FAIRBIKES: Alaska's First Community Bike Share

FAIRBIKES - Fun You Can Feel Good About!

In 2012, my business partner and friend, John Stowman, and I came across an idea that captured our imaginations. At the time it was pretty conventional knowledge in our field that nonprofits needed to create more a business-like infra-structure if they were to keep their doors open. Additionally, businesses designed to address the civic needs of a community is not a new idea either and had challenges of their own.

John’s back ground is finances/accounting, my own is program and proposal development, and we often wondered what resource, set of skills, or redesign of existing systems would allow the organizations we often worked with to thrive. What set of circumstances would allow for the development and implementation of proactive services and resources vs. predominately reactive. Economically sustainable, purpose driven businesses and organizations redefining success, raising the standards by which business is done, and thriving as a result.

This idea, this possibility has informed the direction of our business, and in many ways changed, continues to change, our lives. 

It’s difficult, there are risks and often putting a system in place that allows you to “do it right the first time” is so long and problematic that the time required alone is enough to absorb a small business’s resources or close a nonprofits doors. 

We began researching business models, searching for methods designed to both, lower the risk and accelerate the process of creating earned income. We took Stanford’s Udacity distance ed course with Steve Blank (part businesses guru, part entrepreneur, part social scientist). We read everything we could get our hands on between work deadlines, and began searching for a StartUP Weekend to attend so we could see firsthand the business practices we were discovering.

Discovery, it not quite right. It is not that these are new ideas so much as ideas that benefit a great deal from both, progress and hindsight. Just the same, few nonprofits or small businesses are in a position to "try out" new and/or improved business models while supporting their programs or keeping the lights on. We decided we needed a case study (a fun one) we could use to evaluate the methods we were learning. Bicycles are fun. This is it - the whole reason for choosing a bike share as our project.

What I had not appreciated when we chose bike sharing was the absolute elegance of this idea. Here was a way, a simple and fun way to make significant and measurable impact on so many of the issues facing our communities nationwide.

 Obesity and health issues – reducing carbon output – increasing local commerce – increasing mobility

When we began this project, about a year ago, there were perhaps 350 bike shares world-wide. Today there are nearly 600, we were not alone in our realization of the far reaching impact bicycle sharing can have. John and I remain committed to learning as many ways as we can to support non-profits and small businesses. Finding ways for all of us to “do well & good.” Not just to survive but to thrive. But what started as a case study has become an opportunity in itself.

Bike sharing has the capacity to make a significant difference in our community and yours. With FAIRBKES we focused on smart locks rather that smart bike racks, significantly reducing bike share start-up cost. We were a nuisance, we spoke to every expert, friend of an expert, or second cousin 2x removed looking for reliable sources of information as well as new perspectives and we were everywhere. We attended 24+ events over the summer and personally spoke with every local and visitors who was too slow to outrun us about bike sharing.

The result is we have tremendous momentum. FAIRBIKES has gone from a fun idea to launching in just a little over a year. Already, we have sold over 450 bulk memberships, a number of businesses have committed to branding bicycles, and several business have approached us about advertising. Tonight I am writing to ask you to help me keep this momentum going.

Please take a moment to visit our Indiegogo page and share it with your friends.

All the tools are there to make it easy, there are perks at every level of contribution, or you can simply follow updates. If

enough of us get behind this project we can make FAIRBIKES happen.   One of our tag lines is “Fun You Can Feel Good About' this is a project you can feel good about. 

Working INK Updates

For those of you wondering about the time between posts on the Working INK blog... a few details to catch you up.

John Stowman & Jennifer Eskridge: Working INK

In 2006, Jennifer Eskridge launched Working INK as a grant writing and funding research service to offer clients support and additional resources in pursuit of grant funding. Years later, we have grown both in numbers (Jennifer was joined by John Stowman in 2012) and the services Working INK provides.

We continue to provide an extensive list of grant funding services: Funder Research, Project Research, Proposal Writing, White Papers, Letters of Interest, Feasibility Studies, and Budget Development. Over the years we have also facilitated Strategic Planning, Board Development, Training, and comprehensive Accreditation Evaluation Survey Preparation.

With over 30 years of combined experience working in the nonprofit sector, we have seen the need for diversified funding again and again. Every organization we have worked with recognizes that multiple income streams would allow them to be more effective and avoid the drain on administrative and program resources that results when a funding source is cut or inadequate to meet program needs. As a result we have added Fund Development Planning to our list of services.
Our website is a work in progress... but you can find a few more details about our past year outlined here: http://workingink.com/

More soon

Opening the Windows

is a blog featuring an up and coming poet whose writing truly speaks to me. I believe it will speak to many of you as well. Mementos is one of her more recent pieces.
Enjoy.

Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle... I Want to Ride My Bicycle

A week into June I got on my bike to go for a ride for the first time in 9 years and discovered I wanted to do it again the next day, and the next, and the next! I have spent a significant number of hours riding my bike this summer. At the start of the season, I averaged 8.5 mph, now as we are transitioning into Fall I am averaging 12 mph. My first bike ride was 5 miles long and included a great deal of stopping to rest. My longest ride thus far has been 30 miles (and included a lot of stopping to rest). 

I am stronger and healthier, and I am not one pound lighter or one inch smaller. No lie! This fact could have been the defining truth of a very frustrating summer, but as it turns out it could not matter less to me. This has been among the most exhilarating and wonderful summers I have enjoyed as an adult and it all began with a decision to get on my bike and visit a friend.

Passing Landscape on Chena Hot Springs Rd. 

This fall I will be 45 years old and what I can tell you is riding my bike now is a lot like riding my bike when I was 10. I am able to get myself where I want to go on my own power. I am smart enough to find my way, strong enough to go the distance, and I am free! Free to go slow enough to really enjoy the world around me: weather, nature, people. Free to stop and talk with friends I meet on the path. Free to go farther from home than I have gone before, free to go a little too fast, or dawdle on my way home.

Over Labor Day weekend, friends and I drove out to Rosehip Campground on Chena Hot Springs Rd. and from there we traveled (a very slow) but delightful 30 miles to the hot springs, where we swam, soaked, made new friends, and really appreciated being driven home. Along the way we talked, enjoyed the view, chatted with others traveling on the same bit of road, and I realized, that in addition to all this, riding adds to my sense of purpose. 

A sense of purpose that grows with my increasing capacity, adjusts for my setbacks, and helps me stay connected both, internally and to those around me.  On the day we traveled to Chena Hot Springs the purpose of the trip for me was simply to pedal in good company farther than I had before.  I have discovered that each day that I ride my bike for at least five miles is a guaranteed good day and every mile after that just takes me closer to a truly awesome day. 

This is an unexpected discovery to make in my mid-forties and like any time we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory there are risks involved. On my bike, these range from navigating potholes and puddles to sharing the road with forces bigger and more powerful than me, but with risk comes tremendous reward. Including a new way of seeing the landscapes both, internally and externally, all of which continues to unfold before me as I pedal farther than I have before. 

Benjamin Keener in Honor of his Bar Mitzvah

When Ben was 7 years old he asked me to be his G-dmother.  He talked with his parents and our rabbinic intern about this idea. The following summer we celebrated Ben's 8th birthday and afterwards I offically became Ben's G-dmother, below are  the promises I made to him that day and recall with tremendous pride on this day as our community celebrates Ben as a Bar Mitzvah.

Sometimes in life, our direction is clear, we know where we are going, and how to get there.

Sometimes life is more confusing, the way is less clear, and we find ourselves creating a new path.

There is often value in following in the footsteps of our mothers and fathers, building on their experiences, and benefiting from their wisdom. It prepares us for days when our lives demand we make our own way, having benefited from the experiences that have brought us to this moment, and perhaps even allow us to prepare the path we are walking for future travelers.

You have been blessed with many who love you and who will guide you. I am honored that you chose me to be among them. In asking me as your G-dmother and working with our rabbi to create a ritual to celebrate our new connection, you already show you have the ability to make your own way as well as the ability to identify who might have the wisdom to help you when you have questions.

Benjamin - May you always be blessed with kindness and caring for others. May you always know friendships like the ones I share with your parents. May the direction of your life include many choices.  Some choices will be small and others BIG enough to change your whole life! I wish both for you.

Each choice will have a story. Each will come with challenges and promises. I assure you
each of us here will have thoughts to offer and advice to give about what choice to take, which path to follow.

But you can also count on me to listen. Listen to you and help you listen to the deepest parts of yourself. You can count on me to encourage you to trust what your heart hears as you have new experiences, grow in wisdom, and choose your own way through this life.

Photo by: DonBarrington Intrepid Images

Ripe for Shabbat

Shared Abundance

Firm curves
yield
to a sharp edge

Seeds, escape injury                                                          
slick, slippery, sliding
thru a wound

Poorly timed
to their
pregnant purpose

Slices lay
like memories
overlapping and afloat

Pale green leaves
cradled
in warm folds

Uncomplicated
abundance matched
with heat

Wholesome,
seductive,
nourishing.
  
  - Jennifer Eskridge

re: a meal shared

Be Kind

Another Vision of Forever

Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn’t make sense any more.

That field is where I live.

-Rumi
13th-century Persian Muslim Poet

Forever

I rarely use this forum to discuss religious ideas, mine or anyone else's. However, lately I have found myself both asking and being asked about my ideas of forever. So, consider this forewarning. In this post I am unpacking both, my personal understanding of a Jewish after-life as well some of my personal ideas and questions on the topic. I will write Hebrew words and phrases in transliteration (phonetic spelling) and I will supply short definitions as needed.

If this is not your cup of tea feel free to skip this post and to the rest of you please feel free to share your own thoughts or ideas from your belief systems. This is not meant to be a definitive answer, merely an unpacking of ideas.

A  Jewish Frame of Reference:
Jewish texts make very few references to an after-life or what may happen after death. This is because Judaism is focused on actions far more than beliefs. The result is that our texts describe the mitzvot (commandments) we are expected to fulfill in this earthly life. Successfully living toward this purpose brings reward, failure may bring punishment, whether either will continue after death, or whether anything occurs after death, is not considered relevant to the task of living.

Neither the Torah (the Jewish Bible), nor the Talmud (Rabbinic analysis of the laws that inform Jewish daily life and practice) discuss an after-life in any detail. There are references to Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come) but whether that is one that exists in a heavenly realm or is simply a reference to a future time on earth is unclear. Neither view is considered the definitive Jewish position on the matter.    

In the Mishnah (a written redaction of Jewish traditions referred to as the Oral Torah) we find the majority of the texts referencing Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come) both as descriptions of the messianic age (a time of universal peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war or poverty) or to describe an after-life.  

Mishnah (chronicled Oral Torah) tractate Moed Katan (essays within Mishnah and Talmud) teaches us "This world is like a hotel. The world to come is like a home."  However, even in imagining an eternal home we are told 'Better one hour in repentance and good deeds in this world than all the life in the world to come.” Pirkei Avot (essays within Mishnah and Talmud) reaffirming our actions here should be the focus of our efforts.  


What did Jewish Sages Think Forever Would Look Like?
References to a heavenly after-life are few. Ideas of what a heavenly world to come might look like differ widely and while there are very few references to heaven there is even less said about an eternal punishment or hell.  

The concept of hell was never extensively developed in Judaism. Its origins are in a specific site (a physical and decidedly earthly location), the Valley of Gehinnom, a valley that was the site of a heathen cult whose rituals included burning children, ( II Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 7:31) and even the souls who find themselves in this valley are not expected to stay any longer than 12 months. (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Eduyot 2:10)

Throughout our history our sages have taken strong, sometimes bold, positions of what to expect from eternity, much of which informs Jewish thought today:

·         Rabbi Akiba states clearly that any punishment that is part of an after-life is not eternal.

·         Moses Maimonides (aka: Rambam) maintained that the pious of all the nations of the world have a portion in the world-to-come. (Jews and Non-Jews alike)

·         Babylonian Talmud, tractate Taanit suggests that the righteous will sit at golden banquet tables and lavish banquets are described in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Baba Batra.

·         Johanan Ben Nappaḥa tells us that the three central activities of life in the world-to-come are celebrating Shabbat, enjoying sunshine, and making love.

From these early descriptions it seems clear that there is an expectation that we will inhabit our bodies again.  However, Judaism considers our bodies and souls as completely integrated, much like the first being God created: “God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” Perhaps this is why sacred texts refer to the “soul of man” as “her,” but where the soul resides at the end of an earthly life until it is reunited with a new body or its original earthly form is less clear. Contemporary rabbis and scholars have offered their own interpretation of an after-life.

·         Rabbi Milton Steinberg wrote of the lasting influence of each individual on the world. This, he claimed, is our immortality. “Death cannot be and is not the end of life. Man transcends death in many altogether naturalistic fashions. He may be immortal biologically, through his children; in thought, through the survival of his memory; in influence, by virtue of the continuance of his personality as a force among those who come after him; and ideally, through his identification with the timeless things of the spirit.”

·         Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn promoted a different variation of biological immortality. “Our bodies no longer live after death, but they are then transformed into other kinds of life. The energy and chemical elements from our bodies go into the soil, where they help make flowers grow and directly or indirectly provide food for plants, animals, and human beings. So as we come from nature, so we return to nature.”

·         Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas took these two concepts and joined them in his writings. “I was with my people when they were part of the exodus from Egypt. I stood with them at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. The pronouncements of Isaiah pound in my blood. The sayings of Akiba are sealed in the cells of my brain. The message of Maimonides is part of my mind. I experienced the Holocaust and shared in the agony of my people. I participated in the birth of modern Israel and the ecstasy of my people for I am a Jew, a corporate part of my people. I say this, not in arrogance, but in awesome humility. As a member of the Jewish people, I am immortal.”

My Incomplete Thoughts on an After-Life
To be honest, until recently I hadn’t really given forever much thought. I am preoccupied with the here and now, sometimes to the point of not fully considering the outcomes of choices I make daily – so you can see how life after death might not make it on to my radar too routinely.  

 As part of my Jewish education I was familiar with the contemporary rabbi’s positions mentioned above, which I read as not mutually exclusive of one another, and had adopted as the most reasonable expectations about what we can know happens after death.

 As for the Talmudic sages, I am indifferent regarding gold furniture or lavish banquets, but Rabbi Akiba, Rambam, and Johanan Ben Nappaḥa do each envision a world to come that I’d be more than happy to take part in. Again their ideas are not mutually exclusive of one another, they seem to have reasonable expectations about the process of transitioning from this life to the ones they describe, and so if it turns out theirs is the more accurate description of a world to come I am prepared to spend eternity this way.

When I have considered the possibilities of an after-life I have primarily thought of it as a function of our ability to imagine. This is a powerful and well developed skill, even in very young children. We visualize other worlds daily in this life. Over the course of history we have imagined cures for disease, responses to famine, the ability to fly, and in time each has become part of our reality, so why not forever?

Certainly this could be an extension of the Jewish ideal to create paradise on earth, but I do not think it has to be limited to that concept. People are rich in imagination and resourcefulness. What could be a more natural culmination of those human traits than turning a lifetime of experiences and ideas into a “world” we create to sustain the final remnants of our minds/souls as our bodies cease to function.

Is there more, less? Probably, I am still new to this line of thinking and I am hoping to hear your thoughts regarding possibilities I have not even considered imagining yet…  

More: Image Inspired Fiction & Poetry

Jedidiah Paneak Photo byThalia Jacobs

Touch

Brief Fiction By Lander VerHoef

     A flickering fluorescent bulb painted the room in harsh tones of blue and white that matched the chill in the air. A young man sat, huddling into his coat. He was hardly more than a boy, of that particular age when body and mind and soul are stumbling towards adulthood. Weariness hung heavy on his eyelids, and heavier on his heart. He was far from home and in his short life, had never felt more alone. And then she stood before him. A friend, and maybe, when he dared to hope, maybe more.

     "Hi," she said, and reached up to touch his face.

     Her hand was like fire against his cold skin, and warmth flooded his face. He covered her small hand in his, almost fearful she would pull away. She didn't, and as his eyelids fell, his heart rose. He closed his eyes, and smiled.

More Image Inspired... this by my friend Lander

Girl on a Boat

By Lander VerHoef 

I came with my camera to tell the tale of the war, or so I thought. I stood on the dock as the boat pulled alongside. A young Vietnamese girl, perhaps eight or ten stood just across the rail from me, and I was caught by her eyes. They were old, older than a child's, older than mine, older than imagining. Those eyes had seen...

    

But whatever they had seen, I saw only myself reflected in them, a young white man in fancy shoes, a shirt soaked with sweat, and an expensive camera. And in those eyes was a question, and an accusation: "Why are you here?" I discovered that I had no answer, so I raised my camera and hid. But every day since I took that photo, I look at it and the young girl's old eyes ask me "why are you here? Why are you here? Why are you here?"

Yom Hashoah

Silent Illumination

Plunged in darkness, boxed

Barricaded, with no where to look

Gazes’ unseeing, freshly bruised

Open mouths still clotting

Taking refuge in shadow

Mothers, their angles grown sharp

Pierce skin stretched too thin

Seeping apprehension

Colorless light swings across  

Glassy eyed sisters who hold off the

Gripping cold, fear fueling

Their umbrage

Silhouetted, supple, wary

Daughters, whose eyes are open

Wide, uncomprehending

Certain they misunderstand

Early morning light filtered

Through a sky bathed in smoke

Mothers, sisters, and daughters

Collected, sampled, and sorted

Glistening shorn scalps, stripped

Likewise stained by fear, their sameness

Revealed, is of no consequence

No one looks

The glare of exposed bulbs  

Collective exhaustion of feet

Faltering, resisting, what eyes

Will not see 

Color smears the horizon

Emerging into that last bit of light

Flushed with hope, still unaware

Others who seethe, curl, and drift away

My email address was down. I think must have change a filter by accident when updating my domain name. If I missed an email from you I am sorry, that said, jennifer@workingink.com is up an receiving e-mail once again.

Look forwarding to hearing from you.

Image Prompts

 After reading some very visually rich and compelling essays by my friend Lander I found myself thinking about the power of visual prompts vs. written ones. Our conversation had begun with a brief discussion of film as a story-telling medium. A picture may be worth a 1000 words, but what the picture has to say needs to be scrutinized, because it is no less malleable than language in its ability to misguide us. Truth aside, the power of language and film combined to convey depth of experience seems nearly limitless to my mind and for awhile I will be experimenting with both mediums. Please share your thoughts on employing these mediums. I'd love to hear from you.

Image Prompt 1 -    Chinatown

I did not expect

to love a face

So like my own.

Still, here we are,

Lanterns, round and pale,

Flex against their supports,

Like Chinese Apples

Dropping before a frost.

 

Our feet follow

Worn cobblestones

Announce our urgency

We climb your stairs

Young trees

Bending, pounding

The field with

Ripe exotic fruit.

jee 2012

Is Google Making US Stupid?

This article is less about Google and more about brain function.

The idea is that technology we use to write (pens, typewriters, computers) and the primary medium we consume as readers (printed work, online, languages that use characters vs. alphabet)  shapes our neural circuitry.

  What you think?

I care less about right and wrong here, because whether Google is making us stupid or not, it is here to stay. 

We are no more likely to stop reading online than sighted individuals are to choose to read braille over printed text.

The question for me is if we still desire the ability to develop (or maintain) "the ability to interpret text, to make rich mental connections" how do we proceed?