>From the collective perspective, I say "open up". Give collective members responsibilities, understand that sometimes you'll all have to take up some slack, and find managers within your community and organization. Coming from the Bike Church in Santa Cruz with the clerkship model, that's where my heart lies. management jobs are open to the whole collective and they rotate. If you truly give the responsibilities over, the folks who love your org will take it on as their own and really come through. I know, sounds hard to believe, but it works.
And it works in a way that creates a shop space that actually represents the collective personalities (yes this includes faults as well as excellences).
This model also takes time to develop the job descriptions (clerkships) in a way that is acccessible to more than one individual (so that they can rotate, and still be performed well.)
It sounds like this might be a large leap for some other shops, but it has many benefits.
And if you need qualified mechanics, offer a series of master mechanics classes to your volunteers and go thru some manuals start to finish. In my mind the point of the community bike project is to dispell the myth that you have to hire out to find someone knowledgable enough to do the job.
best of luck
josh
On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Rich Points <
rich@communitycycles.org <mailto:
rich@communitycycles.org>> wrote:
Hey All,
We've started looking for a new shop manager. After a week or so of
resume submissions nothing stands out. We had the same experience
last time we hired a shop manager.
I wanted to ask the shops who've sought out and hired a shop manager
what their experience has been like. Do you have any suggestions
about where to find qualified bike mechanics with non profit
backgrounds?
Ride On!
-- Rich Points
Community Cycles Executive Director
http://CommunityCycles.org
Rich@CommunityCycles.org
720-565-6019 (W)
303-589-0597 (C)
Donate your old car to Community Cycles
http://communitycycles.org/get-involved/donatecar.html
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