Hi there Ariel-
Psyched to here of your shop ambitions in portland. I think securing
a place is the hardest thing- funds for rent and an initial tool
investment - if you can get that in a place like portland, everything
else is inspiring people power and have some amount of bureaucratic
tenacity. I think I tend to oversimplify, but really, it's easy.
there are a thousand approaches.
Here, we had founded the hub between Pedaler's Express, Bike to Work,
People Power!, and the SC County Cycling Club, We identified a tool
collective as a long-term goal, and after the first attempt by an
outside party failed (he wouldn't share his tools), skip and i sold 6
lifetime memberships to the peed collective ($600) and raised another
$800 or so from the community at large (wrote about 50 letters) and
the hub gave us free rent for our first year and then we paid 100,
then 200, then 400, and now $1200/mo for roughly 1100 sq ft of indoor
space.
sounds like other folks might be a more reliable resource for
articles of incorporation, although i like to think I could walk down
there and dig them up. Hope you're well and good luck.
Here at the Bike Church we have discussed ways of supporting other
project start-up (especially in locales deficient in such resources).
I know we offer wholesale priveledges for community shop collective
start-ups, and have discussed other options for financial support
inconclusively.
josh
On Aug 16, 2007, at 12:34 PM, Ariel raymon wrote:
Dear bike enthusiasts, Hello from Portland, OR. I may have already contacted some of you,
but decided this was a better route to go. My name is Ariel or
RaRa. I'm hoping to start a bike mechanic collective here in
Portland, as we don't yet have an affordable space for the public
to go to work on bikes and learn from experienced mechanics for
free. I've come up with 6 questions that would help me on my way to
actualizing this idea. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your interest in this project. Questions for Bike projects:How did your project begin? (tell me as much or little about what
was involved to get you started…. From idea to actualization) What was the process of filing for a 501c3 and if you're using an
umbrella organization, how did you find them? Do you have a lawyer, or lawyer friends that might give me some
legal advice pro-bono? Where did you get your funding? How did you enlist volunteers and keep them? What do you wish you had known going into this process ahead of time?
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Joshua Muir joshua@santacruzhub.org
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