associated with the campaign. (Believe me, it drives me crazy, too . . . during this period it has simply been a necessary evil.)

The very good news is:

• we have paid our lobbyist's bill of $5000
  
• passed the first Missouri Bicycle Safety Legislation in ten years
  
• have the most members in our history (giving us much more clout among officials and policy-makers), and
  
• have managed to finish up all this with our bank account actually in better shape than when we started (OK, it wasn't in really great shape to start with, but still . . . )

The reason the last point (solvent bank account) is especially important is that it gives us a solid basis for the future.

We know and have tested techniques now for growing our membership. We can solicit new members in a way that is a net positive for our bank account (a rarity in the nonprofit world, where most membership drives actually lose money in the first year).

But it takes a certain reserve of funds to make it all work--and now, thanks to you, we have it.

What this means to *you* is that MoBikeFed will be able to move forward with its goal of 1000 new/renewing members this year WITHOUT continually pestering our current members. (We've pestered you ENOUGH for now!)

1000 members by the end of this year is MoBikeFed's goal, because it is the number we consider necessary to

• continue our current level of organization and advocacy, including legislative advocacy
  
• continue to hire Mr. Farrell as our lobbyist in future years
  
• protect and advance bicycling's legal status in Missouri
  
• move towards a part-time paid executive director without placing an undue burden on our membership
  
• build a strong bicycle advocacy organization that will have real impact on Missouri bicycling over the long term

Click here to read more of what MoBikeFed has done lately--the sorts of things we want to continue doing into the future.

We have already added over 350 new/renewing members this year. With the experience we have now, using these same techniques to find the remaining 650 needed to reach our goal of 100 new members by the end of the year is quite possible.

So once again, THANK YOU for your strong and continuing support of MoBikeFed during this crucial time.

It really HAS made a difference!

MoBikeFed's goal is the same as yours--more, better, and safer roads, and trails for more, better, and safer bicycling in Missouri. Thanks to your help and the help of hundreds of Missouri Bicycle Federation members like you, we are making it happen now.

--Brent