I'm thinking about setting up a BUG at my new work. Mostly to try and improve facilities which are good but can't keep up with the amount of cyclists.
It appears from online info that you have to be an organising superhero to do this and I was wondering if any STWers have given it a shot?
Ps: I'm not an organising/committee type so this feels well out of my comfort zone!
I work with the Jaguar Landrover BUG and it is a great resource but often the struggle is getting the message across.
But we organised some free maintenance sessions for members of the BUG.
They used aecomm as an intermediary which seemed to help
Good luck, hope it goes well
Yes, recently to get cycle friendly employer award. It's just a Sharepoint community - quiet so far but it's more to let people moan on there and let the right dept respond rather than me. Being a large company we have a big comms team to send out our messages and lino back to the BUG. If people want it, it's there but STW is also available.
Thanks folks - i like the idea of a Sharepoint community - sounds like something i could do rather than actually call meetings etc! (too much of that in work)
As i work in the NHS you'd expect this kind of thing to be covered but I don't think it is.
Depends what the goals are - it's worth aiming for some specifics and trying to achieve them. e.g. do you want to encourage more people to cycle to work and leave their cars at home ? Or are you wanting a group to help lobby for better facilities. If it's the latter, you don't have to have a BUG to achieve that. If it's the former, you do need a community so that 'cycling to work' gets more of a presence.
I've been involved in my employer's BUG since it started (we actually cover local NHS too). We've implemented schemes like 'cycle to work buddy' to help people trying it out for the first time. And we've documented all the recommended routes in to work and appointed 'guides' who ride in each day, so that people can come into work, or head home with them.
We used to have a web forum and it worked for some people, but others weren't interested, so it fizzled away. A dedicated web presence is important, and needs to be linked to from other web pages related to staff provisions and business objectives, e.g. transport, fitness, health, sustainability....
We've also run events such as bike security awareness and bike maintenance. We also do an annual 'showcase' event so all the staff can see what we do.
I would presume the NHS already have BUGs within it's huge range of sites around the UK. Can't imagine you'll be the first ?
Good luck 🙂