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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