Making It Count. With the Plus 3 Network, we let you turn every step, every hour in the gym, every stroke in the pool into a fundraising effort for a Cause of your choice. We do this at no cost to you via the support of corporate Sponsors - dedicated companies who care about the planet, about health and fitness, and about the things we can do together to make a difference. Values are placed on Activity based on either distance covered - like per mile for a run, or time logged - like per hour of Yoga. We have over 30 different sports and each pays a little different. And when we can validate a workout, through technology like a GPS, you earn even more.

Free. And as we said, this is all free to you. We've identified companies who want to support you as you get healthier, get social, and help others. All you need to do is choose a Cause/Sponsor combination and then get out there, either solo or with friends, and get going.

Activity = Rewards = Fundraising. When you record an activity on The Plus 3 Network, either by simply logging it on your Activities page "by hand" or by uploading with a GPS, and identifying it as a run, an hour in the gym, a walk, a game of soccer, or other -- we apply a value ($0.0x per mile or $0.0x hour, depending on the sport - see the table below). That value translates to money raised for your Cause and the Activity counts towards Rewards for your Challenges.

How much do I earn per mile or per hour? We are constantly tweaking the mileage numbers as we try and motivate, highlight, and/or maximize activities.

Our rates change over time.

In November of 2009 we changed our GPS/Hand Entered multiplier from 3x to 2x, holding GPS rates steady effectively increasing the Hand Entry amount by 33%. And we doubled all the rates for Time Based activities. We also changed the Road Cycling GPS amount to $0.035 and added Dancing and Horseback Riding as ways to make money for a Cause.

February 2010 Rates

Note: rates in the drop downs round to the nearest penny, but calculate to the rates listed in the tables.

In September of 2009 we added new sports and Time as a measuring metric.

The September 2009 Rates

In July 0f 2009 we made our first adjustment, adding Trail Running as its own category and raised the rates on most activities.

The July 2009 Rates

Plus 3 baseline mileage rewards for Activities entered from September 2008 to June of 2009 were:

Future Sports

We think we can track and reward all kinds of activity, both indoor and out. In September of 2009 we added Time as a metric and brought on about 20 new sports. As we add members, Sponsors, and Causes with more interests, we will grow. Suggestions? Let us know at Support@plus3network.com.

GPS vs. "Hand Entry" - Remember President Reagan's famous quote about "Trust but verify"? That's sort of Plus 3 Network's motto when it comes to recording your efforts. We trust that the items you put into the system to raise funds for a Cause are accurate to your best estimate, but when we can verify the accuracy (like with a GPS upload that includes the course, the pace, the distance and the date), we can transfer even more funds to the Cause. And on top of fund raising, you also get to use your Activities to earn Rewards and all kinds of other cool swag.

Need a GPS? As far as GPS goes, we are currently compatible with most of the Garmin GPS fitness models, the Edge series and the Forerunner series. There are about 10 models that work with Plus 3. We started with these because they capture a majority of the fitness GPS market and many of our members already use them.

We sell Garmin products, but you can go to www.garmin.com to find more specifics on these products.

The Forerunner models (wristwatch types) are on this page: Garmin Forerunner

And the Edge models (cycling) are here:Garmin Edge

Garmin products can be found and purchased by searching on the internet, although we have found the best deals at Costco, Amazon, and even used on Craigslist. Shop around if you are interested. You can find them in many retail locations, as well.

How Does My Cause Get Funds? We run a report about once a month or once a quarter depending on the Sponsor and Cause requirements. The report tells Sponsors how many Plus 3 members covered how many miles/hours that month/quarter. Then the corporate sponsor writes a nice big check to your Cause and everybody wins.

Big Brother? Not! Privacy questions are only natural when someone (even us!) asks you to put data up there on the net, and GPS data to boot. But we do not share any individual data with your Cause(s) or Sponsor(s), just aggregated "group" data. We never say John ran here or Jane rode there; we just say 10,000 riders rode 100,000 miles last period. We take your privacy seriously. You can opt to share or not share your Activities with the Community or just with your Friends. Or keep it to yourself. After all, it is your information. We let you choose, and we respect your choice. Here is our Privacy Policy.

So to summarize, every effort your record on Plus 3 Network earns rewards for you and money for your Cause and shows up on your Calendar. A GPS verified record earns 2 x-- yes, Two Times-- more funds than a hand entry. And it's 2 times more fun, 2 times more geeky, and even 2 times more valuable to the rest of the Plus 3 community when you post Activities via GPS.

A Quick Glance at What is Going On. This is where you land when you log into Plus 3. We show your Dashboard/Profile at the top, your Activity Feed in the center, your Sponsor and Cause messages on the right, just above your You/Friends Leader Board, and over on the left are comments on your Activities, a sampling of your friends, and any upcoming Events.

Activity Feed- See what people in your Friends list have done recently. Filter it to show just your Activities, or filter it to see what is going on in all of Plus 3.

Sponsor Cause - Learn more about what your Cause and Sponsor are doing.

Leader Board - See how you stack up in funds raised against your friends. Or filter it to see how you stack up against the top earners in Plus 3

Comments - When you click on a public Activity in Plus 3, there is a space to make a comment. Impressed by a long walk? Want to razz a buddy? Use comments. They show up on your Home Page, and we also highlight the Activities in Plus 3 that have the most comments written about them.

Random Friends - For fun we show six Friends at random that changes with every page refresh. Click on a Friend to see the last four things they logged or how they are doing on the funds and Challenges front.

Events - You can use Plus3 to organize an Activity in the future with your Friends. Or maybe you accepted an invite from one of your Friends. We list them here on the Home Page.

People. Friends. Groups. This is the place to connect to and get out there with other Plus 3 members and start doing things together. You will have more fun, stay more motivated and get better results - and of course, so will they.

Search - Start with a search to see if any of your friends are already in Plus 3 Network. Right now we have the ability to search by Person, City, or Sport, but we will continue to add more options over time.

Add Friends - When you find someone via a Search, Press the Add to Friends button and use our pre-texted message or add your own eloquent prose. They will get an email in their inbox and a message in their Plus 3 Network Messages section letting them know you are out there. Once they accept your request, you will get their picture in your "My Friends" section, and vice versa.

Invite Friends - If your friends are not yet in Plus 3 Network, we make it easy to send them an email inviting them to join.

See Profile - Click on a picture in your "My Friends" section and see what they are up to, who they have chosen for a Cause and Sponsor, and other details.

Organize your Friends into Groups - Do you walk with certain people, ride with others and do everything with others? Use Groups to organize your friends, then send a Group email or request to everybody at once.

Organize or Accept Activities - Friends and Groups carry over to the Calendar and Activities sections. We make it easy to set up an Activity (a ride, yoga session, walk, etc.) and invite your Friends and Groups of Friends to join you. You will see your Friends and Groups listed with your Activities, so they are only a click away.

My Activities - A place to track where you have been and what you have done, while earning money for your Cause... and Rewards for your own bad self.

My / Community Activities - When you and others in the Plus 3 Network upload or hand enter an Activity, you can choose to keep it to yourself or share with everybody. Found a great new route you want everyone to know about? Share it. Doing secret training and want to keep it to yourself? Well, that is up to you.

Search - Search in My Activities to find your favorite past Activities, or search Community Activities for new routes in your own patch or get the locals take on a completely new territory.

Add by Hand - You do not need a GPS to track your Activities, raise funds, and earn Rewards, we also let you enter your Activities by hand. Well, by keyboard, anyway. Keep a complete list of your Activities and invite your friends to come join you.

Upload from a Device - If you have a Garmin GPS device, you can quickly upload Activities straight from your device, complete with course, pace, and more. GPS validated Activities yield two times the value of a hand entered Activity in your fundraising and Rewards pursuits.

Sport - Different Activities yield different values towards your Cause and Rewards. When you edit an Activity to include the sport, we apply those mileage values to your account. You can track your fund raising progress in your "My Account" dashboard and/or the "Goals and Rewards" tab.

Share, Leverage, Use

Email Activity - See a route you want to share? Simple: click the email button and share the route and your comments with Friends or training buddies.

Use In Event - When you have scheduled an Event on the Calendar, you can associate it with an existing Activity, so your friends know where the Activity will start and where it is going. And your Friends can even download a GPS course beforehand.

Download to Device - Found an Activity you'd like to repeat or a new one you would like to try? Just download to your GPS and let it be your real-time guide map.

This is where you turn your Sweat Equity into Social Capital - and we track how you are Making It Count.

The Goals and Rewards section is the dashboard, leader board, and motivational fulcrum for all your Plus 3 Activities.

How Am I Doing? See how you are doing in your mileage, progress on Challenges, fund raising and friend raising

Earn Rewards - Sign up for Plus 3 Challenges that turn your efforts into prizes, discounts, and, of course, bragging rights.

Challenges are a way to motivate yourself and get swag. Swag often comes from our Sponsors and can range from trinkets to junkets. Most Plus 3 Challenges are open to all our members, but occasionally Sponsors may make specific challenges for their members only.

We track how you're are doing, put up leader boards, and generally make a big deal about your Challenges and achievements.

Go ahead and stack up your Challenges. We'll have easy ones, hard ones, and in-between ones, and they are a neat and fun way to keep you moving forward and Making It Count.

You Select the Cause and We Provide the Sponsor and We All Make It Count

This is how we turn your Activities into Rewards, rewards for you, and fund raising for your Cause(s).

We have located companies that want to support you and the community and are glad to help you bring funds and friends to worthy causes. Any supported mileage or time associated Activities you log into the Plus 3 Network raises money for your Cause.

Some of the Fine Print (but Large Enough to Read)

Sponsors support members and Causes as their budget allows. Not all Sponsors can support a Cause at the same level as other Sponsors.

We encourage you to enter your Activities into the Plus 3 Network by hand or, if you have a GPS, automatically. We support the whole continuum, but we place the highest level of recognition and rewards to GPS-validated Activities.

Hand-entered values compared with GPS-validated values: we want you to be able to keep a complete log of all the things you do. And we will help you raise funds and earn rewards with hand-entered activities. But if you have Garmin GPS device, we can actually validate Activities, validate pace and distance, validate speeds and streets, all things that allow us to put more value on GPS tracked Activities. So, the bottom line is, a GPS Activity yields 3 times the value of a hand entered Activity.

What are the limits? Each Sponsor and Cause works this out to match their goals, philosophies and budgets. When you choose a Sponsor/Cause we’ll highlight the limits of their giving capabilities, so you will know exactly what you are supporting.

Some Examples

Cause A + Sponsor A. The Sponsor has a giving pool of $10,000 for the year. They put no limits on the amount any individual may raise, and they keep their members informed on how much money is left to deliver. So super-active members can raise dollars faster than other folks with the same Sponsor. When the $10,000 is all delivered to the Cause, we will celebrate. This method makes it easier for active members to hit higher numbers, while less active members are on the other side of that equation.

Cause B + Sponsor B. The Sponsor has a giving pool of $10,000 for the year. They prefer to put an individual limit of $25 per member. This allows more people to potentially hit the $25 max. As each person hits the max, we will celebrate each one individually and then again when we hit the $10,000 mark. This method makes it easier to make sure more members have a chance to raise a nice chunk of change for the Cause.

Accelerators, Incentives, and Kickers. Sponsors and Causes may want to promote certain types of activity, or a certain time period or event with their $10,000 pool for the year. Let us say they really want to promote Commuting by Bike for the month of May. They may motivate and incent their member by providing a Double Mileage reward for riding to and from work. Then they return to the baseline.

How Does The Plus 3 Network make money? – The same Sponsors who support your exercise efforts fund the Plus 3 Network. We make money by setting up the connection between you the member and your Sponsor (and, as a result, get to keep all advertising off the site). The Sponsor values your participation and their opportunity to build a long-lasting bond with you.

Changing Sponsor and Cause – Periodically we will open up the registration to allow members to re-up or change their sponsorships. This will evolve over time and with the addition of more sponsors. If you have request to change the Sponsor/Cause, email us at Change@plus3network.com

Computer/Browser: You will need a computer with an internet connection to browse the Plus 3 Network and log your activities. We work best with:
  - Firefox 3.0+
But we also work with:
  - Internet Explorer 6.0
  - Internet Explorer 7.0
  - Internet Explorer 8.0
  - Safari
  - Safari on the iPhone
  - Chrome
though we have had an issue or two with each. Known Issues: IE - our hand drawn maps don't line up with the cursor. We will fix that in a later release. Sometimes we have layout issues with old versions of IE. Safari - the Garmin Communicator software we use from Garmin has periodic issues with Safari that Garmin has to fix.

Supported GPS Models: A GPS is not a requirement for Plus 3 Network, but is a lot more fun and we provide three times the fund raising power when you use one. Our long term goal is to be a place where GPS, accelerometers, indoor trainers and devices of all types are supported. But for right now, we support the following Garmin models:
  - Forerunner® 205
  - Forerunner 305
  - Forerunner 405
  - Forerunner 310xt
  - Edge^TM 605
  - Edge 705
  - Edge 205
  - Edge 305
  - Forerunner 301
  - Forerunner 201
We are working on the new Garmin Edge 500. Garmin made some changes to the file format and we have to make some adjustments. We should have it up in the beginngin of 2010.

You Do NOT Need A GPS: Our goal at Plus 3 is to motivate more and more of us to get out and exercise. We hope to work with the full continuum of people, from those already active to those who want to get off the couch and do more. We want to make jogging Activities as easy as can be so it is not an impediment to keeping an accurate log. And we want technology to be an enabler, not gate. We hope that things like phones and GPS devices and pedometers, etc, make it easier to keep a log. But we also recognize that they cost money, run out of batteries, or whatever, so we always want to make is that we can simply use a browser to capture data too.

On Accuracy: All GPS devices are not created equally. We just have to accept some amount of slack, leeway, and inaccuracy that comes with that. We hope you can get in that mindset too, to roll with it when it is not perfect and forgive Plus 3 and GPS devices our trespasses. Even in the Garmin family, improvements in technology, different price points, etc., lead to different accuracy. On top of that, we also must do calculations on what the GPS sends us. For example, our elevation numbers are calculations. Sometimes they are way off, and sometimes they are much closer. We plan to get better at this, but at times we are at the mercy of what the GPS gives us to start with. Having said all that, when you look at things more positively, it is pretty amazing that these devices give us a decent track of where we went. They do a pretty good job of determining distance covered. They do the basics of what we need and as with most technology, we hope we all get better with time.

Another word on Altitude: Most GPS, be it a Garmin or some other unit, do calculations to display elevation gain and loss. They do not pass that data as part of the data stream. So we have to do calculations based on what the device tells us. That means a GPS may display one thing and we may display another. We are using different equations, smoothing routines, and what not. So it is very possible that your GPS may say one thing and we may say another. We will both get better over time...

Thanks for using Plus 3, with or without a GPS, and we hope you can be in the spirit of site and to use us, our Sponsors + Causes, and your friends around you to keep motivated to get/keep healthy.

Known Issues or Quirks of our Support of GPS Devices:

  -Garmin Edge 305: We do pretty good with this one since it has a barometric altimeter.
  -Garmin Edge 705: We have seen unreliable elevation calculations between firmware updates. But it has a barometer and that helps.
  -Garmin Forerunner 310xt: We have issues with displaying the proper axis in the charts (a fix is forth coming). We also shows varying degrees of elevation accuracy since it doesn’t have a barometric altimeter.
  -Garmin Forerunner 405: We show varying elevation accuracy since it does not have a barometric altimeter.

Garmin Communicator Plug-In: The first time you try and upload an activity from your Garmin device, Plus 3 Network will detect if you have the Garmin Communicator Plug-In and offer to install it for you. You can always check whether you have the latest plug-in at
http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/
The test link will test for the latest version and proper installation. As mentioned above with Safari, we sometimes see issues with the Garmin software for Safari users.