The Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report



Volume 2, Issue 7                                                                                                  July 27, 2006




In This Issue:





THUNDERHEAD RETREAT DISCOUNT DEADLINE NEARS

The Thunderhead Retreat only comes around every other year so if you’re not sure you should attend; it’s time to jump. This year’s Retreat is September 2-5 near Madison, WI. That means the 30-day discount deadline is August 2nd!

Don’t miss this chance to connect with your fellow leaders of Thunderhead member organizations and tap into this year’s Retreat theme: Getting the Money. Find all the info you need here: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/trainings.htm.

At this Retreat we’re also tackling the big issues that have so far prevented our movement from making dramatic gains for bicycling and walking; issues like:
  • Social Equity & Diversity – bringing the cost-free travel freedom of bicycling and walking to our low and middle-income majority
  • Mainstreaming Our Message – zapping misconceptions about bicycling
  • Drive with Care & Traffic Justice Initiatives – staring down the monster of traffic carnage and saying, “No more!"
So register today. And join us in thanking all of our wonderful Retreat sponsors (so far) who are helping make this year’s Retreat the best one yet: Planet Bike, National Bicycle Dealers Association, National Center for Bicycling and Walking, Local Government Commission, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy,  Saris Cycling Group, Bikes Belong Coalition, J&B Importers, and Quality Bicycle Products (QBP). Thank you!

NEW PARTNERS FOR SMART GROWTH CONFERENCE

The New Partners for Smart Growth conference is put on by the Local Government Commission, one of this year’s Super Sponsors of all Thunderhead events. There is no better conference for leaders of Thunderhead member organizations for connecting to mainstream partners. As such, Thunderhead has been a proud sponsor of the last two conferences and is once again for the 2007 conference February 8-10 in Los Angeles.

Besides offering high-level, interactive sessions on every aspect of smart growth (land-use, transportation, housing, social equity, mixed-use, density, green and brownfield development, green building, real estate financing, and the latest innovative solutions), you will connect with leaders of organizations such as: U.S. EPA, Fannie Mae Foundation, Federal Transit Administration, The Urban Land Institute, Kaiser Permanente, AARP, American Planning Association, The Trust for Public Land, and of course the Thunderhead Alliance. Visit the conference web site for the most up-to-date program and registration information: www.newpartners.org and mark your calendars!






CONGRESSIONAL RECESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMPLETE STREETS

This month’s Org Tip gives you pointers on setting up Congressional meetings with your members of Congress. This is well timed as Congress heads home for two upcoming recesses. An opportunity on top of this, that only comes every other year, is the stress of elections. Your representative and perhaps one of your senators will be in high anxiety mode, eager to shake lots of hands and make lots of promises. Make sure to tap this opportunity. Call their home district offices now to set up an appointment. Bring your local campaigns and talk up complete streets. With their ears perked, you’ll have a great chance of leaving a lasting impression as we move into even greater wins at the national level for bicycling and walking and complete streets. Here are the projected upcoming recess dates:
  • July 31 – September 1
  • October 6 (target adjournment, though they will try to adjourn by end of September)

NEW THUNDERHEAD BOARD MEMBERS READY TO HELP

With four seats open we were thrilled to catch four extraordinary new stars for the Board, all leaders of the new generation of Thunderhead organizations launched and rocketing forward in just the last few years. Please join us in welcoming them!

John Gideon, Esq. first connected with Thunderhead in 2002 and attended our Retreat that year. Even then, as President of the Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition (COBAC), John shown with the Thunderhead spirit, working with even newer leaders that he believed he could help. John is one of our most helpful members, always ready to offer his experience for the benefit of others. His 2003 triumphant complete streets policy campaign is featured in Thunderhead’s Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns.

James Moore is the proud President of the newly recharged Bike Walk Mississippi (BWM), formerly the Bicycle Advocacy Group of Mississippi. As owner of Moore’s Bicycle Shop since 1984 he has won the hearts and support of his community as they recently elected him Alderman of his hometown of Petal. He and his BWM Board have won extraordinary victories lately for their organization including an advisory role in their state’s Safe Routes to Schools program and a Share the Road license plate that will bring them enough revenue each year to bring in a top notch executive director.

Jeff Rosenblum, P.E. has tapped into Thunderhead’s on-call support over the last two years as he crafted an organization that will make a dramatic impact for Boston’s bicyclists and pedestrians. His careful study of his city’s bicycle, pedestrian, transit and community development culture took shape last year when he and his impressive Board founded LivableStreets Alliance. LivableStreets now has two staff and three interns. Jeff is the organization’s first Executive Director. Jeff is also an atypical engineer, always questioning the problem in order to find a better solution.

Mark Wyatt attended our Chicago Training in 2004 that helped him found the Iowa Bicycle Coalition (IBC) using the momentum of a battle against a bike ban threat. Following Thunderhead’s models he and his Board took the organization to a sustainable and effective level in just two years. In early 2006 he was hired as IBC’s first Executive Director. He has innovated several of Thunderhead’s programs offering what he learns back to our members and us. His success with innovating our founders circle model has now set him out as our top expert on this subject. He finds great satisfaction from offering his expertise on this and his other successes to Thunderhead members.

Please join us at the Thunderhead Retreat to meet and work with these new Board stars as well as our enthusiastic current Board members:

Barb Culp, Chair – Executive Director, Bicycle Alliance of Washington
Noah Budnick, Vice Chair – Deputy Director, Transportation Alternatives
John Luton, Secretary – Executive Director, Capital Bike & Walk
Eric Gilliland – Executive Director, Washington Area Bicyclist Association
Dan Grunig – Executive Director, Bicycle Colorado
Randy Neufeld – Chief Strategy Officer, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation





MEMBER NEWS: THUNDERHEAD GALA MODEL PAYS OFF

Kathy Keehan, Executive Director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition had been putting off serious fundraising for a long time. "With about 1000 members, most of our revenue comes from memberships," said Keehan. "But now that our first fundraising gala which we called "Bike Night" has been a success, we're ready to start making some serious changes to the way that we fundraise. I had been thinking about it for years, but when the Thunderhead's Guide to Successful Fundraising Galas arrived in the mail, we just dove in and did it."

So how successful was this year's gala? Keehan says that the Coalition grossed about $4,300 in cash and ticket sales; their net profit after expenses was about $2,700. Not too bad, considering they had only 100 attendees. "We just asked the people that we knew and the folks that we had been working with," said Keehan. "We just wanted to see if it would work.  It did. It was very successful for us. All we had to do was make the ask; people were happy to give."

We asked Keehan if the Coalition was going to hold Bike Night again next year.

"You bet we are!" Keehan exclaimed. (Her enthusiasm was catching - all of a sudden I felt motivated, too). "We discovered that this was also a great organization builder. People stepped right up to get the planning and logistics done. Thanks to the guide, I had a step-by-step plan for the whole event - from forming my committee early to post-event wrap-up. Once the event was over, I held the after-event survey as suggested in the guide. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Now it's no longer a question of if we can do it, but how big we can take it."

Thunderhead welcomes news items from our member organizations based on each month’s theme. Please send your suggested item (maximum 300 words) to: david@thunderheadalliance.org. We will publish the most inspiring story and list the web links of other contributors within that month’s theme. Next month's theme is: Safe Routes To Schools Contracts.





ORG TIP: SETTING UP MEETINGS WITH YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

 Congress will be in recess from July 31st to September 1st and in early October. This means that your members of Congress will be coming home from Washington. Now is the perfect time to set up local meetings with your members of Congress - very little travel required! Here are some tips for ensuring that these meetings go smoothly:
  • Know what you want to talk about before you set up the meeting. "I would like to talk to Representative Gladys Handing about some dangerous road conditions in her district" sounds much better than "I would like to talk about some bicycle and pedestrian things."
  • When you call to make the appointment, be prepared to give your name, your organization’s name (we represent X communities and X number of members) and where you live – so they know you are one of their constituents, otherwise they won’t be interested in helping you.
  • Prepare some information that can be handed out to your member(s) of Congress or their staffer prior to the meeting, Make sure that you stick to the points you have prepared. Keep it relatively short and simple. Provide resources and contact information if they would like to know more.
  • If you don't know the answer to a question that your member(s) of Congress asks you, don't panic! Simply say that you do not know, but that you will get them the requested information. Then, get them that information in a timely manner when you return home from your meeting! This will go a long way!
  • After you have finished your meeting, remember to send a thank you to your member(s) of Congress' office. If the leader says that they'll take action, follow up with a phone call after a reasonable period of time.
You will find a great document that covers important aspects of your congessional visit on the Thunderhead website. To get there, go to: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/completestreets.htm; you'll find the link to the document in the sixth paragraph that begins with "Please help us..."


CUT AND PASTE FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER: AN INCONVENIENT STREET

Capitalizing on Al Gore's recent movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", here is a cut-and-paste for your newsletter. Just fill in your [organization's information] in the text below.
- - - - - - - - - -

An Incovenient Street
If you saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth, you'll understand the serious impact that people are making on our planet. But how does that translate to our community? Like Al Gore has done through his movie, [Fill in your organization] is working for dramatic change for our community’s streets. While Al Gore fights for the life of our planet [your organization] is fighting to prevent any more senseless deaths of bicyclists and pedestrians on our streets. And that's the key - the streets of our community are ours, not just for cars, but for walking, bicycling, and transit. Imagine [name of local deadly speedway] as a street where cars move at speeds that respect the most vulnerable users. Imagine our entire community connected by sidewalks wide enough for people to walk and laugh side-by-side, unhindered by poles or other obstacles. Street trees and center medians planted with greenery should be become commonplace. Connecting networks of bike lanes will guide bike riders safely to their destinations. Sound impossible? No way. It's happening now, and [your organization] has been fighting to help make this happen through a national movement called complete streets - see www.completestreets.org. As the name implies, no street is complete until all users can safely move along and across it. You can help make this happen right here in [name of your community]. It's time our urban and transportation planners stop designing killer streets and start building complete streets that connect people and communities. Contact us [your org's contact info here] and see what you can do to do help us turn our inconvenient streets into places that are good for our community, our people, and yes, our entire planet.






This monthly Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report is for the leaders of our member organizations and our supporters. The Thunderhead Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is the only coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations working in unison to break down the barriers to safe bicycling and walking in North American communities. Find more info at: www.thunderheadalliance.org.