- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Bike Coalitions?
by Josh Bisker 26 Nov '16

26 Nov '16

Is anyone part of a bike coalition in their city? Either a coalition of bike groups or a coalition of social justice groups in which you're the bike folks? I'm about to have the first tentative meeting of an NYC Bike Coalition and would love some perspective from people about what's working and what's not, and any "if I had known, I'd have had us do this thing at the get-go" advice. My goal for this is to have bike groups work with each other and with non-bike groups to develop a shared understanding of institutional discrimination and co-create plans to combat it.

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Velo-Ecole du 20eme: Free Bike Riding Classes in Paris (France)
by Anne-Lise 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

Are you an adult who never learned how to ride a bike? Well, it's not too late. The Vélo-école (Bike School) in the 20th arrondissement of Paris offers a free 2-hour initiation to bike riding for adults. After you overcome your initial fears regarding bike riding, you can sign up for 10 hours of lessons for 30EUR. The Vélo-école will provide you with a bike adapted to your morphology and a yellow safety vest. An experienced instructor leads the lessons. No worries if you don't speak French. The class mostly consists of imitating the appropriate gestures to adapt when riding a bike and the instructor also speaks English and Spanish. Classes take place every Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m in the Fougères district near la Porte des Lilas and the association Cyclofficine. ABOUT THE VÉLO-ÉCOLE DU 20ÈME The Vélo-École du 20ème is new on the bike class scene, offering lessons to the public since June 2016. Anne-Lise, a long time cycliste and volunteer bike riding teacher La Vélo-École de Montreuil, founded the association. For Anne-Lise, being able to ride a bike can be a source of autonomy and freedom for adults who never learned when they were younger. Her goal is to provide small group classes (there's a maximum of six students per class) at an affordable rate so that students can learn at their own pace. If you're interested in learning more about the Vélo-École du 20ème or signing up for a class, send an email to anne-lise(a)cyclocoop.org. Sign-ups for Saturday classes must be done before Friday at noon.

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Safe space policies, WTF definitions, greeter scripts!
by Benita Kliewer 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

Hi all you fine folks, In Winnipeg we've been running a series of workshops for Women, Trans, Femme and Non-binary folks both for people already involved in community bike shops and those entirely new to bikes and the cbs world. While most of the workshop have been mechanically-focused, last night's was a facilitated discussion about safe space creation and being assertive in (traditionally) male-dominated spaces. It was a really good workshop and included a number of people already involved in Women&Queer/WTF nights. The workshop was relatively broad and there was strong interest to follow up with a discussion about more tangible details that could be incorporated into shop experience. Before we reinvent the wheel, we'd love to hear what you folks have been doing at your shops. Specifically: - How do you decide who is included in WTF etc nights? How do you describe this (in advertising, in talking to people about it...) without it getting to be a super long and cumbersome title? - What sort of a script does your greeter use on WTF nights to let people know who is welcome and who is welcome to come another night without making everyone feel overly policed? - What sort of a script do you use with people who insist on using the space when it is a time designated for a WTF night? - Does anyone have clear and detailed safe-space policies including consequences of behaviour outside of those policies/guildelines? It'd be great to work out some more specifics beyond the relatively general shop rules all of the CBSs! - How have you approached educating new volunteers about safe spaces in volunteer orientation? We're interested having a more expanded section about safe space discussion in our various shops' orientation sessions (how to conduct yourself as a volunteer; how to approach others who are behaving inappropriately...). I know many of you have put a lot thought into these sorts of questions and we would love to hear your wisdom! Thanks! Benita

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Capital Campaign Support documentation (CZ Mike)
by Jude Wilhelmsen 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Hello CZ Mike and everyone in this community! My name is Jude and I am a worker-member of Hub City Cycles Community Cooperative in Nanaimo, BC I don't have examples for you, but I have worked on sponsorship packages for athletes, discussed promotional materials for a similar campaign at length with some of the great folks at Makerspace Nanaimo, and done a fair amount of research on writing grant and loan applications. From this experience I have learned 3 things: 1. If you need $10,000, ask for $12,000 2. Multiple tiers with set prices and clear outcomes are highly effective 3. Be concise with words 1: This gives you a margin to bargain with and at best results in a surplus! The precise percentage has to do with your audience and the number of zeros you're dealing with. Knowing the spending habits your audience and how much the outcomes you're offering typically cost (i.e. advertising/marketing for the business, educational programs for the community, transportation, etc.) will go a long way to determining a feasible margin without pricing yourself out of funding. 2: I've had great success offering pieces of leather suits worn by athletes for set prices based on size/placement of company logos. I like to offer three tiers with value added outcomes (i.e. hi-res photos for company use, video production, online product reviews... athlete sponsorship packages are my primary practical application thus far, these can be reworked for your organization). A number with a bullet point list of outcomes below it will immediately outline a range of options and begin to develop an idea of *why* one might want to invest more than the (perceived) minimum. 3: Given that the Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels of financial commitment are fresh in the mind of your reader, having perused them as soon as they opened your brochure, a simple outline of WHO and 'WHUD' (with some great photography to accompany it) is likely all the words you will need. What Have yoU Done is a great place to build confidence in your reader that you are exceedingly capable of following through on the commitments of each tier. Who you are could be as simple as your Mission Statement, perhaps with some detail on the individuals directly involved in the project, or the community you're serving. I hope that helps. One year, a friend and I were looking for at least 5 sponsors at a $500 (silver) commitment level and ended up with 2 Gold sponsors at $1500, all because we had a great brochure, obviously ;) Unfortunately I lost the file in an un-backed up hard-drive failure... It turned out to be a huge amount of work to pull off the Gold-level media-production and marketing outcomes we had promised for 2 separate sponsors, and a steal of a deal for companies who are used to paying much more for those services. Be careful to set your outcomes well within the capacity of your organization, it might just work beyond your wildest dreams! I'll mock up a visual example and send it around, though my inDesign skills are a wee bit rusty of late. Cheers, -Jude

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Capital Campaign Support documentation
by CZ Mike 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Greetings! Urban Bike Project of Wilmington Delaware will be launching a major capital campaign in 2017 and we are looking for examples of support material so we can produce a capital campaign brochure to distribute to potential funders. Surely there are some good examples from others out there? Please let me know if there is anything anyone can share, Thanks!

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Bike kitchen Insurance
by Olivier 19 Nov '16

19 Nov '16

Hello, here is Bikes del Pueblo from San Diego! Our bike kitchen just moved into a space and we are looking for some advice for insurance? After searching the thinktank archives, I found some messages rather old (2012) and was wondering where you all get your insurance? We got a quote for $2000 a year for our operation (out of a shipping container on a vacant lot) and we are a 501(c)(3) and we were wondering if that is a good price. Any feedback appreciated! Thanks! Oli

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Looking for interactive learning tool ideas
by AMS Bike Co-op 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

Hey Folks! I'm looking for ideas for hands on learning tools for teaching bike mechanics. The Bike Coop/Bike Kitchen is in the planning stages of a project that will one day be installed in our new shop space and serve as an education tool as well as a fun thing to welcome people into the shop. Our concept is to create an interactive wall display that illustrates some basic mechanical concepts. In particular we'd like to use this to connect with kinetic learners, non-English speakers (as English is the predominant language in our shop), and folks who are a bit intimidated to just start working on a bike. So! I'd like ideas from you about learning tools that we can include on this amazing wall! Modified bike parts that you might use in your intro to mechanics courses, analogies that you use to explain tricky concepts, even wild stuff that you have thought of but has not yet existed (we will likely seek out partnerships with engineers/designers at UBC to help us create some of these things so no idea is too big) Huge thanks to all - Hannah -- *AMS Bike Co-op* University of British Columbia 6138 Student Union Blvd | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z1 604-822-2453 | bikecoop.ca | @ubcbike

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Guadalajara collective
by Anne Duggan 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

Friends, At Bike!Bike! Larry Fitzpatrick and I (two of the Iowans) talked with folks from Guadalajara about a mechanics exchange. Larry and I would love to work for a couple of months this winter. Unfortunately, we lost the contact information! Por favor, escribeme a annem.duggan(a)gmail.com. Gracias, Anne Sent from my iPad

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Looking for interactive learning tool ideas
by jack 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

Here's our gear shift demo, FrankenBike. Also has a generator and lights, it works great as a hands-on activity for kids. Jack Murphy Bike Walk Wichita <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: AMS Bike Co-op <info(a)bikecoop.ca> </div><div>Date:11/17/2016 6:22 PM (GMT-06:00) </div><div>To: The Think Tank <thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org> </div><div>Cc: Hannah Fiegenbaum <education(a)bikecoop.ca> </div><div>Subject: [TheThinkTank] Looking for interactive learning tool ideas </div><div> </div>Hey Folks! I'm looking for ideas for hands on learning tools for teaching bike mechanics. The Bike Coop/Bike Kitchen is in the planning stages of a project that will one day be installed in our new shop space and serve as an education tool as well as a fun thing to welcome people into the shop. Our concept is to create an interactive wall display that illustrates some basic mechanical concepts. In particular we'd like to use this to connect with kinetic learners, non-English speakers (as English is the predominant language in our shop), and folks who are a bit intimidated to just start working on a bike. So! I'd like ideas from you about learning tools that we can include on this amazing wall! Modified bike parts that you might use in your intro to mechanics courses, analogies that you use to explain tricky concepts, even wild stuff that you have thought of but has not yet existed (we will likely seek out partnerships with engineers/designers at UBC to help us create some of these things so no idea is too big) Huge thanks to all - Hannah -- AMS Bike Co-op University of British Columbia 6138 Student Union Blvd | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z1 604-822-2453 | bikecoop.ca | @ubcbike

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Cycles for Change (St. Paul/Mpls, MN) Hiring a Program Director
by Jason Partridge 15 Nov '16

15 Nov '16

Cycles for Change, which operates two community bike shops in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN is hiring for a Program Director. This position will play a key leadership role in the organization, with substantial responsibility for shaping and leading C4C's programming (which includes weekly open shops, women/trans/femme night, youth apprenticeship, bike grant (free bike) program, and our community organizing/leadership development/advocacy work). Please consider applying! http://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/job-details?id=124614 Feel free to reach out with any questions. Women/trans/femme and people of color are strongly encouraged to apply. Jason

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