City CarShare Newsletter - Summer of Sharing

July 2007

Summer Special! Another great reason to tell a friend - Introducing our new Trial Program

Now your friends can sign up, get a key and try us out for 60 days without paying a deposit or a monthly fee. Plus we will give them $30 worth of driving credits to get them started!

Get $20 credit for every friend you sign up to our Trial Program during the summer. Have your friend enter your name and member number in the notes section on the Trial Application. Send them here to sign up.

And don't forget about our ongoing tell-a-friend programs. If you get a friend to sign up for the Standard Program, you each get a $20 credit. And if you get a business to sign up, you get $50 of credit. Just have the business enter "referred by" along with your name and member ID in the notes field.

Note: Members who are in the Trial Program are not eligible for any referral credits since they already get $30 in credit to sign up. After 60 days, Trial Program members will be automatically switched to a standard membership unless they notify CCS to discontinue their membership. They will be charged a fully refundable $300 deposit, $10 monthly fee and a driving rate of $4/hour and 44 cents per mile. (The driving rate for Trial Program members is $6/hour and 44 cents per mile.)

New Pods!

Pods are blooming this summer. Here are our 5 new pods:

Oakland - 17th and Jackson, Gold Coast, one block from Lake Merritt (Corolla)
Berkeley - Oxford and Center, near UC Berkeley (Scion xB)
Berkeley - Dowling and Telegraph (2008 Scion xB)
SF - Broderick and O'Farrell, Western Addition (Prius)
SF - Geary and 6th, Richmond (Corolla)

We're always looking for new spaces and follow up on every lead we have. If you know of a prime spot (and maybe even introduce us to the owner!) let us know at memberservices@citycarshare.org.

Sharing the Love at Pride

The SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee cares about the environment and wanted to incorporate green practices into their planning this year. So they asked City CarShare, a longtime supporter of SF Pride, to sponsor their local transportation needs. We happily accepted. In return SF Pride gave us tickets, a booth, parade entry and sponsorship recognition. Together, we promoted both Pride's mission and car sharing.

City CarShare's staff and volunteers marched, danced, waved and hula hooped in San Francisco's renowned SF Pride parade. We also shared the word and gave prizes from our popular Spin-the-Wheel game at our booth on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to all of our awesome, witty, energetic and talented volunteers for helping us out! We had a blast and couldn't have done it without you.

CCS also gave prizes to members in our Haiku and "Guess the Rainbow" contests. Congratulations to John Eng, who guessed 1,221 Skittles in our "Guess the Rainbow" container contest. The correct number of Skittles was 1,272. John won $50 in driving credit! The winning Haikus and the members who submitted them are listed below.

If you missed volunteering at Pride, you can still join us and volunteer at GOOD Magazine's Block Party on July 15th or the North Beach Jazz Festival on July 28 and 29. To sign up and share the word, email marketing@citycarshare.org. Plus you'll get a t-shirt and driving credits for helping out!

City Carshare Gives Back

As a local non profit organization, City CarShare values volunteerism and investing in our Bay Area. Last month all City CarShare employees spent a day building homes at the San Francisco Habitat for Humanity work site.

"It was tough work but we all learned some great skills. It felt great to help families settle into new homes that are built with big hearts and a lot of teamwork," says Rick Locicero, CCS Finance Guru

Monthly Mythbuster: Answers to the June Quiz

We had 4 winners of our "Test your CCS Knowledge" survey last month. Congratulations! Thank you all for participating - here are the correct answers.

#1: Approximately how many pod locations does City CarShare have today?

100 pods and growing!

You may have noticed that in every newsletter, we announce new locations. City CarShare is growing fast. We now have over 200 cars in 100 locations!

#2. An average trip for all CCS members is 3.25 hours with 18 miles of driving. An average trip costs approximately ____ per hour with City CarShare. (Hint: consider off peak hours)

About $6 per hour.

We've checked out the average trip among all our members and we are very proud of being the lowest priced provider for trips around town.

#3. How long has City CarShare been serving members in the Bay Area?

6 years and counting.

Launched in 2001, City CarShare was the first car share provider in the Bay Area. As the only locally based organization, we are very thankful for the support of our members and many organizations, including foundations, government agencies, transit authorities, businesses, non-profits and academic institutions.

#4. City CarShare is a mission-based socially-responsible non profit organization dedicated to this goal:

Improving the environment and quality of life in the Bay Area.

As a member you not only save money and avoid the hassles of owning a car (or a second car), you also contribute to our mission and help create a better Bay Area.

#5. About how much has the price of regular gas risen over the past two years?

$1.30 per gallon

Even though gas prices are in the news these days, many people missed this question. We think this is great! After all, we know you think about the number of hours you reserve a car and the distance you drive. Because of this, no matter how much gas costs, we know you'll be paying attention to how much you drive, and that's what really counts.

#6. True or Falso: Are all City CarShare vehicles are at, or near, the highest level of fuel efficiency for their class?

True!

When we purchase cars, we consider the environment and air quality. To keep our fuel costs as low as possible and have fuel-efficient cars on the road to reduce emissions, our cars get great mileage and pollute less. And because of those members who sold "gas-guzzlers" to join (or avoided buying one by joining) our impact is even greater.

#7. All City CarShare members are insured at $_____ per incident.

$1,000,000

At City CarShare, we care about our members and our community. Therefore, we have an insurance policy that is both responsible and secure. In fact, we have the industry's leading insurance coverage. We're proud to have coverage at such a high level. Like gas prices, it's just another detail you may not see everyday but exists every time you drive our cars.

#8. True or False: City CarShare is the only locally-based and operated car share organization in the Bay Area.

True

All our staff is local. We're friendly, helpful and we don't charge a fee for helping you when you call. Plus we know the Bay Area really well. This is helpful for many reasons. For example, it helps us assist a member who is stuck in heavy bridge traffic, find great places to put pods, give landmarks for directions to a member looking for a pod, and know what kinds of cars work well in certain areas.

#9. In order to serve the entire Bay Area community, City CarShare set its current low pricing rate in what year?

2004

This bonus question stumped a few and probably surprised many. Although parking rates and gas prices have increased 50-100% in the past year alone, CCS hasn't raised prices in over 3 years. Our goal is to make car sharing available to as many people as possible. And while prices may increase in the future, we commit to keeping our prices as low as possible so that all members of our community can share.

July Driving Tip: Buy Peace of Mind for $1

We recommend adding some "cushion" to your schedule by booking an extra 15 minutes on your trip. With an hourly rate of $4 and a system that lets you reserve a car in 15-minute increments, those 15 extra minutes cost just one dollar. This keeps you from being rushed for time at the end of your reservation.

Haiku Contest

In our June newsletter we challenged members to write a haiku about Pride and/or car sharing. Congratulations to Paul, Thea, Paul and Joe for their winning haikus! Thanks again to the SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee for sponsoring the winning tickets.

Here are their winning entries:

Fob on my keychain Hands on wheel, foot on pedal Pride deep in my heart	Shout it with Queer Pride Our City CarShare sho is One helluva ride!
Multiple Mommies But no divorce. How come, Dad? Easy--Mom loves Mom.	Men dancing on floats So many handsome strangers Where'd my boyfriend go?

Reservations:
www.citycarshare.org
877-363-0710 or 415-227-0712

Questions (membership issues):
memberservices@citycarshare.org
415-995-8588 and press 0

Accounts (update credit card info):
accounts@citycarshare.org
415-995-8588 x303

Emergency (report urgent car issues):
415-786-7468

Volunteer:
Sign-up for regular emails about volunteering:
volunteers@citycarshare.org

Donate:
Support your favorite non-profit car-sharing organization: www.citycarshare.org/supportus.do

Our Office:
131 Steuart Street, Suite 205
San Francisco, CA, 94105
Tel: 415-995-8588 Fax: 415-995-8589

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