At the AMS Bike Co-op at the University of British Columbia we only have formal materials for new board members.  Our shop runs only with paid mechanics, and non-board-member volunteers are not generally "in charge" of the shop.  At drop-in volunteer events the training is ad-hoc, but for some volunteer events where we want more-qualified volunteers we ask that they have been to a few drop-in nights first, or have taken our cycling mechanics courses.

Our board member guide can be viewed here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dPiAsYuXLdoeuUlLBRTzevCw7SUKjxvCP6qm71Q5xmg/edit?usp=sharing

Additional links:
mechanical courses: http://www.bikecoop.ca/programs/workshops/
drop-in volunteer day: http://www.bikecoop.ca/programs/wednesday-volunteer-day/

Disclaimer: I've been gone nearly a year, things may have changed regarding volunteer training.

Jean-François

On Mar 8, 2017, at 11:43 , momoko saunders <analyst@bikefarm.org> wrote:

I don't think we have the best system by far... But one thing I like about our system is that we switch who gives volunteer orientation. It used to be always the volunteer coordinator. That resulted in vital "how we work" info consolidating in one person's head. When we started sharing the responsibility of orientation, it helped already core volunteers get a refresher of the rules. 

We also print out little info packs on how our org runs and basic things one can do to volunteer.

Also, we read off our mission and safer space agreement at the beginning of an orientation and talk about what that means in the shop.

-momoko

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 6:35 AM, Andrew Shooner <ashooner@gmail.com> wrote:
Nice! I was looking at your codebase, and saw the 'skills' it attaches to volunteers. Cool idea. As we've grown, letting shift runners know who has been checked out on what tasks (specifically mechanic and business-type tasks) has been one of our challenges.

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 4:12 PM, Matthew McMunn <matthew@therecyclery.org> wrote:
Andrew, Yes. We have a home made software system called VTracklery. In the short term we will be adding features to the volunteer profiles to help us with this. Our longer term goal is to get the whole system online. One of our collective members has expressed interest in taking on this project as her PHD research. I'll make sure she knows about this Think Tank conversation.

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 2:44 PM Andrew Shooner <ashooner@gmail.com> wrote:
Matthew, that sounds great.  Is there going to be a tracking/software component to this pathway system?

Andy
Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop
Lexington, KY

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 3:40 PM, Matthew McMunn <matthew@therecyclery.org> wrote:
The Recyclery in Chicago is working on "Developing Pathways for Volunteer Success" this year. We are designing a "Volunteer Pathways" system. It includes Volunteer Orientation, New Volunteer Training, "Choosing Your Volunteer Pathway," and One on one mentorship to help a new person get involved in their areas of interest. We are also working on developing a "badge" system similar to this one: https://diy.org/skills.

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 2:17 PM Tom Martin <tom@rosewoodbikes.org> wrote:
I'm interested in this as well. 

So far, Rosewood Bikes has created Volunteer and paid staff positions (guest mechanic; mechanic trainer; shop steward; social media; ride lead; outreach/champion, etc.). Working on shop procedures and processes too.

Rosewood is developing a volunteer training initiative for the entire org, and the community bike shop will need to have its own training. 

I wonder if a program exchange or ambassador type thing would be something to think about, for hands on insight and information exchange. 

Tom Martin
Rosewood Bikes
Program Director
16126 SE Stark 
Portland OR, 97233
Shop: 503-568-1938
Personal: 510-996-8655

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 11:48 AM, Josh Bisker <jbisker@gmail.com> wrote:
Give us your best shot: how do you train volunteers to work with patrons? What's the foundation of the training, how's it go, and what makes your approach sparkle? 

Context: the Mechanical Gardens is building up momentum and I'm realizing that our volunteer core has different levels of insight into how to help and engage with patrons during open hours. The group has little-to-no collective experience to draw from of what a community bike shop does and how its staff or volunteers approach or conceive of their roles. I think that a volunteer training might be a good way to establish a baseline of expectations for working with patrons. In fact, I think we should have someone else come and run it for us so it's not some weird hierarchy thing where I'm telling everyone how to behave. (Anyone fancy a trip to NYC?) For the meantime, we would benefit greatly from your collective wisdom about shop roles and how to embody them.

xox - Josh

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Matthew McMunn
-Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator-
http://therecyclery.org/
Facebook @TheRecyclery
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Facebook @TheRecyclery
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