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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