Starting a bike/ped advocacy group

[Melalvai]

Thanks for the excellent responses!

I might think about reaching out to some non-traditional groups. The more you expand the pool, the more everyone can see that access to transportation is an issue that affects everyone, not just Lycra-clad weirdos.

Funny, the lycra-clad weirdos were one of the last groups I thought of. I keep thinking of the Kirksville Multisport Club as an afterthought. I keep intending to join KMC but haven't gotten around to it yet!

Poverty agencies. In rural areas, as you know, it's rare for anyone to think they can't afford a car - it's considered even more important than a house, since it's transportation to work or doctor, and shelter for the homeless. But the agencies serve a disproportionate number of people who've lost their licenses (or chosen to give up driving) due to alcoholism. In my area, at least, it seems that many of the people killed in bike/car wrecks are from this group (which is part of the reason that the problem isn't taken seriously, because the victims are thought of as expendable).

That makes me mad that we pretend we value human life more than other countries. But yeah, poverty agencies makes me think of 2 places in town, and who knows in the other towns in the region, that we can contact.

Religious organizations.

Yes! I know a church back home, er, my old home, that had weekly bike rides. And of course in this rural community more people are members of religious organizations than not, and I know of several ardent cyclists off the top of my head who attend church. I was thinking of having a "Kirkswheel" weekly ride, and we could offer to lead some church affiliated or youth-group rides as part of our programming.

Fraternal organizations like Sertoma, the Rotary, etc., often sponsor bicycle safety days for kids, so the mission could easily be expanded to educating their own members about fun, inexpensive transportation options.

In fact the new president of the Rotary Club is a resident of Kirksville!

What about approaching government (law enforcement, county engineers, etc.) at this stage, so when you do branch into advocacy, they don't see you as an adversary? Just putting a bike rack at the courthouse, e.g., would be a significant psychological gesture.

YES! Part of my thinking in the name "NEMO Walk & Bike" was that putting Walk first makes it less adversarial. I have strongly felt in all my advocacy work (the postdoc associations and the bicycling stuff) that it is important to downplay the adversarial aspect, the Critical Mass rides, and promote the idea that we can work WITH the system for change. We use democracy to change the status quo.

The courthouse does have bike racks, but they are super crowded and I suspect mostly abandoned bikes. They are wheel-bender bike racks, and they just lie on the grass, not bolted down.

Two wonderful resources (for me, at least) have been the League, and the Alliance for Biking & Walking (http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org). Both have some great resources on how to start up advocacy projects & campaigns; the Alliance has a lot of resources on their web site about the mundane things about starting up a group, such as putting together a board of directors, getting incorporated, raising funds, and filing for non-profit status.

Of course I knew about the bike league but I haven't spent so much time on the Alliance site. Is the Alliance the splinter group? I guess it doesn't really matter if they are, if they provide useful resources! I will study these sites.

You've got some great advice above, but mine comes from a different angle, which is more the personal level of involvement. The following is about building a community organization, versus a personal organization

This is really valuable. I love being able to learn from others' experiences. I agree completely with everything you said and I will keep it in mind as we are doing this.

I started up the MU Postdoctoral Association and learned some of what you mentioned, about delegating, and letting people try their own ideas (even ones I was pretty sure were not going to succeed). The harder part for me was with one of the big-ideas no-detail people, figuring out how much to put into make his idea a reality, and where to cut off his more elaborate notions and make it something simpler that we could pull off.

I definitely have strong feelings and attachment to the notion that education will be a prime focus and then advocacy and then infrastructure, but I will try to reign that in, so if everyone else is gung-ho about infrastructure then so be it.

This is a fantastic discussion. Thanks!!