A slightly longer blurb for the bars...

[Stephen Ackley-Ortiz]

What do folks think?  Also, as John points out, do we want to do this without a URL?  Could folks weigh in?  Thanks!

Compliments of the New Haven Bicycling Club (NHBC): a group of commuters, enthusiasts and racers united by a common love of riding bikes, and committed to helping build a strong and vibrant community of cyclists of every age, skill level and cycling persuasion.

Sent from my iPad

[Jeffrey Weaver H.C.]

I'll set up a newsletter sign up tomorrow morning we can link to that. As in for more information go to .....

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Jeffrey Weaver H.C.

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Echelon Health Coaching

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203-444-7310

[John Pescatore]

Thanks Stephen, this statement is great. I love it, "Compliments of..." Fantastic. 

However, to webmasters, etc..., I still believe it's somewhat fruitless to hand out free Clif Bars and Stephen's slogan if we can't include and redirect people to a link to a webpage or facebook page that at least "wows" them a little.

[John Pescatore]

What do you mean, a "newsletter sign up?"  

[Taylor Valentine]

At the risk of sounding impatient, I think it may be time to "s**t or get off the pot" (or as my foreign coworker says, "do not occupy the toilet without pooping")!  We've dragged this out for a while now.

More seriously, we have free food, mailing list signup, and a facebook page (with lots of pretty pictures).  I think we are some margin better than half-assed, such that skipping a rather golden opportunity would not serve to benefit us.

Steven, I dig the blurb.  I would vote on the F-book page temporarily standing in for actual web page URL.

Just my thoughts anyway.

-T

---

From: jpesca...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: A slightly longer blurb for the bars...
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:49:03 -0400
To: DGRa...@googlegroups.com

[John Pescatore]

Unless I'm looking at the wrong Facebook page, I disagree. It looks like a Devil's Gear Bike Shop page. It lists our club website as:

http://www.thedevilsgear.com/

Our address is listed as: 151 Orange St., and the map shows our location as the bike shop.

[John Pescatore]

In my opinion, directing people to this facebook page will be terribly confusing, both from the standpoint of NHBC, and from the standpoint of the shop. If we tell someone we are NHBC, yet redirect them to the Facebook page I'm looking at, they're going to take one look and say, "oh, so you're actually the Devils Gear team." 

This approach doesn't offer people anything new. Why would anyone who hasn't already joined us on the Devils Gear team, suddenly join NHBC, if our online presence essentially says we're still DGBS?  And it potentially makes the shop look like it's trying to pull one over on people with a name change, but nothing else.

Didn't we go over all this before?

[Scott Frison]

I'm good with the blurb, well done. I believe Jeff is going to give some effort into the fb page within 24 hours per a recent email (he just got back from vacation).
I'll look into the webpage if I have the opportunity. The little guy has been sleeping pretty well. Provided the colors are changed from red/yellow and we get some (mission) statements up, I think we can get enough things in place to make a go of it. If anyone has some 'commuting' or cruising type pictures we could put up, that wouldn't hurt.

-Scott

[Stephen Ackley-Ortiz]

I strongly agree with John's rationale stated below. Unless we can make the FB page truly representative of the NHBC as we've envisioned it, then I think it would be a big mistake to direct people to it. 

If we're not ready, then we're not ready. I would strongly urge us to worry less about cobbling something together that is misleading or confusing so we don't miss a golden opportunity, and focus more on having an electronic presence that accurately portrays who we want to be in an attractive and compelling way. 

That said, John has posited the idea that a "hello" from the NHBC, without driving folks to a website, may not have value. I'm actually not completely persuaded by this. If we're not 100% ready for prime time right now, maybe there's a way to use the bars and the blurb as a teaser???  A way to spread some good will, get the name out and plant the seed?

Could we get a quick discussion around this?  How could we use this to stir interest for future membership?  Maybe we get the mission statement up on an "Under Construction" NHBC web site, but have a form up to collect contact info?  People won't be joining, but they can express interest and volunteer contact info so they can be contacted in the next few weeks. 

Could this work?  Other ideas?  I understand Taylor's impatience, and I'll be the first to chant the don't-let-perfection-be-the-enemy-of-the-good mantra, but I also strongly agree with John that we don't have a place for people to land right now. 

Best,

Stephen

Sent from my iPad

[Matthew J. Feiner]

hi all,

i just edited the NHBC FB page.

I took out the 151 orange st location and removed the devils gear web address.

See you all tomorrow,

Matthew

Matthew J. Feiner

  Founder/Owner

 the devil's gear

    BIKE SHOP

  151 Orange St.

       NH.CT.
   203 773 9288

[Carlos R. Galo]

Hi all I am only asking as a supporter/passerby--and I apologize ahead of time since I have not been to any of the planning meetings, etc.-- with that out of the way, I ask:

1. has the group decided on a URLname? and 2. has the club already paid for or contracted with a website host/or service?

I have a little bit of experience putting together some of this stuff and although I am certainly no expert it could be a away for me to stay involved with the group remotely so I wanted to at least offer some help and not just be a fly on the wall.

Carlos R. Galo