The Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report

		Volume 4, Issue 2 February 2008
		In This Issue: Thunderhead Hires Jeffrey Miller as New President/CEO Register Today for Thunderhead Trainings in San Francisco & Chicago Thunderhead Membership Survey Results are In! Complete Streets Corner: Federal Update Organization Tip: Staffing Your Organization Member News, Jobs, Thunderhead Events WABA Offers Homestays to Thunderhead Leaders for National Bike Summit Walk/Bike Nashville Unveils Tennessee3Feet.org Thunderhead Organizations are Hiring! Upcoming Events at Thunderhead Alliance
		THUNDERHEAD HIRES JEFFREY MILLER AS NEW PRESIDENT/CEO The Board of the Directors of the Thunderhead Alliance is excited to announce that it has hired Jeffrey Miller as the organization’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. Jeff is currently the Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and will transition in April to lead Thunderhead. Jeff has led the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (BCM) since 1996, growing the organization to be the voice for cycling in Maine. The Coalition boasts a membership of over 6,000, five full-time staff and garners significant media coverage and sustainable transportation victories around the state. Jeff has a long history with Thunderhead. In 1996, he went to the first gathering at the Thunderhead Ranch. Since then, Jeff has shared his expertise and learned from others. Everyone who’s met Jeff knows his awesome energy, great communication skills and gleeful sense of humor. He will continue to serve on the board of directors of the Adventure Cycling Association. This fall, Jeff will open Thunderhead’s base of operations in Washington, DC. Along with our field offices, he will work to provide the resources you need to sustain and grow your organization. We will continue to be the go-to resource, providing materials and hosting trainings. The timing of Jeff’s hire and Thunderhead’s move to our nation’s capitol couldn’t be better. With discussions about the next federal transportation bill starting, Thunderhead is in a unique position to make local voices heard in Washington, DC and work with the bike industry and national coalitions to win a bill that funds bicycling, walking, trails, safe routes to school and complete streets at unprecedented levels. Thunderhead’s grassroots strength is well recognized, and Jeff’s experience leading a successful statewide advocacy group and relationships with people throughout the movement will put our muscle to work to increase biking and walking. Thunderhead will be hosting a "Meet & Mingle" Happy Hour on Wednesday, March 5th at the Elephant & Castle Pub & Restaurant, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, in Washington , DC from 7:30-9:30 pm. If you live in the area or will be in town for the National Bike Summit, please stop by and say hello to Jeff. REGISTER TODAY FOR THUNDERHEAD TRAININGS IN SAN FRANCISCO & CHICAGO This April 11th-13th Thunderhead is partnering with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Livble City to bring our signature Winning Campaigns Training to San Francisco, CA. Join your fellow bicycle and pedestrian advocacy leaders to learn from expert coaches and each other through Thunderhead's proven curriculum on choosing, directing, and winning campaigns to increase bicycling and walking. After three days, you will have a detailed campaign blueprint that will assure a victorious campaign and set up your organization for greater victories in the future. Early registration ends March 14th. Discounts are available for multiple leaders from the same organization. Don’t miss the early registration price – register today! Also Upcoming: Training for Trainers Advanced Leadership Training in Chicago, IL. Only 6 spaces still available for this training May 5-8th. Registration deadline is March 31st. Learn more and register online here.
		THUNDERHEAD MEMBERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN! A big thanks to everyone who completed Thunderhead’s 2008 Membership Survey! 36 leaders from Thunderhead’s 135 member organizations completed the survey and gave us their feedback on what Thunderhead can do to help their organizations. Some of the highlights from the survey results include: Fundraising: As always, fundraising was a major common theme in many survey responses. Members requested fundraising workshops at the Thunderhead Retreat, fundraising Mutual Aid calls, and some anticipation was expressed for Thunderhead’s upcoming Guide to Fundraising Rides Member Resources Wanted: listing of available speakers, hard data on mode shift, more resources from Thunderhead members, online database of replicable campaigns & programs, database of bike shops, and more resources for ped orgs Also Requested of Thunderhead: replicable database, insurance brokering, e-mail bulletins with more best practices, discounts to conferences, discounts on swag for events, and opportunities to win general funding support Thunderhead board and staff are taking a close look at these results and how we can work to serve as many of these needs as possible. Be on the lookout for new and improved resources and Mutual Aid calls coming soon! Also congratulations to the winner of our survey drawing. Shannon Hornsby, Executive Director of Walk/Bike Nashville was the lucky winner of a free registration to the 2008 Thunderhead Retreat just for filling out the survey. My schedule has not allowed me to attend a Thunderhead retreat or training to date. Since I had already scheduled to be in Seattle for Pro Walk/Pro Bike there was no conflict this time around. No excuse. I am super excited to attend the retreat in Seattle and am so thrilled to have won the survey drawing. Now I get the opportunity to share time and space with folks who share my passion. How absolutely fabulous! – Shannon Hornsby, Contest Winner, Bike/Walk Nashville To view the entire survey results see http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/pdf/08_Member_Survey_Results.pdf
		COMPLETE STREETS CORNER: FEDERAL UPDATE by Dominic Liberatore, Interim Executive Director/Complete Streets Campaign Coordinator With Thunderhead’s support, the National Complete Streets Coalition is actively working to approach Republican Senate members of the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) requesting they become co-sponsors of pending Complete Streets legislation. While we do not have a bill number yet, the Coalition’s goal is to have one in advance of next week’s National Bike Summit. On the House side, Coalition members are working to finalize language for the House version of the bill. Once completed, we will then be approaching Republican members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) for their potential co-sponsorship. My special thanks to Walk/Bike Nashville Executive Director, Shannon Hornsby, for her no advanced notice, immediate mobilization of local advocacy groups within Tennessee where we are actively lobbying Senator Alexander for his support of Complete Streets. Thank you Shannon! For more information on how you can support a Federal Complete Streets bill contact Dominic at dominic “at” thunderheadalliance.org or ( 614) 204-4628.
		ORGANIZATION TIP: STAFFING YOUR ORGANIZATION If you missed February’s Mutual Aid call on Staffing A Bike/Ped Advocacy Organization, the discussion was great. Highlights from our panelists’ advice include: The necessity of a clear and compelling mission and plan to drive the success of your organization; The importance of identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, obstacles, key relationships in the community, and a budget; The importance of memberships and individual donors; Important resources for funding including advice on different funding structures and creating relationships with local city/regional government; And, personal accounts from our expert panelists on how they grew their organizations from volunteer run to sustaining full-time staff. If you weren’t able to attend the call, I encourage you to take a listen by searching the Web Resources Library for “Mutual Aid Staffing”. You can also find more resources for staffing your organization and audible replays of other recent Mutual Aid calls in the Web Resources Library. Interested in our agenda for 2008 Mutual Aid Calls? Be sure to visit www.thunderheadalliance.org/events for the complete list of upcoming calls. Topics include planning Bike to Work Day, membership, complete streets campaigns, Gift Works Webinar, fundraising, and so much more that can help your organization move to the next level.
		MEMBER NEWS WABA Offeres Homestays to Thunderhead Leaders for National Bike Summit The Washington Area Bicyclist Association is currently arranging homestays for the National Bike Summit. If you are attending the Summit and are looking for a free place to stay please contact Jenn Bress at jenn@waba.org or call 202-518-0524. Walk/Bike Nashville Unveils Tennessee3Feet.org by Shannon Hornsby, Executive Director of Walk/Bike Nashville Last year the TN legislature passed a law designating three feet as a safe and mandatory distance for a motor vehicle to give a cyclist when passing on a roadway, the Jeff Roth & Brian Brown Bicycle Protection Act of 2007. Passage of this law was instrumental and behind the push was Kathy Roth, wife of Jeff Roth for whom the bill was titled. Jeff was killed in a bike-car incident and Kathy dedicated her time to ensuring cyclist safety in Tennessee. New laws that serve to protect cyclists are fantastic and help to increase the respect of cyclists; however, unless these laws are promoted they do us no good. That's why Walk/Bike Nashville teamed up with the Harpeth Bike Club to develop a public education/awareness campaign. Our intention was to provide any individual, club, or group anywhere in Tennessee with a one stop shop for implementing a local campaign. We decided to create Tennessee3Feet.org. This site serves as a knowledge base regarding the law and a place to access resources such as a poster and stickers. We've been waiting for that one big score to unveil the campaign, even though the site has been live for months and other groups have already been using the resources. That big score was secured last week. The Tennessee Department of Safety has agreed to put our 3 FT poster in every single DMV across the state of Tennessee. This is a great success for the campaign. We're so thrilled to know that when folks go to get their driver's license there will be a poster identifying cyclists and helping to define their right to be on the road, while also helping drivers to better understand the importance of sharing the road safely. We might just take a group ride field trip to the DMV to celebrate! Thunderhead Organizations Are Hiring! Our member organizations are hiring! Check out all of the fantastic job opportunities on the Thunderhead Jobs page. If your organization is hiring, be sure to let us know! We'll list your job posting. Simply send an email to: jobs "at" thunderheadalliance.org. Upcoming Events at Thunderhead Alliance March 13: Mutual Aid Call: Giftworks Webinar, 2:30-3:30 EST - more here March 13: Mutual Aid Call: Planning Bike to Work Day Events, 4-5 EST - more here March 27: Mutual Aid Call: Membership Development & Retention, 4-5 EST - more here April 10: Mutual Aid Call: Fundraising Strategies, 4-5 EST - more here April 11-13th: Thunderhead Winning Campaigns Traning in San Francisco, CA - more here May 5-8th: Train the Trainer - Advanced Leadership Training in Chicago, IL - more here May 8: Mutual Aid Call: Media Relations, 4-5 EST - more here May 22: Mutual Aid Call: Bike, Walk & Plan: How to Build Relationships With Planners, 4-5 EST - more here June 26: Mutual Aid Call: Diversifying Cycling: Engaging Partners Outside the Bike Industry, 4-5 EST - more here August 31st - September 2: Thunderhead Alliance Retreat in Seattle, WA - more here We want your news! Thunderhead wants to publish your good news! Our coalition is our members and your peers want to hear about your success and innovations. Have you had a recent success? A winning campaign? A creative event? Has your organization used innovative methods for attracting members or earning media attention? We want to know about it! Send your news items to kristen "at" thunderheadalliance.org.
		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.