+1. Our mission statement at the Bike Root was simply 'Get more people on bikes'. As simple as it was it turned out to be a great tool for decision making as some contentious issues were often quickly resolved just by asking if the proposal supported the mission.

Someone eventually uses an argument such as: 'If we didn't worry about the safety of the bikes we sell, we could sell more and get more people on bikes.' But keeping more verbose supporting statements (guidelines, charter, constitution, etc), helps to weed out such issues.

godwin

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 12:27:16 -0500
From: ron.kellis@velocitycoop.org
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Request for ideas on Vision and Mission Statements for community bike workshops

Comment from the gallery: I've been, uh, subjected to these for over 20 years now. Meaning they can be really important for some folks as a focus point, important for funding, and many feel the need to include every descriptor that can be crammed into the space available. Often, in my experience, this means few actually read it. And for others, well I volunteer as an instructor and self-help mentor. I know that fits in our mission statement someplace or we wouldn't be doing it.

KISS and short:

We reach-out to help others learn to maintain their own bikes
We support safe cycling as a legitimate form of routine transportation
We assist members of the community who need a bike to obtain a bike.

Expand on that as necessary in supporting statements.

"All great truths are simple in final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not, they are not great truths." ~ Napoleon Hill.

Just my $.02

Ron

On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Andy Bakker <andy.bakker@velocitycoop.org> wrote:

Hi Donnie,

The mission statement that we use is:

Our mission is to educate, encourage, and empower a vibrant and inclusive cycling community through learning. We provide a non-profit, volunteer-run, educational do-it-yourself workshop offering training, rides, and events to empower all levels of cyclists in building, maintaining, and embracing the fun of bicycles.

I've been asked by a few volunteers about developing a real vision or vision statement and I'd be very interested if anybody has something they'd like to share!

Cheers,

Andy Bakker
VéloCity Bicycle Cooperative
2111 Mt. Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA 22301
andy.bakker@velocitycoop.org | www.velocitycoop.org

On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 11:55 AM, Don <dontito@videotron.ca> wrote:
Hi Everybody,

I’ve been hit-and-miss following along on the Think Tank for the past while so please excuse me if I missed any threads relevant to this request. Our collective is now in the process of redefining ourselves, and part of the process is coming up with a Vision Statement and reworking our Mission Statement, so I’d like to ask for examples that work for other groups. So far our shop has been mostly about mechanics and not so much about advocacy, though of course that could change during this process.

All comments and suggestions will be gratefully received!

Donnie
SantroVélo
https://www.facebook.com/SantroVelo

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