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Kendra Arnold was baffled. Sure, she’s known around town as the “bike lady” with her own two-wheelin’ blog for the local newspaper, but she wasn’t entirely sure how to make her city more bicycle-friendly. A weekend in Edison helped change that.

Arnold was among the nearly 20 activists who shared experiences, tactics and more than a few laughs at the Alliance’s Winning Campaigns Training this weekend. The fast-paced, info-packed curriculum gave Arnold the tools to crank it up when she gets back home.

“It made me think a lot about how to get things done and not be so baffled about where to start,” the advocate from Morristown said. “I’m no longer baffled.”

She wasn’t the only one motivated by the two-day training, facilitated by veteran bike-ped advocate Dave Snyder and Alliance CEO Jeff Miller.

“One of the hardest parts for non-professional advocates is, ‘What’s the framework I have to work in to get to the results I want?’” Brendan Poh, a board member for the NJ Bicycle Coalition, said. “We’re passionate, committed and now we have a blueprint to make those results happen for us.”

“It gave me new focus on a lot of problems we’ve been thinking about,” Jim Nicholson, president of the NJBC, said. “It gave me an organized framework to think about trying to solve them.”

“Personally, this is the second time I took [the training], but the first time in my new advocacy director position,” said Eric Boerer of Bike Pittsburgh.  “It really helped me to sharpen my skills and be able to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Big thanks to all the members of the New Jersey Bicycle Coalition and East Coast Greenway for hosting the training. For pictures — both studious and silly — visit our Flickr page. For more info and to sign up for the next Winning Campaign Training, click here.

he first New Jersey Bicycle Summit was a sold-out event held Saturday February 27th, 2010. Featured speakers included Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists; Tim Blumenthal, Executive Director of Bikes Belong; Jeff Miller, President/CEO of the Alliance for Biking and Walking; and L. Grace Spencer, NJ Assemblywoman.

Over 130 cyclists throughout the state attended representing bicycle clubs, shops, advocates, retailers, manufacturers, and other individuals committed to a bicycle-friendly New Jersey. According to the New Jersey Bicycle Coalition’s Jim Nicholson, “ From the comments we have received on the day and since, it was a huge success. It was certainly a day to remember, and a day to be repeated next year.”

For more details including the agenda and speaker directory, visit http://www.njbikesummit.org/index.asp.