Josh here, also from Community
Cycles.
Sort of in addition to Rich's email, but expanding on it a bit,
and bringing in some other cans of worms...
We have 3 paid staff
members, and the rest are volunteers, or get paid as contractors for teaching
one class at a time.
I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking
about bikebike, and have come to what looks to be some hard decisions. I was
brought on as the latest paid staff person, as the "Development Director".
Essentially, I'm responsible for 3 things, listed in order of their
importance.
1. Membership tracking, coordinating, and
communication.
2. Grantwriting and fundraising events, etc.
3.
Volunteer Coordination.
I'm realizing the more I read about horizontal
power structures and consensus based org's that while our issue of volunteers
not wanting or able to commit to anything other than dropping by when it suits
them could just be that we have a bunch of flaky volunteers, I'm slowly coming
to the realization that our model of paid staff and unpaid volunteer staff is
flawed.
I've started and come super close to sending an email to this
list several times asking how we can get more out of our volunteers. I realize
the inherent issues of our paid staff requesting more of volunteers. There's
all kinds of issues here, but it's the model we're in, and I'm not sure how to
address it in a positive, productive way. (Of course, job security for myself
and two other people also comes into play, for if we get rid of the paid staff
positions, then we've put 3 hard working people out of work.)
I'm
almost done reading "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded", and would LOVE to
continue the discussion we starte at bikebike! online, once some more people
have had a chance to read it. (To those of you who asked at bikebike about
whether there's any resolution at the end of the book to address whether
there's any ways to pay for revolutionary social change org's without funding
from foundations, there is. Not some silver bullet magic answer, but they do
address the question somewhat.)
I'm interested to hear from other org's
that have one or more paid staff members how that structure plays out in the
dynamics of your staff, volunteer or paid. Do tensions arise? How do you
address them?
For those of you at the shops with no paid staff, when I
bring up that model to friends outside of radical activist circles, the
response is often "yeah, but if they're all volunteer run, don't they have
jobs aside from the bike shop work? wouldn't having a paid staff person
working full time on things allow the org to do more work?" this seems like a
logical response.
If I personally wasn't working full time at
Community Cycles, I would be working full time somewhere else. Two things come
to mind. 1. I wouldn't be as happy as I am doing the work for the organization
I work for. 2. I wouldn't have as much or any time to devote to Community
Cycles as a volunteer.
Am I missing something? I'm not looking for a
critique of capitalism. Is the major reason why a lot of shops don't have paid
staff because of the weird power dynamics it brings?
Thanks for taking
the time to read this ranting. I hope something fruitful comes of it. Also, if
you're still reading this, feel free to call me an idiot.
josh.
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Urban Bike Project
Wilmington, DE
<urbanbikeproject@gmail.com> wrote:
Cool
Rich thanks....here is our volunteer structure:
Types of Volunteers and Volunteer
Structure at UBP
updated 8/3/09
Drop-In or
Unscheduled Volunteers
-Limited to sorting parts, patching tubes,
organizational tasks.
-May be turned away if the shop is too
crowded.
Scheduled Volunteers
-Sign up in advance for full
shifts in one of the following roles:
-Greeter signs people into
the shop, answers basic customer questions, answers phone
-Parts/Back
Room assists mechanics and customers with finding parts in the back
room, organizes and keeps the back room neat.
-Sales assists
customers who are looking to purchase a bicycle.
-Mechanic(s)
assist adult customers who are repairing bicycles.
-Youth
Mechanic(s) assist youth who are repairing bicycles.
-Head
Mechanic overseas all activities in the shop and assists Mechanics with
difficult repairs.
Core Volunteers
-Scheduled volunteers
who complete 3-4 full shifts per month and 2 tasks from the Core Volunteer
Task Sheet.
-May keep a project bicycle in the shop longer than the
standard 2-week period.
-May attend Core Volunteers only shop time and
Core Volunteer meetings.
-Receive discount when ordering parts from
J&B Importers catalog
And this is our experimental Volunteer
"Ladder" for moving people up the chain as it were. The idea being,
unskilled volunteers can work up as slowly or quickly as they want (most
greeters end up quickly learning tube patching during shop time and also
basic wheel truing since the truing station is directly behind the
greeter). Same for "skilled but new to the shop" volunteers. If
they really want to work as a mechanic they can see right in front of them
what needs to be done first.
Skills Checklist (head
mechanic/volunteer coordinator to sign off on each requirement)
Requirements for Greeter:
-Attended
Volunteer Orientation? Date:______
Additional
Requirements for Parts
Sorting/Salesperson:
-Basic identification of parts
-Pedal removal/installation, Stem/Seat
adjustment, Tire Pumping
-Basic Bicycle Sizing
Knowledge
Additional Requirements for Youth Tire
Pumper/Patcher:
-Wheel Removal/Installation (coaster, freewheel,
derailer)
-Tire Removal/Installation, Tube Patching
-"How to work with
youth" Basic Training? Date:______
-3 full shifts at other
position (date and position): 1)________ 2)________
3)_______
Additional Requirements for
Mechanic:
-Attend/Pass Advanced Mechanics Class or Test?
Date:_____
Additional Requirements for Youth Mechanic:
-3
full shifts as Mechanic
(date):
1)________ 2)________ 3)_______
-1 full shift as Youth Tire
Pumper/Patcher: Date:_____
Additional Requirements for Head
Mechanic:
-3 full shifts as Youth Mechanic
(date):
1)________ 2)________ 3)_______
-1 full shift shadowing Head
Mechanic (date): Date:______
-Approval from Collective of
Core-Volunteers: Date:______
It's just been hard to
convince people with tons of experience that they really do need to
(and are required to) be greeter or parts sorter for at least 3 shifts
before they can even think about working with customers.
Please share
thoughts and ideas!
Brian
Urban Bike Project of Wilmington
-a
501(c)3 non-profit bike shop-
1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the
parking lot behind the building)
Wilmington, DE
19802
Hours:
Thursday 6:30-9:00
Saturday 1:00-4:00
Visit
us online at
http://urbanbikeproject.org
On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 11:28 AM, R Points
<poster@richpoints.com> wrote:
Hey Brian,
Yeah we have similar
issues at Community Cycles. We have a dozen or so core volunteers
who show up each week for a three hour shift, we call the
facilitators. Most of these folks have worked in bike shops or are
advanced shade tree mechanics. By and large most of our
facilitators are limited when it comes to people skills. In
addition, even though these facilitators show up on a regular basis it's
been almost impossible to schedule them for a shift. And a lot of
times facilitators show up and don't even work on bikes they just hang
out. We do have a monthly facilitator meeting which has been
sparsely attended at best.
Currently we don't have a mechanism for
interested volunteers to become facilitators or high level
volunteers. The result is our facilitator pool has become old,
stagnant and untrained. To address this we've been working on
developing a facilitator training process.
The training process,
still in it's first draft, is broken into four training sessions.
The trainings are focused on admin/greeter, daily shop ops, mechanics and
community outreach. Once you've gone through the training you'll be
qualified to schedule a three/four hour facilitator shift each week at the
shop or work on a special project/event.
As you mentioned a
lot of enthusiastic volunteers are not particularly mechanically inclined.
One perk we've talked about is if a new facilitator commits to 6 months of
shifts they can take our Bike Mechanics 101 class for free
http://communitycycles.org/programs/classes.html
We'll be launching this new training program at our next
facilitator meeting at the end of this month. Wish us luck.
Ride
On!
Rich
CC Facili(Tator) Training ManualTo
become a facilitator or high level volunteer at Community Cycles,
you need to go through a series of simple trainings. Once you've
gone through them, you're qualified to represent Community Cycles at
events outside of the shop. Facilitators gain privilege to order
from our wholesalers at 10% over cost.
Criteria
- To be a facilitator you must have completed the training and commit
to one shift per week for a minimum of a three month period. If
you are unable to make your shift it is your responsibility to have it
covered by another facilitator. If you cannot cover your shift
please let staff know asap that you will not be able to attend.
- Attend a mandatory monthly facilitator meeting at the shop.
Usually the third Tuesday of each
month.
TrainingsYou'll need to schedule to
complete four trainings during open shop hours. Each training
session is 3 - 4 hours. You must complete the trainings within two
months of your start date.
- Greeter
The greeter is one of the most important roles in
the shop. Functioning as greeter is a quick way for you to get
oriented to Community Cycles and what we do. We've put together an
awesome Greeter manual that will help you answer the most common
questions we hear in the shop each day.
- Kids Bikes and New Donation processing
- Strip bikes for parts as needed
- Check - Frame and wheels for cracks, dings and bends
- Fix Tubes - patch tubes and replace as needed
- Replace - Rotten tires, seats, grips, frayed cables and rotten
cable housing
- Remove - light and lock hardware, seized rusty chains...
- Clean - Drive train, wheels and hubs, frame, handle bars...
- Install - Missing reflectors, valve caps
- Flatten Bikes
- Sort parts
- Shadow Facilitator
Shadow a certified tater for a shift
helping EABers in progress, tune ups or sale bikes. Shadow taters
will do one tater chore; i.e. clean bathroom, take out trash, sweep...
After this shift you will be "qualified" to help EABers and work on in
shop tune ups.
- Grab Bag - Would be taters can choose from any of these
activities.
Repeat any of the first three
trainings
Greeter Trainer
Finisher/Sales
Community tabling event
Street team
UCAR
CHaRM
Farmers Market
North Storage staff assistant
Tune Ups
RBC
Special event
Super
FacilitatorVolunteers who demonstrate mastery of bike mechanics
and/or volunteer beyond one shift per week. Super facilitators gain
access to the key code on a case by case basis.
- Complete the six week bike mechanics course or other bicycle
mechanics training course.
- Demonstrate bicycle mechanic mastery
- Complete a bike safety instruction course
- Demonstrate bicycle safety and be capable of teaching a short bike
safety seminar
- Volunteer for 2 or more shifts per week
- Be active on a sub committee of the CC board of directors
- Work on a special event or campaign.
Urban Bike Project Wilmington,
DE wrote:
Hi All,
Since we opened shop I've observed that our best
volunteers are those that hardly know anything about the mechanical side
of bikes but have enthusiasm and a desire to learn. They end up
being the most patient with customers and eventually the best
teachers/passers on of bike knowledge. On the flip side are
experienced bike mechanics. Most, but not all, are pushy,
completely disregard our "hands off the tools philosophy" and don't
understand when we ask them to "please attend volunteer orientation" if
you would like to volunteer as a mechanic here ("but i'm already a
mechanic!").
Recently a bike mechanic of thirty years came in
because he heard about us and wanted to observe what went on. To
make a long story short, he did everything BUT observe and I had to
ask/tell/almost yell at him several times to let people in the shop "do
it themselves". The last time I told him to "let him do it
himself" he responded with "but i have so much knowledge to share!", to
which I replied "here we let people get that knowledge themselves and
don't watch over them constantly or take tools out of their hands",
which he didn't seem to understand ("what if they make a mistake and
something breaks?!"). To lighten the mood (they'll probably laugh,
or cry...), bring a hammer out and explain that this is your "rim
straightener" or "frame alignment tool".
My questions to the
other collectives out there:
1.) Do you have a similar
issue? or is it just us, haha
2.) How have you gotten
experienced mechanics (like the above example) to "buy-in" to your
system if at first they resisted?
Brian
Urban
Bike Project of Wilmington
-a 501(c)3 non-profit bike shop-
1908
N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the
building)
Wilmington, DE 19802
Hours:
Thursday
6:30-9:00
Saturday 1:00-4:00
Visit us online at
http://urbanbikeproject.org
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--
Thanks for supporting Community Cycles, Boulder's
first and only non-profit bike shop!
Ask me how you can sponsor a Youth
Earn-A-Bike student for just $100.
www.communitycycles.org
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