Team Leaders

A Team Leader is someone in the school who is willing to take a leading role in raising awareness about Bike to School Week and motivating team members to participate before and during the event week. The Team Leader is supported by the Bike to School Week team with posters, tips, and other resources to share with their team. Unless otherwise noted, the first person to sign up a team will become the Team Leader. At the elementary school level, the team leader is often a teacher although a parent, principal or other staff member can also form a team. At the secondary level, teams are formed by anyone at the school including students.

How it Works for Team Leaders:

1. Register yourself.

2. Register your school and team for Bike to School Week 2012 using the Team Set Up tab in the Commute Tracker tool.  (You need to be logged in to use the tool) Note: Schools can register more than one team if you'd like to have competition between grades or classes. 

3. Encourage others in your school to join you. They need to sign up too, so send them an email about what you’re doing. Tell them your team name, and direct them to the website. A handy sample email you can copy and paste is here>>

Hi school cyclists,

Welcome to Bike to School Week May 14- 18! I hope you'll join me for this fun, week-long celebration designed to get our school active, raise team spirit, learn about our individual and school commuting emissions and join in a friendly competition with other schools for prizes. Please go to http://www.biketoschoolmetrovan.ca and do the simple registration, find our school on the drop down menu and join my team or create your own.

Let's make this a great Bike to School Week at our school and win the prize for the school with the most commutes logged!

Get your school involved:

• Talk to them about organizing in- house prizes and challenges for your school team.
• Enquire about hosting a cycling skills workshop for school participants. 
• Hold a Biker's Celebration, a Bike Maintenance workshop or hold an info meeting at lunch and talk up the celebration
• Talk to your school administration about creating a temporary bike parking area if one does not already exist. more>>
• If needed, have your administration request more bike racks for the future and, in the meantime, schools have used fences, unused school rooms (off the gym etc) and locked courtyards and had people assigned to lock up at the start of the day and unlock at the end of the day for the week
• Make a Bike to School Week display near the office or on one of the central bulletin boards Download and print a Bike to School Week poster and post it around your school.
• Organize a route-planning session for team members who have never tried cycling to work or school. more>>
• Partnering new cyclists with an experienced rider or parent who lives nearby is a great way to reduce fears and apprehension, plus it fosters team spirit!
• Organize a bike train for the week where a team leader meets up with other team members to ride in together. Remember to discuss safety tips like: not just following the person ahead blindly, following all traffic rules and signs, riding single file and not too close to the next person, wearing bright clothing etc.
• Monitor your team’s participation on the View Team Results tab on the Commute Tracker tool.