All (but specifically in response to Eric),

Over the years RIBs (Ithaca, NY) had a lot of problems with adhesion of volunteers. We had volunteers aplenty, but not enough who were willing to commit to enough regular, dependable task completion that we would have been able to stay functional as an all-volunteer operation.

One of our volunteers, a student at Cornell (affiliated with Working Bikes out of Chicago, I believe) alluded to their co-op featuring many essential organizational positions wherein volunteers held long to longish terms in their roles and kept the org together over a long and stable period. So, some shops get it done that way. I think it has to do with the size of a city, and the transience or lack thereof in the local interested population. College towns like Ithaca have a highly transient population, for instance. Even if students were diligent and committed in a chosen role, they'd almost certainly switch out every 2-4 years on average, and that's a lot of instability to offset, especially at administrative levels.

This is what I wanted to get at for you, Eric: we stabilized by having one linchpin role that was paid to essentially hold down the fort and be the master of the space. I occupied that role at RIBs for four years, but there were many before me that functioned in similar capacities. I believe that as long as one highly skilled and dedicated person can overlap their need to make a living with the need of the shop and its community for caretaking, it can work financially as long as rent is cheap enough. Two paid staff would be ideal (which we did manage).

AFAIK, Troy Bike Rescue in Troy, NY uses a similar approach and when last I checked in with them a year or so ago, were doing ok using it.

~cyclista Nicholas

On 2023-07-10 01:56, eric clough via TheThinkTank wrote:

Hello Emory and ThinkTankers - I really appreciate the posting by Emory and I would like to offer a few thoughts. Before I do that, I want to acknowledge, as Luke Box did, the valuable content and work represented here in the ThinkTank. Since the time I founded a small community bike shop in Coos Bay, Or. (2018), I have paid close attention to the content of exchanges here. I have participated in the virtual BikeBike and I look forward to an in-person BikeBike sometime soon. Thank you ThinkTank for all the resource you provide - I find it very valuable. Cheers to all those who have put effort into it over the years.

The major urban centers of Oregon (Portland, Salem, Hillsboro, Corvallis, Eugene) all have large and well established 'community' bike shops.
Oregon has smaller communities that also have community bike shops. Like Coos Bay and Waldport (others?). I am interested in Emory's posting because in Coos Bay we are finding it difficult to sustain volunteer effort to operate the various programs needed in our community. We don't generate enough revenue (sales & service) to support paid staff and, while we have had some success with grant applications, our experience is that implementing grant programs with all volunteer effort is challenging. We also struggle with basic business admin functions. I definitely appreciate the comment from Geofry Smart about merging of groups can result in loss of values and perhaps other important facets of community-based operation (autonomy for example). However, burnout is hitting our small operation pretty hard these days. We are on an unsustainable volunteer path. In the pacific northwest, there is currently a developing 'umbrella' non-profit organization that is intended to support a consortium of regional community bike shops. I don't know a lot about it at this time but I am interested to learn more.

Laura Brooke - thank you for the reference to the Vermont group. I will be reaching out to the "Old Spokes Home" (love the name!)

Eric Clough Front Street Community Bike Works Park Your Car - Ride Your Bike!

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