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The fall months have major changes to the existence of the Houston Bicycle Museum. October 1, the museum must vacate our home of the last 4 years as it is being demolished for the Holocaust Museum expansion. Our current traffic has allowed us to make the previous rent ($1250/month), but our budget never anticipated the rents we are now finding. To remain viable, we must be interesting enough to draw visitors, and therefore must maintain a minimum amount of floor space to cover enough historical variety of bicycles, their styles, and technology. Two spaces look promising, one a mile away and the other downtown. Any suggestions? Any donated space, exhibit and/or storage? A smaller venue means we must put some of our exhibits in storage - yet another cost. The needed funds for the additional storage and move don't exist. These additional costs - increased, extra, or unseen - will be worsened by the fact that after our move, we will be absent from the normal visitor to the Museum District that brought many of our patrons. Both spaces under consideration will be destination locations. We will need to explore new methods to remain connected to you, our current patrons, and continue to bring the Bicycle Museum experience to new patrons. But for the time being, income will be down and expenses increased. We are pursuing some innovative strategies like possibly a second, smaller 'teaser' venue in the Museum District to maintain a presence there and to entice visitors to our new location – wherever that may be. Funding issues we are confronted with: • increased rent for museum space • additional rent for possible 'teaser' venue • reduced museum attendance for an indeterminate length of time • moving costs • creation of new brochures, signage, etc. to support a destination/location(s) • build-out of racks and suspension systems for bikes in storage • new/additional security systems • new/additional display systems A go fund me page is in works (the museum website has always had a funding button - www.houstonbicyclemuseum.org). But as much as we need your financial support, we need your body and time. It would be too costly in time and effort to pack up the museum and since the sites under consideration are less than 5 miles away and an 'easy' drive – we will move everything by truck load and without the typical crating/packing. Volunteer support needed for move: • framing carpentry to make racks to densely hang bikes.........NOW • finish inventorying/cataloging exhibits............NOW • transporting bikes and exhibits......... Pickups, trailers, people • breaking down and packing non-bike displays (posters, accessories, etc.) • preparing bikes for move (removing and reverse-mounting pedals; rotating handlebars) RSVP now… your volunteer availability 24/7 after August 26 for move (schedule list on Houston Bicycle Museum Facebook) volunteer@houstonbicyclemuseum.org. Houston Bicycle Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit recognized by the U.S. IRS. Houston Bicyce Museum