Filling the Ranks of Bike Vote LA

[Dr Michael Cahn]

I have started a open google spreadsheet which displays a good list of bicycle groups we may want to contact in order to identify "delegates" to fill our ranks. Is delegates the right word?

Have a look & add more groups, and change the design to suit our needs.

I started a post on the blog (it is a DRAFT now) with an invitation to run like this:

Please get back to me with stylistic or material improvements

COME TO THE TABLE   The League of Bicycle Voters LA will have its first organizational  meeting on 15 May at UCLA. We are now in the process of identifying delegates for this meeting. It is envisioned that these delegates will eventually make up the governance structure of the LOBVLA. They will also use their role in their respective clubs or organizations to enliven the political process, to determine and publish endorsements, and interact with candidates for public office. If you are connected with any kind of bicycle organization and your organization authorizes you act as their speaker in our forum, we would like to invite you to step forward and join the League of Bicycle Voters LA. Please make sure to attend the meeting because we hope to be able to elect our board at that occasion. We need all the help we can get to grow the League into a fully transparent and powerful player in the Los Angeles Region. Lawyers, lobbyists, fund-raisers, political analysts, experts in not-for-profit governance and everybody else: Here is your opportunity to do the right thing. Let us build a powerful grassroots voter group from the spokes up, because a better environment for cyclists is a better environment for everybody.

In order to assist the process of identifying organizations we have started an open < Google Spreadsheet</a> where we try to keep track of Organizations approached and delegates identified.

Also, let me, Ted or Josef know if you want to post to the blog and we shall be happy to give you access.

Does anyone have a idea how we can structure our membership between such Delegates and individual members?


Cheers!

[bikinginla]

Here's how I envision the organizational structure; however, like everything else at this point, it's just a suggestion. So feel free to jump in with other suggestions or comments:

1. General Membership will be available to anyone who lives, works or rides in L.A. County and signs up as a member. There would be no dues for this level of membership in order to encourage the maximum number of participants, and general members would be able to participate in all forums, attend meetings and express their opinions on any subject, but would not enjoy voting privileges within the organization.

2. Voting Membership will be open to dues paying members only. I'd suggest keeping dues low — perhaps $25 annually — in order to allow as many people as possible to participate. Voting members will be able to vote on endorsements, bylaws, and other aspects of the organization.

3. Board of Directors will be made up of representatives of other area biking organizations, as well as other voting members. Biking organizations will be invited to nominate a representative to the board, subject to membership vote, in order to encourage participation by these groups and represent the broadest possible spectrum of local riders; however, any voting member will be eligible for the board.

4. Officers will be elected by the members, and will automatically become members of the Board of Directors upon taking office.

Also, because the sheer size of the Los Angeles area makes it difficult for people to attend meetings, I'd like to find a way to conduct as much of the League's business as possible online so that we could limited physical meetings to 4 - 6 times per year. Josef is looking into one approach to do that.

Ted

[ubrayj02]

(1) With what you have written we can pop out the paperwork for a
501(c)4 in no time.
(2) Everything looks good.

Managing the paper work is a bit of a pain for an amateur, but there
are plenty of folks able to handle this stuff.

Voting online is possible, but we'll need to discuss how we want to do
this. There is a popular web-site I use that publishes its code for
free (so we can use it without too much fuss). Topics are submitted
and are voted either up or down. We can establish a voting threshold
(i.e. must be a certain % of the total membership voting one direction
or another for a topic to be endorsed or agreed upon) and a time
window for a topic (an endorsement of a candidate for an upcoming
election, for example) to be voted on. The site is called reddit.com

There is another piece of voting-ish software I liked available at:
http://www.ideasforseattle.org/

I'll try and come up with something that is fair and functional (that
isn't always easy to do) as well as secure, in case someone's well
paid campaign consultant wants to wreak havoc on our digital system of
voting.

--
Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/bikevotela/subscribe?hl=en

[bikinginla]

That would be great if you could work something like that out. I think
the biggest factor that could limit our growth would be the difficulty
in getting people to attend frequent meetings.

Anyone have computer skills who'd like to help Josef?

David Vahedi volunteered to handle the paper work for us; I'll contact
him this week to start the process. If you don't mind, I'll have him
work with you since you seem to have the best knowledge of this. The
question is, do we move forward with the paperwork now, or should we
wait until after our first meeting on May 15th?

My thinking is to initially form this group as a 501c4, then have the
option of forming a political action committee at a later date. As for
the name, I still like the League of Bicycling Voters because it tells
people exactly what it is; Roadblock's name, The Bike Lobby, would be
ideal for a political action committee.

We also need to start looking into opening a bank account and PayPal
account. Vehedi said he could help us set up a credit card account to
accept donations/dues that way.

[ubrayj02]

I ran for the board of the LACBC a few years ago, and I gave a speech
about growing their membership that involved a low-cost (t-shirt and
sticker) option to be hustled at numerous rides and min-benefits
around town.

"Bike The Vote" is a a great way to engage small pockets of cyclists
to self-organize around issues or candidates, ride together to vote or
throw voting- or election-themes rides or parties.

Just two small ideas that can be done by one person or by small groups
without too much central coordination that bring in money, members,
and keep an institution legitimate.

[patrick]

I have just begun to carry and distribute a small flyer regarding our
group. With words taken largely from ubrayj's initial post above, I'm
hoping it can spur a new wave of membership and interest. In total
agreement with Janette Sadik-Khan advise during her speach at Oxy, I
have also twice inserted the word "safe" into the flyer. It reads:

Introducing the
LEAGUE OF BICYCLING VOTERS
LOS ANGELES
We need your help to grow the League into a fully transparent and
powerful player that will help determine and publish endorsements, and
interact with candidates for public office in the Los Angeles Region.

Here is your opportunity to do the right thing. Let us build a

powerful grassroots voter group from the spokes up, because a safer
environment for cyclists is a safer environment for everybody.
The League will have its first organizational meeting on 15 May at
UCLA.

For more information visit: http://bikela.org/

COME TO THE TABLE

So far I have gotten very positive responses and encourage others in
this group to do the same.

Patrick

[bikinginla]

Thanks, Josef & Patrick. Both of these are great ideas.

I agree with Josef that inexpensive t-shirts, stickers, spoke cars,
etc. are a great way to promote the group and grow the membership, and
anything that brings riders together is a great way to expose them to
what we're doing. And Patrick's flyer is a perfect example of how any
of us can take the lead in promoting this right now. This is a band of
equals, and we're all empowered to take steps on our own to try and
get more people at the May 15 meeting.

I'm still trying to catch up after losing a day to jury duty earlier
in the week, but should have press release ready to go by Friday. If
you have any press contacts you want to send it to, let me know and
I'll add them to the list. If you want to keep your contacts private,
I'll be happy to forward a copy to you.

Ted

[David Matsu]

Press contacts:

Sharon McNary, KPCC, smc...@scpr.org

While I'm not aware of any Hispanic groups that focus on cycling specifically, I think we should make some active outreach to Hispanic (and other "POC") community groups since they represent a large group of cyclists by nature of their constituents. I'm not sure if that should happen now or after the League has become more fully formed. But here's a few contacts:

East LA Community Corporation - 323-269-4214

Watts/Century Latino Organization - 323-564-9140

Latino Urban Forum - James Rojas - lu...@hotmail.com

[Jazmin Ortega]

Not sure if Carlos Morales is on this list, but he's a good contact; he's publisher of The Voice Community News in El Sereno and founder of the Eastside Bicycle Club: 323-221-7400.

[bikinginla]

Not only is Carlos on the list, he was one of the first people I reached out to.

Thanks to both of you for these suggestions. Nothing would make me happier than to see a roomful of riders representing the entire city on May 15th.

Ted