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The very first issue of the Bike Cleveland News thanked the more than 125 participants who attended a two-day Strategic Planning Summit in September: “As a participant you did something mighty. You gave birth to an organization that will be a force for positive change for cycling in our region.”

The strategic planning process, facilitated by the Alliance, kicked off in December 2010, when 10 people gathered together as a Leadership Team for the project. The goal: create the organization and design a strategic planning summit that would engage and strengthen the Greater Cleveland cycling community.

The Leadership Team intentionally included participants from the Cleveland YMCA and the Earth Day Coalition, two planners (county and city), and a representative from the business community. They were joined by three leaders from the cycling community, and two staff from Slavic Village, a community development corporation in Cleveland committed to improving cycling. Slavic Village had conducted interviews with members of the Cleveland cycling community, and the team used that to design a solid plan to engage the whole community in further strategic planning, to increase the buy-in and support for the new organization.

The Alliance facilitated a series of meetings, guiding the team through securing a design team, which came together in March to provide feedback on a rough draft strategy, input on the summit, and more than 800 suggested participants who might have interest in participating in the two-day event. After the March meeting, various committees met to execute planning items for the summit, and the Leadership Team worked to secure a solid board to lead the organization, file important documents to start the organization, and even explore staffing models that the organization could consider. The organization also held other events along the way, such as a naming ceremony for the community to help select a name for the organization, as well as a design team meeting to give feedback on strategy and event development.

Finally, September 10 arrived and more than 120 people showed up to Windows on the River, a perfectly designed facility to build a common desire within the group, develop a compelling vision for how they saw the organization serving its stakeholders, and create a clear action plan.

I’ve been facilitating groups through this process for 10 years, and was still amazed at the way the Leadership Team was able to secure the funding to hold their summit and create a summit that empowered the community to come together and create a strong organization that can really move itself to the next level. The interaction among members of the cycling community was fantastic and it was great to see creative ideas, building relationships, and the transition of leadership to a strong and committed board to implement the strategy.

Since September, the organization has already:

• Officially endorsed the Bike Cleveland Mission, Vision, Principles, Goals and the organization’s action plan as developed by the Bike Cleveland Summit participants;
• Set advocacy priorities for the coming year, including work making the West Shoreway bike-friendly;
• Created a website that is becoming the hub for cycling in Greater Cleveland: BikeCleveland.org;
• And, set the foundation for making Bike Cleveland an integral part of improving Northeast Ohio.

The organization has also secured foundation support. They were awarded $10,000 from the YMCA of Greater Cleveland that is a part of a larger grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health” program. These funds will be used in Bike Cleveland’s advocacy efforts on behalf of “necessity cyclists.” In addition, Bike Cleveland was also awarded a $60,000 start-up grant for advocacy and organizing efforts from The George Gund Foundation, to “make Cleveland a more bike-friendly city.”

Chris Alvarado, Bike Cleveland Board President, writes “The Bike Cleveland Summit was a remarkable opportunity to bring together over 120 Clevelanders who are not only passionate about cycling, but who have a deep and abiding love of Cleveland and wish to express that through the establishment of our new advocacy organization. We believe that Bike Cleveland is becoming a force that not only advocates for cyclists, but does so with a heartfelt devotion to the assets that make Northeast Ohio special: the incredible diversity of Clevelanders, our natural assets of rivers, Lake Erie, and greenspaces, our engaging built environment, and our culture of hard work, grass-roots efforts, and a commitment to making Cleveland great. Jeremy has been absolutely instrumental in bringing us together and focusing our efforts towards creating Bike Cleveland. Already, we have attracted over $70,000 in funds (including grants from The George Gund Foundation and YMCA of Greater Cleveland), tens of thousands of volunteer hours, and the attention of cyclists and change-agents throughout Northeast Ohio. We are looking forward to building our relationship with the Alliance for Biking & Walking and with our sister organizations near and far.

Bike Cleveland is just one of the organizations that have received Strategic Planning Assistance from the Alliance. Strategic Planning Summits range from big to small, depending on the approach the organization wants to take with the process. Reflects Marie Kittredge, Executive Director of Slavic Village (who hired the Alliance for this project), “I was equally impressed with the process you led us through—truly transformational and powerful, a huge win for Cleveland and cycling”.

The Alliance would like to recognize the commitment and direct support of the Bike Cleveland project from Slavic Village Development, Cleveland YMCA, The George Gund Foundation, and, of course, the leadership team and design team of the project. Thank you for the opportunity to work with such a talented group of advocates.

The Alliance would also like to thank New Belgium Brewing Company for its overall commitment to helping the Alliance make more strategic planning assistance and other coaching like the process used in Cleveland more affordable to Alliance member organizations. Next month, we highlight the success of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, a project supported directly by New Belgium.

Contact Jeremy at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more details, and help your organization take its work to the next level.