Recyke y’Bike Trustee Pack
From workshops and shops in Newcastle and Chester-le-Street, Recyke y’bike is a charity working to make the North East the most cycling-accessible region in England. We do this by selling refurbished bikes at low prices and by giving bikes away, and through engagement, outreach and training.
Could you spare a few hours a month to join our established Board of Trustees?
You will join us at an exciting time as we prepare to launch our new Strategic Plan 2025-2028 and a new visual identity – this is an ideal time to join and make an impact.
The role of the Trustee at Recyke y’Bike
The Board of Trustees is the body responsible for the collective leadership of the charity. Under our Board Chair and fellow Trustee, Graham Archer, we work to steer the charity in an ethical and legal way, to protect its assets and to ensure that we are working towards and delivering on our objectives as set out in our governing documents.
Our current Board consists of 7 Trustees (Sara Newson, Andy Hunter, Alan Thompson, Zoe Williams, Matthew Kontarines, Graham Archer, Jimmi Nichols) who all come from various walks of life and employment backgrounds and bring different skills to the table.
Trustees in general volunteer for a variety of reasons, for instance because of a love of the charity, a sense of public service, for career development, for their own health and wellbeing, to make friends, or to promote a cause.
We believe a diverse board of different voices and perspectives is a strong board and we understand that to get more people to see the benefits of cycling, we need to be able to understand broad and multiple perspectives.
Our Chief Executive Officer, Jack Swain, who is a paid employee is delegated to run operations on our behalf and he attends Board meetings and committees and presents papers and reports to keep us informed and seek support. He also has responsibility for the delivery of the strategic plan.
Our Board meets once every two months on a Thursday evening in Byker and also organises sub-meetings and special projects in between. We also encourage trustees to volunteer in our bike shops, workshops or outreach activities so they can get to know the charity well.
You can find out more about the Trustee role here.
Who we are looking for
We want to hear from you if you believe in our mission, and you have some spare time and energy to help enrich our decision-making processes and steer our charity into the future.
You might be an experienced trustee, or you might be interested in joining a board for the first time. You could be a generalist with an interest in taking part in collective decision-making or you might have specific skills or experiences that would be valuable to us right now –
- Charity/fundraising
- Health and Safety
- Marketing/communications
- IT skills
- Data skills
- Ability to help us reach and bring new people into cycling
- Personal experience of the transformative power of cycling
And, if you don’t see yourself in the images we are currently projecting as an organisation representing the North East, we’d be particularly interested to hear from you.
About Recyke y’bike:
Recyke y’bike is a charity working to make the North East the most cycling-accessible region in England. We believe in getting more people onto bikes as they are great for the environment and address a variety of social issues too. Established in 2006, the charity leases property in Byker and Chester-le-Street. Bikes are donated or we collect abandoned bikes. These are refurbished by a team of staff and volunteers and then sold at a minimal price to cover running costs, or they are given away to people in need. We also provide formal and informal training in bike maintenance through community outreach so that more people have the skills to keep their bikes in good repair. You can visit our website www.recyke.bike for more information.
How to apply
If you’d like to discuss the role before applying, please contact Graham, our Chair of the Board for an informal chat: Graham@recyke.bike
To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter explaining how you would be able to help us to graham@recyke.bike
Closing date: November 30th 2025
This is a voluntary role but reasonable expenses will be paid.
