We function this way at troy bike rescue, and it is our main source of income really. There are more of us on this list so maybe they will chime in also.
TBR focuses on this not as a means of hoping to produce more money, but to separate itself from the current capitalistic paradigm while also keeping the lights on. We also serve a very wide variety of people, and I have found the best thing to do is to build relationships with every customer you can. We aren't just fixing bikes, we are setting an example of a potentially gas free and community supported future. We are trying to empower people to understand their means of transportation. Nobody should feel alienated, by gender/orientation/income/whatever the hell else. This includes people feeling alienated or abandoned because this system has forced them out of the capitalist system or for whatever reason they are not able to provide paper money for our servies. They are more than welcome to volunteer as payment, but the idea of "payment" just makes me feel icky.
To get back to my point, every time this topic comes up with a patron I try to express this idea to them, make eye contact, and really talk to somehow. Thats why I am there. I am there for that more than I am there for getting my hands dirty, ya know what I mean? If people cant pay, actually cannot afford the 5 $, why would i ever want to deny them the right to ride their bicycle?
This can get tricky though, especially with children. How do you develop an understanding of respect and "worth" to the work that you do in a capitalist society, while not subscribing to that paradigm. When worth of a skill or favor is based off of an hourly rate, how do we instill respect for what we are doing while also letting people get work done for free? For instance, we started charging a quarter as a minimum for getting a tire patched. Our doors were FLOODED with kids every single time we were open trying to get tires patched. There was no respect for what we were doing as a group, we were just a free service to them. Was this the best way to do it? I don't know, its a hard topic. But thats what collectives and shops like all of ours are here to do right, test out how things could work in a better world.
just my .02 cents.
ryan
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Paul Nagel paul@thebicycletree.orgwrote:
At our volunteer meeting last night, someone shared an anecdote where a group offering to pump up people's bike tires raised far more money when they asked only that people pay what they thought the service was worth, rather than asking for $1 per pumping (this was something he heard in a business class of some sort). This volunteer went on to suggest we not post our current $5 suggested donation per hour for DIY repair, but rather use language along the lines of "donate what you think the service is worth".
This is in a context where, even on a busier day, with about 12 visitors, we usually receive less than $60, even though many of those people will stay for two hours or more. Also, being *more* firm about payment is not of interest to us.
As with most of you, we serve a wide variety of people. I can see "donate what you think the service is worth" being fine for people of even modest income, but I'm concerned about how that concept can be communicated without causing bad feelings in people who *can't* pay what they think the service is worth.
In the past, when we were just getting started, we advertised our services as being "free", but accepted donations. That is somewhat different from the idea presented here, as "free" implies people need not/ought not to pay.
Does anyone here have experience with having no suggested donation? If so, have you utilized both methods in a similar context, and how did the income compare? Also, how did you word your pricing policy?
Thank you,
Paul
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