Re: [TheThinkTank] Building Bikes as Corporate Team Activity?
I was contacted some time ago by a company several years ago that did workshops that used assembling bicycles as an exercise in building corporate teamwork. I was called in to inspect the assembled bikes for safety and fine tune them. This was done at local hotel. I was well paid. The assembled bikes were donated to the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club. After 3 days, the training company moved to their next client. From my viewpoint, It was a nice windfall, but nothing was done to foster a cycling lifestyle. Some children got bikes. Some employees got some teamwork skills. I paid some bills. I leave it to you to decide how it sits with your philosophy.
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----- Reply message ----- From: "Adonia Lugo" adonia.lugo@gmail.com To: "The Think Tank" Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Building Bikes as Corporate Team Activity? Date: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 11:21 am Dear collectivistas, I'm looking for advice from folks who use bike repair as a community building tool. What do you think about building bikes as a corporate team building exercise? I work for the League of American Bicyclists, and someone pitched a project to us called Bikes for Goodness Sake that does this; they have teams build kids' bikes and then give them away at the end of the day. The dude doing this, Mark Smith, wants to partner with the League in some capacity to help hire a staff person who could coordinate these activities around the country, including hiring local mechanics to do quality control and connecting with local kids' groups.
Does this seem weird to you? I told my boss I'd ask around about this model because something about it raises my hackles a little. I like the idea of paying local mechanics to participate, and it seems like there could be a more formal relationship with co-ops or community bike shops as partners. Then maybe participating in an activity like this could be an avenue for the corporate types to get involved with the bike community. At the same time, I'm wary of a model that frames needy kids as some tool for corporate team building.
Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
Thanks!
Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D. Bicycle Anthropologist www.urbanadonia.com
Hi Adonia,
The "Earn-A-Bike" program http://bicicentro.org/youth created by the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition (SBBike) has a different model than most programs. The emphasis is on learning to maintain a bike, riding it safely on the streets and going on fun rides. All youth bikes are refurbished by volunteers at the community bike shop, Bici Centro which is a project of SBBike.
Watch the Pedal Power video http://vimeo.com/55427786
During the school year, Pedal Power is offered as an after-school program at selected school sites. During the summer, community organizations (SB School of Squash, Girls Inc, FoodBank...) partner with SBBike to offer it to groups of kids who don't have a bike. The demand is growing every year and it is becoming quite a challenge to satisfy all the requests.
So to answer your question, getting corporate help to build bikes in Santa Barbara (not cheap bikes from a mall...) would be GREAT!
Thank you.
Christine Bourgeois 805 699 6301 edu@sbbike.org Education Director, LCI #2255 Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition http://www.bicicentro.org/ www.facebook.com/sbbikes
On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 9:44 PM, summitcyclingcenter@yahoo.com < summitcyclingcenter@yahoo.com> wrote:
I was contacted some time ago by a company several years ago that did workshops that used assembling bicycles as an exercise in building corporate teamwork. I was called in to inspect the assembled bikes for safety and fine tune them. This was done at local hotel. I was well paid. The assembled bikes were donated to the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club. After 3 days, the training company moved to their next client. From my viewpoint, It was a nice windfall, but nothing was done to foster a cycling lifestyle. Some children got bikes. Some employees got some teamwork skills. I paid some bills. I leave it to you to decide how it sits with your philosophy.
Sent from my HTC EVO Design(tm) 4G from Boost Mobile
----- Reply message ----- From: "Adonia Lugo" adonia.lugo@gmail.com To: "The Think Tank" Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Building Bikes as Corporate Team Activity? Date: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 11:21 am
Dear collectivistas, I'm looking for advice from folks who use bike repair as a community building tool. What do you think about building bikes as a corporate team building exercise? I work for the League of American Bicyclists, and someone pitched a project to us called Bikes for Goodness Sakehttp://bikesforgoodnesssake.org/ that does this; they have teams build kids' bikes and then give them away at the end of the day. The dude doing this, Mark Smith, wants to partner with the League in some capacity to help hire a staff person who could coordinate these activities around the country, including hiring local mechanics to do quality control and connecting with local kids' groups. Does this seem weird to you? I told my boss I'd ask around about this model because something about it raises my hackles a little. I like the idea of paying local mechanics to participate, and it seems like there could be a more formal relationship with co-ops or community bike shops as partners. Then maybe participating in an activity like this could be an avenue for the corporate types to get involved with the bike community. At the same time, I'm wary of a model that frames needy kids as some tool for corporate team building. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
Thanks!
Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D. Bicycle Anthropologist www.urbanadonia.com
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Christine Bourgeois -
summitcyclingcenter＠yahoo.com