I found that giving them one repair task to focus on across a bunch of bicycles, worked really well to develop quick expertise without overwhelming them with having to learn the whole bicycle. One person learning brakes, another learning gears, and still another on headsets for several sessions really got them comfortable with what they were doing. So much so that then they could show someone else how to do it. Then I would rotate them.

Couple that with Jim's videos and that's a recipe for not having to handhold.

Something I've been doing outside of bicycles is having everyone share their skills, experience, interests, superpowers, and what bugs them about being on teams. Then we go through what trust, openness, courage, empathy, and respect mean to us and what those behaviors look like. We write it down in case we need to come back to it later, which has happened. Then each week we spend 10 minutes going through what worked well, what didn't, and what 3 things can be improved. In the next session, we start by assessing if we made the changes and what the results were.

Good luck.

On Thu, Mar 11, 2021 at 10:30 AM Jim Sheehan <jim@ohiocitycycles.org> wrote:
Glad to help, Josh, but what kind of programming do they need training for?  We just made some videos for our first remote Bike Basics class, if that helps.
Jim Sheehan
Executive Director
Ohio City Bicycle Co-op
1840 Columbus Rd
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
216 830 2667
OhioCityCycles.org



On Thu, Mar 11, 2021 at 11:09 AM Josh Bisker <jbisker@gmail.com> wrote:
Hiya pals, we're thinking of putting together an intensive for some core volunteers we're gearing up for public programming in spring. The folk in question average very low mechanical skills, and many are fairly new to each other. (1) Do you have activities / syllabi / suggestions for mechanical crash-course stuff that's good for this scenario? (2) Do you have activities / suggestions / prompts for the more camp counselor style parts of this -- either in the metaphoric "trust falls" realm, or in terms of building a collective social analysis, or in terms of establishing great practices for volunteers in the space. (Yes, we'll do the banana game, which I love.) 
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