- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Re: [TheThinkTank] Bike Purchases with Sweat Equity
by troy neiman 26 May '13

26 May '13

At BICAS, AZ we have a strict policy to do the work before you get the bike. Nor do we hold bikes while sweat equity (we call work-trade program) is being done. It would be great if everyone would come back and do the work but I am actually surprised that even 50% of the people did. You are already providing a really great service for people and its very fair to ask people to do the work first. Troy Neiman ----- Original Message ----- From: Edward Kirkwood Sent: 05/22/13 06:29 AM To: thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Bike Purchases with Sweat Equity At Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop in Lexington, KY, our bike purchase policy is: People without the financial means can purchase a bike that is priced < $100 totally on credit that day with the verbal agreement that they return to shop and volunteer enough to pay their debt off. Our sweat equity policy pays folks $8 / hour in shop credit. After a review of our sweat equity accounts that we keep for each customer, we discovered that over 50% of the folks who purchased a 100% sweat equity bike never came back after that initial visit/bike purchase. Our mission is to provide better acccess to better bicycles used for transportation and to enable folks to perform their own maintenance. While our current policy is providing bikes to people, we are questioning whether we are giving folks a handout rather than a hand-up. We would like to hear how some of you handle sweat equity bike purchases. More specifically adult purchases as we do not have a huge kid market. Allen Kirkwood Broke Spoke

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1304 Bikes Needs Your Help!
by 1304bikes 22 May '13

22 May '13

You are receiving this email because at some point in the past you contacted 1304 Bikes, whether it was to donate a bike, inquire about getting a bike, or to help out in any way. We are writing you now to ask for your help in re-opening our doors after 4 years of being closed. We have found a new space in downtown Raleigh, but we need to raise enough money for our first years rent plus some start-up costs. This will give us the time needed to focus on re-establishing our previously successful programs and to create a sustainable fundraising model that will carry us into the future. We have 10 days left in our campaign and still have a ways to go, but if everyone who reads this email gave just $15 we would get there! So please consider donating. We are running a fixed campaign, so if we don't reach our goal, we get nothing and you will get a full refund. You can read below for more information or head to our funding site to see pictures, check out the perks we're offering, and make a donation. Thank you all for your support, past and present, and our apologies if you have already received this or donated (thank you!) *Donation Page:* http://igg.me/at/1304bikes/x/2593075 *More detailed info on 1304bikes and our fundraising campaign:* As Raleigh’s only non-profit bicycle program, past or present, 1304 bikes filled a unique niche in the bicycle community. Established in 2005, it was the only place where Raleigh residents, regardless of income, could earn a bicycle, find spare parts, use community tools, and receive repair instruction. Our parts and tools were provided to residents at no cost, and participants in the Earn-a-Bike program could obtain a free bicycle by volunteering to help at the shop for 1-8 hours. Our other programs included Open Shop where access to tools and used parts are freely accessible to the bicycle community and Kid-a-bike where donated kids bikes are refurbished and distributed at no cost to children. Over the years, the popularity of 1304 bikes grew and the organization became widely loved by the cycling community. 1304 bikes served a wide-spread and diverse cross section of the Raleigh population, including youth, college students, the homeless and cyclists of all walks. The number of shop users and Earn-a-Bike participants grew with each year we remained open, and we were on track in 2009 to have over 300 people complete the Earn-a-Bike program. Our busiest summer months would typically see 25-30 successful Earn-a-Bikers as well as up to 50 shop users during open hours. Our new space will allow us to continue the growth we had, as well as to reach new people and expand the programs and services that we offer. 1304 bikes also provided a valuable outlet for residents wishing to see their old bicycles reused and recycled instead of going to the landfill. We try to minimize as much waste as we can, re-purposing parts and bikes we cannot use into work stands, bike art, jewelry, etc. What we cannot use, we recycle including steel, aluminum, and tires. Unfortunately in 2009, 1304 bikes was forced to cease operations due to improper zoning of the building we operated in. In the last 4 years, little traction was made in finding a new shop space, especially one that was centrally located and affordable for a nonprofit with a meager income. At last though, we have finally found a new space in downtown Raleigh that we are excited about! It is on N. West St. and we will be renting 1,500 square feet of warehouse type space with the potential to expand as we grow. But with little funds in our account and no fundraising mechanisms in place due to our 4 year layoff, we are going to need some help. We are asking for the community’s support helping us to raise our first year's rent up front as well as some start-up money for tools, signage, workbenches, etc. We are running a fixed funding campaign, which means we will only get funded if we reach our goal. We feel that for 1304 bikes to thrive, we need to act now and spend the next several months focusing on reestablishing our previously successful shop programs and rebuilding a member base rather than worrying about fundraising. If we meet our funding goal, it will give us the breathing room we need to get 1304 up and running again; otherwise we will step back from 1304 bikes and hopefully find other ways to be a positive part of the Raleigh community. We initially got involved in this project because we loved riding and fixing bikes as well as the sense of community that came with those things. Please help us get back to sharing what we love and rebuilding that community by donating. -- 1304bikes www.1304bikes.com https://www.facebook.com/1304Bikes

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Bike Purchases with Sweat Equity
by Edward Kirkwood 22 May '13

22 May '13

At Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop in Lexington, KY, our bike purchase policy is: People without the financial means can purchase a bike that is priced < $100 totally on credit that day with the verbal agreement that they return to shop and volunteer enough to pay their debt off. Our sweat equity policy pays folks $8 / hour in shop credit. After a review of our sweat equity accounts that we keep for each customer, we discovered that over 50% of the folks who purchased a 100% sweat equity bike never came back after that initial visit/bike purchase. Our mission is to provide better acccess to better bicycles used for transportation and to enable folks to perform their own maintenance. While our current policy is providing bikes to people, we are questioning whether we are giving folks a handout rather than a hand-up. We would like to hear how some of you handle sweat equity bike purchases. More specifically adult purchases as we do not have a huge kid market. Allen Kirkwood Broke Spoke

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summer season lines and addressing peoples needs
by Andrea Chiotti 21 May '13

21 May '13

Hey, I'm working at the Community Cycling Center in Portland Oregon and we have been trying to brainstorm how to keep track of customers and tool stand users in the melee of the summer season. People come into our shop and line up out the door. Some people have "a quick question" and some need to consult about building their bike. It is hard to maintain a sense of order when one mechanic may be with a patron for 1 hour or more. Has anyone come up with a system to manage customers? We become overwhelmed trying to manage customers making purchases, consulting on repairs that they want to do themselves or have us do, or consulting about bike sizing, test riding, etc. We tried a "take a number" system last season that proved ineffective and just as confusing. We also tried having some people doing customer shuffling while mechanics answered questions, but still we would like to be more efficient. I'd love to hear any suggestions anyone may have or tactics you find work to maintain a steady pace of work and address needs in an organized way! Please feel free to ask me questions if i have been unclear. I am looking forward to hearing different problem solving tactics. Andrea Chiotti

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Squatted bike shop in Detroit.
by Marshall Symons 18 May '13

18 May '13

FIREWEEDUNIVERSECITY.ORG We were squatting a house and running it out of there but this year we are taking over a comercial space that has been abandoned for 15 years. I posted some pics of our progress on our blog. I hope you guys enjoy checking out our progress. <3 MARS PSYENCE fireweed universe city red planet bicycle collective DETROIT HUSTLES HARDER!

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Re: [TheThinkTank] summer season lines and addressing peoples needs
by Rachel Morris 18 May '13

18 May '13

At one point we had the same good problem. When stands were full, we put out a sign-in sheet. The person would write their name, cell number, date and time. When a stand opened, we'd call the person. That way they could be around at a shop, and then come back quickly. We never had as many people as you - so we had more wiggle room. I'm not sure how that would work with a serious line up. Kind Regards, Rachel The HUB Community Bike Shop - Ventura, CA

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We need space
by Garry Zimmerman 16 May '13

16 May '13

I am a volunteer at the Bicycle Resource of Bend in Bend, Oregon. We rent a small office space where we repair donated bicycles and we have five 10'X20' storage units packed with bikes and parts. We sell bikes to cover our $850 a month rent. We are so packed it is hard to turn around. My question is: What have other non-profits done to give them selves the space they needed? Garry BROB

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http://www.bikecollectives.org/ Is DOWN
by director 14 May '13

14 May '13

Anyone know what's going on? http://www.bikecollectives.org/ -- -- Rich Points http://communitycycles.org Executive Director (c)303-589-0597 (w)720-565-6019 Community Cycles is Boulder's only bike shop dedicated to bike commuting. Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/CommunityCycles

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Shop data management?
by Andrew Shooner 09 May '13

09 May '13

What kind of data do you record as part of your shop operations? Right now we use a somewhat abused set of spreadsheets to track our pertinent info, but I'm in the process of creating a more task-specific database (a web app) to handle it all better. Here is what we track now: - Volunteer hours (to add volunteer sweat equity credit to volunteers' records) - Sweat equity used (to subtract credit for purchase of bikes, parts, stand time) - Bike sales: Bike ID, how it was paid (cash/equity), how it will be used Our cash & credit sales are tracked independently on a POS/register. Right now that is all done on paper, then later entered into the spreadsheets. It's kind of a cumbersome process, but visitors are comfortable with a paper sign-in sheet, and volunteers are comfortable with a spreadsheet (vs. a database). We don't track overall number of shop visitors (although we do hang on to our paper sign-in sheets), or gross volume of stand time provided. While we have contact info for all visitors on a waiver they fill out the first time they come in the shop, we would probably have a difficult time if we needed to quickly find an emergency contact for someone, since they are all just on paper right now. I'd like to integrate that all together into the database. Since I'm writing this front desk app, I thought I'd ping the community to see if these are common needs, or if there are other common needs that I could consider as I develop it. I'd love for it to be useful enough to offer to the broader community at some point. -Andy Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop Lexington, KY

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Resources for starting a community bike shop
by Emrys Prussin 09 May '13

09 May '13

Hi There, We are starting a community bike shop in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and wondered if there were any resources out there with tips on starting up and things that others have learned in the process of starting their own community shops. We are in the process of putting together a first order for tools, to allow us to have at least three people working in the shop at once during community classes and for volunteers. Is anyone aware of a tool list that might give us some extra direction? any suggestions would be much appreciated, Oldtown Bike Works Yellowknife, NWT

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