- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Portland Gear Hub: Part Time Shop Manager Position
by Andy Greif 08 Jan '14

08 Jan '14

Hi Folks, The Community Bicycle Center recently partnered with Camp Ketcha to open an outdoor gear and bicycle thrift store in the YMCA of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine. The purpose of this auxiliary business is to generate revenue to support the mission activities of each organization. We need a Shop Manager and the job description is attached. Please pass this job description along to anyone you believe has the necessary skills and interest for supporting our respective missions through leading the development and growth of this store and gear rental library. Please direct them to Brooke Burkett with any of their questions (bburkett(a)campketcha.org). Thanks so much for your anticipated help. Take care, Andy Greif Andy Greif, Executive Director Mailing: P.O. Box 783, Biddeford, ME 04005 Shop: 284 Hill Street, Biddeford Shop Phone: 207-282-9700 Cell Phone: 207-229-8199 Website: www.communitybike.net <http://www.communitybike.net/> "Providing Opportunities for Youth to Grow"

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Bike!Bike! Monthly Meetings - Jan 5th @3pm PST - via google hangouts
by momoko saunders 04 Jan '14

04 Jan '14

Hi all, To keep conversations going post Bike!Bike! we are starting monthly online calls to discuss and work on various projects brought up at the conference. Our hope is to create proposals and present research at B!B! 2014. *Next Call: This Sunday! January 5th @3pm PST. The next will be February 2nd.* During this call, we plan to discuss pros and cons of organizing BB as a non-profit. A lot of opinions and questions were posed at the end of BB2013. Our hope is that people will feel inclined to listen in on this call and reopen that discussion. There is however a limited number of people who can be on the call. If you are keen to discuss these ideas further, we encourage you to join the working group via this link<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bikebike-working-group>. (The "working group" is a group of about 15 people who are committed to continuing BB conversations and assisting the hosting city in planning BB.) We have already had one conference call. *Previous Call on November 8th. Here are the meeting notes <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GYFUxuk9XHLfe4GmwtNEm11nJlkAdfraqZXyNkE…>. * In brief, we discussed how decisions are made for BB, concluding that all decisions had to be reached at the conference itself. The working group is not a deciding group but rather a discussion group. We defined "sufficient communication" as emailing the thinktank, the attendees of BB, and messaging the Facebook Group. We discuss the website and the issues with bikecollectives.org . And we decided upon the agenda and time for the next meeting, the pros and cons of non-profit status for BB. Despite our dedication to publishing all meeting notes and proposals to the bike collective network as a whole, joining the working group is the best way to stay in the loop. Please email with any questions, -Working Group peoples.

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U locks
by Mark Friis 28 Dec '13

28 Dec '13

We were wondering if any one has had luck getting "U" locks donated in bulk or have a good source for buying them. We want to get people to start using them instead of the cheap Walmart stuff. Also, we are opening our third Co op and the city asked for a business plan. Does anyone have a generic one for a bike co op? Thanks Mark Friis Executive Director, Inland Empire Biking Alliance PO Box 9266 Redlands, CA 92375 909-800-4322 *mfriis(a)iebikingalliance.org*<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/mfriis@iebikingalliance.org> <http://goog_1035360530>WWW.IEBIKE.ORG

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Pricing structures for tools & space?
by Bob Giordano 20 Dec '13

20 Dec '13

We do free use of shop stands, tools, advice/help and basic parts. It keeps it so simple, and people almost always throw something in the donation jar. People can also take a BikeWell class, volunteer 4 hours, and then build a bike with our help, or pay $20 to skip the vol time. We then have a whole other batch of bikes that takes more time or more money. We also have a batch of bikes that are basically money only- we cannot exist on time nor outside help alone (nor do we want to). I realize this will not work for all shops, but we are able to raise good money with events, small grants and so on, as people really like that we exist and help people in the way described above. We revisit this 'philosophy' at least twice a year, and have arrived on this 'formula' after nearly 20 years of trying just about everything. That said, we are always wondering about this topic and how it relates to fairness, the current economic system and building bike culture. -- Bob Giordano Free Cycles Missoula Shop: 732 S. 1st St. West, 541.7284 10AM-6PM Mon-Sat Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation www.strans.org, mist(a)strans.org, 406-880-6834 Lauren Warbeck wrote: > Here at Our Community Bikes in Vancouver, we're wanting to change our pricing structure for use of our tools and space. I'm interested to hear > what pricing systems other shops are stoked on and why. I know this has been discussed many times before, but lets get real: I don't remember and > I > didn't save them. So here we are again! > At present, we have a three-tiered system: > $6 to use our tools with no help > $12 to use our tools with help > $18 you stand there looking on blankly while we do it for you. > It's a flat hourly rate, all day every day. No caps. > This system doesn't actually reflect how we charge. No one gets the $18 treatment, even if they ask for it. We don't have the staff to do it, and > its not really what we like to do anyway. More often that not, when a service user comes up to pay after using our tools, we ask them > approximately how much time they worked alone, and how much time they had > help, and agree on some combination of the $6 & $12 rate. Now, I love qualitative analysis as much as the next community bike shop employee, but > even I can appreciate that this leaves big gaps in terms of assessing appropriate payment, making the money that keeps us afloat, and makes our > payment system ultimately unclear to our service users. > How does your shop charge for tools and space? How did you arrive at that > system? Does it present any barriers to meeting your service users' needs > or reflecting your shop's values?

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Pricing structures for tools & space?
by Lauren Warbeck 20 Dec '13

20 Dec '13

Hey folks! Here at Our Community Bikes in Vancouver, we're wanting to change our pricing structure for use of our tools and space. I'm interested to hear what pricing systems other shops are stoked on and why. I know this has been discussed many times before, but lets get real: I don't remember and I didn't save them. So here we are again! At present, we have a three-tiered system: $6 to use our tools with no help $12 to use our tools with help $18 you stand there looking on blankly while we do it for you. It's a flat hourly rate, all day every day. No caps. This system doesn't actually reflect how we charge. No one gets the $18 treatment, even if they ask for it. We don't have the staff to do it, and its not really what we like to do anyway. More often that not, when a service user comes up to pay after using our tools, we ask them approximately how much time they worked alone, and how much time they had help, and agree on some combination of the $6 & $12 rate. Now, I love qualitative analysis as much as the next community bike shop employee, but even I can appreciate that this leaves big gaps in terms of assessing appropriate payment, making the money that keeps us afloat, and makes our payment system ultimately unclear to our service users. How does your shop charge for tools and space? How did you arrive at that system? Does it present any barriers to meeting your service users' needs or reflecting your shop's values? Thanks pals! Lauren @ OCB

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justin pogge invited you to check out Dropbox
by justin pogge via Dropbox 19 Dec '13

19 Dec '13

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LeadsOnline experience
by Doug 16 Dec '13

16 Dec '13

Our local Police Dept has requested that we start logging the serial numbers of all bikes donated or dropped off after hours at our shop. LeadsOnline is a nation-wide database that law enforcement uses to track stolen property. I am very supportive of reducing bike theft, but I'm concerned about effectively training our volunteer staff on this new procedure. Can some of the other organizations share their experience with LeadsOnline or any best practices you have developed for streamlining the serial number logging process. Thanks, Doug Cutter Fort Collins Bike Co-op

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Thethinktank Digest, Vol 88, Issue 12
by mike r 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

Sorry, but I'm an engineer. Be careful in talking about CO vrs CO2. Both are in auto exhaust. CO is a component of air pollution. The EPE regulates CO at the tailpipe to around 3.4 to 4.4 g/mile, measured with the engine at an idle. Nearly all of the rest of the carbon going out the pipe is CO2. CO2 is the Greenhouse gas. When you burn gasoline or any hydrocarbon, almost all of the Carbon leaves as CO2, a small amount is CO, and a very small amount very small amount is HCO. All the carbon going into the fire comes back out as Carbon+something. There is a calculator at cotap.org for estimating CO2 based on MPG and miles driven. Good Luck ________________________________ From: "thethinktank-request(a)lists.bikecollectives.org" <thethinktank-request(a)lists.bikecollectives.org> To: thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org Sent: Monday, December 9, 2013 2:19 PM Subject: Thethinktank Digest, Vol 88, Issue 12 Send Thethinktank mailing list submissions to thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to thethinktank-request(a)lists.bikecollectives.org You can reach the person managing the list at thethinktank-owner(a)lists.bikecollectives.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Thethinktank digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction (La Bikery) 2. Re: Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction (Martin, Eric Vance) 3. Re: Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction (james bledsoe) 4. Re: Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction (Martin, Eric Vance) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 13:37:12 -0400 From: La Bikery <labikery(a)gmail.com> To: The Think Tank <Thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org> Subject: [TheThinkTank] Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction Message-ID: <CAFanTAEQ6+JPodTU_fAw_dg4YnNSjJNtt28Kj5Qm7f54vkgGng(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello Friends, We are in the process of applying for a grant and want to make a case that we contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions and reduction in car use. Does anyone have experience or ideas about how we might be able to measure our impact on that specific issue? Cheers, Amanda -- *Coop?rative La Bikery Co-operative * *Centre de v?lo communautaire /Community Bicycle Centre* *120 boul. Assomption blvd, Moncton NB* *Jeudis: 17 h ? 20 h/Thursdays pm-8pm* *Samedis 11 h ? 14 h/Saturdays 11am-2pm* www.labikery.ca

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Measuring carbon emission reduction or car use reduction
by La Bikery 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

Hello Friends, We are in the process of applying for a grant and want to make a case that we contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions and reduction in car use. Does anyone have experience or ideas about how we might be able to measure our impact on that specific issue? Cheers, Amanda -- *Coopérative La Bikery Co-operative * *Centre de vélo communautaire /Community Bicycle Centre* *120 boul. Assomption blvd, Moncton NB* *Jeudis: 17 h à 20 h/Thursdays pm-8pm* *Samedis 11 h à 14 h/Saturdays 11am-2pm* www.labikery.ca

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Charging for Earn A Bike?
by Andrew Magill 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

We in MPLS are considering charging (on a sliding fee scale) between 0 - $100 dollars for our 4 week Earn A bike class. Typically, once students complete the bike, they receive a new helmet, new set of good blinky bike lights and can volunteer to earn a basic U lock. Also, we often use some new parts or Earn A Bikes like tubes, brake pads, cables and housing and in some cases tires (when we don't have a used one of the proper size in adequate condition). We also have 2 or more paid staff leading the class. So we want to cover some portion of those costs so that we can continue to provide the program... Also, we are finding that there are folks interested in building/ earning a bike that maybe could afford to buy one or to pay the amount listed above or more for a four week, twelve hour class. We don't necessarily want to tell these folks they are not eligibile for the class or create a separate build a bike class for non-low income students. We have a goal of building community and want to bring people together from different backgrounds and of different income levels etc. Our classes are one place this can happen. We will work things out for anyone who couldn't afford this by reducing the fee, allowing folks to volunteer rather than paying etc. We do have a volunteer program where folks can earn shop credit for parts and frames. Any thoughts or suggestions about using sliding fee scales or amounts that other programs/shops charge for build a bike or Earn a Bike classes? Much appreciated! BRRR, it's cold here. Andrew -- Andrew Magill Lead Trainer/Mechanic *SPOKES Bike Walk Connect* 1915 E. 22nd Street MPLS, MN 55406 *andrew(a)spokesconnect.org <andrew(a)spokesconnect.org>612-206-3028* *spokesconnect.org <http://spokesconnect.org/>facebook.com/SpokesConnect <http://facebook.com/SpokesConnect>* You can donate to SPOKES or SNG any time. Just Visit http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Seward-Neighborhood-Group

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