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Entries tagged: Mutual Aid

Last week, the Alliance and America Walks hosted a Mutual Aid conference call focused on campaigns to promote awareness of and excitement around walkable communities. Thanks to our panelists Lindsey Ganson from Transportation Alternatives, Matt Tomasulo from Walk Raleigh and Lisa Quinn from Feet First for sharing their experience!

If you missed out on the call, don’t worry. Just download the call recording (MP3) and the tip sheet (PDF).

The Alliance is committed to helping local and state bicycle and pedestrian advocates become stronger and more effective agents of change. We want to make sure our programs and offerings are what YOU want and need. But, to do that, we need your feedback.

So, as we plan new resources, programming, and training opportunities for 2012 we need your input.

Whether you’re an Alliance leader, individual supporter, business sponsor or member of an organization that isn’t yet a member of the Alliance, please take a moment to fill out our membership survey.

The survey takes 15 minutes or less to complete. Feel free to have multiple people from your organization take the survey, as this helps us determine the variety of different needs and perspectives from your organization.

Please complete the survey by November 9, and help to ensure that the Alliance is able to help you grow your organization’s capacity and strength in 2012 and beyond.

You may think you’re not a fundraiser. You may be daunted by the task of asking for money. You haven’t met Andy Robinson.

Having spent years as a successful fundraiser himself and now an expert consultant on the topic, Robinson will explain the nuts and bolts of raising money during our “Fundraising Fundamentals” Mutual Aid Call this Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern. Learn where the majority of dollars come from and how to build a fundraising program that honors your mission. Get insight from Robinson on why people give; how to identify prospective donors; how to choose from a variety of fundraising strategies and how to get other people to help. And, of course, come prepared with your questions for this national expert.

Register now!

Whether you live in a big city or small town; whether you’re working on a local initiative or statewide effort, progress brings push-back. As we work toward and win victories for biking and walking in our communities, we inevitably encounter resistance. Whether we’re confronted by a challenging policy maker or a well-organized group, we need tactics and strategies to address, confront, or work around obstacles and opposition.

Join us tomorrow, March 16 at 2 p.m. EST for a Mutual Aid conference call on Countering Resistance. Delving into this topic, we’ll hear from:

• Mia Birk — Principal at Alta Planning + Design; former bike-ped coordinator for Portland, Oregon; and author of Joyride, which details decades of work confronting and overcoming resistance at the public, government and bureaucratic levels
• Sally Broadaway — a leader with the Northeast Arkansas Bicycle Coalition, which successfully countered bike-ped resistance from a vocal Tea Party group in the creation of a regional transportation plan
• Pete Stidman — leader and founder of the Boston Cyclists Union, which organized against recent efforts to roll back bicycle infrastructure and is building relationships in neighborhoods that view bicycling as a potential threat to their way of life

As always, this is an interactive discussion. We want to hear from you, too, so bring your experiences and ideas to the table. We’ll also have plenty of time for Q&A with the panelists, so bring your questions for them, as well.

To make sure you receive the call agenda, outlining the speakers’ talking points, register by 2 p.m. EST today. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

Although I was tied up in a different meeting and wasn’t able to attend myself, I know this week’s Mutual Aid call was quite a success: I could hear the conversation going strong even as I sat in another room.

To jumpstart the important dialogue on “Lobbying: Do’s and Don’ts for Advocacy Organizations,” we invited two experienced panelists to join our second Mutual Aid call of 2011. Nayantara Mehta is a Senior Counsel at the Alliance for Justice, and Scott Bricker, a longtime bike-ped advocate, currently serves as the campaign manager for America Walks.

During the hour-long discussion with more than 20 advocates from across the country, they shared some great tips on tax law and lessons learned from firsthand experience.

Lucky for me, and others who weren’t able to make it, our communications intern, Camie Rodan, captured the key highlights from the call. Check out this helpful Tip Sheet now uploaded to our Resource Library. If you were able to attend, keep it on hand as an inspirational cheat sheet. And don’t miss our calls coming up in March.

Register now for:

• Countering Resistance
• Planning Effective Bike to Work Events

The actions of the U.S. Congress can sometimes feel distant from your day-to-day advocacy. But the dollars your state receives from critical federal programs play an integral role in building the infrastructure that you and your members use every day. In coming weeks, we expect these critical programs to come under fire in Congress.

So, now more than ever, building and cultivating relationships with your Congressional delegates is critical to protecting and advancing bicycle and pedestrian issues. Are you gearing up for the National Bike Summit in March? Are you mobilizing members in your home community to defend key bike-ped programs, like Transportation Enhancements? Sign up for our “Working with your Congressional Delegates” Mutual Aid call tomorrow Wednesday, February 9, at 2 p.m. EST for insight into successfully engaging your members of Congress and making a difference in Washington, DC.

Our panelists will include:

• Tyler Frisbee, legislative assistant to Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), who has an insider’s perspective on how to engage and influence folks on Capitol Hill
• Lois Moss, executive director of Walk+Roll, who recently swayed a key conservative to become the first Republican cosponsor of the federal Complete Streets bill
• Robin Stallings, executive director of Bike Texas, who helped set the foundation for the federal Safe Routes to School program and knows how to talk bike-ped issues with red state politicians
  

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain knowledge about the inner workings of Capitol Hill, hear from successful advocates, ask questions and share your experiences. Register by 3 p.m. EST today to ensure you get the briefing memo and then join us tomorrow at 2 p.m. EST for this engaging, interactive discussion.