alternative payment/stipend structures
Hello, comrades,
At BB last year I heard a number of different takes on the issue of payment to core/committed/etc members of the shop. This is obviously something that many of us have struggled with--a small stipend can enable someone to spend much more time in the shop and increase productivity, etc, but it also can have pitfalls: shifting emphasis toward making money & away from service/community/etc goals.
Not to be nosey, but I'm wondering how different shops have approached this, both through payrolls and alternate routes. I'm also wondering what kind of decision-making and account-taking goes on in regards to taking care of each others' needs so that neither individuals nor the organisation as an organism is exploited. There are also questions of seasonable labor, the threat of a paid, empowered elite vs the volunteer masses... I'm just thinking out loud.
Sorry this question is so broad and filled with etc's. If any kind of discussion comes out of it I will be happy to elaborate on my own experiences (can't speak for all of The Recyclery) but for now I'm curious about what else is out there and how well it has worked. I'm interested to hear from all-volunteer groups as well, of course.
Thanks- Erik Stockmeier The Recyclery www.therecyclery.org
Community Cycles in Boulder has two paid staff. They are welcome at all of our board meetings, but cannot serve on the board, and cannot vote on issues. They can and do speak their minds, and we welcome their input. When it comes to issues with their pay, holiday bonuses, etc, the board will ask them to step outside the room while we discuss the issue at hand.
We also have several positions which are paid a stipend, but are for one off or potentially one off type positions. We booth/table at our local farmer's market, and do repairs/tuneups, and we staff that booth with one paid staff member, and one volunteer who earns a 10-20 stipend (i can't remember which at the moment...damned snow!!!) for the day, to pay for their lunch. the stipend is paid daily, out of the petty cash. we don't have a permanent position for this, other than one paid staff member.
We're currently looking at paying one more staff member--in the interest of full disclosure, that person is me--to help run some of our youth programs. i currently do those as a volunteer, and i serve on the board. if i were to accept the paid position, i would be employed as a contractor, and get paid per class i work. i would also no longer be eligible to serve on the board, since i'm getting paid. i'm presenting my acceptance/rejection of the offer to our board this evening, actually. i still don't know which way i'll go.
as for keeping track of paid employees time, we've come up with a pretty detailed job description (in the last quarter of '07), and we plan on doing regular checkups, and employee reviews of our two staff members. to date, any performance issues we've had have been more in the vein of "dammit, rich, it's time you took a day off and told the interested group that their project will have to wait!", and not "we're paying you too much for what you do...". not a bad problem to have, i suppose, but we're well aware that burnout is often a few rusty bikes away, and we've taken steps (mandatory days off for the paid staff) to help alleviate some of that pressure.
hope that helps...
josh.
On Feb 4, 2008 12:21 PM, Erik Stockmeier eriks@therecyclery.org wrote:
Hello, comrades,
At BB last year I heard a number of different takes on the issue of payment to core/committed/etc members of the shop. This is obviously something that many of us have struggled with--a small stipend can enable someone to spend much more time in the shop and increase productivity, etc, but it also can have pitfalls: shifting emphasis toward making money & away from service/community/etc goals.
Not to be nosey, but I'm wondering how different shops have approached this, both through payrolls and alternate routes. I'm also wondering what kind of decision-making and account-taking goes on in regards to taking care of each others' needs so that neither individuals nor the organisation as an organism is exploited. There are also questions of seasonable labor, the threat of a paid, empowered elite vs the volunteer masses... I'm just thinking out loud.
Sorry this question is so broad and filled with etc's. If any kind of discussion comes out of it I will be happy to elaborate on my own experiences (can't speak for all of The Recyclery) but for now I'm curious about what else is out there and how well it has worked. I'm interested to hear from all-volunteer groups as well, of course.
Thanks- Erik Stockmeier The Recyclery www.therecyclery.org
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
All-Bike Church Santa Cruz has a system by which each core mechanic (that is, the core that makes up the collective) volunteers one scheduled 4 hour shift per week. All core mechanics are eligible to fill 'clerkship' hours as well, and some mechanics have weekly duties as clerks. Clerkships are up for rotation at quarterly meetings. Also, if the shop is short staffed on a given day, a core mechanic can fill in. Clerkship hours and fill-in hours are paid as independent contractors. In the (recent) past, this system has meant that the shop is run mostly by volunteer labor. As we have grown (A LOT) in the last two years, more clerkship hours have been filled, and we have plenty of money to pay for these. I have not witnessed any shift in emphasis away from service to the community, nor an increased split between 'paid' core and unpaid volunteers. BICAS (where I work currently) has an entirely paid staff. Or almost. The mechanics who staff the community tools area are paid, and folks are paid for teaching classes, grant writing, outreach, doing the books, etc. We're not paid very much, but, then, Tucson is a cheap town to live in. There are a number of folks on the board of directors that volunteer a great deal of time. BICAS also provides a great deal of work trade opportunity to pretty much anyone. Worktrade is credited in used parts and shop time, and is pretty much on parity with the (cash) pay of the staff. The worktrade is what I really like about the BICAS system; nobody is asked to 'volunteer', and, thus, every one's time is valued. It seems to me that what needs to be interjected into this conversation is questions of class. Sure, if there are no paid staff at a bike project, there is a perception of equality. But who is it that has time to 'give' to a project? I'm not, by any means, saying that if you volunteer your time, you aren't working class, but I think that a cursory examination of community bike shops reveals that they are mostly operated by young white men. At the very least, I think that we can agree that this is a group that possesses certain other privileges in this society, privileges that might make it easier to 'donate' a lot of time to a project you love. Many projects have found that paying a living wage has increased gender equity in their shop, and I would guess that it will increase the proportion of non-white core members as well. Both of these factors make the shop more friendly/ accessible to exactly the portions of our communities that probably have the most trouble getting bike help via traditional routes (bro-ing out with the mechanic dude down at the legit bike shop). There is a profound need for the services and attitudes that our projects offer to our communities, as evidenced by the hoards of people knocking on our shop doors, asking to fix flats and repack bottom brackets. Helping these people efficiently is a skill, and doing so in a way that accomplishes our shared goal of teaching the patron how to do it for her/himself, is a mastery level skill. There are times that this is the hardest job I've ever had. It also fucking rocks. I hate capitalism and think that bike projects, at their best, offer a vision of how we might relate to each other in a different society; a society based on mutual aid. But for now, this is capitalism, and I think that most of our projects will thrive in the long run only if they help their core participants pay the bills. Sorry I'm so wordy. I talk a lot, but I swear I'm not this preachy in person. I'm not, right? lots of warm thoughts, kyle
On Feb 4, 2008 12:42 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
Community Cycles in Boulder has two paid staff. They are welcome at all of our board meetings, but cannot serve on the board, and cannot vote on issues. They can and do speak their minds, and we welcome their input. When it comes to issues with their pay, holiday bonuses, etc, the board will ask them to step outside the room while we discuss the issue at hand.
We also have several positions which are paid a stipend, but are for one off or potentially one off type positions. We booth/table at our local farmer's market, and do repairs/tuneups, and we staff that booth with one paid staff member, and one volunteer who earns a 10-20 stipend (i can't remember which at the moment...damned snow!!!) for the day, to pay for their lunch. the stipend is paid daily, out of the petty cash. we don't have a permanent position for this, other than one paid staff member.
We're currently looking at paying one more staff member--in the interest of full disclosure, that person is me--to help run some of our youth programs. i currently do those as a volunteer, and i serve on the board. if i were to accept the paid position, i would be employed as a contractor, and get paid per class i work. i would also no longer be eligible to serve on the board, since i'm getting paid. i'm presenting my acceptance/rejection of the offer to our board this evening, actually. i still don't know which way i'll go.
as for keeping track of paid employees time, we've come up with a pretty detailed job description (in the last quarter of '07), and we plan on doing regular checkups, and employee reviews of our two staff members. to date, any performance issues we've had have been more in the vein of "dammit, rich, it's time you took a day off and told the interested group that their project will have to wait!", and not "we're paying you too much for what you do...". not a bad problem to have, i suppose, but we're well aware that burnout is often a few rusty bikes away, and we've taken steps (mandatory days off for the paid staff) to help alleviate some of that pressure.
hope that helps...
josh.
On Feb 4, 2008 12:21 PM, Erik Stockmeier eriks@therecyclery.org wrote:
Hello, comrades,
At BB last year I heard a number of different takes on the issue of payment to core/committed/etc members of the shop. This is obviously something that many of us have struggled with--a small stipend can enable someone to spend much more time in the shop and increase productivity, etc, but it also can have pitfalls: shifting emphasis toward making money & away from service/community/etc goals.
Not to be nosey, but I'm wondering how different shops have approached this, both through payrolls and alternate routes. I'm also wondering what kind of decision-making and account-taking goes on in regards to taking care of each others' needs so that neither individuals nor the organisation as an organism is exploited. There are also questions of seasonable labor, the threat of a paid, empowered elite vs the volunteer masses... I'm just thinking out loud.
Sorry this question is so broad and filled with etc's. If any kind of discussion comes out of it I will be happy to elaborate on my own experiences (can't speak for all of The Recyclery) but for now I'm curious about what else is out there and how well it has worked. I'm interested to hear from all-volunteer groups as well, of course.
Thanks- Erik Stockmeier The Recyclery www.therecyclery.org
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...
kyle mckinley wrote:
It seems to me that what needs to be interjected into this conversation is questions of class. Sure, if there are no paid staff at a bike project, there is a perception of equality. But who is it that has time to 'give' to a project? I'm not, by any means, saying that if you volunteer your time, you aren't working class, but I think that a cursory examination of community bike shops reveals that they are mostly operated by young white men. At the very least, I think that we can agree that this is a group that possesses certain other privileges in this society, privileges that might make it easier to 'donate' a lot of time to a project you love. Many projects have found that paying a living wage has increased gender equity in their shop, and I would guess that it will increase the proportion of non-white core members as well. Both of these factors make the shop more friendly/ accessible to exactly the portions of our communities that probably have the most trouble getting bike help via traditional routes (bro-ing out with the mechanic dude down at the legit bike shop).
I've got a follow-up question to this for all of the shops out there.
I've always been skeptical about how paid staff would affect our shop.
We have always been all-volunteer. The one advantage I saw in it was
the possibility of redressing class or race imbalances in the way you
mention. On the other hand, my impression of most shops with hired
staff, even the ones who use class and race as an explicit justification
for it, is that they seem to be no more diverse along race and class
lines than our shop, usually less. My impression may totally be wrong,
so I'd love to hear from other places about this. Does your experience
with hired staff show an improvement in class/racial diversity?
As an aside, I might sometimes seem the grumpy naysayer, but I should mention that I love this list (and Bike!Bike!) for giving a space for critical, thoughtful, and constructive discussion to happen around race/class/gender/antioppression/etc in the bike world. Thanks everyone.
macho
participants (4)
-
Erik Stockmeier -
kyle mckinley -
Macho Philipovich -
veganboyjosh＠gmail.com