New website and other important announcements

We have a new SMB website:  http://bendsmb.blogspot.com/
And a new email address: bendSMB@gmail.com

Both are much easier to remember, but there are a host of other reasons for the change including:

• We have divided readers into two groups.  If you just want the basic info, the new website is for you.  If you want more detailed info, you have the option of becoming a member where you get access to a "members only" website and other perks (see below)
• Last year we were were essentially making things up as we went along.  Now we have a better idea of who we are and what we do and the new website will reflect that.

Our very first newsletter will start circulating this week.  It will be a good update for SMB participants who don't use the web.  It is also a fast way to get the gist of how things went at SMB 2013 along with the plans for next year.  Unfortunately, we never got physical addresses for people.  So try to find Carol on the Butte if you want a copy.  We are trying to find another way for people to get copies.  Email us if you have an idea.  Meanwhile, I will make an online copy available soon.

I mentioned "membership" above and that will be a new concept for most.  It helps solve a lot of problems we had in trying to figure out how to make SMB a yearly event and how to best use the money we raise on the Butte.  By far the biggest problem it solves is how to pay for the event itself.  Last year's event cost over $600 which came out of the pockets of a few people.  The bigger SMB 2014 might cost as much as $2,000.  When you become a member, that helps insure that SMB will happen year after year.  You also get a bunch of perks including a cool button (see below) and the newsletter mailed to you.  Learn more about becoming a member on the new website.  The first 50 members are "Founding Members" and the remainder for SMB 2014 are "Charter Members."

First project is done, new announcements soon

It took a little while, but we finally got our first project completed last Thursday.  There is now a solid lock on the summit restroom door thanks to everyone's hard work at SMB.  This project wasn't at the top of the list based on the ballot, but it was high enough that it qualified to be completed.  Plus, that other lock was weirding out a lot of people.  In talking with park manager Susan, we decided to do this project first.  The interesting thing was we discovered that the lock could be upgraded to have an "occupied" indicator.  We knew that some people wanted that because they had written it on their ballots.  But we didn't know how many people wanted it and whether it was worth the extra expense.

So several of the organizers discussed the matter and we decided against the indicator.  Carol was one of those people and she didn't think the indicator was needed.  But then she started asking people while hiking the Butte.  The first eight people she asked were adamant that we should pay the extra money for the indicator.  So we changed our minds and included it.

There will be some announcements coming real soon about how we are organizing things for SMB 2014.  You will see that once all of that is fully in place, decisions like this will be much easier to make and we will be a lot more confident we are making the right decision.

Meanwhile, next time you use that restroom on top, you'll know that SMB fixed the lock situation that so many people were concerned about.  I'm not sure, but I think dog hooks are next.

What's happening with SMB?

There hasn't been an update for a while and I'm sure some are wondering what is happening regarding SMB.  The short answer is there are a lot of irons in the fire.  So many that it would take way too much time to give a full report.  Here are some highlights:

• We are putting the finishing touches on a new website for 2014 and beyond.  Now that we have a better idea of what SMB will look like in the future, a new website is needed to make everything easier to understand.
• We have been consulting with a lot of different people and companies regarding the projects voted on at SMB 2013.
• We are working with the Park to get projects started.
• We are forming a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that will take over SMB and everything associated with it.
• A newsletter is almost done describing what happened at SMB 2013 and where it is headed in the future.  The newsletter is for everyone, but especially for people who do not use the internet and for the people and businesses that were our sponsors.
• We have started forging some relationships with people and organizations that will help help us accomplish our goals.

SMB was such a success that it ended up being more work than we ever imagined taking it to the next level.  People are starting to fill key roles and that process needs to continue.  If you would like to help us steer SMB to 2014 and beyond, please give me a call.  

Happy trails, Bill (541) 306-8411

How are the projects coming along?

The short answer is, "really well."  By that I mean we are making progress daily.  The long answer is that, at least for now, it takes longer than you might think.  So while we are making progress at a good pace, we aren't exactly days away from starting our first project.  Maybe a week or two if we are lucky.  The reason has to do with how quickly the event came together and some of the bigger problems we had to work through to make SMB happen.  While we definitely wanted to bring the Park into the process early on, it just wasn't possible.  We are in the process of doing that now and things are going well.  We decided that rather than just try to get some projects done quickly, we would use the opportunity we have right now to define a formal process to get projects reviewed by the Park and then hopefully approved.  This will serve both SMB and the Park better in the long run.  Assuming the process we put in place works well, then projects will be approved much faster than if we did things in a less formal way.

Btw, one issue came up that we didn't anticipate.  We missed it mainly because things were moving so fast in the days prior to May 11th.  As I went through 200+ RSVPs looking for items to place on the ballot, I was a little surprised by how easy that was.  There was just so much agreement as to what the projects might be.  So I might have 10 people suggesting the same thing 10 different ways and it was very easy to distill that down to one ballot item that covered all the suggestions.  What I didn't notice was that some of the items were pretty vague.  For example, "trail maintenance" received a lot of votes and was very high on the list.  But what does that mean?  I can go out and find lots of way to improve the trails, but am I addressing the issues that caused the vote to be so high on that item?  We are coming up with a way to address that issue.  The good news is that by the time we have a better definition of what people meant when they voted for "trail maintenance," we should have lots of experience proposing projects to the park and getting them approved.

Other projects are much easier to define and we even have good definitions already for some that are not.  While it may not be clear because we didn't get an official dog vote, the hands down winner this year was clearly "more dog bag dispensers."  It wasn't even close.  We pretty much knew this would happen and so we were paying attention early. As a result, we know exactly what people want on that even though it sounds kind of vague.  We are ready to move forward on that if the Park agrees.

Still getting donations

Can you believe it?  We are still getting donations.  Carol got $30 from two sponsors yesterday and that brings our total over $3,400.  I'll be updating the list soon.  For now, I just wanted you to know that the total is still growing and that your hard work continues making a difference on the Butte.

Some contest winners announced

We have been waiting on some of the prizes to announce the winners of the SMB prize drawing.  We are still waiting and hope to have those prizes in hand this week.  We will announce those winners later.  Meanwhile, these are the winners we have so far.  Some have already picked up their prizes and some still need to.  If you are a winner, you can stop by the Host Site anytime.  The best time is between 5:00 and 8:00 pm daily.  New hosts are coming in June 1st.  Please pick up your prizes before we leave.

Julie Schoening       $50 gift card from The Shoe Inn

Tanner Tedrow         $25 gift certificate from Hola! Mexican Restaurant

Lily Roach            $25 Gift card from Strictly Organic Coffee 

Teresa Mikkleson      Purse from Ice Fine Jewelry

Doug Puschler         Peace Candle from Ice Fine Jewelry

Pat Karpstein         Bacchus Babe Tapas Set from Ice Fine Jewelry

Rebecca Rein          Bacchus Babe Tapas Set from Ice Fine Jewelry

Tom Devlao            Gloveables from Ice Fine Jewelry

G. Cocco              Key Chain from Ice Fine Jewelry

Pat Lamont            Bend T-Shirt from Cascade Cottons

Taylor Poynter        Two loaves of bread from Great Harvest

Katherine Roach       Two loaves of bread from Great Harvest
Tanya Swisher         Two loaves of bread from Great Harvest             

Funny & Profound teaser video uploaded to facebook

If you are a fan of those blooper videos, there is a lot of that in the short videos we took on top in the Funny and Profound Contest.  There were over 800 thirty second videos.  I went through 120 of them and made a short teaser movie.  It is on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Simply-My-Best/176313229193973

If you are familiar with facebook, it is probably easy for you to find.  I wasn't easy for me.  Look for the last post from me and it is in that post.  Hopefully Amber will make it easier to find.  Be sure to Like Us while you are there if you haven't already.

Btw, yet another glitch.  The camera was aimed well down here in the host site, but it was aimed a bit high when we got it on top.  We'll do better next year.  Still, the video seems to capture a lot of the spirit on top.  There will be more to come after I edit the other 700 videos.

This surprises me

You might recall that we asked how often SMB participants get their exercise at Pilot Butte State Park (PBSP).  Here are the numbers:

Seldom                  19 percent
Once per week           22 percent
2 to 3 times per week   31 percent
4 to 5 times per week   14 percent
Almost every day        14 percent

I thought we got about 100 people to join us last Saturday.  These numbers are suggesting that it was more like 150.  Also, I didn't do a direct count, but at least a dozen of the "seldom" crowd wrote down that they were visiting from out-of-town.

As interesting as that is, consider this.  We recently discovered that about 900 people get their exercise in PBSP each day.  I was thinking that most of those people were "regulars" in the park.  But these numbers suggest that probably less only half of them are "regulars" if you define "regular" as three times a week or more.  Remember, we kind of stacked the deck with "regulars" on Saturday and still these are the numbers we got.  That means that if you were to guess at how many people get their exercise at PBSP in a week's time, the number might be 3,500 or more.

I realize that not everyone walking the Butte on Saturday was an SMB participant.  I also realize that Saturdays are probably different than weekdays.  There could be more "regulars" on weekdays.  But the 3,500 figure is pretty conservative and so I think it is possible that it is close to the real number.  Does this surprise you as much as it surprises me?

Contest winners

We just completed the drawing for the prizes.  We are waiting on a few gift cards until we officially announce all the winners here.  They are supposed to arrive tomorrow.  But we did call almost everyone who won a prize.  So if you got a call, congratulations.  If you didn't, stay tuned. You may have still won one of the gift cards that is coming.  If that doesn't work out, there is always SMB 2014!

Idea walk this Friday at 9:00 am

Denny Sullivan will be taking people on a hike in the park where he will share his ideas about what could be done to improve the park and facilitating discussion so that others can share their ideas.  It sounds like it will be a great opportunity to brainstorm ideas for things that SMB might vote on in 2014.  That's important because we expect to raise a lot more money next year.

Denny and I have been talking since he got back from wintering in California.  Turns out he was way ahead of us on several things.  For example, I thought it was a new idea for a dog exercise area near the trailhead.  I had a location in mind where I thought it might work.  So I mentioned it to Denny thinking he probably had not thought of that idea.  He then took me to the exact place I had chosen and then described for me his vision of the dog exercise area.  It was much better than what I had in mind. We also brainstormed some ways to get it done this year on the cheap if we can get park approval.

The walk should be interesting.  He says it takes almost two hours.  We'll meet at the first trailhead kiosk at 9:00 on Friday.

Next year will be a lot less confusing

I've touched on the reasons why things needed to be a bit complicated this year before.  When we were told we needed to do the event informally, that meant no designated volunteers the day of the event.  That meant a long, self-registration Event Form, cameras at check-in stations, registration at the Picnic Shelter, etc.  By the time we finally got the permit, there was really no time to change all of that.  It would have probably all worked fine if I had not forgot to tell people to put numbers on the Event Forms.  No sense in rehashing all of that.

What I want to tell you is there is obviously a better way.  We knew that this year, we just didn't have time to make the switch.  We are still working out the details, but you will basically be carrying a small card that will be punched when you get to the check-in station.  There will be no big event form and no need to stand in front of a camera.  Then, if we can figure out how to do it, we are hoping that the volunteer who punches your card will also be able to scan a bar code.  This will record what you have done directly into a database and give us real-time numbers throughout the day.  The final step will be a simple declaration of whether or not you did a personal best.  We will try to make that happen at the check-in station as well.

By removing the confusion, we will hopefully be able to make the whole thing more fun.  Many of our sponsors this year want to be present at the event next year providing food, drink, and services of all types to support our participants.  There are already so many who want to get involved in this way that we know the big challenge will be selecting the best ones for SMB.  There will not be room for everyone and so we will have to make choices based on what we think makes the most sense.

More numbers

Sorry about having to ask you about your age, but we needed to get a handle on how broad the age range was for people participating in SMB.  Turns out the range was pretty broad:

AGE           PERCENT
=========     =======
 1 to 10           9
11 to 20           9
21 to 30           9
31 to 40          10
41 to 50          17
51 to 60          23
61 to 70          16
71 to 80           4
81 to 85           2
Over 85            2

Knowing this will help us with fundraising next year.

SMB is all about people trying for a personal best.  For those of you who hike the Butte regularly, you might be surprised by how many people accomplished a personal best going to the top one time.  This is what we really wanted to see happen in SMB--people making it to the top for the first time or people doing less than that and turning in a personal best.   There was one person who did a personal best going around the track twice.  Later, I'll summarize some of the explanations that people gave for why what they did was a personal best.  To me, this is the most interesting part of the whole event.  For now, I have numbers on how many laps people did on the summit and base trails:

LAPS   PEOPLE
====   ======
  1      163
  2       65
  3       30
  4       15
  5       10
  6        4
  7        5
  9        1
 10        3
 11        1
 12        1
 15        2

There was rumor of a woman doing 18 laps, but I didn't get an event form with that number of laps recorded.  The rumor was pretty strong and so I think it is possible that it happened.