- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Volunteers vs. Paid Staff, Bike Shop Empowerment
by Macho Philipovich 24 Jun '08

24 Jun '08

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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Do you have something for me to do?.........
by Rich Points 24 Jun '08

24 Jun '08

How many times do we hear this question every day? Our Earn-A-Bike program consists of 10 hours of community service doing chores around the shop. We've had record numbers of EABers this spring and our list of chores is burned through in the first couple hours of any given day. So for the rest of the time the shop facilitators make up chores on the fly. This is particularly hard when the 20 people in the shop are asking two or three facilitators a constant stream of questions. Maybe we have too many people in the shop but I think if we had a better way to keep people working on projects. How are you keeping people busy in your shop? Peace -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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southeast regional bikebike, atlanta, ga, january 09
by rachael spiewak 23 Jun '08

23 Jun '08

Hiya, friends. We're kicking around the idea of hosting a Southeast Regional BikeBike here in Atlanta in January. Being centrally located in the region and having a little bit of shop success, we've been hosting visitors and fielding questions from people in the very beginning stages of community bike shoppery (ranging from Columbia, SC to Savannah, GA, as well as neighborhoods around the Metro Atlanta region). We thought it would be nice to get everyone in this part of the woods together to have conversation-style workshops designed to help folks tackle the practical issues of getting started, especially within the socio-economic and political context of the South. We've got an amazing community arts center at our disposal, and it's down the street from our shop, making things awfully convenient and affordable. Food not Bombs has even agreed to help keep us fed. This is not meant to detract from BikeBike. We could call it the Dirty South Community Bike Shop Jamboree if it needs to have a different name. We just thought it would be nice to have something designed to help folks who are just starting out and who might not be able to make it to Cali in September. Plus, we like to party. So...if you're interested in participating, please let us know! Of course, everyone is invited. -rachael -- Sopo Bicycle Cooperative 404-425-9989 www.sopobikes.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hours of operation: Tues/Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm Sat/Sun 2 pm - 6 pm

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Volunteers vs. Paid Staff
by Jonathan Morrison 23 Jun '08

23 Jun '08

We are trying to figure this out too, that being said... http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paid_vs._Volunteer -- Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/ The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households. On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Macho Philipovich <macho(a)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. > > > > Has anyone experienced either of these things in their shop? Any thoughts? > Solutions? > > Thanks, > Macho of the Bike Dump > http://bike-dump.ca > > _______________________________________________ > Thethinktank mailing list > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… >

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contracts for Earn-a-Bike youth?
by The Recyclery 19 Jun '08

19 Jun '08

Hi all, I was wondering if shops with E-a-B or after-school programs had their participants sign contracts at the beginning, either with rules of the shop, expectations, qualifications for getting the bike, etc. If you're willing to share your contracts with the list, that would be much appreciated! Also, a general discussion on the successes and failures of these contracts would be good. The Recyclery is starting our second E-a-B summer tomorrow! Thanks, Sharlyn

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Special Reminder: NBW Bike Part Art Raid TONIGHT
by Neighborhood Bike Works 17 Jun '08

17 Jun '08

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Grants
by ReCycles Bike CoOp 16 Jun '08

16 Jun '08

Hey y'all. We are a small, new-ish shop. Currently we operate as a program of a larger nonprofit, the Arkansas Sustainability Network. We are looking to move out and up and become our own non-profit. I am interested to know what grants help fund community bike shops. Are their any grants out there that would help pay for employees, specifically mechanics? Thanks for any info. Danielle -- ReCycles Bicycle CoOp www.arnetwork.org/bikes.html 501.372.6996 lrbikecoop(a)gmail.com OPEN: Tuesday (4pm-7pm) Ladies Night Thursday (3pm-7pm) Sunday (3pm-7pm)

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Fwd: Call to Artists - Jersey Design Contest
by Ann Altstatt 14 Jun '08

14 Jun '08

if anyone is interested. . . ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ann Ostermann <events(a)ccscc.org> Date: Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 2:35 PM Subject: Call to Artists - Jersey Design Contest To: annaltstatt(a)gmail.com Call to Artists Jersey Design Contest Cyclists for Cultural Exchange Cyclists for Cultural Exchange, a 501(c)3 organization promoting a vision of world peace and understanding through bicycling exchange programs, is conducting a design contest for the graphics for a bicycle jersey. Strawberry Fields Forever, an annual recreational bike ride, has been the primary fundraiser for their organization since the group's inception. Next year, 2009, will be their 20th annual event. To commemorate it they plan to produce and sell a cycling jersey, and they are conducting a contest for the graphic design of the jersey. The design should reflect the rich history and tradition of Strawberry Fields Forever and bicycling in the Santa Cruz area. There will be a $1,000 award for the winning design. For more information about Strawberry Fields Forever and Cyclists for Cultural Exchange, and for contest guidelines and design templates, please visit their website www.strawberryfields.org Award: $1,000 Submission Deadline: September 1, 2008 Submit online: info(a)strawberryfields.org Subject line: Strawberry Fields Jersey Design The winning designer will be notified no later than October 21st, 2008. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, please send an e-mail to Matt Werner mrwerner(a)mcn.org Good luck!!! This message was sent from Ann Ostermann to annaltstatt(a)gmail.com. It was sent from: Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County, 2400 Chanticleer Av. Ste. G, Santa Cruz, CA 95062. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Manage your subscription Share this message with others: del.icio.us Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon

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one million bicycles?
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 12 Jun '08

12 Jun '08

have any of you heard of www.onemillionbicycles.org? seems like something people on this list could maybe get behind/help out in a big way with... i just came across the website, and the mission sounds solid. i dunno about the delivery/project specifics.

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onemillionbicycles.org is real, not a scam, based in portland, oregon and ready to answer ?s
by Joe Kurmaskie 12 Jun '08

12 Jun '08

Hi Everyone - Joe Metal Cowboy Kurmaskie, founder and brain trust behind onemillionbicycles.org. I'm a lifelong pedal pusher, journalist, activist, "bestselling" author of the bicycling travel memoirs Metal Cowboy, Riding Outside The Lines and Momentum Is Your Friend (Mud, Sweat and Gears will be released in October) The best description of my writing came from USA Today - "David Sedaris trapped in the body of Lance Armstrong" Ha. I responded with "Either David got himself a trainer or Lance has let himself go to hell." But I drew the line when called "A modern day Mark Twain on two wheels" Cleveland Plain Deal. Come on now, if that's the case them somewhere a riverboat captain weeps. Enough about me, to the issue at hand, onemillionbicycles.org Yes, we are throwing the woodstock of bicycles, a one day 300 coast to coast of rallies at which 1,000,000 riders create 1,000,000 new ones. We are trying to create a national movement, help get more bicycles out of those garages, especially from folks that wouldn't normally know about or connect with bike collectives etc otherwise. Glad to find and connect with this list serv. We are going to kick some two wheeled butt with this project. I'm happy to answer specific questions and logistics especially how it covers tune ups of these bikes, safety checks and education, but in a nutshell, on August 9th 2009 one million of us who currently ride bicycles will ask for a massive increase in state and federal funding for bicycle education infrastructure, and enforcement. that's the rally goal. The bike giveaway goal is very one to one - each person pledges either to get a bike from their garage, collection, etc and pledge it to a specific person in their community That, or get a friend, family member, coworker, who doesn't currently ride or has not pedaled in many moons to come join the rally and bring a bike for themselves. The idea is to keep all the bikes local - philly riders give bikes to philly pledgers etc. the $5 registration fee and 75 percent of all funds we raise from other sources go to safety check and rehab bikes in their communities at collectives, bike shops etc. We are hiring national rally and bike giveaway coordinators to help coordinate. And an army of intern, volunteers awesome folks like yourselves That's where many of you guys come in - please email us, join the revolution by registering, let us answer any questions and then get involved as a participating collective and let us send you pledgers and pledges to check bikes in your zip-code. We also need groups to join up and sponsor local rallies. The rallies are a new model compared to things like the million man march and washington rallies to stop vietnam and Iraq war etc. That model puts all these resources into play to bring one million people to DC - we wanted a low carbon footprint but big media exposure and we wanted to put riders in the backyards of every congressmen in america - this way they can't pretend that those people at a DC rally aren't their constituents. It also allows for total media market saturation on one weekend, local, regional and national. These rallies will have music, speakers, booths, the big pledge moment, performances, rides, photo contests, etc. more info at these links: http://bikeportland.org/2008/04/17/a-national-movement-for-a-million- new-riders-begins-in-portland/#more-7044 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wCz68vaNJw Thanks Joe Kurmaskie onemillionbicycles.org metalcowboy.com

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