In order to increase Ride Illinois’ influence and impact throughout the state, attract new individual and corporate members, expand our educational efforts, and generate additional revenue for current and future programs, Ride Illinois offers four volunteer Regional Action Teams. Members of the RATs assist Ride Illinois with advocacy, education, awareness, outreach, communication, and more!
Contact us at [email protected] with questions about this program.
Ride Illinois receives invitations to be present at community events around the state. RATs are invited to represent Ride Illinois at these events. Our volunteers receive materials, swag, and safety info. They are supported by Ride Illinois staff prior to events and appearances. Ride Illinois shares details of future appearances with RATs who live nearby with the goal of recruiting a RAT to represent Ride Illinois at the event.
Our Regional Action Team volunteers offer their time, talent, and positive energy at community events across Illinois. Click here to view photos of RAT members in action.
The Regional Action Teams are based on county boundaries:
These four regions were determined based on Ride Illinois’ experience in the area, the proximity to cities and universities, and physical geography.
Ride Illinois reserves the right to change the regions or add regions in the future.
Regional Action Team members are empowered to represent and collaborate with cyclists that live and work in their region. Regions will likely have different priorities and it is expected that those priorities will evolve over time. Action teams share their suggestions and concerns with Ride Illinois staff with the goal of making biking better in their region. The following are areas of opportunity for our Regional Action Teams:
Ride Illinois knows that diversity will increase the effectiveness of the Regional Action Teams. Ideally, our action teams will include members of different ages, genders, races, ethnicities, abilities, and socio-economic status. Diverse, collaborative, energetic teams will result in better outcomes from this state-wide program!
Each Regional Action Team will consist of the following:
A Chair of each action team will be chosen by other action team members or appointed by Ride Illinois, if need be. The Chair will facilitate meetings and provide updates for the quarterly Ride Illinois board meetings.
Regional Action Teams will meet at least once per quarter, but can meet more frequently if so desired. Meetings will take place in-person (within the region) or virtually via Zoom or Google Meet. Ride Illinois can assist with scheduling virtual meetings. Ride Illinois staff will attend meetings as their schedules allow.
Communication outside of meetings between action team members and Ride Illinois staff is strongly encouraged to build rapport, share ideas, and proactively address issues.
Click the icon below to complete the Regional Action Team application and share information about your knowledge and interests.
Note that some in-person volunteer activities will involve interacting with children. For that reason, a search on the National Sex Offender Public Website will be conducted for all applicants.
Funding for Regional Action Team activities and appearances is included in the Ride Illinois annual budget. Ride Illinois staff oversee the budget with the explicit goal of improving the impact of this volunteer initiative.
Corporations interested in providing funding to support our Regional Action Team program should contact us at [email protected].
Conflicts of interest occur when Regional Action Team members are in a position to influence a decision on policy or purchases where they might directly or indirectly receive financial benefit. Action team members must be mindful of this and agree to abide by the policy.
Ride Illinois has the authority to remove an individual from an action team if a conflict of interest is observed or confirmed.
In order to measure the impact of the Regional Action Team program and the time and effort of our volunteers, we’ve created a Volunteer Log. Information collected from our volunteers can also increase our chances of being awarded grant funding. Please enter your time in our Volunteer Log on a regular basis.