The Eco-Village Xtra-Cycle.

(This is the third installment in what’s becoming a series of articles by Ron Milam that I’m calling the GOOD series.  For the other two submissions, click here. – DN)

A
good facilitator brings some important materials to a meeting including an
easel, markers, a small clock and most challenging of all to carry on a bicycle,
a full sized posterboard to scribe notes to capture everyone’s good thoughts. Up
until now, I have always asked clients to bring the posterboard because it was
too challenging to secure on my small bike rack.

For a recent peer
learning session I led for the Liberty Hill
Foundation, one of the leading funders of social change movements in Los
Angeles, I decided I would incorporate a little social change in my own
lifestyle and bring everything to the training by bicycle.  Knowing I couldn’t
fit everyone on my existing bike, I remembered one of my neighbors here at the
LA Eco-Village has
an XtraCycle I could borrow,
which is a bicycle trailer device designed to carry heavy loads.

I’m excited to report that I successfully
carried the following items on one bicycle: that big posterboard, an easel,
markers, handouts, my laptop computer and three bags of groceries that fed an
impressive group of 15 leaders working on social change here in Los Angeles.  I
really enjoyed the ride and the discussion that followed it.

Now that I know it can easily be done, I look
forward to hauling all of my facilitation tools on bike to future trainings,
retreats and meetings. While I can’t confirm it, I just might be able to say I’m
the only bicycling facilitator in Los Angeles! If you need a facilitator or want
to know more about what a facilitator does, check out my
website.

See you on the streets of Los Angeles and
remember that you can always carry more stuff
on a bicycle than you think you can.