Checklist for international organisers

WHAT IS A INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR? International Coordinator (IC) is a person (or few persons) who is responsible for making the whole biketour a big succes... Haha

It is hard to give a dry description of this task as Biketour is different every year: different location, different countries to pass, different local organisers and ways of funding. There is no organisation behind biketour, but just enthusiast ex-biketour participants who will start up the project for the next year. Sometimes they are few so they can only arrange some basic funding plus a volunteer, sometimes more can be done (networking with local organisers-organisations, finding extra funding etc). So as international coordinator it is good to be instructed well by ex-biketour participants and organisers and to find your own way to make Biketour happen!

As I (Yo) was international coordinator in 2008 I can give u some help with just setting up a basic checklist for organising a Biketour. Feel free to use it and change and add things if neccesary! It can be a big help for coordinators in the future!

CHECKLIST IC

First period

Collect information on Biketour from ex-organisers/participants (especially if you didn´t participate yourself). Important is to get overview what is already done for this years biketour. Important things to do in this first period:

• Arranging your EVS placement together with EYFA and local NGO/host: sleeping and working place, money issues, etc.
• Getting in contact with local organisers and volunteers (organise meetings) eg [1]
• Find out where trailers and other BT materials are stored. They will have to be send to starting point of BT
• Find out if there is still money left of last year (ex international coordinator)
• Check out how the website and wiki function and start adding new information a.s.a.p
• read evaluations... can be usefull to not make same mistakes again.
• start with aplications for funding (in 2008 we had a budget of 2000 euro)

preparation period

While keeping in contact with local organisers, volunteers, helpers in other countries (exbiketour) and possible participants you can coordinate and arrange all kind of practical stuff: see checklist for national/local organisers

Extra specific tasks for IC for preparation:

• Make sure there are NC and they know what is expected in organizing BT (see checklist NC). Keep yourself informed about progress of BT parts (go to/organize meetings).
• Inform all others (participants + organizers) on progress of BT and what needs to be done (weekly updates, add actual info on website/wiki). Helpfull is creating an overview with dates of a general route/time plan plus planned actions and campaigns (could be put on wiki and can be updated by local organisers!!!)
• Arranging invitation letters (can be written by local NGO)
• Arranging extra funding
• Administrative issues: collecting receipts, keeping score, arranging refunds for costs local organizers.
• Buying practical necessities: kitchen equipment, spare parts trailers, notebook...
• Arrange (skype)meetings (especially when mayor discussions have to be made fast or in case of conflicts)
• Make sure there will be material for BT publicity (flyers, t-shirts, stickers)
• Make sure there will be a press release which can be send out for actions/events in local language.
• Collect stuff for guidebook with information for participants and make sure it will be printed, translated and distributed
• registering of and contact with participants (ex-BT crew can help here)

During BT

You can take a step back in organisation...During BT tasks should be distributed among all participants!!!! We are a horizontal group and one of our aims is to be a self-organised group. In 2008 we experimented first with personal tasks:

• telephone person: who keeps and answers the phone and informs others about this
• informer for new participants: who introduces the BT to new participants (explains our daily structure, consensus, participant fee.. etc.)
• money keeper: collects participant fee and gives money to shoppers
• press spokes person: gives interviews, informs journalists and photographers on our media policy (we don´t want to be followed by camera´s all the time).
• person informed on route and sleepingplaces: has contact with local organisers and informs other participants.
• person informed on actions: has contact with local organisers and actiongroups and informs other participants.
• person who keeps our fans(mum and dad)informed:writes daily sms to our weblog, reminds us to write our weblog and upload pictures.

Later we installed groups instead of persons for the route and sleepingplaces: routegroup. And for actions we had actionplanninggroup. We had much more groups, but lot´s of them didn´t do anything like the boardgroup (who was going to find us a board to write info on) and signgroup (who was going to find better materials to make signs)...

Tasks IC after BT

• administration - writing and SENDING reports to funders
• take part in evaluation meetings and help start up process next year
• upload photos, videos, blogs to website & gallery
• make and send DVDs/CDs if you are motivated (not essential)
• updating website and wiki
• distribute remaining materials (stickers?!)
• write report for EVS
• come to the next wintermeeting if possible!