SVBC retreat involves sugar, markers

At the risk of inflating some office egos, I have to admit that here at SVBC I have the distinct pleasure of working with people that I actually like. I know, right? This office camaraderie is especially appreciated when we lock ourselves in a room for six hours, load up on corn syrup, and map out our schedules for an entire year, which is what we decided to do yesterday.

We gave Ernesto a Cherry Coke and a pen and stood back in amazement.

What inspired such madness? As usual, it was Corinne, though I might have had a hand in suggesting the particular flavor of our self-imposed punishment. In preparation for an upcoming Board of Directors meeting, she is working on mapping our workflow so that we can determine just how much time we're spending on every commitment, and how each of those commitments adds to our mission of expanding and enhancing bicycle use in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. How, she asked me the other day, can we get all of that out of our heads and onto a page? Why it's simple, said I, let's just schedule the whole fiscal year and work from there! Combined with a discussion of our development goals for next year, this little task became a staff mini-retreat that took up the better part of a day. Of course, as Corinne reminded us, a real staff retreat would be catered!

The upside is that we have the majority of our year laid out before us. We know when we need to start projects, when the basic steps for each project need to be completed, and who is responsible for what between now and next June. The exercise will make us more prepared and efficient, which is especially valuable when four people are trying to change the way people get around in 32 cities and towns and two counties. Plus, now I know that the third week in October is a bad time to try a new hairstyle, as I'll have quite a few meetings.

We also saw very clearly that we could accomplish much more with another staff member, so if you haven't done so in a while, I encourage you to drag that mouse over to the right side of the page and click the stylish "Donate to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition!" button. I promise we won't blow it all on Cherry Coke!