(potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

PT1029
Posts: 1744
Joined: 16 Apr 2012, 9:20pm

Re: (potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

Post by PT1029 »

In theory having a volunteer section on this/a forum could be useful. Perhaps need different volunteer categories, eg :
Running a member group
Running promotions for national office (such as local bike week events, or the getting negleted bikes up and running (proper name escapes me at the moment)
Campaigning (RTR style road consultations etc)
Cycle training (Bikability).

That said, there are e mail groups via Yahoo for cycle trainers (I don't get many of these/take no interest as I no longer train), and an e mail group for campaigners. The campaigning group has a regular amount of traffic, but the numbers who participate is not that great. I make periodic contributions to the RTR e mail list. When stuck on an issue, it can quickly produce some answers/ideas/leads to follow.
So, sounds a good idea, but based to the above 2, you might not get a lot of participation.
There is also thirdcrank's point, what may well be internal CUK discussions can be viewed by anyone.
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RickH
Posts: 5832
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: (potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

Post by RickH »

PT1029 wrote:In theory having a volunteer section on this/a forum could be useful. Perhaps need different volunteer categories, eg :
Running a member group
Running promotions for national office (such as local bike week events, or the getting negleted bikes up and running (proper name escapes me at the moment)
Campaigning (RTR style road consultations etc)
Cycle training (Bikability).

That said, there are e mail groups via Yahoo for cycle trainers (I don't get many of these/take no interest as I no longer train), and an e mail group for campaigners. The campaigning group has a regular amount of traffic, but the numbers who participate is not that great. I make periodic contributions to the RTR e mail list. When stuck on an issue, it can quickly produce some answers/ideas/leads to follow.
So, sounds a good idea, but based to the above 2, you might not get a lot of participation.
There is also thirdcrank's point, what may well be internal CUK discussions can be viewed by anyone.

Email groups sometimes tend to have the problem of either people reply just to the sender (so the rest of the group don't see the reply) when sharing WOULD be useful or they "reply to all" when making a more personal (or private) reply & send it to everyone. Some of that will depend on how the list is setup & how individuals' email accounts are set up.

The member group that I'm involved with (Chester & North Wales CTC) uses a variety of Facebook groups - public, membership by request & private to do a lot of the managing of group rides plus there is a Google mailing list (maybe more than one, but only 1 that I'm on) that is used mainly for announcements of details of rides. Would a "hidden from public view" section of the forum (I presume there are already bits that we as "mere punters" don't see) be a useful place for sharing stuff among volunteers?

In "another place" (OK BC's Let's Ride website) there are parts that only the volunteer ride leaders (& BC staff) have access to. There is also an official "closed" Facebook Group that only volunteers & staff have access to - the main things on that seem to be sharing photos of rides, asking questions ("this happened on a ride - did I do the right thing?/ I'll not do that again!"), sharing info about things that may be useful to others in the group & sometimes have a moan.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
Steady rider
Posts: 2749
Joined: 4 Jan 2009, 4:31pm

Re: (potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

Post by Steady rider »

I have experience in promoting cycling, organised rides, section secretary, RTR, organised two 'Fringe meeting' at Conferences and in other ways.

Recently my local Parish Council published 6 routes suitable for cycling, that I detailed and risk assessed. Having access to good mapping with the facility to add notes, say 'Extra care at junction' or star high risk points could have helped in producing the routes details. Helping volunteers in routes selection and risk assessment may be one area to look at.
http://www.stamfordbridge-pc.gov.uk/
see
http://www.stamfordbridge-pc.gov.uk/thi ... ycle-rides

Asking RTR members if their local town/parish has cycle route maps on their web sites and if they could assist in there promotion.

Another issue is how best to promote safe commuter routes and funding them.
backnotes
Posts: 619
Joined: 16 Jan 2011, 8:36am

Re: (potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

Post by backnotes »

I'm on the committee of a Cycling UK Member Group, and also lead rides for the group. We already have closed opt-in mail groups for different kinds of discussions within the local group - rides, campaigning etc., but only very occasionally contact neighbouring Cycling UK groups.

I think a cross-Member Group discussion space would be useful, as I suspect a lot of (winged?) wheels get re-invented across Member Groups at the moment.

A recent example is "close-pass", where I suspect a lot of / most Cycling UK Member Groups will have thought about this and done things, with different police forces also doing slightly different local close-pass campaigns, and where some discussion and sharing of best practice / common approaches / lessons learned across Cycling UK Member Groups might have helped.

Having the discussion space as part of an open forum like this could be interesting. There's clearly a lot of invaluable ex-CTC/Cycling UK DA/MG volunteering expertise available through this forum, so getting a wider ex- and non-member perspective on current Cycling UK volunteering issues could be constructive and helpful. There are clearly pros and cons to having the discussion in a wider open forum vs. a closed Cycling UK volunteers' area (like the BC approach described above).
Steady rider
Posts: 2749
Joined: 4 Jan 2009, 4:31pm

Re: (potential) CUK Volunteers - your opinions pls

Post by Steady rider »

The passing issue;

Clearances of at least 1.0m when passing at driving speeds of speed 30 mph or less.
Clearances of at least 1.2m when passing at speeds higher than 30 mph.

The 1.2m clearance is about 1.5m to the centre line of a cyclist, same as the passing mats.

Advice for narrow roads and lanes, wait for a safe passing location when overtaking. When approaching an oncoming cyclist, stop if unsafe to pass and wait for cyclist to pass.

Suggestion of adding a sentence to the Highway Code, ‘Introduction’,
“However, liability should not be based primarily on wearing extra safety aids in the case of pedestrians and cyclists.”
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