I'd love to get a quick update on what shops are doing for shop operations during covid. There was an awesome virtual workshop put on a few months ago. What are shops up to now?

At Bike Farm, we're still far from being open in our usual way. We have a parts selling shift for one day of the week. We meet people outside and get a list of items they want to purchase, then volunteers rummage around and find the parts and bring them out for the patron to choose from. We do not allow use of tools which is really hard but most people understand. We do have a selection of tools which we have available for sale for real cheap. This includes random loose allen wrenches, other wrenches, multi tools. Here are the guidelines for this shift.

We also have a shift where volunteers work on bikes in the shop for sale or for our community partnerships. We limit all volunteer groups to 5 people at a time, and we try to keep people in germ bubbles so that if someone does get sick, we've limited the exposure. Everyone wears masks at all times and keeps distant. 

We have a 3rd night which we just added called our infrastructure night. On this night we work on cleaning the shop and making it more functional.

We have a document outlining our covid protocols. I've made a copy of it for the thinktank to view. Everyone in the shop must read and agree to these guidelines before being able to volunteer. 

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With a vaccine looking like it will not be here and widely available till summer or even fall of 2021, we're looking for more creative ways to provide resources to the community, stay safe, and maybe make some money to pay rent. I'd love to hear if others have come up with creative ways to continue operations during this time.

Hope you all are well, 

-Momoko