Originally Posted by Roody
I read a post in another thread by alanbikehouston. He talked about the differences between posting here and doing real advocacy in your own city. It really inspired me to raise my voice in my own town.
I know many of you are "real" cycling advocates in your communities. How did you get started? How did you find others who shared your ambition? Where can advocates have the most impact on a local level? I know every locale is different, but there must be general principles or personal experiences that would be relevant to others.
i will appreciate any ideas you pros can provide.
To answer your questions I got the advocacy group I am involved in by placing a phone call to someone who I had discussed issues that need to be addressed in the past. The time span from when we first discussed it to the time I made the 1st call was about 3 months. That person gave me a list of a few others to call, I called those people & the list grew & grew. Now we have what is called the Siouxland Trails Foundation.
You may not be as fortunate to have this happen as I did in my community. But what I do recommend is this:
1. Get in touch with like-minded individuals who are after the same goals as you.
2. It helps if they are cyclists but it is also ok if they are not. There a quite a few who are not cyclists in the trails foundation but they are like-minded when it comes to advocationg for the benefit of the community.
3. You will probably need to form a non-profit organization with the appropriate tax exempt status, etc.
4. It helps tremendously if you have an attorney & a financial expert, such as a CPA as part of your group. It helps even more if they are cyclists or like-minded individuals. Because they often times will not charge for their services. Fore example in the trails foundation we have an attorney who is also a cyclist. He drew up the documents for our by-laws & articles of incorporation. And we have a CPA who filed for the tax exempt status, she is also a cyclist.
5. Get the local city government/officials on board. Like Parks & Rec. Directors/people, the city managers office, the city council, hell even the mayor if you can, the city engineers officice & do not forget the local police department. At some point you are going to need something from all of these parts of the city govt. so you may as well talk to them as early as you can about your efforts. And who knows maybe someone in those depts. can help you or have an idea on what to do & how to do it.
6. Set up a time & place to meet for the first time. You do not need to have the tax exempts status or be set up as a non-profit at this point.
7. At your first meeting outline the problems & some ideas on how to correct them. If you can come up things that need to be done & how to do them then go from there.
8. For more information read the info. here:
http://www.bikeleague.org/educenter/basics.htm