Good morning Challenge Officers and thank you for coming! My name is Lily Lowder and I am the coordinator for this year’s Walk & Roll Challenge.

We have a number of organizations joining us this year including a few new ones - the San Antonio Express News, Palo Alto College (Alamo Colleges) and Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson.

Here’s a refresher of the Walk & Roll Challenge Here’s a refresher of the Walk & Roll Challenge. From May 1st to 31st, the Walk & Roll Challenge encourages people across the Greater San Antonio area to ditch their car and commute to work or school,  travel to events, or run errands by carpool/vanpooling, taking the bus, walking, or biking. They record their green trips on www.NuRide.com to receive awards and prizes. Trips saved by telecommuting or condensed scheduling count as well!  In 2016, nineteen organizations and 2,484 area residents collectively saved over 1.2 million vehicle miles traveled and kept over 3.5 tons of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (the components of ozone or “smog”) from the air during the month-long Walk & Roll Challenge. The more cars we get off the road, the cleaner our air is!

You have 3 primary roles as the Challenge Officer. Act as the liaison between AACOG and your organization. (Coordinating with Lily to schedule presentations, lunch and learns and registration booths) Promote the Challenge to employees. (Communicate with employees about the Challenge via email, flyers, verbal announcements etc.) Encourage and assist co-workers. (Answer questions, send questions to AACOG)

There are 6 main types of alternative transportation – carpool, vanpool, public transit, walking, biking, and alternative scheduling.

For the purposes of this Challenge, a carpool is defined as 2 or more people riding together rather than taking separate vehicles to a destination. The goal of the Challenge is to get cars off the road so the other person, or persons, you’re carpooling with have to be licensed drivers who are choosing to carpool. For example, driving your children to school is not an eligible trip.

A vanpool is a group of 5-15 people who travel together in a large SUV or van. If you’d like to vanpool, but don’t have a van, you can sign up for a vanpool or create your own through VIA’s vanpool service. You can find out more at viainfo.net.

In San Antonio, public transit is owned and operated by VIA Metropolitan Transit. Riders can purchase a bus pass online at www.viainfo.net, at one of their information centers, or at most HEB stores. You can plan your trip using the VIA Trip Planner, Google Maps, or a third party app such as TripGo, MoovIt, or Transit.

You can plan your walking and biking routes using Google Maps, the city’s interactive bike map, or the MPO’s bike map (http://www.alamoareampo.org/Bikemap/) indicating routes with high traffic stress.

There are mainly 3 types of alternative work schedules. A flexible work schedule allows employees to alter their start and finish times, within the core set of business hours. For example, you may choose to work from 7 AM – 4 PM or 10 AM – 7 PM. A compressed work week condenses your regular number of work hours (40 for full-time) into a shorter number of days. For example, you may choose to work 10 hour days, Monday to Thursday, and then take Fridays off. Telecommuting is working from home some or all days of the week. All of these options must be worked out in coordination with your colleagues and supervisors to ensure you can still meet your job responsibilities with an adjusted work schedule. If your organization already has these policies in place, make sure you’re advertising them to increase registration and recorded trips for the Challenge.

Here are some ways that your organization can further incentivize the use of alternative transportation. The VIA Works program provides a Business Pass and an EZ Ride pass. The Business Pass program provides a 31 day pass for sale on-site to participating employers at cost - $38 per month – or at a subsidized rate, if your employer chooses to subsidize it. The EZ Ride sticker can be purchased for a select number of employees or all employees, at a reduced rate. www.viainfo.net/Fares/EmployerOptions.aspx A Commuter Awards Program is a great way to keep the challenge going after May. A Commuter Awards Program is an internal “competition” that recognizes your top commuter. For example, at your quarterly staff meeting you may print a certificate for your top commuters or even offer them a gift card. If you would like to implement a Commuter Awards Program, ask AACOG to compile data on your top commuters before the presentation. If you have a costly or congested parking lot, you may consider providing preferred parking for carpoolers. Reserve your best parking spots for carpoolers and vanpoolers by placing cones in those parking spots or painting them. A parking cash out gives the employee a choice between keeping their parking spot or giving it up and taking a portion of its cash value instead. For example, if a single parking spot costs the employer, on average, $100 per month, the employer may offer employees an incentive of $50 per month to opt for alternative transportation modes instead and give up their parking space. Commuter tax benefits are employer-supported, federally-provided tax-free incentives for vanpool, transit, parking and biking. Employers can save on payroll-related and federal income taxes. Employers can subsidize commute expenses, tax-free, or allow employees to set aside pre-tax income to pay for their commute-related expenses.

Individuals who record their commute on NuRide at least 3 times a week will be entered to win a $50 VISA gift card. That’s a total of four $50 gift cards for the whole month, and 4 chances to win. The purpose of this prize is to award those who are regularly taking alternative transportation. Additionally, anyone who records at least one trip on NuRide will be entered to win our monthly grand prize – a $200 VISA gift card.

This year, there are 3 types of organizational awards – Best Newcomer, Most Improved, and “Smartest” organization. The Best Newcomer award recognizes an organization that is brand new or has not participated in the last 3 years. The Most Improved award acknowledges organizations that have significantly improved their numbers from the previous year. The Smartest Organization award goes to the organization that completes the most tasks on their “Smart Points” checklist. This award celebrates Challenge Officers and their employees that have taken extra steps to promote the Challenge and support multimodal transportation options.

To win the “Best Newcomer” or “Most Improved” award, your organization will need to focus on both registration and trips. Get as many employees signed up on NuRide as you can, then try to encourage them to take and record their trips. AACOG will determine the winners by dividing the number of trips taken by employees with the number of employees that your organization has. For example, Business A has 1,000 employees. Of them, 150 are involved in the challenge and they collectively record a total of 2,000 trips. Business A’s 2,000 trips would be divided by 1,000 employees, and its average would be 2 trips per employee. Business B has 500 employees. Of them, 100 are involved in the challenge and collectively record 1,500 trips. Business B’s 1,500 trips would be divided by 500 employees, and its average would be 3 trips per employee. Which organization would win – A or B? Even though Organization A took more trips, but Organization B took more trips per employee. For both the Best Newcomer and Most Improved, whichever organization has the highest number of trips per employee will win.

The organization that completes the highest number of tasks on the “Smart Points” checklist, will win the “Smartest” Organization award. In total, there are 30 tasks that you can complete, including the sub-bullets. If there is a tie, the tie-breaker will be the number of trips taken per employee. Some of these tasks may be easier or more difficult for certain organizations to attain, so every task that you feasibly can do you should so that you can increase your chances of winning.

As your organization’s Challenge Officer, you have the discretion to communicate with your staff as frequently and in whatever manner you deem best. However, here are our recommended tools: Post flyers and posters in your break rooms, lobbies, at the elevator and wherever people tend to hang out and read things. You could send out an email to staff or include one of their flyers in their check, if they don’t have direct deposit. If you have an employee intranet site, you can post updates, reminders, and email messages on there. Ask your department directors and team leaders to mention the Challenge at their team meetings, or present about the Challenge at an all-staff meeting. Keep track of your accomplishments on social media! Take pictures of your co-workers biking into work or carpooling, notify us when you get big jumps in numbers and be sure to tag the other participants and AACOG. And finally, if you have an employee newsletter, you can include a little blurb about the Challenge in there too.

AACOG offers a number of resources to support Challenge Officers, including a handbook, FAQs, and suggested email messages. AACOG staff is also available for presentations, such as Lunch & Learns, and NuRide registration booths. Contact us ASAP if you’re interested!

Please feel free to call or email if you have any questions. Thank you! Lily Lowder Email: llowder@aacog.com Phone: (210) 362-5277 Website: www.aacog.com/wrc