Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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Where is the exclusivity concern coming from? Just that you're closed for a night?
If the shop needs a night to focus on getting builds done, then do it. It's pretty common for co ops to not have time to complete builds during normal shifts.
Whether those builds/sales are necessary for the shop to work financially, I'm guessing those bikes fulfill your mission. I'm guessing that they're being sold at fair or below prices to people who might not otherwise get a bike.
Not all volunteers want to deal with helping others in a face to face way but still want to give back. Plenty of volunteers would rather work on fixing a bike, knowing it will later improve someone else's life, without needing a direct interaction. This often includes marginalized groups who would otherwise not volunteer.
I know many people who "afford to volunteer their time" specifically because they cannot afford to pay full price for shop time and parts but want to earn their way rather than using our sliding scale. Without volunteer night their time to work on their own bike would be greatly reduced.
to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public
Going a step further, it's very common for co ops to have volunteer only nights to work on their own bikes. This is seen as a perk of being a volunteer and could be said doesn't directly benefit the co op. However, I don't think this practice falls under "inequitable and exclusive" either. It's not possible to have a co op open all the time, so these nights generally fall when the shop would otherwise be closed. It helps retain volunteers and keeps regular shifts running more smoothly as volunteers can focus on their shift.
I would say that one volunteer night per week actually makes the co op more "equitable and inclusive" rather than the opposite. Besides, don't let good be the enemy of perfect, especially on the smaller points of things.
On Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 3:18 PM Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank < thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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Hi Gabriel,
Bike Farm could simply allow volunteers to work on sale bikes during the other shifts. If you're able to maybe have one or two stands specifically be used for building up bikes for sale (pending other individuals' needs).
I suppose Bike Farm could still have one evening designated for building up bikes that will be for sale so that way all stands (except one? In case someone comes by and needs the stand for a repair) can be used to repair bikes that will be used for bringing in funds to the organization...
Does staff have access to the facilities outside of shop hours? Maybe amongst staff there could be a staff only night to build up bikes.
I feel like there are a few possibilities to accommodate folks.
In past organizations I've been involved with we had a work trade program where you could volunteer for an hour and use that for 2-3 hours during the week to work on your own bike (also, Noone was ever turned away due to funds...so if people needed to use the space for whatever time amount but couldn't do a work trade or pay for it we'd simply ask to think of us later to help us keep the lights on)...
Judith
On Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 6:18 PM Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank < thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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judith caroline feist (they/them)
"Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root'"- Angela Davis
"i don't think my art is political. i think it's about the stuff that doesn't let me sleep at night." -felix gonzalez-torres
“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.” -mark twain
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Not every person has the same resources; some people have more time than money, some people have more money than time. This is an inequity you have no responsibility for creating, but the fact that you have different options to accommodate both situations actually creates equity.
Put another way, sure, the night in question creates inequity, and all the other, different nights do as well. The point would be that these inequities balance one another out.
I suppose that you could combine both use cases during all shifts, with the different users being officially present under separate auspices, but in order to avoid misunderstanding you'd need to create messaging to the effect that those auspices would be completely clear for all present. I like Judith's idea about designated stands for this concept, that might help with clarity.
"Oh, yeah, that over there is the volunteer area."
In any case, I also second Alexander that for community shops it's really useful, sometimes critical, to have a time and space where maintaining the shop and developing products for sale can be accomplished without distractions for a large enough block of time to be effective.
Side note: It sounds like you have a distinction that's a little confusing here regarding the difference between "volunteering" and "public work/trade". It sounds like those categories both expend time (rather than money) to benefit the shop. If so, you're already doing money>time and time<money in the same shift (unless volunteers aren't allowed except during volunteer night), and perhaps just need to organize it a little better.
cyclista Nicholas
There's a lot of people out there in both situations, and society generally caters more to the "more money than time" crowd. It's actually great to foster options for people to use the currency of time.
On 2023-03-07 23:16, Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank wrote:
Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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I guess something to add to Judith's idea would be to somehow designate more strictly duties for volunteers. You might be able to have similar productivity in mixed shifts just by saying "this [person currently performing this] role is exclusively to build up bikes for sale. They aren't available for public assistance.".
Though, based on past [torturous/loathsome] experience in retail, I can also guess that there would still be some tantrums from visitors who could see a potentially helpful person, and be angry about being forbidden to request help from them, or that there would be people who would take up a lot of space and time trying to socially engineer the volunteer away from their task. So maybe it *is* necessary to keep the workers that need to focus away from probable distractions.
cyclista Nicholas
On 2023-03-08 08:20, cyclista--- via Thethinktank wrote:
Not every person has the same resources; some people have more time than money, some people have more money than time. This is an inequity you have no responsibility for creating, but the fact that you have different options to accommodate both situations actually creates equity.
Put another way, sure, the night in question creates inequity, and all the other, different nights do as well. The point would be that these inequities balance one another out.
I suppose that you could combine both use cases during all shifts, with the different users being officially present under separate auspices, but in order to avoid misunderstanding you'd need to create messaging to the effect that those auspices would be completely clear for all present. I like Judith's idea about designated stands for this concept, that might help with clarity.
"Oh, yeah, that over there is the volunteer area."
In any case, I also second Alexander that for community shops it's really useful, sometimes critical, to have a time and space where maintaining the shop and developing products for sale can be accomplished without distractions for a large enough block of time to be effective.
Side note: It sounds like you have a distinction that's a little confusing here regarding the difference between "volunteering" and "public work/trade". It sounds like those categories both expend time (rather than money) to benefit the shop. If so, you're already doing money>time and time<money in the same shift (unless volunteers aren't allowed except during volunteer night), and perhaps just need to organize it a little better.
cyclista Nicholas
There's a lot of people out there in both situations, and society generally caters more to the "more money than time" crowd. It's actually great to foster options for people to use the currency of time.
On 2023-03-07 23:16, Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank wrote:
Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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Thank you all for you sharing your inputs. It is true that this volunteer only night is attracting people who wouldn't otherwise want to volunteer and helps us build more bikes to sell at affordable prices. It's different than what we have done historically at Bike Farm but that is ok!
On Wed, Mar 8, 2023, 12:34 AM cyclista--- via Thethinktank < thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:
I guess something to add to Judith's idea would be to somehow designate more strictly duties for volunteers. You might be able to have similar productivity in mixed shifts just by saying "this [person currently performing this] role is exclusively to build up bikes for sale. They aren't available for public assistance.".
Though, based on past [torturous/loathsome] experience in retail, I can also guess that there would still be some tantrums from visitors who could see a potentially helpful person, and be angry about being forbidden to request help from them, or that there would be people who would take up a lot of space and time trying to socially engineer the volunteer away from their task. So maybe it *is* necessary to keep the workers that need to focus away from probable distractions.
cyclista Nicholas
On 2023-03-08 08:20, cyclista--- via Thethinktank wrote:
Not every person has the same resources; some people have more time than money, some people have more money than time. This is an inequity you have no responsibility for creating, but the fact that you have different options to accommodate both situations actually creates equity.
Put another way, sure, the night in question creates inequity, and all the other, different nights do as well. The point would be that these inequities balance one another out.
I suppose that you could combine both use cases during all shifts, with the different users being officially present under separate auspices, but in order to avoid misunderstanding you'd need to create messaging to the effect that those auspices would be completely clear for all present. I like Judith's idea about designated stands for this concept, that might help with clarity.
"Oh, yeah, that over there is the volunteer area."
In any case, I also second Alexander that for community shops it's really useful, sometimes critical, to have a time and space where maintaining the shop and developing products for sale can be accomplished without distractions for a large enough block of time to be effective.
Side note: It sounds like you have a distinction that's a little confusing here regarding the difference between "volunteering" and "public work/trade". It sounds like those categories both expend time (rather than money) to benefit the shop. If so, you're already doing money>time and time<money in the same shift (unless volunteers aren't allowed except during volunteer night), and perhaps just need to organize it a little better.
cyclista Nicholas
There's a lot of people out there in both situations, and society generally caters more to the "more money than time" crowd. It's actually great to foster options for people to use the currency of time.
On 2023-03-07 23:16, Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank wrote:
Long time listener, first time caller coming from Bike Farm (all volunteer run collective) here in Portland, OR. We currently have a weekly volunteer only night to build bikes at the shop to sell to the public and recently it has come to my attention that this night can be seen as inequitable and exclusive. This night excludes those who cannot afford to volunteer their time as every other shift we have is open to the public to utilize our space and help for $5/hr, work/trade, or for free if the individual truly needs it. Does anyone else have a volunteer/staff only night? I am having a tough time justifying for myself the existence of this volunteer only night. Looking for thoughts from you all.
Kind regards, Gabriel
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Gabriel Trainer via Thethinktank
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