- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Re: [TheThinkTank] Thethinktank Digest, Vol 36, Issue 33
by Emily Lindberg 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Recycle-a-bike in providence will be working at Interbike east coast outdoor demo, as well running Roller races and raffle, a bike in movie, and bike vallet. Anyone interested in helping out email emily(a)recycleabike.org, or come by for the events in the evening! happy biking! On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 4:07 PM, <thethinktank-request(a)bikecollectives.org>wrote: > Send Thethinktank mailing list submissions to > thethinktank(a)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)bikecollectives.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > thethinktank-owner(a)bikecollectives.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Thethinktank digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Our Booth at Interbike 2009 (Jonathan Morrison) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:52:29 -0600 > From: Jonathan Morrison <jonathan(a)slcbikecollective.org> > To: The Think Tank <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Subject: [TheThinkTank] Our Booth at Interbike 2009 > Message-ID: > <4dd29fd10908260852md8d9408s3df4ed77b453df19(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > The Bike Collective Network booth is scheduled for Interbike in the same > place as last year. It wasn't in the cards for me to go to Bike!Bike! this > year, but if everyone can bring materials from their shop to Bike!Bike! and > entrust them with someone who is going to Interbike to drop off at the > booth, we we gladly display them. > > Feel free to send pictures and videos (with labels) to me and we can make a > display of them too. Everybody loves pictures. > > In addition, if you are going to Interbike, let us know, we need people to > staff the booth. A large group is staying at Circus Circus and you can get > a room with two beds for $22 a night right now on hotels.com. We are > cramming as many people in a room as possible to keep the costs down. > > 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 Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Jonathan Morrison < > jonathan(a)slcbikecollective.org> wrote: > > > Like last year the Bike Collective Network will have an advocacy booth > at > > Interbike (www.interbike.com) from Sept 24th until Sept 26th. Yes, they > > scheduled Bike!Bike! on top of it this year. So if you are not planning > on > > going to Bike!Bike! this is a great opportunity for grants, tools, parts, > > sponsorships, manufacturer seconds, networking, professional workshops > that > > will put your head in a whirl for months, and not to mention tearing up > the > > Vegas strip on a bike. So three things: > > > > 1) This booth is for all of us, and people with deep pockets ask where > the > > closest community bike shop for a donation, it is helpful if we can give > > them your info. So please mail any materials you want handed out before > > Sept 22nd to: 2312 S. West Temple; Salt Lake City, UT 84115. If you have > > photo albums, they would be great and we will mail them back after the > show. > > > > 2) We will be printing out copies of the Bike Collective Network > Directory > > (not the wiki) to hand out, so please make sure you are listed. > > > http://www.bikecollectives.org/component/option,com_sobi2/sobi2Task,addNew/ > > > > 3) If you are planning on going to Interbike, please contact me (off the > > list) so we can establish some volunteer shifts at the booth. If you are > > coming alone feel free to room and board with us, we usually get a bunch > of > > rooms at Circus Circus and pack as many people in as possible. > > > > -- > > 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. > > >

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Non-Profit Industrial Complex
by Macho Philipovich 24 Aug '09

24 Aug '09

Hi everyone, It looks like I'm not going to make it to Bike!Bike! this year, but there was a discussion I was really wanting to initiate. It mostly comes out of lived experience, but is well-articulated by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence in a recent book they wrote called "The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex" I would love for people, especially those in shops with an anti-capitalist/non-hierarchichal/anti-oppressive bent to them to have a look at that book and then to have discussion around some of the points raised, specifically of limitations in 501(c)3, state funding, and foundation funding models. If people have had a chance to look at the book and would like to discuss it here, that would be great, but even better would be if there were someone willing to lead a discussion next month in Minneapolis. Macho http://bike-dump.ca

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Thethinktank Digest, Vol 36, Issue 28
by Clifford McCarten 24 Aug '09

24 Aug '09

Before I get into the distributer stuff, I want to SINCERELY THANK the bike!bike! organizers for sending us the BEAUTIFUL poster and invite. We received it a while back and have affixed it to the wall for good. It made us so happy to feel included in the bikey community (and the poster was gorgeous). We can't make it this year, but have applied for funding that might send us next year. -- Distributer stuff: This is a really exciting project that some of you are taking on, and I echo Geoffrey's comments below about the need for such an org in Canada. The relative ease with which an account can be had through Babac (Quebec distributer) does little to make up for the fact that they're stocked with bottom of the barrel parts. This and the annually increasing minimum to place an order makes a less-than-ideal situation. co-op/shop needs -low volume supply of basic, quality parts -ease of account acquistion (a way to give ordering accounts to orgs that haven't incorporated yet) -ability to sell parts without having a pristine storefront (a requirement for many brands) Obviously, this is a complicated situation, because the bike shop and its users buck the familiar way that capitalism mediates buying/ selling privileges. But nothing we do is easy, right? Shimano's Canadian headquarters is in my city, there is potential to talk with them directly. I'm keen to stay a part of this discussion: are there other canadian shops on this list that see a need for a co-op distributer? Clifford McCarten Co-Director, B!KE: The Peterborough Community Bike Shop 400 Wolfe St, Peterborough ON K9J 2P3 (705) 748-6681 http://www.communitybikeshop.org On 21-Aug-09, at 6:01 PM, thethinktank-request(a)bikecollectives.org wrote: > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:01:01 -0400 > From: Geoffrey B <vous.je(a)gmail.com> > To: The Think Tank <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Distributors and interacting with the > profit model > Message-ID: > <6ff82e30908211501y557c22e7y9b7d9a453b4194a9(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > In canada, the need for a community operated distibution network is > much > needed. > > I have been frozen out of accounts with big distributors because of > our > close proximity to other bike shops. I was even thinking about > creating a > mail box outside of our city to take on bigger distributors...thus > your idea > of a community operated distro. > > We send out about 3k a month to local Qubec based distro such as > Damco, and > Babac, even a West Coast distro wants our orders...Asama. > > Creating a go to for up and coming community shops is a must. We > need to > make accessibility to basic parts and tools a priority for small > community > initiatives in Canada, America and the United Mexico. > > Geoffrey > Bike Pirates > Toronto, Canada > > ********************************************

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Distributors and interacting with the profit model
by Rigel Christian 21 Aug '09

21 Aug '09

Hi, I had an interesting discussion with someone who worked at a smaller distributor today. I had called in order to try and cultivate a business relationship for our local co-op, which is in desperate need of tools and consumable parts like bearings and cables. He mentioned that a lot more co-ops were inquiring about accounts. He also told me the reasons why co-op/DIY shops were problematic from his end, and it's a reasonable criticism from that perspective. Individually, we simply dont do the volume of business necessary to be attractive to a business interest. The time necessary to administer and verify an account that does maybe a couple hundred dollars worth of business a month for the higher traffic shops kind of burns your profit margins, which are not large at that level. distributors count on reliable, volume business to stay afloat, and take a smaller cut of profit on the assumption that that's the type of business theyll be doing. I've know that some of the longer running co-ops and collectives have relationships with distributors, but clearly many of the newer ones do not. I'm curious about a couple of things. 1) Does your collective have a relationship with a parts distributor? 2) Regardless of the answer to #1, roughly how much does your shop spend on tools/consumables/things-that-one-would-get-from-a-distributor? It seems to me that in the first few years of a co-op/nonprofit/collective situation, lots or most of these organizations leverage either existing ties to, or the goodwill of LBSes. My suspicion is that in some edge cases, where the bike or DIY culture isnt all that strong, this can be a fairly significant issue for a fledgling operation, in terms of both finances and social capital. The idea that i'm trying to push here is that of a sort of buyers club. Disregarding for the moment the perfectly valid criticisms of the legal structure of 501(c)3s, if there was a nonprofit that could act as a go-between for a parts distributor and a number of regional shops, that would serve the needs of both the for-profit distributors AND the co-op shops. distributors wouldnt have to deal with as much volatility from taking on co-ops as charity cases, and co-ops banding together could drive the price of a lot of the most necessary consumables and parts down even further than their current distributor relationships can offer. in the ideal case, of course. I would appreciate any input people have. I dont know if this has been suggested before (I suspect it has), but i didnt see anything in my archive of the last year or so. If I'm totally off base in my assumptions I'd like to know that too, where i went wrong, and what the real deal is. cheers.

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Winnipeg to minneapolis for bikebike-Ride needed!
by shanny1＠telus.net 20 Aug '09

20 Aug '09

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Re: [TheThinkTank] ride wanted- chicago to minneapolis for bike bike!
by Kristen L. Abdullah 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

Awesome, keep me updated. If you would like, give me a call at (904)613-4948 ane we can chat about the ride. thanks, krissy On Mon Aug 17 11:03:52 EDT 2009, Geoffrey B <vous.je(a)gmail.com> wrote: > we might be through Chicago by Wed August 26th > > On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 2:48 PM, Kristen L. Abdullah > <kabdullah(a)ufl.edu>wrote: > >> Hey, >> I'm couchsurfing in Chicago at the moment, and am looking for a >> ride to >> bike bike in a couple of weeks. Just me and a couple of bags. no >> bike. >> Willing to split gas money. Please email me if you have an extra >> spot. >> thanks in advance! >> >> krissy >> kabdullah(a)ufl.edu >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Thethinktank mailing list >> Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org >> To unsubscribe, send a blank email to >> TheThinkTank-leave(a)bikecollectives.org >> To manage your subscription, plase visit: >> >> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… >> > > > > -- Geoffrey B > > _______________________________________________ > Thethinktank mailing list > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > To unsubscribe, send a blank email to > TheThinkTank-leave(a)bikecollectives.org > To manage your subscription, plase visit: > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > Kristen Abdullah kabdullah(a)ufl.edu

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ride wanted- chicago to minneapolis for bike bike!
by Kristen L. Abdullah 17 Aug '09

17 Aug '09

Hey, I'm couchsurfing in Chicago at the moment, and am looking for a ride to bike bike in a couple of weeks. Just me and a couple of bags. no bike. Willing to split gas money. Please email me if you have an extra spot. thanks in advance! krissy kabdullah(a)ufl.edu

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rejecting trash bikes
by Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE 14 Aug '09

14 Aug '09

hey folks, a moral or social dilemma: when your shop accepts donations of used bikes, but you're already filled to the gills with hundreds of bikes that may or may not ever get fixed up, how do you begin to turn away donations that are really not worth the space? or do you? just looking for some suggestions of how other shops have dealt with this issue. it gets to the point where we don't have the time, space, or man-power to strip down all those pieces-of-crap even to send to the scrap yard, but now that people know that we accept used bikes, it's hard to know how to say no. thanks! sarah Urban Bike Project of Wilmington -a 501(c)3 non-profit bike shop- 1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the building) Wilmington, DE 19802 Hours: Thursday 6:30-9:00 Saturday 1:00-4:00 Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org

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rejecting trash bikes
by Bob Giordano 14 Aug '09

14 Aug '09

yes, yes. and we have a nifty new design (although i'm sure it's been done), that puts a pipe through two bottom bracket shells, for a parking rack, and for bike/garden cart/trailer. we use 2 rear triangles cut off 'reject' bikes. more on that to come... -Bob g., free cycles missoula, freecycles.org Angel York wrote: > Rejectable bikes are also pretty great material for making bike trailers. > > On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 7:51 PM, MoBo Bicycle Co-op < > mobobicyclecoop(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Hiring Business Consultant for bike program in Guatemala
by arik grier 13 Aug '09

13 Aug '09

JOB OPENING: International Business Consultant position for an exciting nonprofit appropriate technology center and bicycle retail store in Guatemala. Maya Pedal is the organization that makes and markets “bici- maquinas,” labor-saving, cost-effective pedal powered inventions, to individuals and cooperatives who are off the electrical grid and can’t afford diesel generators. Maya Pedal has amazing technology but lacks sound financial and organizational stewardship. Job Description: Bikes Not Bombs (BNB),Working Bikes Cooperative and Maya Pedal(MP) seek a Spanish-English bilingual person who has small business management and sales background, and experience with nonprofits. This job will require developing a marketing plan and a business plan for the organization, Maya Pedal, a nonprofit appropriate technology center in San Andres de Itzapa, Guatemala. To be an effective consultant in this job you’ll need to be able to work well with people and yet be straightforward in your assessment for restructuring the financial oversight and management of the organization. First order of the day will be to assess the current state of operations and develop a business plan and an annual budget. The second task of work will be to develop and implement a marketing strategy. Thirdly, you will make recommendations as to how the MP Board should be comprised and help to start new board development process. Finally, you will oversee a hiring process to find appropriate administrative personnel for Maya Pedal. Job duration is six months and is expected to begin in early to mid October. Lodging is supplied in beautiful San Andres de Itzapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Job pay will include a round-trip air fare, a return transition stipend, international emergency medical insurance and a $550 stipend per month. Experience working internationally with small businesses in Latin America Is an important plus. This is a tremendous opportunity for someone who wants to gain hands-on working experience with Latin American indigenous nonprofits and marketing of Appropriate Technology. Job tasks will include: • Review and report on current fiscal solvency of Maya Pedal • Review and establish an appropriate accounting system • Assessment of current sales department and marketing strategy • Some direct involvement in customer relations/sales • Development of a business plan for Maya Pedal • Assessment of functionality of Board of Directors and recommendations • Creation of an annual budget and financial reporting system • Help to develop a marketing plan • Research possibilities of web based, on-line giving procedures • Participation in management and shop staff meetings • Work with internal committee to hire administrative personnel for Maya Pedal as recommended and agreed upon by Maya Pedal and international stake holders. This will include review of potential candidates and training personnel once hired. Please send your resume and cover letter by September 8, 2009 to: hiring(a)bikesnotbombs.org or check out the link on the Bikes Not Bombs web site at: http://bikesnotbombs.org/node/584

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