Ecotopia Biketour is all about DIY – we have no leaders and no paid roles – we depend on YOU to help us make it happen! Whatever you can think of. :)
The following is a list of priority things that need to be done by all of us.
Spread the word
Pass the word to friends, bicycle-activists, cyclepunks, and other bike-freaks! Maybe organize an Ecotopia Biketour Event: a dinner and a presentation at a nearby autonomous social center or a party after your local Critical Mass.
Find places to visit/sleep
Ecotopia Biketour is not a trip to the beach! Every year, we visit places where we can learn things, help out, support actions or share our skills. All these projects are suggested by the wide Biketour network – by YOU!
We are looking to visit projects, join up with grassroots campaigns, NGOs and social movements and communities relevant to structural (economic/political) or personal (e.g. poverty as a result of austerity) crises and how people are finding creative solutions to coping with its effects or fighting against it. We will also revisit themes that we have seen in previous Biketours such as ‘degrowth’, public debt, austerity, economic refugees, minorities and solidarity.
Can you recommend any places / people / communities / projects / activists around the area that we should visit to learn from, take part in actions or to lend a hand in some way? If you can’t, but you know someone who can, perhaps someone living in this part of Europe, please do ask them to share information with us so that we can consider their ideas, along with all of the other options.
Please send any info/ideas to info at ecotopiabiketour dot net or use the contact form.
Be a local coordinator
Pick a/your region and fine-tune the route (view and scan maps, test roads, suggest beautiful spots, find good food buying options, etc.)
Regional/Local Coordinators are wanted who speak the local language, can help finding places and making contacts with local groups and projects. They help plan the route in detail, test roads and find suitable maps for that region. Local coordinators also keep their ears open about actions along the route.
You don’t need to take the responsibility for a whole (huge country), though and you can work in a group! It’s even alright if you decide that you want to take care of a small part of the route – maybe because you’ve cycled it before or live(d) there.
Please get in touch with info at ecotopiabiketour dot net, if you could imagine to coordinate and participate in a part of the route in your area!
Get our equipment together
Collect, order, search, buy, transport and bring stuff we need! Equipment overview
Do translation work, creative work and prepare our promotional material
We need translators for our website, flyers and printed materials for the language regions we are passing though, but any language you can translate is useful!
We will not be able to translate everything into all these pages, but with your help we can make a start and priorities.
Please contact info at ecotopiabiketour dot net if you might be able to help.
You don’t need to be an artist or designer to help with graphics for flyer, posters, stickers, t-shirt, booklets. Neither do you need to be a poet to come up with nice slogans or thoughtful blog entries. Nor do you need to work in HollyBollyNollywood to make a video/documentary.
Print some posters (when they are ready) and hang them around, make sure the local bike-scene is aware of the event and leave some flyers on local activist places.
Work on fundraising
Ecotopia Biketour sadly needs money: To help to make an action or a workshop happen, to help places we are going to visit, to pay for visa costs or be in solidarity with people who can’t afford their travel costs, for the coordination team and for equipment like trailers or tools.
You can help us with fundraising:
- Maybe you feel like organizing a concert or a party, and at the same time you can raise some money for the biketour
- You can also play an instrument in the street or go with your whole band and let people throw coins in your hat
- You can prepare cake, crêpe, cocktails or whatever people love in your area on parties, fleamarkets or even on your bike and thereby get some donations for the biketour
- You can help write funding applications to bigger or smaller institutions
- You can help with an internet-based crowdfunding campaign
- in many other ways
Either get in contact with us or check out the fundraising wiki pages for more details.
Get involved! Y O U are the biketour!
