What UBP is doing about similar issues, The Outline:

1. No EAB's during regular shop hours
2. One or two people assigned to work with kids, in a specific area if possible.
3. Kids with minor repairs get help first, then the bigger projects.
4. Volunteers get assigned specific tasks/roles (read: idiot proof) with specific guidelines
5. Too many cooks in the kitchen? Have excess volunteers sign up for another day.

What UBP is doing about similar issues, The Ramble:

UBP is just coming off of our youth ban tonight after some thefts. Before the ban we were, like you, struggling to help kids with EAB as well as helping adults that come into the shop. It didn't work. At all. Adults would leave because there were so many rowdy kids and kids would just, well, be kids. Putting a number cap on kids didn't work because they wheedled their way in anyway (wouldn't you?) and by the end of the night the shop was overrun.

We like Sopo's idea of having one designated person to work with kids and them having their own tool kit and work space. We also recognize that doing EAB and open shop at the same time is impossible as each child needs constant supervision/guidance and a structured environment to learn effectively. EAB is on hold/stopped until we come up with something more meaningful and concrete.

There will be a triage of sorts when youth come to the shop. The first bikes fixed are the ones that have the best chance of being completed (flats, popped chains, bar/brake adjusts) and then with whatever time is left we can work on the baskets. No matter how badly the kids NEED to ride their bike home that night (which they all do...) we help with the basic repairs first. Kids that aren't working on their bike must wait outside, which creates another issue, but at least they're not wandering around the shop/building.

As far as "jockish volunteers" we have a hard time with some volunteers doing all the work on peoples bikes. There's nothing you can do other than constantly stressing that your goal is to teach and their hand shouldn't be holding the wrench. Call them out if you must, usually it still goes over their heads, try assigning them to other tasks. We also have experienced a surge of "volunteers" lately. The reason that's in quotes is because these people show up to hang out, work on their own bikes and bring more "volunteers" with them. I've found that these people are

To deal with this we've gotten specific about our volunteer roles. There is a Greeter, One Mechanic per workstand, Head Mechanic, Youth Mentor/Helper, Back Room Help and Back Room Supervisor. Each of these positions is spelled out in great detail. When people show up to help on open shop days they get assigned a position that is appropriate. If they're not needed and the shop is busy, they're asked to wait outside or to sign up for another day ahead of time. That's the theory anyway....we're working on it.

Good luck, this past couple months have been a wealth of relavent information on the Think Tank and I/UBP really appreciate the ability to learn and share ideas with other organizations, big and small.

Brian Windle

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 3:24 AM, <jirs0004@umn.edu> wrote:

Bike theft lead the Grease Pit to close the shop to kids for two weeks the end of last summer. When 15 bikes were stolen by kids who we were helping, but could not identify by name or face later we knew that something needed to change. The week long session of meetings lead to a shop manual to help us understand how to focus and think of ways to earn the respect of these kids.

Despite all of our best efforts to learn names, focus our attention for Earn a bike kids onto a special day, and to keep shop security tight, we have had little success. Kids are stealing out of our donations jar and taking bikes from under our noses.

Because our space is shared with a theatre, security needs to be tight, but this would leave us with too few collective members in a space that is already over-run with people needing help.

While all of this is going on we are also experiencing a mass of volunteers who are bike jock-ish and act as if the shop is theirs. In order to help maximize the shop accessibility and friendliness, we need to figure out a solution and proto.

Question 1: How can we give kids the attention they need while not limiting the number of commuters that we are helping? (as they are already discouraged by the lack of assistance and excessive quantity of kids in the shop)

Question 2: How can we effectively utilize our volunteers without constantly monitoring them and having to call them out or hear about them later?

I would also like to know what success orgs have had with limiting the number of kids in the shop.

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--
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