Re: [TheThinkTank] Think Tank, and Uniting the Rebels.

3 Sep 2009

      I feel like we need a system where access to forms and other shop- 
administrative documents is limited to a people who run shops, and not

available to the general public.  I really do prefer openness, but I'm

worried that someone with access to all our master documents might try

to rip us off.  Please tell me if you think this is nonsense, or how

you would feel about having the .odt or .doc source to your forms

freely available on the internet.
Currently our form-sharing is done by these means: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timandmegan/3876067295/
Lars Peterson
Velocipede Bike Project
Baltimore, MD
On Sep 3, 2009, at 2:07 PM, Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE wrote:
...
Josh,
That is awesome, thank you for taking on the very big task of doing

this!
The knowledge share part seems already covered with the Bike

Collective Wiki, or would you be trying to organize the information

a different way?
Have you thought about funding the organization itself through dues

paid by member organizations or other means?  Thunderhead works with

a percentage of annual revenue and a minimum of $75, I think.  The

fiscal sponsorship and insurance offering would be huge.
An aside, I would love for some other organizations to "Woof" to us,

haha.  It would offer more specific and in-depth idea sharing than

can be had in a classroom setting or bouncing ideas back and forth

by email.
I can offer my help, as much as I can, during my paid job which

sometimes has a lot of downtime. Let me know what specifically you

need help with.
Brian
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
On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 1:01 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for coming to bikebike! and being so participatory. I got

home, went over my notes, and realized I have two lists of email

addresses.
Apologies to everyone who's already on the thinktank list for

receiving this twice. Just wanted to get this out to as many of you

as possible. Please forward to those you think might be interested.
One is folks who didn't know about or how to sign up for the Think

Tank email listserv. To do that, just click the link below this

paragraph, and you'll be added. It's not moderated, so if ever you

decide that you don't want to receive emails anymore you'll need to

unsubscribe yourself.
To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
The other list I have, and I suspect some folks who aren't on

ThinkTank will be interested in, is those of us who spoke about

joining forces as collective bike shops into one big organization,

or a federation, or something. The three big things this

organization would do are:
Serve as a (501c3)  fiscal sponsor for startups. Of course, this

would only be offered to bike projects in the US, as other countries

have other systems and requirements. Insurance also was mentioned as

a possible benefit.
Be able to potentially approach tool and/or part manufacturers

directly for lower cost for frequently ordered consumables like

cables, brake pads, etc.
Offer some sort of structure for a "Woofing" type program, where

mechanics and organizers from one organization could visit and stay

with another organization to check out their systems and organization.
Lastly, and the most easily doled out benefit this group could offer

would be startup help for burgeoning projects. Either in the form of

money that's collected from existing projects, grants, sales of

parts to for-profit shops, etc...; and/or wisdom through offering

sample paperwork from other orgs, such as sign up sheets, flyers,

curricula, etc.
The last one there seemed like the easiest place to start, since a

knowledge share wouldn't require all that much infrastructure to

establish. In fact, it's already in the works. There is a google

spreadsheet here that hopefully will grow as folks add their

information and add columns to track info for other shops, and we

can use this to network with shops doing similar work, or with

similar programs. Please add your project's name, and it's details

when you get a chance.
I've volunteered to be the lead person in getting this process

started, but I have no experience organizing a group of existing

organizations, so hopefully someone else can step in and offer up

some expertise and keep the momentum going.
Thanks to everyone who came to the workshops, discussed options and

potential conflicts. I don't think any of the bulleted list above is

out of our reach, but navigating through some of the trickier bits

via email could eat up some time.
josh.

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