Our hours were quite similar to yours, and we have recently expanded to 5 days a week.

We found no decrease in attendance when we increased our hours. Quite the opposite.

However, we quickly found our volunteers were stretched thinly. Most people could not dedicate more than two days a week. This caused different "crews" to staff different days. As a result of that, we quickly developed communication problems. (we partially solved this with a combination of signage, email and a log book)

With the all the extra traffic, we gained more volunteers, even though this helped staff the new hours, it compounded our communication problems. Also, it made our monthly meetings unwieldly and ineffective. (we are in the middle of overhauling our decision making process)

to cut a long story short:
more hours --> the need for more volunteers
more volunteers --> the need for more effective organization.

good luck and have fun!
Anibal




On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 2:35 PM, Mark Rehder <mark@re-cycles.ca> wrote:
Brian, you'll probably find it's like highway construction - build more roads and more cars fill them up. ;)

I don't think you'll find it decreases anything.  Like most shops, every hour you are open will have people requesting your services.

During Spring and into the Summer it is barely-managed chaos in our shop, but we make it through (upon moving into our new shop we've added a second volunteer staff position to help manage things).  Ever since we allowed do-it-yourself repair on every shift we've struggled to meet that demand, because we could have all four workstands humming every night, but that would crowd out the volunteers.  And the volunteers are the ones that fix up the bikes that pay our rent.  The DIY only adds minimally to our bottom line, but we all feel it's important that folks have a place to fix their own bikes.  So we carry on...

Last summer I started staffing Sundays from 3-6 (to fit my schedule that day) and made it a volunteer-only shift - no DIY, and no sales. The turnout was not as good as I'd hoped, but even through this winter I've had from one to six vols. attending.  But if I made it a DIY day I'd be swamped.

Now for this coming Spring we're looking at opening on Mondays during the day and Saturday afternoons, using paid staff (the other weekdays have our partner org. using our shop for training purposes).  The Mondays will be like the evenings - open to all, and we'll test the demand.  But the Saturdays will most likely be just sales and volunteers, because even with two staff the DIY demand would probably be over the top.  Maybe we'll add DIY in the Summer after the Spring sales settle down...

Mark



On 20-Feb-09, at 1:49 PM, Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE wrote:

UBP is currently open two days of the week, one Thursday night and one Saturday afternoon.  We are considering opening another weeknight, as our current hours sometimes get really, really crowded.

For anyone that has recently expanded their hours or can recall when you did so in the past:  Did opening more hours decrease traffic on your other open days, or merely become another busy night?

We are entering our second year of operation, still growing and anticipate being even more crowded this year.

Thanks for your insight,
Brian Windle

Urban Bike Project of Wilmington
-a 501(c)3 non-profit bike shop-
1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the building)
Wilmington, DE 19801

Hours:
Thursday 6:30-9:00
Saturday 1:00-4:00

Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org

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