EVS Call out

2013 EVS Biketour International Coordinators needed - Apply Now!

Greetings bicycle lovers,

While we all get excited about the upcoming Ecotopia Biketour 2012 through Catalunya, France and Italy, the wheels are already in motion for next year's cycling adventures. Ecotopia Biketour 2013 is looking for volunteers to help make this happen through the European Voluntary Service scheme.

Every summer for over 20 years the Ecotopia Biketour has been promoting sustainable living throughout Europe. Pedalling through a different part of the continent every year, the Biketour is for anyone interested in do-it-yourself culture, social and ecological justice. Moving all our stuff by muscle power, the Biketour links with local environmental campaigns en route by both taking part in and organising actions and workshops. We create an international, mobile eco-community while visiting interesting places on our way: alternative, environmental, artistic projects and communities, natural areas and people struggling for ecological and social justice.

The theme and the route of the Biketour 2013 is open to be shaped by our ideas and inspiration.

The EVS position would ideally begin in January 2013 and last for 1 year.

We are looking for another 1 or 2 international co-ordinators to do EVS, and each volunteer will need to have an EVS "sending" organisation in their home country.

Biketour 2013 will be organised from Berlin in the office of EYFA. The ecotopia biketour coordinators will be be involved in the day to day running of EYFA and also helping to organise and fundraise for international gatherings and events planned by EYFA, especially in the first and final months when there is less to do with the biketour.

The EVS scheme will fund travel expenses to the host country, accommodation, food, insurance and pocket money for the volunteer. However, the position is not officially ‘paid.' The EVS scheme is open to those who are between 18 - 30 years old and live in a european country. If you are not in this category, get in touch as there are many other ways to get involved than through EVS so please contact us for more information.

The role of the EVS volunteers will involve:

• Helping to find a suitable EVS 'host' organisation where you will be based
• Getting to know local environmental campaigns in the region
• Participating in on-arrival EVS training
• Help organise and take part in a winter meeting of Biketour organisers and participants
• Update the Biketour community as the organisation progresses
• Updating/maintaining the Biketour website, and online social network accounts
• Keep information and media produced on the biketour wiki so future organisers may use it
• Writing funding applications
• Assisting Biketour participants with securing visas
• Promoting the Biketour on a European level
• Identifying groups/organisers in different countries and providing them with support
• Maintaining contact with different national/local groups and organising meetings
• (Possibly) cycle part of the route of the tour to test suitability, get know the hills etc.
• Assisting in the search for (preferably free) sleeping space along the route for 20+ cyclists, (ie: community projects, farms, squats, campsites, schools, community-halls etc.)
• Co-ordinate the Biketour's participation in actions and campaigns along the route, together with local activists (ie: Critical Mass, demonstrations, banners, leaflets, campaigns)
• Co-ordinate the translation of materials into local languages
• Responding to relevant enquiries from organisations of individuals
• Improving your skills of the host organisation's language
• Helping with the host organisation's other projects
• Co-ordinate the registration of participants
• Helping create and distributing route maps to biketour participants in summer 2013
• Take part in the entire biketour summer 2013
• follow up after the tour by writing relevant funding reports, uploading media to the website, and handing over tasks to the next international co-ordinators.

Our EVS volunteers must like bicycles and cycling, be good communicators and be willing to take the lead in organising an international project. They must agree with the principles of the Biketour and ideally have participated in the Ecotopia Biketour before. It is extremely advantageous to to participate in the tour this summer for at least a couple of weeks if you have not done so before.

Required skills:

• Speak and write well in English, as it is the common language of most Biketour participants
• Ability to communicate by email and telephone (mostly in English) and to organise parts of biketour from a distance as necessary
• Experience of online tools such as email-lists, maintaining websites, online forms, wikis, social network sites, blogging, etc
• Be able to work in a team and good at taking initiative
• Be able to make links with the local community and local activists
• Experience of building local campaigns and organising events or actions
• Experience in consensus decision making

Advantageous skills:

• Experience of bicycle-touring or participation in the Ecotopia Biketour
• Experience in producing leaflets, posters, press-releases and other written or visual materials
• Ability to speak and write languages of the route, and other European languages
• Ability to inspire other people to get active in organising the tour so there are more helping hands

Please do not hesitate to apply if you do not have all these skills but are willing and eager to learn. This is a great opportunity to gain skills and experience.

If you would like to apply for the position of International Co-ordinator for the 2013 Biketour, please email a letter of motivation with the subject "Biketour 2013 EVS" to info[at]ecotopiabiketour.net. Please include your relevant skills and experience, the name of your sending organisation (or one that you are in contact with) and as many contact details as possible.

Applications should be sent as soon as possible and must be received by end of August 2012.

• For more info on Biketour, past tours and photos: http://www.ecotopiabiketour.net/
• Join the email list: https://lists.eyfa.org/mailman/listinfo/biketour
• For more info on EVS: http://eyfa.org/projects/evs_projects