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Get Involved

The Critical Mass anarchic spirit makes it easy to get involved. It's a wide open space for civic engagement. Because there are no formal leaders, there's no "they" to make things happen: nothing happens until someone makes it happen.

For instance, all those great Chicago Critical Mass t-shirts you see people wearing were printed at t-shirt printing parties — a fun way to make friends and get the word out. They happen irregularly, but if you have an idea for a t-shirt, you can get folks together and make it happen.

There are fun things going on year round, regular happenings initiated by people like you!

  • Don't miss any of the numerous flyers passed out at the beginning of each Chicago Critical Mass ride!
  • 2nd Friday of the month Critical Mass Happy Hour
  • Assembly parties for the Derailleur, CCM's unofficial 'zine
  • Independent rides and events hosted by and for members of the CCM community
  • Flyer and banner production parties
  • One-time efforts, such as a recent brownie-bake for the whole mass

It's your Mass: make it fun!

So, where do people get together to organize all this stuff?

Join the listserv: This is where lots of folks go to chat and organize projects around Critical Mass. It's a fairly high-traffic list, and there's more discussion there than organizing, but this is where a lot of it happens. Join the listserv (over the web) by hitting the listserv page and clicking on "join or leave the list". You can view the list archives at the same page. (There is a Yahoo! Groups archive as well.) You can sign up for the listserv by email by sending e-mail to listserv@listserv.uic.edu. Type "subscribe chi-crit-mass Your Name" in the body of the letter. Another great forum for cyclists is the Critical Mass message board at forums.bikechicago.info.

Crash a Critical Mass Happy Hour: a monthly get-together on the second Friday of every month, usually in someone's home. Come out to mingle and conspire over a couple frosty ones, it's a great way to get more involved and make some new friends — you have to join the listserve to get the 411.

Contribute to this website: If you enjoy writing, or you have artistic or technical flair, you can contribute to this site, or come to a bikegeeks meeting.

Other goings on

Even though Critical Mass is the most fun you can have on two wheels in Chicago, it's not the only game in town. Lots of Chicago bike organizations have year-round events for your perusal. Here are a few:

More resources can be found by visiting our Cycling Links page.