Get Involved with TransForm
Four ways to TransForm your community and commute: 
Volunteer Signup
Be a part of transforming your community, the Bay Area, and California!
The TransForm volunteer program is getting redesigned to better serve our volunteers and organization and will launch in its new form in mid-2012. Until then, we will not have any official ongoing volunteer projects but we will still have one-time volunteer opportunities for you to get involved in.
If you want to help with the mailing projects, events or other one-time opportunities that will take place before the end of the year, please complete this form and let us know your interests.
We post most impromptu volunteer events via our Facebook page so be sure to like us and check-in there regularly.
Thanks for your interest and generous offer to share your time!
Current Volunteer Opportunities
Be On Our List to Help with Short-Term Projects
First, see the bottom of this page for specific, current volunteer opportunities.
Second, send your Volunteer Sign Up form to Jessica, TransForm's Communications and Development Assistant, with your complete contact information and which of the following you’d like to be on our list to help out with:
- Mailing parties: we need help stuffing and stamping for at least two major mailings a year.
- Event support: registering folks at our TransForums, event setup/teardown, that kind of thing.
- Photography: we’re always looking for talented photographers to help out.
- Outreach: a great example of this type of volunteer project would be our recent flyering at major Caltrain stops about potential cuts to service.
- Lobby days: we occasionally bring a bus of people to Sacramento to push for key legislation.
Looking for a Longer-Term, More Substantive Volunteer Experience?
Send your Volunteer Sign Up form to Jessica, TransForm's Communications and Development Assistant, that includes:
- What type/s of work you’re most interested in: policy analysis, research, fundraising, administrative support, GIS mapping, graphic design, organizing, etc.
- What topic area/s you’re most interested in: explore our campaigns and programs on our website.
- What your availability is: how many hours/week for how many weeks; ideal start and end dates).
Jessica will confirm she’s received your request and let you know if there’s a match between you and our current needs.
Also see the bottom of this page for specific, current volunteer opportunities.
Be Alerted to New Volunteer Opportunities
We announce jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities via our monthly e-News and Facebook, so go ahead and click to sign up for our email above and visit us on Facebook.
Models of All Ages & Ethnicities Needed for Photo Shoot February 17
Are You a Fan of Public Transportation, Walking and Biking?
We’re Looking for Volunteers of All Ages & Ethnicities to be Photographed!
TransForm, an award-winning nonprofit, needs new photos to use on our website and other outreach materials. These photos will help promote our work to create better public transportation and more walkable communities in the Bay Area and California.
We will be doing a photo shoot on Friday, February 17 2012 at the Caltrain station in San Francisco (4th St.) from 7:30 - 9:00 a.m. We would love you to be part of it!
We are especially looking for people in business/professional clothes with bicycles for this photo shoot, though would like to get a few more casual, bike-free shots, too. We will take photos near but not in Caltrain.
No experience required. Please contact Marta at marta@transformca.org or 510.740.3150x321 if you’re interested with:
- Your age and ethnicity (again, we are trying to get a big mix of people).
- If you can be there for 7:30-9:00, or if not, at least a 30 minute period within this window.
- If you can dress professionally and bring a bike (with helmet).
You will be emailed a confirmation with more details if you're selected to participate. Rain cancels the shoot.
Thank you for supporting TransForm’s work in this fun and important way!
Current Internship Opportunities
Specific Internship Projects
Due to funding limitations, we currently do not have any internships. However, please do read about our volunteer opportunities to see if a long-term volunteer project might be of interest. Some of these projects can be adapted to be "professional reports" or other thesis-type work if you need academic credit.
We announce jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities via our monthly e-News and Facebook page, so sign up for our email and "Like" us on Facebook if you want to stay in the loop.
Meet Our Featured Volunteers
Brent Bateman
Brent Bateman, Rockstar Researcher
Brent Bateman’s about to get rid of his car. “I want to walk the talk,” says Brent. “I think everyone should have better access to public transportation and that starts with me supporting taking the bus or train more often.”
Here at TransForm, Brent is making a big difference, too. “Brent is doing a ton of research for our GreenTRIP program,” says Camille Guiriba. GreenTRIP, TransForm's cutting-edge new program, certifies residential and mixed-use developments that keep the number of new parking spaces as low as possible and offer incentives for new tenants to drive less and own fewer vehicles. “I honestly don’t know what we’d do without him at this point!”
What does Brent think his biggest challenge will be without his car? “The rain!" says Brent. "But the best challenge will be deciding how to spend the money I'm saving by not owning a car. I'll save a lot just on parking tickets!"
Bruce Maxwell
Bruce Maxwell, Data and Locational Wizard
Bruce Maxwell loves bikes.
“I love the feeling of being able to go a long way under my own power,” he says.
When he was 18 years old, Bruce spent a year extensively traveling Europe via bicycle. Years later, while working as an architectural draftsman in Sonoma, he spent a summer giving pedicab rides wearing a solar-powered pith helmet and rainbow suspenders. He called his business “Pedestrian Pocket Pedicab” after the title of one of Peter Calthorpe's early books, The Pedestrian Pocket Book. Today, Bruce participates in bike rides with both the San Francisco Bike Party and the East Bay Bike Party.
Bruce’s passion for bicycling led him to TransForm, where he began volunteering in April 2011 and has become a highly valued asset working on a variety of different projects.
“Being a great admirer of places like The Netherlands and Portland, Oregon, I wanted to be involved in the transit/pedestrian/bicycle transformation,” he says. “I've worked in the business world and a little bit in government but I wanted to see what a non-profit was like.”
Bruce’s diverse background further illustrates his passion for public transit and walkable, bikeable communities. He worked as the transportation coordinator for the Western Regional Greens Gathering in the Santa Cruz Mountains, as a GIS technician for the City of Santa Rosa, and for an architecture firm where he worked on “street-friendly downtown projects.”
In addition to supporting various development and communications projects at TransForm, Bruce has become a valuable member of the GreenTRIP team. Currently, he is working on a mapping project to determine whether or not various neighborhoods are considered walkable.
When he’s not working on urban planning projects or riding his bike, Bruce can be found playing bagpipes with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers.
Bruce has been playing the bagpipes since he was 10 years old. As a teenager, he was in a junior band that competed at Highland Games and toured in Scotland.
The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers currently have about 100 performing members, ranging in age from 12 to 80, about two thirds of whom are fiddlers with the rest playing complementary instruments. Bruce describes their music as “rollicking, repetitive music, skillfully played” and encourages people to come out for one of their shows, which you can find listed on their website.