Rich, this is a great question, and one i&#39;ve often thought about posting here!&nbsp; We deal with trying to keep folks busy as well on a daily basis.&nbsp; We&#39;re always running around asking each other what those is to be done for the earn-a-bikers!&nbsp; Here&#39;s a couple things we do to help keep poeple busy:<br>
<br>-We have a dry erase board in the shop, and we try to update it with the stuff that needs to get done the next time the shop is opened.<br><br>-We&#39;ve also started giving repair lessens to our earn-a-bikers instead of actually requiring them to do &quot;work&quot;.&nbsp; So for example, we&#39;ll sit a group of them down and teach them fix-a-flat or wheel trueing, and the time they spend learning skills counts toward their EAB hours.&nbsp; It is after all the goal of our EAB program for people to come out with more bike know how than when they started.&nbsp; <br>
<br>-A lot of our EABers spend time stripping bikes and wheels.&nbsp; We&#39;ve been getting enough donations lately, that it seems like there is always a bike and some wheels to be taken apart.&nbsp; These also leads to parts that need to be sorted and filed. <br>
<br>-Checking, Patching, and labeling tubes is another common task that always needs doing.&nbsp; <br><br>-We also try to get EABers helping us to further organize the shop by sizing and seperating parts like spokes, BBs, Cable Housing, etc.<br>
<br>Anyway, these are the sort of things that we do to keep folks busy at our shop.&nbsp; And it is not always enough!&nbsp; We are often running around trying to keep 5-10 folks occupied with something to do, and we don&#39;t want to have to turn people away.&nbsp; I&#39;d be interested to hear how other shops keep poeple busy as I&#39;m sure it will help us out.&nbsp; I&#39;d also like to further develop a sort of skill block program that EABers could work on towards their required hours.&nbsp; Do any other shops do this?  <br>
<br>Doug<br>1304bikes<br>Raleigh, NC<br><br><br> <br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Rich Points &lt;<a href="mailto:rich@richpoints.com">rich@richpoints.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
How many times do we hear this question every day? <br>
Our Earn-A-Bike program consists of 10 hours of community service doing chores around the shop. &nbsp;We&#39;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. <br>

So for the rest of the time the shop facilitators make up chores on the fly. &nbsp;This is particularly hard when the 20 people in the shop are asking two or three facilitators a constant stream of questions. &nbsp;Maybe we have too many people in the shop but I think if we had a better way to keep people working on projects.<br>

<br>
How are you keeping people busy in your shop?<br>
<br>
Peace<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Rich Points<br>
Community Cycles Director<br>
<a href="http://CommunityCycles.org" target="_blank">http://CommunityCycles.org</a><br>
Rich@CommunityCycles.org<br>
720-565-6019<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>1304bikes<br>2419 Mayview Rd.<br>Raleigh, NC <br><a href="http://1304bikes.org">1304bikes.org</a>