Volunteer Planning Committee

The Committee Chair is responsible for guiding the committee throughout the planning and execution phases of the Bike Tour. Committee Chair is a standing member of all Sub-Committees and is responsible for ensuring that Sub-Committee chairs are focused on their particular responsibilities. Committee Chair is the primary liaison between the planning Sub-Committees and Bike MS staff. Duties are as follows:

• Attends and leads all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Sub-Committee chairs between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Bike MS staff between Planning Committee meetings
• Proposes meeting agenda to Bike MS staff no later than 10 calendar days prior to next committee meeting. Committee Chair and staff will work together to finalize the meeting agenda. Agenda will be sent to committee at large no later than seven calendar days prior to the next committee meeting allowing committee members to add any discussion items.

Committee Secretary is responsible for recording and disseminating planning meeting notes.

• Attends and electronically records notes on a laptop at all monthly Planning Committee meetings
• Forwards meeting notes to Bike staff within 2 business days of meeting
• Communicates as frequently as necessary with Planning Committee Chair or Bike MS staff for clarification purposes
• Notes are forwarded to committee at large by staff within 3 business days of meeting.

The Mentor Sub-Committee is responsible for creating programs to work with Bike MS participants on their fundraising, recruitment and event weekend questions. Sub-Committee chair will work with Bike staff to ensure that they have all materials needed to mentor.

• Be available to call and work with new participants on their fundraising plan
• Be knowledgeable about event agenda, activities, and promotions to answer any questions prior to the event
• Meet with Rider event weekend
• Provide innovative fundraising ideas and support
• Provide feedback of fundraising materials currently offered

Sponsorship Sub-Committee is responsible for sourcing companies in Orange County and San Diego that would be willing to get involved in the Bay to Bay Tour by donating cash, product, volunteer groups or recruiting Expo vendors. Sub-Committee chair will work with Bike staff to ensure that no prior relationship exists.

• Attends and delivers Sponsorship/GIK Sub-Committee report at all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of one in-person or conference call meeting with Sponsorship/GIK Sub-Committee members between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Planning Committee Chair between Planning Committee meetings
• Work with Bike MS staff on creating a needs list. Examples are:
• Food items - breakfast, energy product, sports drink, etc.
• Entertainment - bands, D.J.s, mascots, etc.
• Goody Bag items - bike accessories, etc.
• Each Sponsorship/GIK Sub-Committee member is responsible for (4) sponsorship/GIK asks per month;
• Collect one paragraph blurb, links or related material from sponsor for weekly posting on Facebook or Twitter and inclusion in monthly eNewsletter.

This Sub-Committee is responsible for creating and implementing no-cost / low-cost ideas to raise awareness and participation for the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour which will supplement Bike MS' existing marketing and new media plan.

• Define new and social media strategies and tactics to promote the Bay to Bay Tour. Events could include (but are not limited to):
  • Bike Month
  • Bike to Work Week
  • Tour de France
  • Memorial Day
  • Father's Day
  • Independence Day
  • Rogue rest stops along highly travelled bike routes
  • Street Teams
  • Holidays
  • Be relevant to local happening
• Work with Ambassador and Bike Shop team to define new and social media tactics to promote efforts with Street Teams and Bike Shops.
• Implement agreed upon strategy and tactics.
• Ensure language used in communications is fun and engaging.

This Sub-Committee is responsible for the overall grassroots marketing efforts and ensuring that we have a presence at local rides and getting the word out about the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour to bike shops. Responsibilities of Sub-Committee co-chair include:

• Attend and deliver Bike Shops and Ambassador Sub-Committee reports at all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicate as frequently as necessary but a minimum of one in-person or conference call meeting with Bike Shops/Ambassador Sub-Committee members between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Planning Committee Chair between Planning Committee meetings

Bike Shops are responsible for providing organization and structure to the committee when soliciting local bike shop and bicycle tour and adventure company participation in our ride. This includes posting our materials in their shops, getting discounts for our participants, getting mechanics from the bike shops and finally soliciting donations of parts and accessories (tubes, tires, CO2 cartridges, etc.).

• Every Planning Committee member is responsible for adopting a minimum of 4 bike shops
• Responsibilities continue past the initial approval and drop off of materials must check back at least every two weeks to ensure that our material is still up or to supplement it with more material.
• Minimum of 24 mechanics needed for our ride; Bike staff to help with this
• Every Planning Committee member is responsible for soliciting one bike and adventure tour company.
• In-kind product donations as needed.
• Collect one paragraph blurb, links or related material from sponsor for weekly posting on Facebook or Twitter and inclusion in monthly eNewsletter.

Ambassadors are responsible for identifying other rides and opportunities for the committee and staff to have a presence and market our ride to other local riders.

• Goal is to identify (1-2) cycling event per month for Bike MS to ride as a group and or market at
• Sub-Committee to identify at least (5) Bike Clubs for Sub-Committee, general committee or staff members to speak at.
• Creation of 1-2 paragraphs of ambassador-related material per month for incorporation into monthly eNewsletters
• Spread the word about upcoming ambassador events on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms
• Utilize social networking sites like Meetup.com to meet and recruit participants as well as find out about group rides for Bike MS riders.

Route Sub-Committee is responsible for all aspects of creating and maintaining a safe and challenging route for the Bay to Bay Tour. Route Chair is charged with keeping up with any route obstacles, construction or changes that directly affect the existing route. Responsible for preparation of all route slips and other route related materials.

• Attends and delivers Route Sub-Committee report at all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of one in-person or conference call meeting with Route Sub-Committee members between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Planning Committee Chair between Planning Committee meetings
• Creation of tentative route slip for 25- 100- and 150-mile routes by May 1
• Creation of map of route with elevation profile for posting on Bay to Bay Tour website by May 1
• Creation of routes for upload into GPS tracking format by May 1
• Routes to be posted on website by staff no later than August 1
• Conduct a minimum of 3 full route checks before Bay to Bay Tour to make sure no construction or other dangers exist on the route. Route checks to happen by May, September and October.
• Identification of hot spots on the route (work with Safety Sub-Committee) to help incorporate them into the rider skills presentation
• Identification of possible alternate routes in the event planned route becomes impassable for any reason
• Create plan and source key individuals for getting the route marked on event weekend.

This Sub-Committee is responsible for development of all safety and training initiatives leading up to the Bay to Bay Tour.

• Attends and delivers Safety and Training Sub-Committee report at all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of one in-person or conference call meeting with Safety and Training Sub-Committee members between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Planning Committee Chair between Planning Committee meetings

Safety is responsible for:

• Creating a new and exciting Rider Skills presentation for current year
• Presentation can be engaging, incorporating rider skills quiz
• Presentation can be more concise; (it should not run longer than 15 minutes)
• Presentation can contain elements of National Bike MS safety materials
• Creating rider skills quiz
• Coordinating rider safety skills clinics with bike shops, bike clubs
• Coordinating rider skills clinics with Bike MS Teams department for registered Bike MS teams that are large enough to warrant their own safety clinics
• Identifying hot spots on the route (work with Route Sub-Committee) and incorporating them into the rider skills presentation
• Solicitation of (10) volunteers to serve in a safety capacity (to help with signage placement for ride weekend at key locations) to supplement those provided by Linda Ingram
• Creation of 1-2 paragraphs of safety-related material per month for incorporation into monthly eNewsletters
• Creation of weekly safety-related material or links for posting on Facebook or Twitter

Training is responsible for all training initiatives at the local level.

• Research training material and provide input into decision of which direction the training platform will take for this year's ride
• National MS Society training materials
• Other Bike MS ride training materials (e.g., Lone Star Chapter)
• Coordinate with Rehab United to generated training materials including 16-, 12- and 8-week training plans
• Combination of the above
• Creation of 1-2 paragraphs of training-related material per month for incorporation into monthly eNewsletters
• Creation of weekly training-related material or links for posting on Facebook or Twitter
• Research and recommend training rides
• Work with local bike shops to host training sessions at local bike shops
• Coordinate rider skills clinics with training sessions
• Create video that can be downloaded and watched on a smart phone before training rides
• Online badge that can be downloaded

SAG (Support and Gear) is responsible for the safe transport of participants in the event of mechanical difficulties that can not be handled on the route and for being the lookouts on the road during the event.

• CARES (Coastal Amateur Radio Emergency Services) / SOARA (South Orange Amateur Radio Association) runs the SAG vehicle program and is responsible for actual transport of riders and their cycles with the primary goal of rider and pedestrian safety.
• Provide adequate and timely responsiveness, liaison & representation to the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour event organizers
• Provide centralized and coordinated radio control communications
• Responsible for dispatch of timely responses to requests from fatigued or injured riders or for mechanical assistance
• Responsible for monitoring of bicycle riders' progress throughout the three course routes and sweeping the routes
• Responsible for providing a minimum of 20 SAG vehicles
• Responsible for recruiting and training a minimum of 40 SAG personnel (2 per vehicle)
• Produce maps including identification of all rest stops and turns based on the route slips (provided by the Route Sub-Committee and Bike MS Staff)
• AG vehicles to carry additional bicycle repair supplies, brooms, route arrows and other items to assist with maintaining a clean and safe route
• MARC (Motorcycle Amateur Radio Club) provides safe and reliable mobile two-way radio communication to support the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour with safety as the primary objective. They communicate with SAG vehicles as well as Bike MS official route vehicles to warn of road conditions and emergent circumstances.
• Provide appropriate and timely responsiveness, liaison & representation to the Bike MS Bay to Bay Tour event organizers
• Provide centralized and coordinated motorcycle control communications to encompass safety issues and bicycle rider assistance requests
• Provide motorcycles, HAM radio equipment, towers for radios and other necessary equipment
• Responsible for recruiting, training and providing a minimum of 15 MARC personnel on Day 1 of ride; 15 personnel on Day 2
• Provide location of assistance needed to the SOARA-provided SAG dispatchers
• Provide back-up communications frequencies for SAG team
• Responsible for aiding with the adequate monitoring of bicycle riders' progress throughout the three course routes and sweeping the routes

Ride Marshals act as Safety Ambassadors by sharing cycling advice and encouraging safe cycling behaviors during the Tour. Ride Marshals provide basic mechanical assistance to riders when necessary. They also identify unsafe cyclists to ride officials. Ride Marshals may also perform the role of managing accident scenes along ride routes until first responders arrive.

• Attends and delivers Ride Marshal Sub-Committee report at all Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of one in-person or conference call meeting with Ride Marshal Sub-Committee members between Planning Committee meetings
• Communicates as frequently as necessary but a minimum of once with Planning Committee Chair between Planning Committee meetings
• Responsible for recruiting 75 Ride Marshals for the Bay to Bay Tour
• Responsible for training 75 Ride Marshals for the Bay to Bay Tour
• All Sub-Committee members are members of the Bay to Bay Tour Ride Marshal corps
• Creation of ride marshal-related material for incorporation into monthly e-Newsletters
• Creation of weekly ride marshal-related material for posting on Facebook or Twitter
• Creates master list of supplies needed for Bike MS Tour by 5/31. List is to be used by entire committee when making asks of bike shops and bike clubs
• Creates specific list of supplies needed for Ride Marshals by 5/31