Team Captain Toolkit

Are you a team captain this year? To help you put together a winning strategy for the Bike Everywhere Challenge, we’ve assembled a simple toolkit including a sample timeline and inspirational ideas.

Suggested to-do list:

• Register for the Bike Everywhere Challenge and form your team. Use the email templates below to recruit teammates and newbies.
• Check out the fantastic lineup of Bike Month events and mark your calendars.
• Spread the word! Download Bike Month graphics, brochures, and posters here and promote Bike Month at your workplace, on your website, or in your neighborhood.
• Inspire your team and your community to ride using our DIY event toolkit.

Sample timeline

This sample timeline will help you organize and inspire your team. You can find the full schedule of Bike Month events here.

April

• Encourage your business to promote Bike Month using Cascade’s workplace toolkit.
• Register for the Kaiser Permanente Bike Everywhere Breakfast (May 25, 2022)
• Register for the Bike Everywhere Challenge during April 2022.
• Recruit new captains and recruit teammates using the email templates below.
• Plan a few fun activities for Bike Month at your workplace or in your community. See our DIY event toolkit for simple, fun ideas!

May

• Ride your bike in your neighborhood, to the grocery store for an essential trip, or wherever your day takes you!
• Challenge another individual or team on the Bike Everywhere Month Challenge website.
• Check in with infrequent riders. Encourage them through any difficulties.
• Find a celebration station on your route and ride with a friend on Bike Everywhere Day on Friday May 20, 2022.
• Stage a special event at your workplace. Find simple fun event ideas here.

June

• Reward and recognize your teammates for a job well done in the Bike Everywhere Challenge. Host a fun awards ceremony for your teammates, and ask Cascade for a participation certificate.
• Keep riding around town! Challenge yourself and join a free group ride any day of the year.

Inspiration ideas

There are innumerable ways that you can build momentum for biking to work, among your team, your workplace and your community. Below are our favorite suggestions gleaned from outstanding team captains of yore:

Inspire your team

• Ask team members to set goals for themselves and set a goal for your team.
• Submit your team photo on social media using @wabikes & #WABikeEverywhere.
• Host ride theme days (e.g. Lycra, business suits, super hero, etc).
• Have a virtual team feed: breakfast, lunch, or happy hour!
• Make sure new commuters have some practical support (how to ride safe, how to plan a trip, where to ride), but especially at the beginning of the month.
• Highs and Lows: ask your team to share their riding highs and lows of the day, week, or month.
• Challenge another team at your company or in your neighborhood.

Inspire others

• Recruit and mentor new team captains.
• Ask your business to promote the Bike Everywhere Month.
  • Download graphics or request Bike Month posters here. 
• Get your CEO or local celebrity to participate.
• Get your kids involved with Bike to School Month activities.

Recruit new captains and encourage business support

Feel free to use the following templates to promote the Bike Month Challenge via email, online or newsletters.

Dear ________,

Bike Month is coming up and I am captaining a team for the Bike Everywhere Challenge. The theme this year is “Bike Everywhere,” and I’d like to encourage you to join the all-star cast of team captains.

As a team captain, you can significantly increase bicycle commuting at _________ (their worksite). Captains recruited over 2,400 brand new bike commuters in previous years. Think about how valuable bicycling is to you, and multiply that by 2,400…that’s a lot of positive return for a modest investment of time on your behalf!

To start a team, you simply sign up online, recruit up to nine more coworkers to join you and encourage everyone to ride as much as possible throughout May. In fact, the hardest part may be coming up with a team name. (My team is ________________________.)

The challenge starts May 2021 – start your team today!

Captain ________(your name)

________(team name)

________(business name)

Dear __________ (title)

I would like to encourage ___________________(business) to participate in the Bike Everywhere Challenge. Bicycle commuting makes great business sense. Bike commuters are healthier and more productive employees. Bicycle parking is a fraction of the cost and space of car parking. Bike commuting is especially valuable to me as an employee because _____________________.

The Bike Everywhere Challenge is a simple turn-key program that has significantly increased bicycle commuting among both new and experienced riders. In a recent year, 22 percent of participants were brand new commuters. That’s an impressive result.

What’s more, it’s very simple for businesses to participate. Team captains like me recruit and encourage riders. The riders track their own trips online.

At the very least, I’d like to ask you to promote the Bike Everywhere Challenge to all staff. Please check out the Bike Month website for information and resources.

Captain ________(your name)

________(team name)

________(business name)

________ Department

Promotional Images