Skip navigation

Have you thought about standing for the Committee?

The Committee, deep in debate

Cambridge Cycling Campaign is a registered charity, working to promote cycling for the public benefit in and around Cambridge.

The work of the Campaign is primarily carried out by a set of volunteers known as the Committee, who take forward many of its initiatives and stimulate other members to get involved. The Committee and are elected each year by members, at the Annual General Meeting (usually in November), and in legal terms are the Board of Trustees of the Charity.

The Committee

Here are the posts for the restructured Committee for 2011-12.

Note: The posts of Chair, Co-ordinator and Treasurer will also be the Charity posts of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

Chair (new post)

The Chair is a new position which acts as the ‘figurehead’ of the Campaign. Their role is to drive forward our strategy, both in terms of campaigning and our structures.

Working with the rest of the Committee, the Chair will make sure that the Campaign puts forward the best possible approach for improving cycling in Cambridge and ensure that we have the organisational capability to deliver this. Areas will include:

Co-ordinator (new post)

This will be a pro-active person who ensures that we get things done and on time. (Although this has the same name as the old ‘Co-ordinator’ position, the role is different and less focussed on policy.)

The holder of this post will:

(Many of these aspects will be automated by the campaigning toolkit which CycleStreets is working on and which will be available in the coming months.)

The key steps on any issue are:

The Co-ordinator will also prepare the annual report, which is part of our Charity reporting requirements.

Treasurer

As in most voluntary organisations, the role of the Treasurer is about managing the finances.  For the Campaign the job includes balancing bank statements at the end of each month, processing and paying incoming invoices and expense claims throughout the year, and raising the occasional invoice to other organisations.  This typically takes 2-3 evenings a month, and requires interaction with the Membership Secretary, as subscriptions are the source of most of our regular income.

The Treasurer also prepares the annual accounts and presents them at the AGM, which typically takes a weekend of work between the end of September and the AGM.  There are additional  tasks which arise from the Campaign's charitable status, such as liaising with HMRC to reclaim Gift Aid, completing a tax return, looking after the Trustee's reserves policy and contributing a financial statement to the Trustee's annual report to the Charity Commission.

Planning Co-ordinator (new post)

Ensuring that new developments are truly cycle-friendly is a key priority for the Campaign. The Campaign needs a better structure for looking at and responding to these planning applications. Therefore we have created a new Committee post specifically to co-ordinate our activities on planning applications. We can give training to a suitable person for this important role.

Large developments are continually coming forward with inadequate cycle parking and with road layouts that marginalise cycling rather than prioritising it with the aim of achieving Dutch levels of cycling. It is essential that we keep on top of development proposals and, moreover, actively discuss our desires with developers.

For instance, if a key planning application comes up that presents dangers for cyclists, the Planning Co-ordinator will alert people to it, ensure that someone is willing to take the lead on it, get the right people involved, help facilitate the group working on it, ensure that our response is delivered in good time to the authorities, and ensure that press and other campaigning activity supports this work.

Liaison Officer

The Liaison Officer tends to be the person, along with the Chair, who represents the Campaign when talking to external bodies.

In particular, they participate in the Cycling & Walking Liaison Group at the City Council, which is an informal stakeholder group – though a useful one – studying upcoming proposals for cycling infrastructure.

This post will suit someone with good knowledge of cycling issues, both locally and nationally, and who is able to relay their passion and knowledge to external people.

Membership Secretary

The Membership Secretary is responsible for maintaining the membership database (system and content), sending out renewal reminders and new membership information, responding to membership enquiries, and compiling membership statistics. This also involves quite a lot of financial processing: paying in cheques, reconciling standing order payments and so on. Also helping to run mailing lists. Typically two main bursts of effort each month: sending reminders/automatic renewals and processing responses.

Web and New Media Officer (new post)

The first ten years of the Campaign saw us leading the pack when it came to our web presence. Our website now has thousands of pages and a wealth of new material. But the web has moved on. This post will suit a talented and forward-looking member who can drive forward and implement a new website strategy and ensure that related new media (Facebook and Twitter) are a part of this.

It is important that our website and ‘new media presence’ reflects the large amount of activity we undertake and presents a positive image of cycling that will project our messages. We also want to ensure that it is as easy as possible for the Committee to get material online.

This person will ideally have experience with website development so that they can undertake a significant amount of this work directly, and build a team of helpers.

The internal campaigning aspect of our activity (internal discussions, campaigning processes etc.) will be dealt with by the new CycleStreets toolkit project, which is under very active development at present.

Newsletter Editor

The Newsletter Editor is responsible for ensuring the Campaign’s professional-quality newsletter appears on time every two months, assisted by the Newsletter Team who help with copy-editing, proof-reading and suggesting new articles.

The bulk of the work is in the three weeks between the copy deadline and when the newsletter goes to the printers. The Newsletter Editor orchestrates the whole process, reminding people of deadlines, collating suggestions for articles, ensuring all is done in time to print.

There is scope for influencing the content and look of the newsletter and we have started discussing integrating the print newsletter with an online one.

Recruitment Officer

Recruitment Officer: To be a forceful and credible influence on planners, politicians and the local media, we need to sign up as many members as we can.

Recent recruitment activities have included production and distribution of membership publicity cards, appearance at outdoor events, and mailshots to lapsed members. A membership voucher scheme for local cycle shops is being worked on, and updating of discount arrangements with shops.

There is also work to be done on group or family memberships, liaising with schools, colleges and employers.

Events (Rides/Stall) Officer

We’d like to reinvigorate our efforts to run a stall, as a means of attracting new members. If you’d be interested to help organise our stall, and ideally some rides as well, do consider standing for this post.

Much of our campaigning could be enhanced by having an on-street stall at the location concerned for a few hours. For instance, a stall near the railway station would draw attention to our efforts to press the railway companies to improve cycle parking there, would encourage people to sign up to these activities, and possibly also to join as members.

Press Officer

The Press Officer is an interesting and varied post. Firstly, the holder of this post is responsible for dealing with press inquiries from the local newspaper, local radio, national newspapers, or even international news agencies.

Second, the post requires the creation of, and obtaining approval for, press releases related to campaigns. Lastly, it requires the creation of a blog post (mostly) weekly for a local newspaper.

The role therefore requires good communication skills, ability to deal with the press and get a clear and consistent message across. It may also require that face-to-face interviews are conducted to a live radio audience or for broadcast on the television news.

General Campaigner (four posts)

There are four ‘General Campaigner’ posts. Here is what some of the current post-holders have said:

I joined the Committee because I wanted to fight for better conditions on the roads for cyclists. The redesign of King's Hedges Road - by the Orchard Park developers and the County Council behind closed doors - made me angry and I thought the knowledge and commitment of the Committee would help secure a positive outcome (it did!).

As a General Campaigner, I've got involved in campaigning for, and writing objections to, new road and development schemes where cyclists' needs are not being met, including Northstowe, the NIAB site, the Histon to Cottenham cycle path, Gilbert Road, Ring Fort Path (Orchard Park) and working on 20mph limits. I've also attended council meetings and consultation events (to report back on cycling issues) and helped run the Campaign stall at events such as Bike Week. 

Due to other commitments I struggle to spend time on Campaigning issues during some parts of the year, which makes it difficult to fill positions with an around the year commitment. The position of General Campaigner gives active campaigners better access to the Committee process, speeding up the approval for Campaign statements if they become necessary. I feel that speaking on behalf of the campaign has also helped when I have been speaking to Councillors, Officers or the press when campaigning on Gilbert Road, Ring Fort Path in Orchard Park or different infrastructure issues like dropped kerbs or unsuitable crossings.

A General Campaigner is also a great start in campaigning and well suited for campaigners who may wish to fill a different position at a later stage.