Hi Tegan, almost everything we do operates within a gift economy
- Servicing has a labour 'value' attached as a guide of what this would be in a conventional workshop, people choose to pay what they feel/what they can - some pay the full amount, some overpay, some underpay, some simply receive. We service bikes ranging from £50 to £10,000 (Bosch e-bike certified, etc)
- We are often gifted old bikes (many that would be rejected by other non-profits and refused at a normal workshop but very occasionally, some that are worth a few hundred pounds). We full service these, sometimes just keeping the frame and building up everything. The money for parts (if not using good 2nd hand parts) is paid for by profits from servicing. Volunteers learn lots.
- No one takes a salary, everyone gets lunch and coffees and travel (if they want) paid for. Any personal bike servicing has no labour cost attached and free learning from a senior qualified mechanic.
- I'm currently taking a training fee from a schools programme I designed and run once a week during term time.
- We are training mechanics up to Cytech 2 and senior mechanics up to and beyond the level of Cytech 3 (though not certifying them due to cost at the moment). We managed to get a community fund for training so far, but are building up a wiki resource for our own training programme which will become and remain open source....I've written programmes (and certified modular programmes) for a few organisations. I've also been a teacher and trainer for about 25years in various subjects.
- w.r.t Refurbished bikes - these are valued at a going market rate - and since Covid, people pay what they can for them. I used to draw an income from this (this was the only income I drew) but after the pandemic, and with the training which I can live on (the rent of the flat I live in is currently gifted), I do not need any more money to get by with comfort. The deep trust encourages others to share and deeply support the team - including for example during the pandemic when one volunteer became very ill and one of our community stepped up and gifted three months of therapy, twice per week (usually £100+ per session).
- The model we work in is making sure the team are well looked after so they can look after the community - it feeds back ;)
- I'm exploring how to support future Workshop Managers at the moment as I'm still the Workshop Manager as well as the CEO & Head Mechanic (Accountant, lead trainer, etc etc) - not sure whether anyone else will step up to cover someone's rent but...who knows?! ;)
In service,
*Lawrence Mohammed* CEO and Founder Pro Bike Service C.I.C. *+44 (0)77 222 58587* *probikeservice.co.uk https://probikeservice.co.uk*
/::Olympic Park Site:: Pro Bike Service C.I.C. Multi-Storey Car Park, Lesney Avenue Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park London E20 3BS *map location https://what3words.com/upset.habit.funds*
/ On 27/11/2020 21:03, thethinktank-request@lists.bikecollectives.org wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Paying People who Refurbish Bikes (Tegan Moss [B!KE]) 2. Re: Paying People who Refurbish Bikes (Cyclista Nicholas)
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