I do have an awful lot of respect for Spokes, and in particular, that small number of people who have been doing it with great commitment for literally decades, and who helped kindle my enthusiasm for cycle campaigning, way back when I was growing up in cycle-unfriendly small-town Scotland, and who sent me a veritable treasure trove of inspirational Spokes leaflet back issues, after I found their address in the Green Consumer Guide...
When I moved to the big city (a different one), that in turn inspired me to set up a cycle campaign there (as there was not one at that time), and we had (and continue to have) some successes, although facing a very different and much more problematic transport/planning environment there than exists in Edinburgh.
We had open monthly meetings, as that seemed to us the natural way to do things; combining "serious" campaign talk and scrutiny of plans and collating responses, with a bit of "state of the world" chat, and then more general banter in the pub afterwards. By having regular meetings, in a known central location (also easily accessible by public transport if the weather was foul, or your bike was kaput), it was easy for potential new activists to get involved. We also had an email discussion list and website since the mid-90s, with a not too shabby number of subscribers, considering the period.
Eventually, for [...reasons...] that city had chewed me up entirely and sucked all the energy out of me, and so I made the move to Spokestown, but I'm afraid to say that the modus operandi of Spokes came as quite a culture shock: I'm sure I can't be the only person to have thought that something that Britain seems to lack, and has lacked for all of my lifetime, is much of any genuine sense of "community" (in the past, people may have found their local community because they tended not to move around so much, or through a greater proportion of people being involved with religious groups and their meetings, etc), and so nowadays, in a far less "settled" society we somehow have to try to create our own communities instead.
The regular rhythm of known monthly meetings had provided those accessible entry points into new communities, but the fact that Spokes only seemed to have two meetings a year, and with no social aspect to them, seemed (I'm sorry to say) somewhat cold and unwelcoming. Yes, the talks are always interesting, and the question and answer sessions always valuable, but there never seemed to be any way to become more involved or even just get to know other people there.
I realise now (but didn't then) that the (only?) way to enter the Spokes fortress is to tick the working groups boxes on the membership form, but that more formal setup does put much more of a barrier to entry for new people to get involved, and especially for people who might want to initially come along informally a couple of times first to see how best they can be involved. The fact that meetings also seem to take place on irregular schedules and at people's homes all over the city (and often not easy to get to by public transport on a rainy night) can also be quite a strong disincentive and a bit intimidating. Has any thought ever been given as to whether a regularly-booked meeting room at, say, The Melting Pot in Rose St could instead be used, as that may be more accessible to and welcoming for potential new activists?
The great thing that CCE has done is that it has created a community: it allows cyclists to share information (and then act on it), network to find out that there are in fact a lot of like-minded people out there, and (of course) just blether, and that it has spun off some real world coffee shop or pub meetups as well.
So, CCE is not Spokes, although there is obvious overlap of people, but it is perhaps the more touchy-feely outreachy arm that Spokes somewhat lacks?
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