non-program traffic during specific programs?
Howdy all.
I'm wondering how some of you handle people regular, off the street/new volunteers traffic in your shops while there's a program going on. For example, our youth EAB class is going on, and someone rides by the shop, sees bikes on stands, and walks up with questions about our organization, what we are/do, etc. Or someone comes up with a broken brake cable/flat tire/etc. Do you turn them away and focus on the program going on? Do you allow the instructor/facilitators to become distracted and possibly involved in some convoluted thing that's gonna take a lot more work than was first thought?
I feel bad when I'm in the middle of a class of kids, and someone comes up who's super excited about our mission and shop, and wants to chat and get into it with me about stuff completely unrelated to the ongoing youth class, and I can't give them the attention they deserve.
Any thoughts? Policies about such?
thanks!
josh. Community Cycles.
I can hardly count the number of times people show up saying 'I just need...' anytime anyone is in the shop. Usually I apologize and tell them to come the next time we are open for regular hours. Occassionally I help them out. Not everyone here is apologetic.
We have a gate we can close when workshops are happening, so as awful as it sounds, it is easier to ingore the people rattling the gate then when they come in the door.
Graham
veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
Howdy all.
I'm wondering how some of you handle people regular, off the street/new volunteers traffic in your shops while there's a program going on. For example, our youth EAB class is going on, and someone rides by the shop, sees bikes on stands, and walks up with questions about our organization, what we are/do, etc. Or someone comes up with a broken brake cable/flat tire/etc. Do you turn them away and focus on the program going on? Do you allow the instructor/facilitators to become distracted and possibly involved in some convoluted thing that's gonna take a lot more work than was first thought?
I feel bad when I'm in the middle of a class of kids, and someone comes up who's super excited about our mission and shop, and wants to chat and get into it with me about stuff completely unrelated to the ongoing youth class, and I can't give them the attention they deserve.
Any thoughts? Policies about such?
thanks!
josh. Community Cycles.
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
Ditto. And then when folks ask again or explain that they only need to do one little thing, we explain that if we make an exception for them, we have to make exceptions for everyone else. People seem to get the point after we say that.
Having boundaries/rules and being kind about explaining how they exist to serve the community seems to be the way to go for us at least.
-rachael
On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Graham graham.stewart@winply.ca wrote:
I can hardly count the number of times people show up saying 'I just need...' anytime anyone is in the shop. Usually I apologize and tell them to come the next time we are open for regular hours. Occassionally I help them out. Not everyone here is apologetic.
We have a gate we can close when workshops are happening, so as awful as it sounds, it is easier to ingore the people rattling the gate then when they come in the door.
Graham
veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
Howdy all.
I'm wondering how some of you handle people regular, off the street/new volunteers traffic in your shops while there's a program going on. For example, our youth EAB class is going on, and someone rides by the shop, sees bikes on stands, and walks up with questions about our organization, what we are/do, etc. Or someone comes up with a broken brake cable/flat tire/etc. Do you turn them away and focus on the program going on? Do you allow the instructor/facilitators to become distracted and possibly involved in some convoluted thing that's gonna take a lot more work than was first thought?
I feel bad when I'm in the middle of a class of kids, and someone comes up who's super excited about our mission and shop, and wants to chat and get into it with me about stuff completely unrelated to the ongoing youth class, and I can't give them the attention they deserve.
Any thoughts? Policies about such?
thanks!
josh. Community Cycles.
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
participants (3)
-
Graham -
rachael spiewak -
veganboyjosh＠gmail.com