FORUM OF BIKE RECYCLING AND COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS Three days of Bike Kitchen Forum (May 29th – 31st) in Rome

We are glad to invite you to a Forum of bike recycling and community workshops which will take place in Rome, May 29th – May 31th 2013. Please confirm your participation at info@ciclofficinepopolari.it

After ten years of wrenches and ideas, we would like to reflect about the meaning and the evolution of today’s Bike Kitchens and Bike Communities, the sense of the reappropriation of the common spaces and the importance of the knowledge exchange. We feel the need to think about our bike riding direction and about the meaning of our mechanical skills. Starting from these questions we decided to share these thoughts with others Bike Kitchens which have similar experiences and horizons, even though belonging to dissimilar metropolitan environments. Places where, for example, biking is already part of the means of transport and it’s regulated by laws and standard normative, or places in which Bike Kitchens are sponsored by public or private entities, or can be organized as non-profit entities. For all these reasons we thought to create a gathering between the Bike Kitchens and Critical Mass which will take place the preceding week to the 10th Ciemmona (May 29th, 30th, 31st).

Therefore we decided to host a Cyclocamp (from the 24th of May 'till the 3rd of June) and a Bike Kitchen Forum, not only for greasing ourselves from head to feet but also for sharing thoughts, ideas, practices and knowledge. We are convinced that putting together all these Bike Kitchens, in their similarities and mainly differences, we will be able to bring a renewed conscience in our global thinking and local acting. In order to promote this discussion we thought that could be useful to concentrate it in the three first days before the Ciemmona (29th , 30th, 31st of May) in which will take place the Forum.

The following program is our proposal, is open to possible changes and rearrangements, and it has to be developed together

Day 1 – Wed May 29th, 2pm-6pm. THE BIKE KITCHENS AND THEIR PRACTICES. Presentation of our experiences and different battle fields. Recycling, do-it-yourself, convivial technologies.

Day 2 – Thu May 30th , 2pm-6pm. PROJECTS AND TERRITORY. Presentations of our differences: bottom-up /institutional initiatives, non-profit/ money-free approach. What do we do besides repair/invent/built up bicycles? Which objects and technologies are more people oriented? Welding, carpentering, sawing, etc.

Day 3 – Fri May 31st 2pm-5pm. THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY. The Bike Kitchen reality was born starting from common needs and develops through sharing practices and ideas. Are there any other pathways to share? Does it make sense to organize a European Bike Kitchen Network? Which would be its use and goals? Could we think about a yearly international meeting of the Bike Kitchens? Could we do it during the Ciemmona or the Summer Cyclocamps? Should it be Itinerant?

We would like to invite to present your experiences through an English presentation (powerpoint or similar, suggested format pdf) to be delivered to the other Bike Kitchens.

Suggested Template for the presentation: Who are you (the speaker)? (1 slide) Which reality do you represent? (1 slide) Your organization: where is located, opening hours, how many activists, ect. Modus operandi and users Past and future projects

These presentations, together with a small report of the three Forum days, will constitute a document that we would like to put together in a small publication.

For all the participants, the garden of the CSOA eXSnia will be available for your camping tents, your skills, your ideas, etc.

The camp site is totally free and you have to collaborate in its organization and management. We are strictly anti-fascist, anti-sexist and anti-racist. Please do not join us if you do not recognize yourself in these fundamental values.

Roman people’s Bike Kitchen Network

The Cyclocamp: http://ciclofficinepopolari.it/en/iniziative/2013/cyclocamp-roma/ , http://cyclocamp.org The Forum: http://ciclofficinepopolari.it/en/iniziative/2013/forum-delle-ciclofficine/ The 10th Interplanetary Critical Mass (Ciemmona): http://ciemmona.org/en The location: http://exsnia.it/ciclofficina

Please confirm your participation and talk a little bit with us about the subject and the structure: info@ciclofficinepopolari.it Book a space for your tent sending an email to: accommodation@ciemmona.org Do you need a bike? We’ll do what we can! Write to: bikesharing@ciemmona.org