ARTICULATED

Today I have a meeting with the staff leaders of Bicycle Colorado, an organization that advocates for bicycling-friendly laws and infrastructure. I’m a new member of the organization’s board.

I joined the board because I care deeply about this stuff. I believe our nation’s path out of costly obesity rates and choking greenhouse gases is people getting on bicycles. (Yes, I mean that.) For that to happen, laws and infrastructure both must enable it. There is a cycling tipping point to be reached in the U.S., and I’m passionate about joining the movement toward it.

But importantly, this high-level volunteer work has become Kinkennon Communications‘ de facto marketing. It’s the manifestation of KC’s strategic plan to go beyond my existing, fantastic professional network and make new contacts. Not just any contacts, but those in areas in which I’d like to see KC doing work in the future, either by nature of location, affinity, line of business, or issue area.

My old boss would have called this “strategic philanthropy.” Bicycle Colorado is not the only example of KC doing it – 2009 has been a rich year in this vein. But because my new involvement in Bicycle Colorado gives me a substantive and reasonably high-level entry into the cycling world, and opens access to new Colorado connections, it’s an ideal one.