Team Captain Toolkit
Are you a team captain this year? To help you put together a winning strategy for the Bike Everywhere Challenge we've assembled a simple toolkit including a sample timeline and inspirational ideas.
Suggested to-do list:
- Register for an event like the Bike Everywhere Challenge and form your team. Use the email templates below to recruit teammates and newbies.
- Spread the word! Download Bike Everywhere Challenge graphics and promote the Bike Everywhere Challenge at your workplace, on your website or in your neighborhood.
- Inspire your team and your community to ride using our DIY event toolkit.
Sample timeline
This sample timeline will help you organize and inspire your team.
March & April
- Encourage your business to promote the Bike Everywhere Challenge using Cascade's organization toolkit.
- Register for the Bike Everywhere Challenge.
- Recruit new captains and recruit teammates using the email templates below.
- Plan a few fun activities for Bike Everywhere Month at your workplace or in your community. See our DIY event toolkit for simple, fun ideas!
May
- Ride your bike to work, school, the grocery store, or wherever your day takes you. Go anywhere by bike!
- Get involved with the Bike Everywhere Day on May 21, 2021. Host a Celebration Station, or find one near you for some inspiration!
- Join us or our friends at Washington Bikes for fun events.
- Check-in with infrequent riders. What's holding them back from riding more?
- Stage a special event at your workplace. Find simple fun event ideas here.
June
- Reward and recognize your teammates for a job well done in the Everywhere Challenge from Washington Bikes. Host a fun awards ceremony for your teammates, and ask Cascade for a participation certificate.
- Keep riding around town! Challenge yourself and sign up for one of Cascade's great riding events or join a free group ride any day of the year.
- Join us in our mission to "Improve lives through bicycling!"
Inspiration ideas
There are innumerable ways that you can build momentum for biking to work, among your team, your workplace and your community. Below are our favorite suggestions gleaned from outstanding team captains of yore:
Inspire your team
- Ask team members to set goals for themselves and set a goal for your team.
- Share your team photo on social media. Tag @cascadebicycle and #WABikeEverywhere.
- Host ride theme days (e.g. Lycra, business suits, super hero, etc).
- Have a virtual team feed: breakfast, lunch, or happy hour!
- Make sure new commuters have someone to ride with most days, but especially at the beginning of the month.
- Highs and Lows: ask your team to share their riding highs and lows of the day/week/month.
- Challenge another team at your company or in your neighborhood.
Inspire others
- Recruit and mentor new team captains.
- Ask your business to promote the Washington Bike Everywhere Challenge. Download graphics or request Bike Everywhere Challenge posters in May.
- Get your CEO or local celebrity to participate.
- Share your success stories via our blog. Submit your stories to challenge@wabikes.org.
Recruit new captains and encourage business support
Dear ________,
June is near and I am captaining a team for the 2021 Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge. I'd like to encourage you to join the all-star cast of team captains.
As a team captain, you can significantly increase bicycle commuting at _________ (their worksite). Captains recruited over hundreds of brand new bike commuters last year. Think about how valuable bicycling is to you, and multiply that by multiple hundred...that's a lot of positive return for a modest investment of time on your behalf!
To start a team, you simply sign up online, recruit three to nine more coworkers to join you and encourage everyone to ride as much as possible throughout June. In fact, the hardest part may be coming up with a team name. (My team is ________________________.)
Washington Bikes offers great support for captains, including events thrown by Washington Bikes or their friends at Cascade Bicycle Club, a comprehensive toolkit, and prizes just for captains.
The challenge starts May 1, 2021 – get your team on board today!
Captain ________(your name)
________(team name)
________(business name)
Dear __________ (title)
I would like to encourage ___________________(business) to participate in the 2021 Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge. Bicycle commuting makes great business sense. Bike commuters are healthier and more productive employees. Bicycle parking is a fraction of the cost and space of car parking. Bike commuting is especially valuable to me as an employee because _____________________.
The Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge is a simple turn-key program that has significantly increased bicycle commuting among both new and experienced riders. Last year, almost a quarter of participants were brand new commuters. That's an impressive result.
What's more, it's very simple for businesses to participate. Team captains like me recruit and encourage riders. The riders track their own trips online.
At the very least, I'd like to ask you to promote the Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge to all staff. Please check out the Washington Bikes website for information and resources.
Captain ________(your name)
________(team name)
________(business name)
________ Department
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