VW: What You Can Do
The good news is that we have time to make this happen, but we need your help. Together, we can create a unified front to reach out to each of our state officials, and make alternative fuel school buses a priority for Environmental Mitigation Trust funding.
We have developed an easy-to-follow strategy to make it easier for you to communicate our message to get some of your state’s funding put toward alternative fuel school buses.
How can we do this together? By having every Blue Bird dealer follow this outreach campaign to spread a consistent alt fuel bus message to your state representatives.
- Step 1: Choose your five go-to school district customers, and ask them to sign and send this pre-written letter of support to their beneficiary. The letter template contains all of the necessary information about what we are trying to accomplish, and you’ll only need to customize it to your state before sending it to your customers.
- Step 2: Send a letter from your dealership to the list of likely state beneficiaries we’ve identified, using a template letter we’ve created for you. You can find a copy of that letter here. We have also created talking points in case you’re able to book a meeting with a beneficiary.
- Step 3: We have outlined a ‘Clean School Bus Program’ for state beneficiaries to use as a template for administering their funds. An example of the program can be found here. We would like to put together a ‘Clean School Bus Program’ for each state, but we’ll need your help to do that. Please complete the Excel template found here and return it to Chelsea Uphaus at chelsea.uphaus@roush.com.
- Step 4: Connect with your local Clean Cities coalition. Although they likely won’t be in charge of administering the funds for each state, they will likely be an influence in how the funds are allocated. Remember, there are a lot of other companies out there vying for the same money, so the more advocates we have on our side, the better.
Below is the timeline that was discussed during our meeting last week. If you have any questions, please contact Chelsea Uphaus at Chelsea.uphaus@roush.com.
Outreach Timeline
12.5.16
- Dealers determine five school districts to include in outreach
- Send template letter to district to send to beneficiary
12.16.16
- Dealers send letters to beneficiaries
12.31.16
- Complete the excel template with school bus information for your state and return to Chelsea Uphaus
January
- Blue Bird / ROUSH CleanTech to create Clean School Bus Programs for each state and return to the dealers to send in
2.28.16
- Dealers send programs to beneficiaries
