Volunteer your time

Whether you can volunteer a little or a lot, one time only or on an ongoing basis, consider pitching in to support this public service. There are volunteer tasks well suited for all ages, from teens to retirees. 

Since founded in 2009—and still the case at the completion of Bicycling Monterey’s first decade—the Bicycling Monterey website and projects are a 100% volunteer gig, entirely unpaid, for Bicycling Monterey’s founder.

This page, first created in 2011, is a rough draft of possible volunteer tasks. Most of it has not been updated since 2011; please contact Bicycling Monterey to discuss what’s most needed at this time. Refer to the acknowledgements page to see others who’ve volunteered.

Here are some ideas:
  • The HER Helmet Thursdays Project is a long-term project launched in 2009 and includes hundreds of participating businesses and organizations. As you may imagine, over the years, some participating spots have an address change or even close. This is one of many reasons that project has been very time consuming for Bicycling Monterey’s founder 2009-2018. Please volunteer to help keep track of and/or update the database and guide regarding such changes.
  • Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4-Hers have a wide range of options for earning badges or Scouting ranks by doing bike advocacy; to discuss, contact Bicycling Monterey.
  • Students meeting community service requirements–many volunteer tasks can support your educational goals too.
  • Adults of all ages—including that the experience of perennials is highly valued—can extend invitations and do follow-ups for the HER Helmet Thursdays Project by phone, in person, by email. Among well over 12,000 hours (from 2009 through 2018) that Bicycling Monterey’s founder has given to bikemonterey.org and other Bicycling Monterey projects, many have gone to secure those HER Helmet Thursdays 10-50% discounts for people who bike. More volunteers could allow the project to grow from the 200+ participating businesses and organizations to hundreds more.
  • Website maintenance tasks are time-consuming! Among these are such things as fixing broken links when other websites redesign their sites or move info to another site, with the result that many of their former links no longer work. For example, the California Vehicle Code is no longer available on the DMV website; their site users are now referred to California Legislative Information to view the California Vehicle Code.
  • Keep your finger on the pulse regarding local infrastructure needs and pending projects, do research, and stay informed by attending related meetings, then write guest posts for this site’s Local Bike News section.
  • The Posters, Fliers, Logos, and More page has dozens of items created 2009-2018. Ways to help:
    • Revise the “Posters, Minis, Logos, and More” page so people can far more easily access these resources. As with all volunteer tasks, contact Mari to learn what this task involves. It isn’t hard, just time-consuming. You might be surprised how you or you and a friend could knock out just this one task and thereby be a big help to others.
    • Are you a professional graphic artist? Dazzle with your poster-making talents
    • Are you a capable amateur who can assist with necessary revisions on homespun mini-fliers and more?
    • Other ways to help with posters and such are to contribute money to make new materials possible, or as part of Bicycling Monterey’s “street team” distributing items.
  • More ways to help include as website or other resource text editors or proofreaders
  • Guest post writers
  • Photo editors
  • People who are handy with clerical tasks
  • Spanish-language translators: Over half of Monterey County students speak Spanish as their primary language at home.  Whether fluent or with minimal Spanish-language skills, volunteers can help expand local bike advocacy.  How? If you’re fluent, translate more local bicycling info.  If you know a little Spanish and have good people skills, distribute mini-fliers or posters announcing the Spanish-language bike resources available.  (At this time, Spanish language resources on the Bicycling Monterey website are on this webpage (click here).  Translation is especially needed for the CA Bike Laws and Personal Safety section, and would also be helpful for the HER Helmet Thursdays Staff Reference Sheet.)
  • Maybe you enjoy computer work–either as an expert, or as someone who likes to learn and has a record for accuracy with repetitive tasks (from updating RSS feeds to adding links to emptying spam folders). 
  • Have basic WordPress skills? Help recategorize posts (see “Search tips/navigating this site” to learn more).
  • Have solid WordPress skills? Help with Bicycling Monterey site maintenance and improvements, including banner redesign.
  • People with graphics skills can help with a wide variety of needs.
  • Ruby on Rails wizards: If you are a programmer and know Ruby on Rails, your help is needed to make the HER Helmet Thursdays database mobile friendly, and to add search options.
  • Perhaps you have great communication skills, and you like to make phone calls or do in-person visits. You can help with outreach to schools, to nonprofits, to tourism groups, to potential new HER Helmet Thursdays spots, or others.
  • You may be out biking all the time, and can be relied on to write up accurate bike-there tips to one or many locations.
  • Or your thing may be tackling a variety of office tasks, or doing something else entirely!
  • Build shelving and cubbies for the Youth Center bike class.
  • Helping visitors and locals find the HER Helmet Thursdays participants includes such things as highlighting “Best of Monterey County.” The task of compiling a list of these extra bike-friendly spots annually is easy–and time-consuming. Perhaps you can help with such tasks.
  • Bicycle advocacy:  What you can do.  Tells ways to help improve bicycle infrastructure.  Also gives more ideas about how and why to help with the Bicycling Monterey site and projects.
  • Assist the Bicycle Class Coordinator for the Monterey County Probation Department Youth Center bike class (a class that was founded by and continues to be supported by Bicycling Monterey). For job announcement/description, go here.
Prefer to support the work with money, rather than time?

Contribute by debit or credit card, via PayPal, by clicking on the button to the right.   For more information, including about contributor acknowledgements and contributions by check, please see About Contributions.

Please contact Mari (831.375.6278) for more info.

Bicycling Monterey volunteers in cooperation with and in support of many of Monterey County’s Bicycle Shops, Services, Clubs, and Resources, as well as with other municipal and civic organizations, such as Police Activities League (PAL) programs.

The Bicycling Monterey website and projects are a public service of Mari Lynch, owner of Fine Wordworking, in partnership with the community. Bicycling Monterey is recognized by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, City of Monterey, City of Salinas, City of Seaside,  Transportation Agency for Monterey County, Monterey-Salinas Transit, National Steinbeck Center, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District, Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, Communities for Sustainable Monterey County, Monterey Institute of International Studies,  California State University Monterey Bay, Hartnell College, Stevenson School, Big Sur International Marathon,  Monterey Jazz Festival, Sierra Club-Ventana Chapter,  Monterey Off Road Cycling Association, Sea Otter Classic, Velo Club Monterey, California Bicycle Coalition, Bike to Work – Santa Cruz, and many others, and recommended and featured by media including KUSP Central Coast Public Radio, KSBW, the Monterey County Weekly, the Salinas Californian, and the Monterey County Herald.

If you found information on
the Bicycling Monterey website valuable…

Please consider making a contribution to help maintain and expand these resources. Thank you.