Mission Statement

[bikinginla]

I’m not really a fan of mission statements. Having worked on a number
of them for various clients, and worked under them for various
companies, I find they’re usually too complicated and most often
ignored.

However, I do agree that one would be useful for a new organization
such as this to provide a roadmap as we move forward.

My preference would be for something very simple and direct, memorable
and easy to understand. It should explain what we intend to do, but
not how we intend to do it. It should be specific enough to proved
guidance, but not so specific that it limits our activities down the
road.

Feel free to submit your own suggestions, whether based on one or more
of the versions below, or something completely different. This will be
discussed at Saturday’s meeting, but we should not feel obligated to
adopt anything if it’s not ready yet.

The Austin League of Bicycling Voters uses this:

Austin's voice for bicyclists
"LOBV is a nonprofit advocacy organization promoting better
transportation policy decisions, justice for bicyclists, and more
resources to increase the number of bicyclists in the Austin area."

While that works well for them, L.A. County already has a number of
advocacy organizations promoting cycling; what is lacking here is an
effective political organization for cyclists.

The first attempt at writing our own mission statement looked like
this:

"Bring the Bicycle to the Ballot Box:
The League of Bicycling Voters LA promotes bicycle/active
transportation issues in political elections by supporting candidates,
issuing report-cards and recommendations. Our aim is to educate voters
and candidates in order to create the safe and healthy bicycling
environment Los Angeles deserves & support of the law. The League of
Bicycling Voters LA adheres to fully transparent procedures and makes
it recommendations based on independent research and evaluations."

There was also a shorter version, which I thought worked better:

"Bring the Bicycle to the Ballot Box:
The League of Bicycling Voters LA promotes bicycle/active
transportation advocacy in local, regional, statewide and national
elections by actively supporting candidates, elected officials and
issues duly determined to support creating the safe, healthy bicycling
environment Los Angeles deserves."

Combining that with the Austin mission statement led to this:

"The League of Bicycling Voters LA is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to bringing bicycling to the ballot box through political
action by actively supporting and influencing candidates, elected
officials, policies and initiatives to promote better transportation
policy decisions, justice for bicyclists and safer streets throughout
our city, county, state and country."

Or this:

"The League of Bicycling Voters LA is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to bringing bicycling to the ballot box through political
action to promote better transportation policy decisions, justice for
bicyclists and safer streets throughout our city, county, state and
country."

The most recent submission looked like this:

"Bring the Bicycle to the Ballot Box:
The League of Bicycling Voters LA promotes bicycle/active
transportation issues in the political arena by supporting candidates,
lobbying legislators, and issuing report-cards and recommendations.
Our aim is to educate voters, candidates and elected officials in
order to create the safe and welcoming bicycle environment cyclists
deserve, and to support legislation which supports cyclists on the
road. The League adheres to fully transparent procedures and makes its
recommendations based on its own independent research and
evaluations."

[Eric Bruins]

Looks like we should add church groups and probably hospitals to our hit and run coalition:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/05/toddler-struck-in-hitandrun-after-church-service.html

--
Eric Bruins
ebr...@usc.edu
(650) 823-9713

[pat...@chelseamanagement.com]

Good to see a fellow Trojan up at a reasonable hour for a Sunday morning.

Patrick

[bikinginla]

The scary thing is, when you start paying attention to these stories, they happen almost every day. And yes, the hope is that once we announce, groups like this will be lining up to sign on.

Ted

Ted Rogers

bikinginla

www.bikinginla.com

bikin...@mindspring.com

[Paths Not Lanes]

I couldn't make the meeting yesterday but I was hoping someone could
fill me in on the hit and run campaign. When does it start? I have
some contacts in organizations like CABO and the NRDC so maybe I could
help. A couple fishing buddies of mine are in the governors office.

Jim

On Sunday, May 16, 2010, bikinginla <bikin...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> The scary thing is, when you start paying attention to these stories, they happen almost every day. And yes, the hope is that once we announce, groups like this will be lining up to sign on.
> Ted

> Ted Rogersbikinginlawww.bi...@mindspring.com

[bikinginla]

This was discussed yesterday, but isn't for public discussion at this
point, so let's keep it off the general discussion group for now. I
have to run now, but email me directly and I'll fill you in later today.

Ted

[David Matsu]

You may have gotten farther on this at the meeting so apologies if I am late to the game.

I do think mission statements serve to force people to verbalize and agree on what the actual goals are and they can serve as touchstones when there are disputes about whether an organization should pursue a certain course in the future. Of course, they are generally useless during normal day to day operations. You are very right that they need to be brief and succinct. They should also address the "mission" itself and not tactics or organization. So I think the "most recent" submission you mention goes a bit too far. I would propose something like this:

"The League of Bicycling Voters LA is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to bringing bicycling to the ballot box through political

action by actively supporting, influencing, and holding accountable candidates and elected
officials. The League promotes people, policies and initiatives to produce better transportation

policy decisions, justice for bicyclists and safer streets throughout
our city, county, state and country."

Dave Matsu

[bikinginla]

Thanks for the input, Dave. We did get farther than that at the meeting; I just haven't had a chance to post the minutes or followup online yet.

The following mission statement was written and approved at the meeting:

“The League of Bicycling Voters LA promotes active transportation issues in the political arena by supporting candidates, lobbying legislators, and educating voters in order to create a safe and welcoming environment for bicyclists in LA.”

Ted