Welcome to the Co-cycle website!
Here you’ll be able to find all you need to know about our project, from upcoming events, how to get involved, to the latest news about our cross-country adventure in 2012!
New Website coming soon @ co-cycle.coop
Wondering what exactly Co-cycle is?
Read below for a brief project overview:
The journey will be organized as a set route comprised of regional legs. Cyclists will have the opportunity to do the entire tour, series of legs, or single legs. Each leg will be divided by events in key locations along the route. Events will be hosted by different communities and may include educational workshops or public showcases of co-operatives in a single region. Our journey will be captured by a student film crew, creating a documentary which will serve as a “Co-operatives 101” tutorial, a vehicle for introductory education about co-operatives. Students from New York University have already developed a film crew and have received sponsorship from NYU to do the project.The Co-cycle tour covers a broad area in a manner that is deliberate and personal. The multifaceted, collaborative approach of the project allows it to meet many needs simultaneously, resulting in a broad sphere of influence. Not only will we generate research that will be useful to folks like ourselves who intend to be participants in co-operatives, we will also help organize community events. Each event will strengthen regional co-operative networks, educate the general public, and galvanize awareness of, and support for, the co-operative movement and its capacity to catalyze social change.From the onset, Co-cycle has been a student-driven idea; we are motivated by a wide range of intersecting passions. We are drawn together across different academic fields, from public health to gender studies, from agriculture to sustainable business. Shaped and informed through multiple disciplines, what drives us as a collective is hope and inspiration towards a better world. Our different yet interwoven academic paths and life experiences, combined with our interest in biking as an alternative mode of transportation, fuel our eagerness to do this work. As youth, we face a world full of complex problems whose solutions will require imaginative, creative, and social justice-oriented thinking. We are thus motivated to learn and teach others about why co-operatives have increasingly become recognized for their ability to address complicated and interconnected local and global issues.
FUNDRAISING/EXPENSE:
This sounds expensive, what if I don’t have all the stuff that I need to go on Co-Cycle? How is Co-cyle being paid for?
In order for the Co-cycle trip to operate, $1300 needs to be fund-raised per long-term rider for equipment, food, and housing. We are asking people who want to go on a significant portion of the trip to try to raise as much of this $1300 as they can. For those who want to tour for less than one month, contribution will vary based on length of ride and financial circumstances. Co-cycle recognizes that fund raising is difficult and stressful for many different reasons. The website will soon have resources about who you can ask for contributions, and how you can ask for them. Links to a letter you can give to sponsors and instructions on how people can make tax-deductible donations will be posted in early January. The process of fund raising can be confusing, so please do not hesitate to contact Co-cycle with questions about fund raising in general, or about helping you get the funds you need to come on the trip. We do not want to turn people away due to limited finances, so please contact us as early as possible to ensure that together we find a way for funds to be secured.
This sounds expensive, what if I don’t have all the stuff that I need to go on Co-Cycle? How is Co-cyle being paid for?
In order for the Co-cycle trip to operate, $1300 needs to be fund-raised per long-term rider for equipment, food, and housing. We are asking people who want to go on a significant portion of the trip to try to raise as much of this $1300 as they can. For those who want to tour for less than one month, contribution will vary based on length of ride and financial circumstances. Co-cycle recognizes that fund raising is difficult and stressful for many different reasons. The website will soon have resources about who you can ask for contributions, and how you can ask for them. Links to a letter you can give to sponsors and instructions on how people can make tax-deductible donations will be posted in early January. The process of fund raising can be confusing, so please do not hesitate to contact Co-cycle with questions about fund raising in general, or about helping you get the funds you need to come on the trip. We do not want to turn people away due to limited finances, so please contact us as early as possible to ensure that together we find a way for funds to be secured.
How are you guys going to eat and sleep? Do you have an email I can contact y’all on?
Logistics for food and accommodations are in the process of being figured out. We will be camping and hope to stay nights at co-ops (ie their parking lots), community centers, farms, etc.
Feel free to contact us at cocycle2012@gmail.com for more info!
Meg & Co!
I expect – no, I demand! – that you guys come rest your heels and wheels here in the bike and coop capital of these United States – Madison, Wisconsin.
I’ll tune up your everything and definitely join you for a few legs!