- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

What the Election Means for Bike Co-ops
by Josh Bisker 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

This is a message I sent to the Mechanical Gardens. I'm passing it on to you here. Feel free to repurpose. Love and strength and sorrow, everyone. Josh ___________________ This is a message of hope and strategy. Today we enter a broken future, and the dangers that now loom on the horizon are too numerous to be counted and too massive to be properly appraised. In consequence, we as the Mechanical Gardens now have a tremendous responsibility. "We've got our work cut out for us," is a saying that's been in the air. Here's what I believe that looks like for us. We must make our co-op a place that actively opposes the agenda of hatred, and defends and elevates women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, the disabled, and the impoverished. We must become an organization that embodies social mechanisms for achieving equity, safety, mutual aid, compassion, and environmental justice in our operations and outlook. This election is a disaster; its fallout will be far worse, snowballing into a series of crises as the new government destroys the many social, cultural, and economic systems that people depend upon for life. For the Mechanical Gardens, therefore, I submit that rather than asking "what can we do to help people avoid the coming crisis," we approach our work slightly differently, asking: "what can we do in the co-op so that after these crises come, after the systems we depend on are undone, that groups of people still know how to operate in ways that support their values and provide safety for them?" This means that the soft stuff on our agenda -- like creating our guidelines for decision-making, collective respect, and participation -- is the most important work we have cut out for us, alongside our outreach to bring more people into the shop and the collective. These are everything. These are the seeds of a solid tomorrow that we tend and cultivate at the co-op, and that we entrust to everyone who comes in the door, so that they can plant and foster them as well, no matter what calamity comes. How do we do this? We begin by training ourselves to articulate our values and decide how to formally embed them in our cooperative structure, and deciding to informally embody them in our ways of being. Some of our values stand alone; others will be informed by the risks we see to liberty and justice, such as the threats of persecution, discrimination, sexual exploitation, authoritarianism, police and mob brutality, land exploitation, the devaluing of science and reason, and the fracturing of democratic institutions. We must decide how to value and embed compassion, equity, feminism, mutual aid, environmental sustainabilty, enfranchisement, reason, protection against persecution, safety, autonomy, responsibility, and respect into the bike co-op, both in the institution and in our interactions there. Bike stuff is important too! Mechanicship especially is critical to the oncoming era of climate calamity, with uncertain roads, settlement conditions, and gasoline access meaning that bikes become invaluable for billions of devastated and displaced people worldwide. (General DIY skills and self-confidence too.) But bikes here might be a vehicle to helping us empower ourselves and our communities to create thriving structures that support their groups' values. This, I submit to you, is "our work." We have so much we can learn from each other in it. How to be listeners, how to be leaders, how to be community members. How to be strong, how to be nimble, how to collaborate. And how to work not out of fear but of love for each other, those around us, and those yet to come. These things are the seeds of the revolution we need to prepare for. This has been a bad day, but I'm very happy to be doing this work with you. The world is in trouble, and by coming together, we have found work that will help people survive the dark times ahead. Josh

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National Bike Summit
by Angel York 14 Nov '16

14 Nov '16

National Bike Summit (the national bike advocacy conference) is in Washington DC on March 6–9 *http://bikeleague.org/summit* <http://bikeleague.org/summit> Equity scholarship <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAER2PGPH3TlCoSGEgefpFRZM9plXBplm…> deadline is January 6, 2017, it brings the price of entry down to a hundred dollars.

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Group Visioning Exercises: Go
by Josh Bisker 11 Nov '16

11 Nov '16

What are you favorite group exercises for collective visioning, for things like (a) collective ethics and values (b) standards of respect and behaviors in the shop (c) responsibility, wrongdoing, and justice. Go.

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Creating a Community Survey
by Nicole Meyer 02 Nov '16

02 Nov '16

Hi all, At Austin's Yellow Bike Project we're trying to create a community survey to better engage and serve our neighborhood. We're interested in finding out how people view us, and what services they'd like to see us offer. Also, ultimately, we'd like to find out what might make us inviting enough to change the demographics of our majority white, majority cis male volunteer collective, but I'm not sure how to incorporate that into a survey. Baby steps! Has anyone done a community survey before? Do you have any advice for crafting questions, and for methods of distribution & collection? Thank you! Nikki Meyer P.S. It was great to meet some of you in Detroit at my very first Bike! Bike! Glad to be a part of this community :)

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Any German co-op
by Tigre Bici 02 Nov '16

02 Nov '16

Hello! We are looking for a german co-op to have some questions asked. Does anyone is part of one or knows one? please let us know Thanks R.

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Synopsis of Service Toolkit Workshop
by rob＠robertgrossmandesign.com 02 Nov '16

02 Nov '16

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Synopsis and Materials from Advanced Problem Solving 101
by rob＠robertgrossmandesign.com 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

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Save the Date - Youth Bike Summit 2017
by Pasqualina Azzarello 31 Oct '16

31 Oct '16

Hi Everyone, Save the date for the 7th annual Youth Bike Summit! *When:* October 6-8, 2017 *Where:* Washington, DC / Arlington, VA *Hosted by:* Phoenix Bikes in Arlington, VA A "save the date" card is attached - we are planning for the largest Youth Bike Summit yet so please help us spread the word by sharing it far and wide throughout your networks. More information can be found on our website <https://youthbikesummit.org/> and in our newsletter. <https://t.e2ma.net/webview/iisnq/40f834ebe474f7287604bb50e53383a7> You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @youthbikesummit Feel free to be in touch directly should you have any questions or want to learn more about ways you and your shops/orgs can participate in this ever-growing, collaborative youth bike movement. Thanks, everyone! Best, Pasqualina [image: Inline image 1] -- *Pasqualina Azzarello* Director, Youth Bike Summit Website <https://youthbikesummit.org/> | Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/youthbikesummit/?fref=ts> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/youthbikesummit> | Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/youthbikesummit/> @youthbikesummit #YBS17 *SAVE THE DATE! * *Youth Bike Summit* Hosted by Phoenix Bikes in Arlington, VA October 6 - 8, 2017 // Arlington, VA / Washington, DC

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How-To Guides for Sorting Used Parts
by Anastasia Clement Thorne 31 Oct '16

31 Oct '16

Hello everyone, I work for Kickstand in Vancouver, BC. We are reorganizing the shop to create an environment that allows volunteers to be very self-directed and self-sufficient while volunteering. One of the the solutions I'm working on is creating a How-To guide for sorting EVERY used part, so that brand-new mechanics can get working parts into the appropriate bins, or strip them for small parts (even if they don't really know what all the parts do. Think, flow charts and well-labeled diagrams). I know that there are other shops out there who have already made these resources, so that I don't have to rebuild a wheel unnecessarily. Does anyone work/volunteer for a shop that has these resources? Please share! Or do you know of a shop that does this? I'm happy to contact them! Thanks for your collective brain power! -stasia

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If You Like Podcasts About Bike Collectives
by Thomas Butler 31 Oct '16

31 Oct '16

Then here (forwarded below) is an episode to add to your list. It's a 34:09 interview with 2 coordinators of Austin's Yellow Bike Project. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Everyday Superhumans" <everydaysuperhumans(a)gmail.com> Date: Oct 20, 2016 6:46 AM Subject: Everyday Superhumans Episode Premiere To: "Thomas Butler" <thomas.unavailable(a)gmail.com>, "Thomas Fackler" < thomas.fackler(a)gmail.com> Cc: Good morning Tom & Thomas, Kyle here. Just thought I would let you know that the interview you two did with Caroline and I a few months ago is live online. You can check it out here <http://everydaysuperhumans.com/2016/10/19/episode-15/>. We want to thank you two again for sitting down with us for an hour to chat about the Yellow Bike Project. We love what you're doing, so much that I ended up buying a bike from you guys the next week! Have a great day! - Kyle S.

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