[TheThinkTank] Volunteers vs. Paid Staff, Bike Shop Empowerment

[kyle mckinley]

Without starting another firestorm of the pros and cons of paid versus
unpaid core staff, I would generally reiterate my position that NOT
compensating folks dramatically reduces the number and diversity of people
that are interested in playing a central role to your organization. Macho
says that they aren't in a position to pay all of their staff all of the
time. So how about some of the time? Bike Church Santa Cruz has a system in
which, basically, every core member is expected to volunteer one shift per
week (4 hours) and attend bi-weekly core meetings (unpaid). Anything on top
of that is paid at a living wage ($15/hr) to the core member as an
'independent contractor'. It's slightly more complicated than that, but you
get the idea. Almost all of the regular open-shop hours are thus staffed by
volunteers, but all the behind the scenes stuff (finances, organizing,
ordering, etc) is paid. Any core member is eligible to bill these hours,
though there are consensed-on 'clerkships' who bottom-line areas of
obligation (ordering clerk, finance clerk, tool-maintenance clerk, etc) .
Finally, it helps ensure that we will be open consistently b/c during those
times of the year (such as now) when a lot of core folks want to leave town
for bike tours or whatever, the few remaining mechanics get nicely
compensated for working multiple shifts during the week--and thus keeping
the doors open.
It isn't perfect, but it does keep there from being dramatic divisions
within the collective, and it has proven to be a financially sensible route
for compensation (the bike church is entirely funded without grants, and has
put together a considerable nest-egg to whether potential crisis).
As to the questions of 'policing' patrons of the shop... that might be
beyond me. Finding ways to minimize chaos/ folks breaking their bikes and
our tools without becoming authoritarian is a huge problem that I think all
of our organizations deal with every day. I wouldn't want to ask anyone to
wait outside, but I remember none-to-fondly what it was like when the bike
church had only enough room for 4 bikes inside, and there were a dozen more
flipped upside down wrenching in the parking lot. BICAS has a lot of square
footage and a sizable paid staff, both of which obviate some of those
problems, but the same things happen everywhere... Maybe this is a good
topic for a workshop at BikeBike!...?....
best,
kyle
bike church santa cruz---->BICAS tucson----->bike church santa cruz....

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 8:22 AM, Macho Philipovich <macho at resist.ca> wrote:

>
> Hey everyone.  We're trying to sort through a couple of issues at the shop
> right now, and I'd like to see if any others have experiences with similar
> situations that they could share.
>
> 1.  We like to keep as many open shop hours as our volunteer capacity will
> allow, which doesn't leave much left for running other programs.  Our shop
> is located in a poor part of town, and we're finding a lot of schools,
> community centres, and immigrant organizations are asking us to run
> workshops for kids.  The said community organizations, though, are often
> willing to provide honoraria for this work.  In the past we've just had the
> money donated back to the bike project, but now people who run the programs
> are starting to keep it for themselves, and we're kind of feeling torn.  On
> the one hand, partnering with community organizations so that kids can have
> access to bikes and bike repair tools & skills is amazing, and is basically
> why we exist, and giving our volunteers, most of whom are low-income, some
> monetary compensation is great, especially since we are a very financially
> stable shop.  On the other hand, there is also the concern that if
> volunteers start to be paid, it will take them away from our open shop
> hours, and leave other volunteers to do essentially the same work, only
> without getting paid.  This could seemingly cause resentment, hard feelings,
> and the general deterioration of our shop.  We're not, at this time, able to
> or interested in paying all volunteer mechanics all of the time.  So this is
> something we have to find a way to reasonably resolve.
>
> 2.  This question is especially directed at shops that view themselves as
> committed to radical social change, but answers from anyone are welcome.
>  We've just switched over from a "free-for-all" kind of setup where people
> can waltz in to the shop, start wrenching away, and ask for help if anyone
> is around to offer it, to our new setup where people need to sign in with a
> greeter and if there are no available mechanics, they have to wait outside.
>  This has almost eliminated the chaos and frustration that was until
> recently a staple at the shop, but also has people worried.  We are starting
> to feel like we are "policing" people and treating those who use the shop
> with suspicion, and that the shop is starting to feel much more like a
> regular liberal social work program or soup kitchen where there is a clear
> divide between staff ("you've already had your one bowl of soup!") and
> people fixing their bikes, rather than a space where different people are
> welcome to make a meaningful contribution, and become empowered to be
> invested in the space and take a leadership role.
>
> Has anyone experienced either of these things in their shop?  Any thoughts?
>  Solutions?
>
> Thanks,
> Macho of the Bike Dump
> http://bike-dump.ca
>
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>



-- 
If an Easyrider rides easy, then a bicirider rides bicis
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