Toronto Cyclists Union Seeks Executive Director

The Toronto Cyclist Union is hiring an executive director. Details are on the Bike Union website, and in the job description below.

Toronto Cyclists Union Seeks Executive Director

The Toronto Cyclists Union is a member-driven community of cyclists from every geographic area in Toronto that represents a cross-section of Toronto's cyclists. We provide a vibrant and amplified voice to achieve the common goals of safety, legitimacy and accessibility of cycling in Toronto. We coordinate city-wide advocacy on behalf of our members and provide resources for cyclists to be effective local advocates themselves. We promote cycling in an inclusive, friendly and inviting manner.

Position Description: The Executive Director, working under the direction of the Board of Directors, is responsible for growing the membership base of the Toronto Cyclists Union. The Executive Director will develop the identity of the organization among members by advancing the mission of the union and ensuring the overall success and operation of its programs.

Building a member-based cycling organization Toronto is an exciting opportunity for candidates.

  • Toronto has an estimated 939,000 people over age 15 who describe themselves as cyclists.
  • The City has an excellent Bike Plan that is admired by cycling professionals and advocates in other North American cities.
  • There are dedicated municipal staff that are receptive to the involvement of the Toronto Cyclists Union.
  • Partnerships have been developed with other well-established Toronto organizations to promote cycling.

Key responsibilities include:

  • Developing processes for and managing the day-to-day operations of the organization
  • Developing recruitment strategies for new members and a retention program for existing members
  • Developing advocacy campaigns that raise the profile and advance the mission of the organization
  • Acting as the external spokesperson for the Toronto Cyclists Union
  • Acting as a central point person and resource for each of the volunteer committees in the critical program areas:
    • Advocacy (ward advocacy program, lobbying, campaigns)
    • Membership (recruitment, retention, mailouts, database, benefits)
    • Communications (newsletter, website/facebook content, other informational material, media)
    • Outreach (fundraising and community building events, new Canadians programming)
    • Fundraising (contracts, sponsorships, grants)
    • Information Technology (website, email lists, intranet, social networking)
    • Governance (strategic planning, organizational structure, board development)
    • Finance (developing business plan, overall financial management)
  • Working with government agencies, such as the City of Toronto and Metrolinx to develop improved bicycle policies and facilities
  • Promoting cycling via public information, education, and advocacy
  • Preparing agendas and reports for Board meetings
  • Responding to media queries and developing media releases
  • Administering grants and contracts
  • Hiring and supervising staff when the viability arises

You excel and have demonstrated experience in:

  • Managing and developing a non-profit organization
  • Building and maintaining relationships with a wide variety of groups and stakeholders
  • Advocacy or lobbying governments and other organized groups
  • Public outreach and public speaking
  • Managing multiple, competing demands

You possess:

  • Passion for cycling
  • In-depth knowledge of cycling
  • Excellent organizational skills
  • Demonstrated ability to build a membership base
  • Demonstrated ability to raise funds from diverse sources
  • Demonstrated ability to motivate and develop a network of volunteers devoted to carrying out organizational goals
  • Strong writing and communication skills
  • Independent, motivational, and inclusive spirit
  • Skills and characteristics that reflect the values of the Toronto Cyclists Union
  • A belief in the mission, vision and positions of the Toronto Cyclists Union

Terms of contract:

  • Compensation - $25,000
  • 26 week contract, beginning in Feb 2009, with possible extension subject to successful fundraising
  • 37.5hrs/week, distribution of hours to be negotiated
  • Including some evening and weekend hours

To Apply: By January 15, 2009, please send by email in PDF or rtf format:

  1. a cover letter (two pages max) describing your background and interest in this position
  2. your resume, and
  3. a sample of your work (e.g. papers, articles, press releases, etc.):

Send to: hiring@bikeunion.to

All applications received will be confirmed through a reply email. We expect to conduct interviews during the last two weeks of January and are seeking a mid-February start date.

More about the Toronto Cyclists Union: Founder David Meslin received a "Vital People" grant in 2006 which allowed him to travel across North America to study successful membership-funded bicycle advocacy groups elsewhere. He visited groups with upwards of 6,500 members achieving great improvements for cyclists. This early work helped prepare our goals and visions, and laid the groundwork for the work to come.

In the fall of 2007 Meslin gathered together over 70 Toronto bicycle advocates and organizers from twenty plus organizations to share what he had found and to present his vision for a bike union. Over the winter, the Toronto Cyclists Union became incorporated, formed a volunteer board and management team and a team of developers used open source software to build a website and membership database. The Toronto Cyclists Union launched on May 20, 2008. Since then it has hosted several successful events, including a fundraising screening of Pee-wee's Big Adventure at the end of May attended by 1,000 people. Without having initiated a major membership drive, the Toronto Cyclists Union already boasts over 400 paid members and over 1300 have signed up to receive its monthly newsletter. The union has revenue streams from membership fees, grants, contracts and donors.

The Toronto Cyclists Union operates out of the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina Avenue in downtown Toronto.

http://bikeunion.to/

vic : 16 years 9 months ago
Tags: bike union, job

Bikesharing in Toronto is a public good: report by TCAT

Photo: Courtesy of Eye Magazine

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation released the Public Bike Forum report, summarizing the results of the public forum and of the stakeholders meeting with officials that was held this last September.

Highlights:

  • one half don't want advertising on bikes
  • with no public funding companies would search for a commercial sponsor
  • bikesharing creates new behaviours and travel patterns
  • the smart bike systems must still be accessible to people with various barriers
  • most want around 5000 bikes to start off with
  • target the downtown and dense nodes in the suburbs, clusters around transit
  • needs to be modular like Montreal's Bixi
  • the City needs to put forward a well-defined business plan
  • the City should look seriously at Montreal's system for how to do it without advertising

For everyone interested in getting an efficient and useful bikesharing system in Toronto needs to read Jonathan Goldsbie's article in Eye Magazine. It appears that Councillor Heaps is willing to give away the project to Astral Media, the company running the street furniture contract. Heaps claims that the contract specifies that Astral Media gets the first right of refusal, despite the fact the contract states that this is only true if street furniture includes advertising. As we've seen with Montreal's Bixi model that it is very possible to have a self-funding system that requires no advertising.

Is Councillor Heaps giving away a public right to safe and useful public transportation to an inexperienced Astral Media, whose interests mainly lie with expanding the number of eyes who see its advertising? What happened to an open bidding process in the City? Is the City falling back to giving special benefits to inside interests? This is all so frustrating and the Councillor and staff are not exactly forthcoming with answers.

herb : 16 years 9 months ago
Tags: active transportation, bike infrastructure, TCAT

Imagine that

Imagine that you've $100. And that each of your 30 million fellow citizens -- every man, woman, and child in Canada -- does as well. We'd have quite a lump under the collective mattress: $3 billion worth.

Now imagine that we directed that amount toward an initiative in keeping with creating an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable society. Let's say...oh...building urban bicycle infrastructure. That would correlate to the ten largest Canadian cities -- Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg, pick three other cities -- each receiving a cheque for $300 million. Right now.

That would make quite a difference wouldn't it? Possibly a complete revolution in the living patterns of a significant percentage of those cities' -- and Canada's! -- inhabitants.

Now toss in another $400 million and imagine that the total was directed toward an enterprise that already benefits by billions in implicit subsidies, has ceased to be a going concern; makes what people aren't buying, is rapacious in its hunger for resources and infrastructure, and is a significant contributor to the defilement of our landscapes and ill health of our populace.

No need to imagine it, read all about it. Ottawa and Ontario have just teamed up to bail out the Bankrupt Three to the tune of $3.4 billion. And because this lifeline doesn't buy viability, just time, and not much of it at that, it's a good bet this may be the first payment of an extended installment plan.

I suppose here we could all retreat to our respective corners, brandishing our best arguments on the merits of creative destruction, the devastation of mass economic dislocation, the ripple effects to our manufacturing sector, the obsolescence of an antiquated business model, the exorbitant legacy and union costs, the efficiencies of foreign based manufacturers, and the just or unjust deserts due the whole undertaking.

But let's refrain this time around. The intention isn't to debate the action itself with all its ancillary aspects and implications but to prompt one to consider just how central are autos and the auto industry to our society's self conception.

If the notion of taming the technology, i.e., curtailing cars in our cities, is perceived as an infringement of a Gawd given right to drive amok, then the possibility of the behemoth floundering of its own accord, provokes outright panic. How the hell to get to the drive-thru for cash, coffee and, mechanically separated preformed meat by-products?

We simply can't conceive of ourselves without a predominance of cars or a massive industrial and infrastructural sector devoted to them. It's an affront to our notions of prosperity and primacy; it reveals our true imperatives: nothing short of a crisis would provoke such alacrity and unity in government and that's what this is. And who can argue the reaction is not without some justification?

What a dilemma. The last time we were in the driver's seat was prior to the energy crisis in the early 70s. Since then we've traded in the Caddy for a Tiger that bears us along ever more precariously. We created the beast, hopped on for a ride, but we don't quite know how to hop off without a mauling. This though the cost of holding on keeps rising.

So we lament the need for mass transit, green initiatives, less oil dependency, livable cities, yet the reality is that none of these propositions is quite as compelling as the prospect of serving up billions in corporate pogie to outfits largely dedicated to the opposite.

Denmark is often regarded as emblematic of a green society transformed by bicycles, enlightened land use patterns and alternative energy. What's often overlooked is that it achieved its transformation through three decades of sustained policy. By that metric Toronto will qualify for world class green status in about 2040 -- great, right about the time I'm due for a pair of Depends. If lucky.

The Danes, not having the luxury of any natural resources to speak of, learned their lesson the first time around. Instead we went for plan B: we bought the SUV and for the last 35 years have cruised between the Mall, the McMansion and the drive-thru. Oops.

Which serves as a sobering ray of morning sunshine after the hydrocarbon hangover that the realization of green, bikeable, liveable cities is not a short term proposition. They don't happen overnight and they don't happen without a plan and prolonged effort. (Not necessarily a cause for despair though as this doesn't preclude significant changes in limited spheres, not least individual lifestyles.)

Perhaps I've got it wrong though. Who would've imagined a generation ago that the likes of GM would amount to a write-off? Or that crude would skyrocket to $140 per barrel? Or that the Northwest Passage would be ice free in summer?

A reality so volatile beggars the imagination. It also has a tendency of quickly deflating delusions, and as the Danes found, constraining choices. Maybe we'll suddenly awaken to the fact that persisting against environmental and economic actualities is not only lunacy, it's an impossibility. Imagine that.

The sooner the better.

Luke Siragusa : 16 years 9 months ago
Tags: bike culture, bike infrastructure, urban planning