Noob Coop Questions ~ Other's Experiences and Opinions?
I am very new to coops of any type so I have to apologize if these subjects have been discussed in depth and I don't know where to look (if I can be pointed in the right direction, TIA). These questions are mine, not the VéloCity Co-op. Some have been discussed in general and some not at all, I am doing a little research for my own education.
Use of patron/customer sign-in sheets. Y/N comments Pro/Con. Using sheets to track shop use, help motivate donations for stand time vs. not putting off those who have limited funds.
Use of membership. Y/N comments Pro/Con. $5 for membership, 1st hour (or "use") is free so cost neutral, write the date on a business card and leave it at that. Collect $5 to use the stand/tools/consumables as patron/bike passes the door and either gets their card or flashes it to use the coop. Idea is they would spend >$20 to purchase the consumables they might only use once a year. Plants the idea stand time and consumables cost.
Use of requirement to have taken a basic class to use the stands (waved at the discretion of the Sr. person on site). Y/N comments Pro/Con.
Non-profit competing with the local bike shop by offering paid services. Pro/Con We try to offer "Verbal assistance" right . . . but many struggle with "Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" and are often trying to get back on the trail so aren't in a place where they are looking for a learning experience. So if they can't do the work themselves, paid services when the LBS is on the other side of the same building.
Again, TIA to any who can take time to answer or point me to message archives for education.
Ron
Hi Ron,
You might get some background suggestions here at the wiki http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page since there are so many articles. You might need to do a bit of digging though.
Happy researching! Chloé
On 1 June 2011 10:54, Ron Kellis ron.kellis@velocitycoop.org wrote:
I am very new to coops of any type so I have to apologize if these subjects have been discussed in depth and I don't know where to look (if I can be pointed in the right direction, TIA). These questions are mine, not the VéloCity Co-op. Some have been discussed in general and some not at all, I am doing a little research for my own education.
Use of patron/customer sign-in sheets. Y/N comments Pro/Con. Using sheets to track shop use, help motivate donations for stand time vs. not putting off those who have limited funds.
Use of membership. Y/N comments Pro/Con. $5 for membership, 1st hour (or "use") is free so cost neutral, write the date on a business card and leave it at that. Collect $5 to use the stand/tools/consumables as patron/bike passes the door and either gets their card or flashes it to use the coop. Idea is they would spend >$20 to purchase the consumables they might only use once a year. Plants the idea stand time and consumables cost.
Use of requirement to have taken a basic class to use the stands (waved at the discretion of the Sr. person on site). Y/N comments Pro/Con.
Non-profit competing with the local bike shop by offering paid services. Pro/Con We try to offer "Verbal assistance" right . . . but many struggle with "Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" and are often trying to get back on the trail so aren't in a place where they are looking for a learning experience. So if they can't do the work themselves, paid services when the LBS is on the other side of the same building.
Again, TIA to any who can take time to answer or point me to message archives for education.
Ron _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
Ron,
I think this is a great question and much of it is discussed on the wiki, but I wanted to note that much of these decisions are going to be based on what the mission of your particular organization is. for example our mission's core value is education, so basically if we are staying afloat financially and providing the facilities materials and expertise needed to learn none of the rest matters much and falls back to the decision of the group.
Sign in sheets and systems of various forms have been used at our shop with varying success, I think it depends on if you use this information in ways to help you or not .. like to gather statistics that can be used for grant funding or gathering email information to spread information about your organization to those that want it etc. a check in/out can help with donation collecting but just being a a good greeter to those entering the shop and making sure they understand how it works when they come in seems to work for us.
as far as donations/membership/fees etc. our shop chooses to ask for a standard donation based on time and actual parts used from the shop ($5 per hour plus parts donation) most of this is on the honor system and we try to leave it to the patrons as much as possible to pick a price, I will give recommended donation amounts and they can chooses to pay what they want based on their own constrains and perception of value.
for us we have found that allowing access to most tools without much orientation has worked fine .. granted we probably buy more cone wrenches than we would in the other case but it removes on barrier to being able to educate anyone rather than requiring an orientation and it relieves our manpower needs at the same time. we do have a number of expensive / specialty tools that we keep more out of the way and instruct people on how to use them when they are needed( some examples of these are spoke tension meter, steer tube threading tool, bottom bracket threader and facer). Most patrons will never need these tools and when they do a short orientation to the specific tool seems to work for us for the most part.
being that education is our main goal and not say getting as many bike fixed as possible ... we choose to limit the amount of new supplies we have in the shop mostly he have, cables, housing, bearings, spokes, patches and a few other small knick knacks that might be needed to get the bike rolled to a local bike shop should one choose to get new parts or have someone else fix it. I find that if the bike can be fixed without "ordering" a part at a LBS it can almost always be fixed at our collective using only used parts and these small amount of what we call consumables. I could see this changing if we found that we were not making enough to stay afloat through our regular donations, but even in our depressed economic climate we are in high demand and make plenty to pay for our tools and rent which is our main two costs.
hope that helps,
Robbie
Davis Bike Collective
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 7:54 AM, Ron Kellis ron.kellis@velocitycoop.org wrote:
I am very new to coops of any type so I have to apologize if these subjects have been discussed in depth and I don't know where to look (if I can be pointed in the right direction, TIA). These questions are mine, not the VéloCity Co-op. Some have been discussed in general and some not at all, I am doing a little research for my own education.
Use of patron/customer sign-in sheets. Y/N comments Pro/Con. Using sheets to track shop use, help motivate donations for stand time vs. not putting off those who have limited funds.
Use of membership. Y/N comments Pro/Con. $5 for membership, 1st hour (or "use") is free so cost neutral, write the date on a business card and leave it at that. Collect $5 to use the stand/tools/consumables as patron/bike passes the door and either gets their card or flashes it to use the coop. Idea is they would spend >$20 to purchase the consumables they might only use once a year. Plants the idea stand time and consumables cost.
Use of requirement to have taken a basic class to use the stands (waved at the discretion of the Sr. person on site). Y/N comments Pro/Con.
Non-profit competing with the local bike shop by offering paid services. Pro/Con We try to offer "Verbal assistance" right . . . but many struggle with "Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" and are often trying to get back on the trail so aren't in a place where they are looking for a learning experience. So if they can't do the work themselves, paid services when the LBS is on the other side of the same building.
Again, TIA to any who can take time to answer or point me to message archives for education.
Ron _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
Helps a lot, and confirms my suspensions. Found I can't access the wiki from work. The web-masters haven't set the Content Category (Content Categorized as: none) and my US GOV warning came up. While I am allowed to surf, when a site is blocked I have to attest it is for government work. I'm about to head to the coop so will probably be Friday before I can look around.
If you have any personal contacts with the web folks there you might let them know.I will as soon as I can too.
Thanks for all the time you spent on this.
Ron
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Robert McMurry remcmurry@gmail.com wrote:
Ron,
I think this is a great question and much of it is discussed on the wiki, but I wanted to note that much of these decisions are going to be based on what the mission of your particular organization is. for example our mission's core value is education, so basically if we are staying afloat financially and providing the facilities materials and expertise needed to learn none of the rest matters much and falls back to the decision of the group.
Sign in sheets and systems of various forms have been used at our shop with varying success, I think it depends on if you use this information in ways to help you or not .. like to gather statistics that can be used for grant funding or gathering email information to spread information about your organization to those that want it etc. a check in/out can help with donation collecting but just being a a good greeter to those entering the shop and making sure they understand how it works when they come in seems to work for us.
as far as donations/membership/fees etc. our shop chooses to ask for a standard donation based on time and actual parts used from the shop ($5 per hour plus parts donation) most of this is on the honor system and we try to leave it to the patrons as much as possible to pick a price, I will give recommended donation amounts and they can chooses to pay what they want based on their own constrains and perception of value.
for us we have found that allowing access to most tools without much orientation has worked fine .. granted we probably buy more cone wrenches than we would in the other case but it removes on barrier to being able to educate anyone rather than requiring an orientation and it relieves our manpower needs at the same time. we do have a number of expensive / specialty tools that we keep more out of the way and instruct people on how to use them when they are needed( some examples of these are spoke tension meter, steer tube threading tool, bottom bracket threader and facer). Most patrons will never need these tools and when they do a short orientation to the specific tool seems to work for us for the most part.
being that education is our main goal and not say getting as many bike fixed as possible ... we choose to limit the amount of new supplies we have in the shop mostly he have, cables, housing, bearings, spokes, patches and a few other small knick knacks that might be needed to get the bike rolled to a local bike shop should one choose to get new parts or have someone else fix it. I find that if the bike can be fixed without "ordering" a part at a LBS it can almost always be fixed at our collective using only used parts and these small amount of what we call consumables. I could see this changing if we found that we were not making enough to stay afloat through our regular donations, but even in our depressed economic climate we are in high demand and make plenty to pay for our tools and rent which is our main two costs.
hope that helps,
Robbie
Davis Bike Collective
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 7:54 AM, Ron Kellis ron.kellis@velocitycoop.org wrote:
I am very new to coops of any type so I have to apologize if these
subjects
have been discussed in depth and I don't know where to look (if I can be pointed in the right direction, TIA). These questions are mine, not the VéloCity Co-op. Some have been discussed in general and some not at all,
I
am doing a little research for my own education.
Use of patron/customer sign-in sheets. Y/N comments Pro/Con. Using sheets
to
track shop use, help motivate donations for stand time vs. not putting
off
those who have limited funds.
Use of membership. Y/N comments Pro/Con. $5 for membership, 1st hour (or "use") is free so cost neutral, write the date on a business card and
leave
it at that. Collect $5 to use the stand/tools/consumables as patron/bike passes the door and either gets their card or flashes it to use the coop. Idea is they would spend >$20 to purchase the consumables they might only use once a year. Plants the idea stand time and consumables cost.
Use of requirement to have taken a basic class to use the stands (waved
at
the discretion of the Sr. person on site). Y/N comments Pro/Con.
Non-profit competing with the local bike shop by offering paid services. Pro/Con We try to offer "Verbal assistance" right . . . but many struggle with "Righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" and are often trying to get back on the trail so aren't in a place where they are looking for a learning
experience.
So if they can't do the work themselves, paid services when the LBS is on the other side of the same building.
Again, TIA to any who can take time to answer or point me to message archives for education.
Ron _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to
TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
Do any of you have statistics or anecdotal evidence you'd like to
share about how your volunteer/member recruitment works in terms of
the numbers of folks you bring in and/or how many and for how long you
retain them?
We're thinking about this stuff now while we evaluate our new
volunteer (Cook) process.
Thanks!
Kelly
participants (4)
-
Chloé Rose -
Kelly Marie Martin -
Robert McMurry -
Ron Kellis