HeyEric! Blown away by the number of shops in Oregon. These smaller, rural shops (like yours) always seemed a little special when compared to shops in urban centers. I'm from a rural town in KY pop. 2000 and always imagine how my life would have been different if I had access to a cooperative bicycle shop. Really cool to know that y'all are out there. Thanks!
The bike shop I currently work at has been operating for almost twelve years. Lexington KY, population 300,000(general population is how I try and quickly scale our shop to others).
https://www.thebrokespoke.org/
For two(ish) of twelve years we had a paid part time shop steward, then I was hired in September of 2022 as a full time shop manager. I've also been volunteering with our shop for probably nine out of twelve year we've been in operation. So for about nine years, we maintained on non-paid volunteer labor. I've seen and been victim to and discussed for hours, volunteer burnout. There can be a little or a lot to it.
Feel free to give me a call to chat about shop stuff. I may even be able to get some of our long time volunteers to hop in on a call. I'd feel better about a call, than trying to explain what exactly our experience has been, in an email. Very low-key, no cameras required(unless you want a tour around the shop!). Having other people to 'talk out' some ideas or thoughts really helps me to think a little more clearly and confidently. Would love to help y'all out.
8592871238
On Sun, Jul 9, 2023 at 9:56 PM eric clough via TheThinkTank < thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
Hello Emory and ThinkTankers - I really appreciate the posting by Emory and I would like to offer a few thoughts. Before I do that, I want to acknowledge, as Luke Box did, the valuable content and work represented here in the ThinkTank. Since the time I founded a small community bike shop in Coos Bay, Or. (2018), I have paid close attention to the content of exchanges here. I have participated in the virtual BikeBike and I look forward to an in-person BikeBike sometime soon. Thank you ThinkTank for all the resource you provide - I find it very valuable. Cheers to all those who have put effort into it over the years.
The major urban centers of Oregon (Portland, Salem, Hillsboro, Corvallis, Eugene) all have large and well established 'community' bike shops. Oregon has smaller communities that also have community bike shops. Like Coos Bay and Waldport (others?). I am interested in Emory's posting because in Coos Bay we are finding it difficult to sustain volunteer effort to operate the various programs needed in our community. We don't generate enough revenue (sales & service) to support paid staff and, while we have had some success with grant applications, our experience is that implementing grant programs with all volunteer effort is challenging. We also struggle with basic business admin functions. I definitely appreciate the comment from Geofry Smart about merging of groups can result in loss of values and perhaps other important facets of community-based operation (autonomy for example). However, burnout is hitting our small operation pretty hard these days. We are on an unsustainable volunteer path. In the pacific northwest, there is currently a developing 'umbrella' non-profit organization that is intended to support a consortium of regional community bike shops. I don't know a lot about it at this time but I am interested to learn more.
Laura Brooke - thank you for the reference to the Vermont group. I will be reaching out to the "Old Spokes Home" (love the name!)
Eric Clough Front Street Community Bike Works Park Your Car - Ride Your Bike!
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