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 (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 you 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)
• 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:

• the planning & testing of the route (with local help)
• the search for sleeping-places, actions, events (with local help)
• check out if open fire and wild camping is allowed in the countries BT will pass (otherwise organise gascooker and arrange sleepingplaces. Also check out policies of natural parcs.
• publicity to reach out to new participants
• fundraising
• visa invitations for some participants
• list of hospitals along the route and alarm numbers
• 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!!!)
• gathering info for a guidebook for participants (background info on actions is usefull!)