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Last week, 18 advocates met in beautiful - and sunny! - Seattle to align their biking and walking campaigns toward success. Twelve organizations, three states and two countries were represented, with participants traveling as far as 2,500 miles to attend the Alliance’s most recent Winning Campaigns Training.

The training was hosted by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and facilitated by Dave Snyder, Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition... and me! I’ve been with the Alliance for just more than three months and this was my first time facilitating the workshop. It couldn’t have been better. Every step of the way, I was impressed by the creativity, enthusiasm, and dedication shared by everyone in the room.

University program managers, non-profit organizers, bike shop employees, planners, and engaged citizens brought their diverse perspectives together to develop campaigns for bike lanes, greenways, Safe Routes to School, 20-mph bills and Complete Streets policies.

The Alliance’s 2.5-day signature training uses proven curriculum targeted specifically to the unique needs and experience of bicycle and pedestrian advocates. They are intended for any potential campaign leader who would benefit from gaining the tools to craft and manage powerful advocacy campaigns. “This training breaks down complex efforts into small, doable pieces to promote implementation and action,” said Kathleen Ferrier from Walk San Diego.

“The greatest gift is time – for staff to dedicate to logically think thorough problems and solutions,” said Laura Koch, Program Director of the Community Cycling Center in Portland, OR. Laura attended the training with coworkers from CCC to develop a campaign for bike storage facilities at affordable housing units. “We walked out of the training with a much clearer road map,” she said.

The Alliance’s next Winning Campaigns Training will be held in Lansing, MI from July 26-28.  This training will mirror the curriculum of a traditional WCT, but will be specifically focused on campaigns that relate to Advocacy Advance, a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists aimed at doubling federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects by 2013. For more information about Advocacy Advance, click here.

This affordable training wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our sponsors: Planet Bike, VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations, SRAM, Bikes Belong, AARP, Alta Planning + Design, Clif Bar, Team Estrogen, Sun Bicycles and Specialized.

Click here for pictures from Seattle!