Team captai guide bikemsky.org 1
Table of Cotets Welcome to Bike MS...2 We are people who wat to do somethig about MS ow....3 Where does the Moey go?...4 Movig Together: Three simple steps to startig a team...5 Raisig Moey has ever bee easier!...6 Goal Settig: Who has the most Team Spirit?...8 Top 15 Bike MS 2013 Teams...9 Fudraisig Ideas Notepad... 10 Safety starts with You!... 11 For more iformatio ad team resources, please go to: bikemsky.org bikemsky.org 1
Welcome to Bike MS:2014 Bluegrass, Bikes ad Bourbo You re up for the challege as a bike ms team captai You re up for the challege as a Bike MS Team Captai ad ready to take your team o the ride of your lives! This Team Captai Guide will help you get your team orgaized ad motivated, as well as provide some great tips for havig fu while fudraisig. Ride with us Dates: May 17-18, 2014 Time: 7:30 AM both days Saturday Start/Suday Fiish: Gallrei Farms Shelbyville, KY Saturday Fiish/Suday Start: Four Roses Distillery Lawreceburg, KY Fudraisig Miimum: $300 Age Miimum: 12 years old Route Optios Saturday: 40, 60, ad 100 miles Suday: 36 ad 62 For more iformatio, visit bikemsky.org or call 502-526-4031. 2 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
We are people who wat to do somethig about MS ow. About MS Multiple sclerosis iterrupts the flow of iformatio from the brai to the body ad stops people from movig. Every hour i the Uited States, someoe is ewly diagosed with MS, a upredictable, ofte disablig disease of the cetral ervous system. Symptoms rage from umbess ad tiglig to blidess ad paralysis. The progress, severity ad specific symptoms of MS i ay oe perso caot yet be predicted, but advaces i research ad treatmet are movig us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagosed betwee the ages of 20 ad 50, with more tha twice as may wome as me beig diagosed with the disease. MS affects more tha 400,000 people i the U.S., ad 2.5 millio worldwide. about the atioal ms society The Natioal MS Society helps people affected by MS by fudig cuttig-edge research, drivig chage through advocacy, facilitatig professioal educatio, ad providig programs ad services desiged to help people with MS ad their families move their lives forward. Early ad ogoig treatmet with a FDA-approved therapy ca make a differece for people with multiple sclerosis. Lear about your optios by talkig to your health care professioal ad cotactig the Natioal MS Society at atioalmssociety.org or 800.344.4867. bikemsky.org 3
Where does the moey go? What your dollars mea i ketucky ad southeast idiaa $25 will provide will provide luch for a couple at a Lexigto or Louisville Healthy Steps Luch Buch meetig $50 will provide will provide dier for a couple at a Commuity Kick-Off ad Educatioal Program $100 will provide a years worth of supplies for a Self-Help Group Leader for their mothly meetigs $200 will provide a oe-ight stay i a retreat ceter for a family at our Family Retreat Program $500 will provide a yearly allotmet of Fiacial Assistace to oe perso with MS. Assistace may iclude: ret, utilities, coolig aids, durable medical equipmet, etc. 4 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
Movig together: Three simple steps to startig a team As part of the ms movemet, you ad your team are committed to a world free of ms. we re committed to you ad the success of your team. Recruitig Team members ca be aybody frieds, family, co-workers, or eighbors ad they ca all easily register to joi you olie at bikemsky.org. Whether you re a corporate team or a team of family ad frieds, be sure to ask everyoe you kow. Raisig Moey Fudraisig comes more aturally whe you make it persoal. If your team is cyclig for someoe with MS, ask them if they would be willig to tell their story. Be sure to follow that with a statemet about how much progress we ve made i treatig the disease. Do t forget to ask everyoe who sposors you if their employer offers matchig gifts! Really havig fu Beig a team captai is a opportuity to share a great experiece with frieds, family members, or coworkers a commuity comig together for a commo goal ad the accomplishmet of a uique persoal challege! As a leader, it s up to you to remid your teammates of why they registered. Bike MS ca be more tha a fudraisig evet it ca be a joyous celebratio of how far we ve come together! bikemsky.org 5
Raisig Moey has ever bee easier! Simple steps to olie success Set up your team page Your team page is your ivitatio to become ivolved i the MS movemet. We re here to help you reach your goals. Please let us kow how we ca help! By settig up a team page, you are settig up your team for success. Here are a few hits to help make your page oe to remember: Make it persoal: Put i a picture of you or your team. Write the story of your team ad how you are traiig ad fudraisig. While there is sample text available, othig is more compellig tha your ow words. Chage it ofte: Keep your page curret to geerate iterest. Provide updates o how your traiig is goig or how close you are to your goal. Create your team page URL shortcut: By doig this you will be able to easily direct people directly to your team page. Put a lik to your fudraisig page i the sigature of your e-mail. Recruit members olie No eed to collect paper or sped hours o the phoe. Your team members ca quickly ad easily register themselves olie. Have people joi your team from your team page, or use the participat ceter tools to sed a team registratio lik via e-mail. You ca also dowload your Outlook cotact list ito the tool. (This tool also ca help you to track whe e-mails have bee opeed by a recipiet.) Fudraise olie Now for the fu part! After you sed your persoalized e-mail to all your frieds, family members ad colleagues, you ca watch your up-tothe-miute fudraisig tracker. Our olie tools make it simple for your supporters to doate olie to keep you movig toward your fudraisig goals ad a world free of MS. Ecourage team members to use their olie persoal pages Oce you see what the tools ca do for you, ecourage your team members to follow your lead. Make it fu by givig icetives to your team members to fudraise olie a pair of movie tickets to the team member that raises the most i a week, or a gift card to every team member who gets at least five gifts olie. Be creative ad esure that your team ot oly reaches their goals, but has fu alog the way. Social Networkig Create a Facebook fapage for your team. You ca also post tweets o Twitter for your group ad videos o YouTube. 6 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
te great thigs about our olie team tools 1. Post your team pictures olie 2..Iclude your compay s logo 3..Set up a simple URL for your Team page 4..Set a fudraisig goal that everyoe ca see ad support 5..Dowload your team roster 6..E-mail your etire team at oce 7..Track your team members fudraisig progress 8. See your real time team fudraisig total 9. Track ad thak your team gifts 10. Easily update your page ad photo bikemsky.org 7
Who has the most Team Spirit? Establishig a goal is a easy way to maitai motivatio as well as give you ad your team a bechmark for success. We ecourage team captais to set goals for themselves their teams, while keepig these tips i mid. Tips for team spirit Goals should be realistic, but sigificat: If it requires hard work to attai, it will be a source of more pride for your team. Do t arbitrarily set a goal without iput from the team: Havig them believe i the goal from the word go will make your job as team captai that much easier. Do t forget to set both persoal & team fudraisig goals: Lead by example. Share your fudraisig goal with your team. Set a goal for team size as well as collective fudraisig: Recruitig more team members ca mea more substatial fudraisig! Do t keep your goal a secret: Use e-mail, team pages, ad eve iteral compay itraets ad ewsletters to commuicate goals ad how close your team is to attaiig them. Large Corporate Teams: If you are part of a large corporate team, have departmets set their ow goals to create some fu iteral competitio. If you would like more suggestios ad guidelies for goal settig, or would like to request goal settig worksheets, please cotact Jerika Amos at 502-526-4031 or jerika.amos@mss.org. 8 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
Top Bike MS: 2013 Teams Bike MS teams who make a differece together The Natioal Multiple Sclerosis Society would ot be able to fud cuttig-edge research, provide services, host programs, or educate health care professioals ad the public if it were ot for the extraordiary fudraisig efforts of those who support Bike MS: Bluegrass, Bikes & Bourbo. Oce agai, we d like to show our appreciatio to the Bike MS 2013 teams who made a differece together. Top 15 Bike MS 2013 Teams 1. Team Dot Louisville $20,742 2. JudeMar Juggeraut $12,725 3. Highlad Fitess $11,365 4. Chio Hills ReCyclers $10,030 5. UPS $8,439 6. Three Barrel Cyclig $7,680 7. KetuckyOe Health $6,980 8. BoomBozz Taphouse $6,045 9. Deb Karem $5,914 10. Bowlig Gree Pedal Pushers $5,480 11. Woodford Reserve $5,105 12. Gray Gear $5,067 13. Team Debbie $5,045 14. US Bak $4,110 15. Alter Kockers Bicycle Team $3,100 bikemsky.org 9
Fudraisig Idea Notepad Listed below are some ideas from other team captais, but you should feel free to add your ow. Share them with other team captais. Fudraisig ideas Offer to do somethig uusual: (i.e., Shave your head, sig karaoke i a costume of the team s choice, etc.) if your team reaches or exceeds its fudraisig goal. Set up a drawig for the team: With each $50 raised ettig you aother chace to wi a prize (For frieds: A special home-cooked meal for the wier ad their family; For employees: A day off.) Luch with the presidet or reserved parkig spots: For compay teams, reward the top fudraiser with luch with the presidet or give the perso who recruits the most additioal team members a reserved parkig spot for a moth. Pi-up Sales: If you work somewhere with lots of foot traffic, ask about Bike MS pi-up sales a easy way to quickly raise moey for your team. Silet Auctio: Hold your ow silet auctio with food ad etertaimet. Garage Sale: Clea out the attic ad basemet with a garage sale doate the proceeds. Fudraise through Facebook: Fudraise through the boudless fudraisig tool available o your persoal page. 10 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
Safety starts with You! Cyclists eed to possess basic bike-hadlig skills ad safety kowledge i order to keep themselves ad others aroud them safe, especially while participatig i group cyclig activities, like Bike MS.Our focus is to provide a high quality, safe ad fu cyclig experiece. Please remember to always carry Idetificatio Emergecy cotact iformatio Isurace Card Ay importat health iformatio * Headphoes (icludig ipods), cell phoes, radios ad similar devices are ot permitted while ridig. All cyclists are resposible for keepig their ridig equipmet i good workig order, so get ito the habit of checkig your equipmet before every ride. Small adjustmets ca make a sigificat differece i your experiece. The basics of ridig i a group Group ridig takes practice. Ridig with other cyclists all aroud you may cause you to feel trapped. Relax. It is most importat to create your ow safety zoe. This may vary depedig o the speed ad ability level of the people you are with, so be flexible. Let others kow of your axiety they may also be ew at this. Hydratio Kowig how to optimize your fluid itake is critical to successfully completig a Bike MS Ride. Oe bottle per hour: The rule of thumb is to cosume a bottle of liquid every hour, ad that every secod bottle is a sports drik. Also, remember to eat small sacks frequetly durig the ride. If you fid that you experiece extreme fatigue, the iability to recover your eergy, or frequet muscle cramps, seek assistace from first aid you may have the early sigs of dehydratio. Seekig medical assistace: If you fid that you experiece weight gai/bloatig with progressive symptoms such as swolle hads ad feet, cofusio, throbbig headache, dizziess or ausea, please seek assistace from first aid. bikemsky.org 11
Helmet Smart Head ijuries are of special cocer for cyclists. Eve fallig at a slow rate of speed ca cause a serious head ijury. Helmets must be o your head ad strapped while ridig i Bike MS o exceptios. TEAM JERSEYS Aother great way to show your team spirit is to wear custom desiged team jerseys. We are proud to have Primal Wear as the official jersey of Bike MS. As a part of their commitmet to the Natioal MS Society, Primal will doate 15% of your custom apparel order back to your teams fudraisig accout! Visit http://www.primalwear.com/+-bikems.aspx. Helpful Tips O Bike MS Rides, our active route support team works to make the ride safe. Here are a few additioal suggestios to help keep everyoe safe o the ride: Thumbs dow for help: SAG vehicles ad motorcycle escorts will stop for you if you are off the road, off your bike, ad givig a thumbs dow sig or holdig your helmet i the air. Ride Marshal support: A special team of cyclists called Ride Marshals provide support o the rides. They offer mior mechaical help alog the route ad moitor cyclig safety ad etiquette. Rest-stop etiquette: All cyclists who eter a rest area must pull over, dismout ad move completely away from the road ad rest-stop etrace. Whe exitig, move beyod the rest area ad proceed with cautio o the right side of the road before mergig with faster cyclists. Passig: Passig others ad beig passed occurs cotiuously durig the ride. Call out passig o your left ad allow time for the cyclist beig overtake to move to the right the pass safely. Mechaical problems: Examie mechaical problems ad chage flats completely off the road. If you have a problem you caot fix yourself, flag dow a SAG va ad seek a mechaic at the ext rest-stop. Be courteous: Bike MS participats are fortuate to ride o may trails as well as public roads. Be courteous ad use o more tha half the trail so as ot to block the flow of other users. 12 Bike MS: 2014 Team Captai Guide
Notes: bikemsky.org 13