_< forgot to cc the list again
-cyclista Nicholas
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Patron Bill of Rights (consider adopting) Date: 2018-01-10 15:14 From: cyclista@inventati.org To: Angel York aniola@gmail.com
Everything else in it looks like a good idea. Just those two parts are off base.
Our policy is that we have no right to control bikes brought in by participants, and that should be morally obvious. Where we do have rights is with the bikes and parts we hold, and the extreme importance of _not_dying_in_traffic_ incentivizes rules and restrictions about the condition of bikes rolling out into the street.
We all probably remember some lofty gilded time in some anarchic community shop in a garage or low rent strip mall where the craziest bikes were built and of the street rogues that inhabited the place flew out the door on those mobile experiments without a care.
But now I'm in a place where people's children come to my shop with the intention of riding out the door and into the street, and over a decade of experience has shown me that kids (and a lot of adults) too much of the time just don't care about functional brakes, or even understand how brakes should feel, even when the culture at the shop is pervaded by common sense, patient instruction, and good examples. Drawing hard lines about bikes we legally own and have full rights to exercise control over makes unassailable sense considering that lives are at stake.
Similarly, while some shops may have donors willing to dole out tools limitlessly, more do not. I don't hold that our shops are effective without tools, or that participants own the expensive tools that others fought hard to gain. There has to be an understanding on the part of the participants that they have a responsibility not to damage the entity that shelters, educates, and empowers them. Not everyone just naturally takes care of free things. Most participants don't intuit that the specialized free remover wrench cost $30 or that the Tire seating tool is rare and costs over $50. It isn't anyone's right to abuse or mishandle the shop's tools. I think these things are all self apparent.
The spirit of these two lines seems more about not being dominated by pushy condescenders, mansplainers, or the like, and about guaranteeing the promise of power and freedom. By asserting the participant is the owner. At our shop we assert that very thing emphatically. We just don't do it before the participant has a safe bike in their possession and before they know the difference between a suicide lever and a disc brake, or to put a finer point on it, between aluminum rims whose walls are about to cave in and ones that have years of life left in them. Anyway, the lines both could probably be replaced by a single one referencing something reaffirming the purpose of the end goal, that being the participants ultimate (rather than immediate) empowerment.
I'm a bit too tired atm to come up with some good wording for it. But
attached is our participant policy. That having a "policy" rather than
"bill of rights" focuses on the authority of the shop more than the
autonomy of the participants is not a detail that is lost one me, but I
still think you might find our premises useful.
Sorry this whole thing is so tl;dr.
-Cyclista Nicholas
On 2018-01-06 13:37, Angel York wrote:
I would love to hear your suggested adaptations, because I think something along the goals of this Patron Bill of Rights is HUGELY important and a worthy topic of discussion for any community bike shop that purports to teach its patrons.
On Sat, Dec 23, 2017 at 11:24 PM, cyclista@inventati.org wrote:
What about the first two? I would say they need greater detail.
At our shop we don't let bikes being built at the shop leave without passing a safety check, which might conflict with the first one. And without finer-grained detail on the second one, shop tools could get broken when participants use the wrong tool for a job, or use the correct tool but in the wrong way.
-Cyclista Nicholas
On 2017-12-16 18:34, Angel York wrote:
This is a fantastic sign that illustrates excellent teaching practices, and many shops that don't have something similar would do well, in my opinion, to include something similar.
As a patron of SPOKELAND, you have the right to the following
- To pursue your own goals for your own bike
- To be in control of the tools used on your bike
- To always be asked before someone touches your bike
- To ask & receive assistance from shop staff
- To work on your bike in a SAFER SPACE [there is also a standard
safer space agreement]
- To be supported in your learning
- To learn with staff
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