[TheThinkTank] formalizing shop use

[Macho Philipovich]

hey folks.  for our first 2.5 years, we've set up our open hours very 
informally.  you show up, you can rip through used parts on your own, 
pick out a bike to fix up on your own, fix it up on your own, or ask for 
help fixing your bike if you like, too.  this has been great, because 
it's offered a lot of people access to the shop without feeling overly 
regimented, but toward the end of each summer (peak season), the shop 
has gotten really chaotic, and some volunteers have started feeling 
pretty anxious, with all repair stands in use, more people all over the 
floor with their bikes turned upside down, kids running around all over 
the place, people asking for help every 30 seconds when you're already 
helping someone else, and it just being tricky to keep an eye on 
everything that's going on in the shop.

so, we're looking to move toward a setup where people all have to sign 
in with a greeter and get assigned to a volunteer to work with, and if 
there are no free volunteers/stands, you have to wait.

i'm sure most other shops are already doing this, so i thought i'd ask 
for your experiences/strategies/advice.  some specific questions:

- do you have separate sign-up sheets for quick repairs vs. say building 
a bike up from scratch?
- do you offer a comfy area to wait for those who need to?
- do you let people work on bikes without a volunteer?
- if so, do you make them "prove" that they know how to use the tools 
properly or respect the shop?
- do you have one volunteer set up at a "flat fixing" station?
- how well does all of this stuff work?

but feel free to discuss things that those questions don't touch on.

thanks everybody, this list is such an amazing resource,
macho of the bike dump