It seems to me that if folks are paying to get themselves a bike, it's no longer "Earn a Bike", but "Buy a Bike". We run an Earn a Bike program. We don't charge anything. People have to put in 10 hours of shop work for us before they can work on their own bike. If you're going to charge for it, I would change the name to "Build a Bike" and then set a sliding scale. That way, there's no confusion... "Am I earning this bike by working for you & getting a bike, or am I paying for a class & getting a bike?" (Disclaimer: We have no paid staff. All the bikes folks can earn here are donated by the community.) I definitely wouldn't separate folks into paid and non-paying groups. No need for classism in the classes.
That's just my two cents.
Stay warm!
B. J. Green
Treasurer, Lincoln Bike Kitchen
Lincoln, Nebraska
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2013 11:56:35 -0600
From: andrew@spokesconnect.org
To: Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Charging for Earn A Bike?
We in MPLS are considering charging (on a sliding fee scale) between 0 - $100 dollars for our 4 week Earn A bike class.
Typically, once students complete the bike, they receive a new helmet, new set of good blinky bike lights and can volunteer to earn a basic U lock. Also, we often use some new parts or Earn A Bikes like tubes, brake pads, cables and housing and in some cases tires (when we don't have a used one of the proper size in adequate condition). We also have 2 or more paid staff leading the class. So we want to cover some portion of those costs so that we can continue to provide the program...
Also, we are finding that there are folks interested in building/ earning a bike that maybe could afford to buy one or to pay the amount listed above or more for a four week, twelve hour class. We don't necessarily want to tell these folks they are not eligibile for the class or create a separate build a bike class for non-low income students. We have a goal of building community and want to bring people together from different backgrounds and of different income levels etc. Our classes are one place this can happen.
We will work things out for anyone who couldn't afford this by reducing the fee, allowing folks to volunteer rather than paying etc.
We do have a volunteer program where folks can earn shop credit for parts and frames.
Any thoughts or suggestions about using sliding fee scales or amounts that other programs/shops charge for build a bike or Earn a Bike classes?
Much appreciated!
BRRR, it's cold here.
Andrew
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