Local area coordinators will recruit students and others from their region for Get on the Bus. As an LAC, you will be responsible for organizing transportation and collecting any transportation fees. Depending on your location and the number of people you expect to recruit, you may decide to hire a bus or van, carpool, or take public transportation.

Here are some tips to guide you:
1. E-mail us at gotbvolunteer@amnesty133.org. Our outreach coordinator, Nate Stell, has a list of Northeast Amnesty groups that you can contact.
2. Determine your region and number of people you expect to be able to recruit. This can be estimated based on conversations with Amnesty group leaders, as well as our estimates from previous years.
3. Decide on the mode of transportation. If you want to rent a car or van, you will need a driver over 25-years-old in most states.
4. Talk to various bus companies or to your school to discuss transportation options. For more tips, see the Transportation Tips sheet.
5. Establish a per-person fee based on the number of people expected and total transportation cost. For some regions, such as Maine, the price will be higher than years past as it will be largely determined by distance. For others closer to NYC, it may be cheaper. Be careful to collect enough to cover your costs. You can grant participants a refund on April 20th if you've collected more than you need.
6. Encourage others to fundraise to pay for transportation. Click here for fundraising ideas.
7. You can write a special initiatives grant which can cover transportation costs. If you are interested in this, contact gotb@amnesty133.org immediately.
8. Set a registration deadline based on when you need to confirm with the bus or rental-car company. If you are hiring a vehicle, we suggest setting a deadline of March 20th, 2007.
9. Post information on our website. We will have a webpage for our local area coordinators where you can post your contact information, price, deadline, and pick-up location. If you'd like people to register using a webpage similar to ours, we can work with you to do that. This will produce a database for you to keep track of the registration information of your attendees. You'll need to establish a PayPal account if you don't already have one.
10. Make sure that the folks on your bus have also registered online by visiting www.gotb.org.
11. Get permission from parents and school. For more information regarding safety
click here http://www.amnesty133.org/ai/gotb/safety.html.

                Getting Permission from School 

• It will not be possible or necessary for every school (for instance, you don't need school permission if you are on April vacation), but some may be able to get this as an official, excused field trip.
• Present much of the information on the website regarding safety and security ‹the more organized and professional the presentation (especially by students) the better!
• Make the educational connection by:
  • emphasizing that GOTB is a practical application of American citizenship.
  • making connections to social studies curricula.
  • showing how these issues are the results of studied American and world histories, world and national politics.
  • having students write up reports about the issues being protested ‹ the more academic, the better.