We hear from the crew at the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club: Treasurer and previous guest Erik Hillard, President Matt Baffert and Secretary Rob Pettersen. We discuss starting a new organization, their ongoing project of restoring the Condor Peak Trail, the surrounding Wilderness and how they’re creating an Elite Group of Volunteers while trying to not be elitist and stay welcoming to new volunteers.
Continue reading “Ep 75 – Starting Something New with the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club”
We dive back into the old topic of eMTBs with a fresh perspective: Joe Vadeboncoeur, President of the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association discusses his article: “eMTB Thoughts”. Prior to being Board President, Joe worked in the Bike Industry at Trek, and he shares what it was like going from there into the world of advocacy. Briefly, we follow up with what messaging organizations are using to communicate safe riding to their members.
With recent global events regarding COVID-19, the podcast is returning two weeks early. We’ll be hearing from a few different trail associations on what they’re doing to address the Pandemic. We’ll also hear from Eleanor Blick, Senior Communications & Advocacy Manager at the International Mountain Bicycling Association. Stay safe! Another episode will be out on April 3rd.
Continuing with our theme of Climate Change, we hear from the founder of Minneapolis Bike Parks: Devin Olson and Program Director: Kim Holm. They’re a fantastic example of a successful grassroots organization. They focus on building Bicycle Playgrounds that increase the Bicycle competency in kids, so that future generations are capable and comfortable with using a Bike to get around.
Executive Director of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA), Tom Stuessy, returns to the podcast. Tom shares how the Vermont Outdoor Innovation Coalition (VOICe) has evolved in earning the organization and it’s Chapters consistent funding. And a key part of the success of VOICe has been preventing donor fatigue from sponsors and adopters, insuring funding partners are engaged and included.
This episode we hear from the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz out in California, they share their Mountain Biking Impact Review and the findings made by their Science Committee. We’re joined by Matt De Young, Executive Director and Emma Kelsey, Science Committee Chair. This also marks the final episode of the Season with the podcast slated to return in September. Have a great Summer!
As a follow up to last episode where all three guests were staff of their local organizations, we’re going to dive into the topic of Paid Employees. Sara Gress, Executive Director with the Wood River Trails Coalition and Ernest Saeger, Executive Director for the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance join us for another episode. In addition, we’re joined by long time friend of the podcast, Susie Murphy, the Executive Director for the San Diego Mountain Biking Association and Cory Sutela, the current President for the Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates in Colorado Springs; the later organization is currently looking at hiring their first paid employee.
We hear from three Executive Directors from three different trail organizations: Christine Reid of the North Shore Mountain Bike Association in North Vancouver, BC, Ernest Saeger of the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance is Colorado and Sara Gress of the Wood River Trails Coalition in Sun Valley Idaho. The later two groups have recently rebranded from Mountain Bike organizations into more all encompassing Trail Organizations. We discuss the reasons, advantages and possible disadvantages of the switch and most importantly, we talk about the conversation your group should be having.
Brennan Morrow is a Board Member of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA) and Madras Chapter Rep. Brennan is sharing COTA’s User Profiles; essentially characters they’ve created to help predict community engagement for programs, events or initiatives they roll out. Commonly used by Website and App Developers to ensure optimal User Interface (UI) experiences.
We explore a community with both a multi-use Trail Association and a Mountain Bike Club. My guest is Daniel Cammiade of the Nature Trails Society in Victoria, British Columbia, located in the Southern end of Vancouver Island. We discuss whether an organization should identify as a Bike Club or a Trail Association, and how best to deal with a Land Manager that, simply put, isn’t interested in allowing mountain bike access.