I volunteer at Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop here in Lexington, KY. We are currently a 100% volunteer run community bike shop that is open the following hours: Wednesday 6-9 pm Volunteer Only Night, Thursday 6-9 pm Open Shift and Sunday 1-5 pm Open Shift. To clarify, our Volunteer Night is for volunteers to come in and work on bikes that have been donated to us along with other tasks such as parts sorting. We do not offer sales or service to the public on Wednesdays. Open shifts are open to the public for individuals to come in rent our workstands and do work on their own bikes and shop for bikes and/or parts. Open shifts are staffed by a manager and trained volunteer mechanics. Volunteer Nights are staffed with a manager and 1-2 long term volunteers along with an unlimited number of volunteers that range from complete novices to regular volunteers.

My questions for the ThinkTank is regarding our Volunteer Night, if you have a similar volunteer-only night: (1) Do you limit the number of volunteers? and if so (2) How do you implement this limitation?

The reason for my questions is that sometime we have more volunteers than we can find quality tasks for them to do. It also limits the amount of in-shift training that we can provide to each volunteer. In addition, space and tools become a limitation.