Pink trees and blue hyancinths decorate the landscape, and cyclists dot the roads. Welcome signs of another beautiful biking season!
Your Bike-a-thon volunteer committee celebrates spring with a promotion to help you motivate your riders. Anyone who raises $250 (above the registration fee) by May 10 has a chance to win two tickets to the Philadelphia Phillies' June 10 game with the Chicago Cubs!
Registered Bike-a-thon participants will be automatically entered into the raffle when their fundraising total passes the $250 mark.
Please remind your team of this great opportunity for a night at the ballpark. And stay tuned for more promotions, ideas and news at acs.bike.org and our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philadelphia-Bike-a-thon/249177187310
Friday, April 22, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
good bet!
Dan Madden has ridden the Bike-a-thon for a quarter century, heading a team for most of this decade. Mad Dan's Pedalers attained Bronze fundraising status in their debut year and have consistently landed in the Top 20 Fundraising Teams. I asked him recently to describe his finely honed leadership style.
"I yell at them," he replied. "I annoy them."
One rider noted that this is vintage Dan. "He's more a doer than a talker. He works hard at it, he totally believes in what he's doing. It rubs off on everyone around him."
"OK," Dan confessed. I don't just yell. But I challenge them, put a bug in their ear. I try to get them to spread the word and recruit other riders.
"Sometimes I'll make a bet with [a team member]. I'll bet five bucks that I can raise more money than they can by X date."
Leveraging riders' individual competitive spirit is a time-honored method, one that Dan shares with other successful captains. What's your best tactic? Send it to philadelphia.bike@cancer.org and we'll add it to the Tip File!
"I yell at them," he replied. "I annoy them."
One rider noted that this is vintage Dan. "He's more a doer than a talker. He works hard at it, he totally believes in what he's doing. It rubs off on everyone around him."
"OK," Dan confessed. I don't just yell. But I challenge them, put a bug in their ear. I try to get them to spread the word and recruit other riders.
"Sometimes I'll make a bet with [a team member]. I'll bet five bucks that I can raise more money than they can by X date."
Leveraging riders' individual competitive spirit is a time-honored method, one that Dan shares with other successful captains. What's your best tactic? Send it to philadelphia.bike@cancer.org and we'll add it to the Tip File!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Team-building tips from the top
As many Bike-a-thoners know, Lockheed Martin fields our biggest team by a wide margin. We asked captain Mike Wilus what works best to pull people together for the event.
"The up close and personal approach," he replied. "I’ve found it less effective to depend on email, posters, etc. (although we do utilize those methods for a lot of our advertising). I take advantage of any gathering to put out the challenge to ride; meetings, seminars, etc."
Lockheed brass help to motivate riders. "I’ve gotten a lot of our senior management to ride; their presence helps, as well as the pressure 'if they can do it, you can do it!!!'
Mike knows his riders are watching each other, and he takes advantage of rivalries between different units within the company. "We compete organizations against each other for number of riders. The friendly competition builds morale and interest in the ride."
In coming weeks we'll bring you ideas from other successful captains, and we'll tap more of Mike's experience. And we always welcome suggestions and feedback from new captains and old hands. If you've found particularly effective ways to rally cyclists to your banner, we'd love to hear from you!
"The up close and personal approach," he replied. "I’ve found it less effective to depend on email, posters, etc. (although we do utilize those methods for a lot of our advertising). I take advantage of any gathering to put out the challenge to ride; meetings, seminars, etc."
Lockheed brass help to motivate riders. "I’ve gotten a lot of our senior management to ride; their presence helps, as well as the pressure 'if they can do it, you can do it!!!'
Mike knows his riders are watching each other, and he takes advantage of rivalries between different units within the company. "We compete organizations against each other for number of riders. The friendly competition builds morale and interest in the ride."
In coming weeks we'll bring you ideas from other successful captains, and we'll tap more of Mike's experience. And we always welcome suggestions and feedback from new captains and old hands. If you've found particularly effective ways to rally cyclists to your banner, we'd love to hear from you!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
everybody's a critic (now you can be too)
Many of you have heard about plans to expand the Bike-a-thon web's presence in 2011. We're looking for ways to connect, support, inform and entertain the whole BAT community.
But it ain't free! First you have to pony up suggestions. What do you want to see online? So far we've heard ideas such as . . .
- rethinking site organization and navigation to accommodate the mountain of content now available
- jazzing up the homepage with a slideshow if possible -- and maybe give BAT participants the option to upload their own pics which, after review, might become part of the show or POTDs
- boosting our Facebook page and encouraging participants to join in the conversation buy posting there
- adding short films to promote the event and provide how-tos for volunteers, team captains et al
- making more information available, e.g. training tips in HTML format with clickable links to related online resources
- building our online community so cyclists can help each other, answer each other's questions, and keep each other pumped up.
Your turn now! We're eager to hear how we can help you via the website and our Facebook page. Send us your thoughts, ideas, complaints, and wish lists. We're all ears.
But it ain't free! First you have to pony up suggestions. What do you want to see online? So far we've heard ideas such as . . .
- rethinking site organization and navigation to accommodate the mountain of content now available
- jazzing up the homepage with a slideshow if possible -- and maybe give BAT participants the option to upload their own pics which, after review, might become part of the show or POTDs
- boosting our Facebook page and encouraging participants to join in the conversation buy posting there
- adding short films to promote the event and provide how-tos for volunteers, team captains et al
- making more information available, e.g. training tips in HTML format with clickable links to related online resources
- building our online community so cyclists can help each other, answer each other's questions, and keep each other pumped up.
Your turn now! We're eager to hear how we can help you via the website and our Facebook page. Send us your thoughts, ideas, complaints, and wish lists. We're all ears.
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