Team Up
As a part of the MS movement, you and your team are committed to a world free of MS.  We're committed to you and the success of your team.

1. Registering & Recruiting
   Select a Team Captain and register your team.  Team members can be anybody -- friends, family, coworkers or neighbors -- and they can all easily register for Bike MS. Whether you're a corporate team or a team of family and friends, be sure to ask everyone you know. Recruit a minimum of three team members.
2. Raising Money
   Fundraising comes more naturally when you make it personal. If your team is riding for someone with MS, ask that person to share his or her story. And, for your team members, this personal connection will motivate them and foster awareness, gratitude and most importantly, hope.
3. Having Fun!
   Being a Team Captain is an opportunity to share a great experience with friends, family members and coworkers -- a community coming together for a common goal! As a leader, it s up to you to remind your teammates why they registered. Bike MS can be more than a fundraising event -- it can be a celebration of how far we've come in the MS movement! Collect donations and celebrate your team's success at Bike MS.

Tips for Recruiting Your Team

• Send letters and emails to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers announcing your commitment and inviting them to join you.
• Be sure to visit your Participant Center  to find pre-crafted recruitment emails for you to personalize.
  Make sure ALL team members register individually for Bike MS under your team name.
• Do you use Facebook or Twitter? Share that you're riding and raising funds for MS on your social media pages. Post links to your online fundraising pages and ask your friends to join your team or donate. 
• Hold a new team member registration party. Encourage each team member to recruit one more person and bring him or her to the party. 
• Schedule a visit with a representative from the National MS Society to give a presentation to potential team members, human resources or management.
• If you need pointers for an article or recruitment announcement, contact the Society for some tips! 
• Ask to be paired with a Team Captain Mentor. Chat with a veteran captain about how they recruit their team each year! Get advice from those who have had both corporate and community fundraising success.
• Spread the word. Hang posters at your place of business or pass out brochures to your organization. Keep telling family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and community members that you are riding. You’ll be surprised who may have a connection to MS.

Goal Setting:  Creating a Successful Fundraising Plan
Establishing a goal is an easy way to maintain motivation as well as give you and your team a benchmark for success. We encourage Team Captains to set goals for themselves and their teams, while keeping these tips in mind:

• Goals should be realistic, but significant; if it requires hard work to attain, it will be a source of pride for your team. 
• Don’t arbitrarily set a goal without input from the team. Having them believe in the goal from the beginning will make your job as Team Captain that much easier.
• Don’t forget to set both personal and team fundraising goals. Lead by example: share your fundraising goal with your team.
• Set a goal for team size as well as collective fundraising. Recruiting more team members can mean more substantial fundraising!
• Don’t keep your goal a secret! Use email, Team Pages and even internal company intranets and newsletters to communicate goals -- and how close your team is to attaining them.
• If you are part of a large corporate team, have departments set their own goals to create fun internal competition.

Team Shirts
Looking for a low cost way to build team camaraderie and wear your team pride on your sleeve, literally?!  Through our national partnership with Pure Protein, we’re getting access to their team t-shirt site and the opportunity to purchase team t-shirts at cost – that means no markups!  Simply go to www.teampureprotein.com and you can buy team t-shirts, customized with your team logo and/or photo, and share your team pride with everyone in the MS movement!  T-shirts cost $6.95 per shirt plus a one-time set up fee and the cost of shipping.  A minimum of 6 shirts must be ordered with 14 days for delivery.  Thank you to Pure Protein for underwriting the cost of this opportunity and for their support of the MS movement.