We're one year into a partnership with a complimentary organization,
and it has so far worked out very well.
We're only open in the evenings and Sunday afternoons, and it always
seemed a bit of a waste that the shop otherwise sat empty and
unused. We were approached by Causeway Work Centre (http://
causewayworkcentre.org/ ), an organization that was looking into
setting up a bike shop that would provide training and jobs for
people within their programs. That enterprise is called http://
cyclesalvation.org/
Time was spent doing the sorting-out dance and them getting their
funding together. Then, with having the financial and other resources
of both orgs. we were able to find and afford a much nicer space for
our shop. So we didn't even date - just straightaway moved in
together. ;)
It was rather hectic at first, mainly because this all happened last
Spring at the start of the busy season. But we sorted things out as
we went along and now it's all smooth. This is mainly because to run
this program Causeway was able to hire one of our volunteer
staffers. Paul has been with us for years and he can run their thing
knowing our needs at the same time.
Here's how we set things up:
They signed the lease, because Causeway is much larger than we are
and have been around a lot longer (landlords seem to like that). We
pay a monthly "management fee", which covers rent, utilities, and Net
access.
We retain ownership of all the inventory, aside from the nice new
Park professional workstands (which they purchased with their funded
tool budget, since they didn't have to buy any other other tools
since we already had them). So they "own" the walls, while we own
the innards.
We share the donated bikes and parts. Currently they only do full
overhauls, while we do those and also our As Is bikes. This has
resulted in the clearing out of a bike backlog that has dogged us for
almost ten years. We're looking forward to the Spring donations
because we've actually run out of overhaul-quality bikes, and have
just enough As Is to tide us over.
We sell each other's bikes, and trade commissions back and forth each
month.
One of Causeway's other programs hauls away our metal scrap. (And
there's a LOT of that.)
The beauty of all of this is that the shop is now being used almost
every day. The only quiet one is Monday, and even that will become a
day operation for us come April.
Mark Rehder - Director re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op http://re-cycles.ca
On 1-Mar-09, at 11:39 PM, Patrick Leahy wrote:
Ok, on topic this time.
BikeSaviours is open sunday, monday for classes, and wednesday for
ladies night. We have a great little crew of people and a large,
fantastic space, but we're a bit limited by the size of our
volunteer staff. I'd love to be open more. Part of it is attracting
more volunteers and co-op members. We hope to be able to pay an
employee at some point.In the meantime, we've been looking to expand our outreach and
better serve our local community. Here are a few things that have
happened at Bike Saviours. Two of our members recently attended a
program to help the local hopeless and offered bike repair services
free for a day. Several of our members pull double duty with the
Tempe Bike Action Group, a local advocacy organization that
predates the co-op by several years. We've had bikes donated from
the municipal recycling/waste resource center of Chandler, Az. Boy
Scouts have built bikes for a local elementary school from 20inch
bikes.We've been having people from outside the co-op come in and present
ideas for collaborating with other non-profits/groups/charities.
Have people had luck in collaborating with other non-profits in
their respective areas? Are there other groups with similar goals
that you work with? Have you ever opened up your space to other
groups/non profits/projects? I'd love to hear some input.