Guest post by Brent Buice, Executive Director of Georgia Bikes

Several years ago at the National Bike Summit, a casual conversation between the Executive Directors of Bike Texas and the Florida Bicycle Association seeded an idea that grew and matured into the recent, first-ever Southern States Caucus Regional Retreat.

That conversation, along with similar discussions between Georgia Bikes and Alliance staff, recognized that the South is indeed different, y’all.

While those of us working on bicycle advocacy in southern states listen admiringly to the accomplishments of our colleagues in Oregon, Delaware, Colorado, and Minnesota, we can’t help but feel a little bit “outside the club.” In short, we know that, despite recent victories, we have a very, very long way to go, and we can’t realize our vision without honestly assessing the social, political, and geographic realities of where we do our work.

Brent Buice with his daughter, Lily. Photo: Brent Buice / Alliance for Biking & Walking

We also know that there is a lot of opportunity - and interest - in creating a bike friendly South. Our region’s obesity statistics stand in stark contrast to our enviable climate and diverse, breathtaking landscapes: the serene Appalachian mountains, the distinctive Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and romantic, antebellum cities that cry out to be explored by bicycle.

After months of email and teleconference planning, full-time Executive Directors from the statewide bicycle advocacy groups in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas finally convened a full-day retreat in Fort Worth, Texas, immediately after the Texas Trails and Active Transportation conference. Over the course of the day, leaders at these groups and staff from the Alliance for Biking and Walking moderated a highly productive series conversations. We discussed messaging strategies for southern audiences, common political roadblocks, how to work effectively with local advocates, dealing with state Departments of Transportation, and much, much more.

It was a huge success, and we quickly realized that even an 8-hour retreat was woefully insufficient to discuss all we needed, and wanted, to share with each other.

Compared with other regions of the country, the American Southwest sees relatively low levels of bicycling and walking to work. Image: Alliance for Biking & Walking

Some may have an important question: Why such a small retreat? There are many effective and accomplished advocacy groups in the South.

Great question. For this first meeting, we decided to limit attendance to statewide organizations and only to those that currently have at least one full-time staff member. We felt that statewide issues were distinctive enough to warrant such a limitation, and we felt that paid staff confront a wide enough range of specific, shared experiences to justify that additional filter on involvement. Going too big too fast would have made this pilot effort too daunting to plan and execute on fairly short notice.

It is absolutely our intention to expand this initiative in the future, and draw on the expertise, passion, and energy of our colleagues from southern city organizations and volunteer-based statewide groups. (I'm looking at you, Bike Walk Tennessee!)

At the upcoming Alliance Leadership Retreat, I hope to share our retreat discussion and ideas in more detail with colleagues from throughout the South - and beyond. We plan to convene another, more expansive retreat at an already planned statewide conference in another southern state. We all agreed that a full-scale regional conference would also be very useful.

Generous support from the Hans Johnsen Company provided scholarships for each attendee this year - an essential factor given that the majority of attendees represented single-staff organizations working on shoestring budgets. I am confident that I speak for all of us when I say that we couldn’t have asked for more gracious, generous hosts than we found in our friends from Bike Texas. Our sincere thanks, too, to the Alliance for Biking & Walking for guiding us through this inaugural effort to strengthen southern bike advocacy.

I came home from the retreat energized and inspired to re-double our efforts in Georgia. The South is ripe for a pro-bicycling message, and this retreat was an important first step in helping us join the ranks of our accomplished colleagues from across the nation.