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Hello, Everyone.
Detroit's own Bec Young, the wonder woman of Back Alley
Bikes, has a new print ready and up for viewing on the JUSTSEEDS website.
It's called "Deeper Than Mechanics Dare".
All this stuff about shop tools and budgeting is pretty
great. Thank you for all the helpful information.
As soon as this kid is born and I've figured out the
immediate lay of the land for the next bit of my life, I'd like to see about starting a community bike shop here in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit.
Windsor has a city bike plan that seems to consist of
printing car bumper stickers that say "Share the Road", and Detroit does not have a city bike plan.
I've submitted a session proposal to this year's Allied
Media Conference in Detroit for a session that would allow anyone who was interested to help work to create a Detroit-Windsor/ Windsor-Detroit regional bike plan.
I don't know if they will accept that proposal yet,
especially as I'll have to help organize it and then let it go-- I'll be home in Toronto with my absolutely brand new little kid when the conference takes place, and someone else would have to run the session.
This whole attempt to create a grassroots (and actually
designed by people who use their bikes as their primary means of transportation)regional bike plan here, right at Ground Zero of the car culture, should be interesting.
Not many places have the opportunity to figure out how
to make an international border crossing point bike friendly-- never mind city counsel-- try figuring out how to approach Homeland Security!
We're dealing with sprawl, the auto industry, crazy
economic and racial divides, and a whole host of other issues, including the gender problems, which I've written about before.
I'm writing about this here, because at some point we're
going to have a wiki up, and helpful suggestions and insights from accross the continent would be welcomed.
Anyone who wants to write to me off list about creating
bike plans, please, please do so.
We need allies from everywhere to help heal Detroit and
Windsor. It may seem dumb, but I think if we can get something good happening here, we could change the whole culture. (Incidentally, having bikebike! in Detroit and Windsor would be an awesome thing to consider for some futire year.)
The first modern oil wells in the world were set up in
this region-- in Petrolia and Oil Springs, Ontario. The modern industrial world was born on assembly lines right here.
This region's industrial might was key to the Allied
victory in WWII.
The culture created here and rolling off the assembly
lines daily is helping to kill the planet, which is a sad, sad thing, because back in the day, the decent wages and union organizing of this region was a serious force for progressive social change. We have all benefited from Detroit and Windsor.
Crossing the river here was once the way from slavery
into freedom.
This is also the part of the world that hides Tecumseh's
bones. People pass buildings named "Renaud" without knowing that that is the French word for Fox, and an allusion to the rich and complex Native American history of the region.
These cities are broken, and often ugly, and unpleasant
things happen here; they are also full of half-forgotten signs of the complex dynamics of the competing empires that have been fighting over the riches of the Great Lakes region for centuries.
And of course, there's Motown, and Aretha Franklin and
all those other people you've probably bopped around to.
Every year, the Monarch butterflies come up from Mexico,
and the cities are full of them. We're on a major bird migration route, too. The ecological importance of the Great Lakes cannot be overstated.
If you'd be interested in learning more about this area
and helping us create a bike plan that addresses the needs of people in cities in two countries, a plan that includes a strategy for trying to make a border point bike friendly, please get in touch.
I'm sorry my posts are always so long, and I'm sorry to
the people who have written to me off list to whom I haven't yet responded-- I'm busy and pregnant and my life's a little out of control. I'm still thinking of you-- I hope someone will reply to the post about transgendered space, too. I haven't yet, and I'm sorry to leave something as important as that just hanging out there. Thank you for writing that.
Happy spring, everyone.
Sasha
On Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:05:10 -0400 rachael spiewak rachael@sopobikes.org wrote:
I've read that minimum membership for any nonprofit should be $30 (too bad I can't substantiate that right now.. I think maybe I picked that up
from the Thunderhead Alliance). Check on the free info on http://foundationcenter.org.
Here's the art show http://www.sopobikes.org/events/artshow we've got going on right now. We started organizing it in October and we've
put a couple hundred bucks into it. I'll let you know if we make money on it. Other events we've got in the works are a bicycle flea market (sellers pay for a space in our parking lot, buyers shop for free, and we'll encourage the sellers to donate their leftovers to us) and a photography print show (lots of artists take pics in the shop.. we're very attractive bike mechanics) coupled with food demos in the artspace you can see in the pics on the art show website.
-rachael
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 7:11 PM, Jennifer Nordhem jen@milehighmess.com wrote:
Yeah, we won't be selling a whole lot of bicycles. Our mission is primarily to teach and assist people with their current bikes. We will have a wholesale account with which we can sell them parts. I'm sure we will end up with a bike or two here and there, some used parts, etc. that we will sell, but that's not our goal.
We are going to have a membership program which we're playing with right now, figuring out how to price things, etc. Does anyone have suggestions on that? Mark from Re-cycles pointed out the fault in their system, any other advise?
In addition to profits from classes and membership we will be holding a monthly art show to advertise our services to new potential students and have a little fun.
Jen Battlesteed --- rachael spiewak rachael@sopobikes.org wrote:
We don't sell refurbished bikes, but a good chunk of our shop generated funds comes from people donating $25 per frame/bike they pick up from us, and they tend to give more for parts even though we consider parts as being included with the bike. We /could/ sell whole bikes for more, but that seems to run up against our general shop philosophy of most things being mostly equal. We don't have membership fees either, which is another great income generator if it works for your shop/organization.
-rachael
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 12:22 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:
Same for us. Bike sales dominate our income
stream, with parts sales
in 2nd place, and income from do-it-yourselfers
behind that.
Mark Rehder - Director http://re-cycles.ca
On 3-Apr-08, at 11:32 AM, Rich Points wrote:
I think it's safe to say that most of the
collectives out there
make most of their money from refurbished bike
sales. Last year
bike sales accounted for about 65% of our total
income at Community
Cycles. Refurbished bike sales are our
strongest fund raising tool.
Rich http://CommunityCycles.org
Jennifer Nordhem wrote:
Jay, We are already in the process of becoming
a 501(c)3. We're at
the Articles of Incorporation and By Laws
writing stage. I know
the questions I asked were lengthy, I'm just a
little overwhelmed,
which I'm sure you can understand. Jen --- Jay
Varner
jay@sopobikes.org wrote: > > Hi Jennifer, I'm glad you've found the wiki
and website useful.
> To answer some of your questions - most (if
not all) the shops in
> the community that operate on grants and
donations are non-profit
> (501(c)3) organizations. I'm not sure what
model you are going
> for. The answers to your questions can be a
bit complex. To help
> us help you, I'd suggest giving this a read
and figuring out
> where your project fits: http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php? title=Bike_Collective_Starter_Kit > > On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 9:00 PM, Jennifer
Nordhem
> jen@milehighmess.com wrote: >> >> Hello everyone, my name is Jennifer Nordhem
of the soon to be
>> Battlesteed Custom Bike Works in > Denver. >> >> We're currently looking for places to rent
for
> our new >> >> shop. I noticed some people say they don't, > which >> >> would just be a miracle that I don't foresee > coming >> >> true. Here are the questions I have: How much
do you pay for
>> rent? About how much money do you receive
monthly from grants,
>> donations, membership fees, sales, etc? How
much do you spend
>> monthly on tools, etc? I want to get a grasp
on what kind of
> income/outflow >> >> to expect so I can budget how much we can
afford spending on
>> rent. Thanks everyone! The website and wiki
have been extremely
>> helpful so far, I'm really happy to see > such >> >> a supportive community. Jen >>
Thethinktank
>> mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-
bikecollectives.org > >
Thethinktank
> mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-
bikecollectives.org _______________________________________________
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mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
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-- Rich Points Community Cycles Director
Rich@CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019 _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
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-- Sopo Bicycle Cooperative 404-425-9989 www.sopobikes.org
Hours of operation: Tues/Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm Sat/Sun 2 pm - 5 pm
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
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Hours of operation: Tues/Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm Sat/Sun 2 pm - 5 pm
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