What information do you track monthly?
Hello from chilly Des Moines!
The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is just about to hit its first
anniversary. Miracle of miracles, we're still above water.
What have you experienced collectives learned is important to track
regarding shop activities? We think these things are key (especially
for applying for grants):
*bikes received
*bikes given away
*bikes sold
*Earn-A-Bike completions
*bikes recycled/sent to scrapper
*tires recycled/sent to scrapper
*volunteer hours
Are we missing anything? A couple board members want to create an
entry for each bike received (record serial number) and track hours
spent on fixing, parts/tires invested. Seems a bit over the top when
we're still scratching and clawing for volunteers.
But, willing to listen to the voices of experience.
Carl carlvoss@mac.com Mobile: 515-210-0237
I guess I'd start with a list composed not of what information you want to collect, but what things you want to be able to do. Then figure out what information you need to collect to do those things. Then figure out if it's worth the effort of collecting that information to be able to do whatever that information enables.
It can be temping to try to document, catalog, and archive every last detail because you might need it someday. It's important to keep in mind that every record keeping system you put in place has up-front and ongoing costs in terms of volunteer effort and materials.
That said, we track volunteer hours (for membership and grant writing), total bike throughput (for grantwriting and planning), hours worked (for accounting), all monetary transactions (for accounting, planning, and grant writing), and EAB throughput (for grant writing). There may be more that I'm not thinking of right now, but those are the major ones in my mind.
Stuart
On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Carl Voss carlvoss@mac.com wrote:
Hello from chilly Des Moines! The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is just about to hit its first anniversary. Miracle of miracles, we're still above water.
What have you experienced collectives learned is important to track regarding shop activities? We think these things are key (especially for applying for grants): *bikes received *bikes given away *bikes sold *Earn-A-Bike completions *bikes recycled/sent to scrapper *tires recycled/sent to scrapper *volunteer hours
Are we missing anything? A couple board members want to create an entry for each bike received (record serial number) and track hours spent on fixing, parts/tires invested. Seems a bit over the top when we're still scratching and clawing for volunteers.
But, willing to listen to the voices of experience.
Carl carlvoss@mac.com Mobile: 515-210-0237
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We track similar things,
But the big one we are trying to get in place is tracking on each bike. Tags get hung on the bike and follow it thru the shop. At the end of its time in the shop we remove the tag and make a quick note on the bike as to what program it went to. We then would send out a quick form letter via email to the donor. After that the paper work is recycled and that's it.
It allows us to touch base with those that have donated a month to a year + ago to thank them as well remind them of us
Patrick stlbikeworks
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:06:05 -0400 From: soa@ri.cmu.edu To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] What information do you track monthly?
I guess I'd start with a list composed not of what information you want to collect, but what things you want to be able to do. Then figure out what information you need to collect to do those things. Then figure out if it's worth the effort of collecting that information to be able to do whatever that information enables.
It can be temping to try to document, catalog, and archive every last detail because you might need it someday. It's important to keep in mind that every record keeping system you put in place has up-front and ongoing costs in terms of volunteer effort and materials.
That said, we track volunteer hours (for membership and grant writing), total bike throughput (for grantwriting and planning), hours worked (for accounting), all monetary transactions (for accounting, planning, and grant writing), and EAB throughput (for grant writing). There may be more that I'm not thinking of right now, but those are the major ones in my mind.
Stuart
On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Carl Voss carlvoss@mac.com wrote:
Hello from chilly Des Moines! The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is just about to hit its first anniversary. Miracle of miracles, we're still above water. What have you experienced collectives learned is important to track regarding shop activities? We think these things are key (especially for applying for grants): *bikes received*bikes given away*bikes sold*Earn-A-Bike completions*bikes recycled/sent to scrapper*tires recycled/sent to scrapper*volunteer hours
Are we missing anything? A couple board members want to create an entry for each bike received (record serial number) and track hours spent on fixing, parts/tires invested. Seems a bit over the top when we're still scratching and clawing for volunteers.
But, willing to listen to the voices of experience.
Carl carlvoss@mac.comMobile: 515-210-0237
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Do you use freehub, the database that bike kitchen created? Just started and it's been great. Allows you to track membership, visits to the shop and volunteers.It's interesting to see how many time someone's been in the shop--helps with recruiting volunteers. "Hey, i saw you built up that raleigh and spend a lot of time on it...would be interested in training to be a volunteer mechanic"....and so on Lucia MoBo Bicycle Co-op
On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 1:07 AM, Patrick VDT fivespeed_@hotmail.com wrote:
We track similar things,
But the big one we are trying to get in place is tracking on each bike. Tags get hung on the bike and follow it thru the shop. At the end of its time in the shop we remove the tag and make a quick note on the bike as to what program it went to. We then would send out a quick form letter via email to the donor. After that the paper work is recycled and that's it.
It allows us to touch base with those that have donated a month to a year + ago to thank them as well remind them of us
Patrick stlbikeworks
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:06:05 -0400 From: soa@ri.cmu.edu To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] What information do you track monthly?
I guess I'd start with a list composed not of what information you want to collect, but what things you want to be able to do. Then figure out what information you need to collect to do those things. Then figure out if it's worth the effort of collecting that information to be able to do whatever that information enables.
It can be temping to try to document, catalog, and archive every last detail because you might need it someday. It's important to keep in mind that every record keeping system you put in place has up-front and ongoing costs in terms of volunteer effort and materials.
That said, we track volunteer hours (for membership and grant writing), total bike throughput (for grantwriting and planning), hours worked (for accounting), all monetary transactions (for accounting, planning, and grant writing), and EAB throughput (for grant writing). There may be more that I'm not thinking of right now, but those are the major ones in my mind.
Stuart
On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Carl Voss carlvoss@mac.com wrote:
Hello from chilly Des Moines! The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is just about to hit its first anniversary. Miracle of miracles, we're still above water.
What have you experienced collectives learned is important to track regarding shop activities? We think these things are key (especially for applying for grants): *bikes received *bikes given away *bikes sold *Earn-A-Bike completions *bikes recycled/sent to scrapper *tires recycled/sent to scrapper *volunteer hours
Are we missing anything? A couple board members want to create an entry for each bike received (record serial number) and track hours spent on fixing, parts/tires invested. Seems a bit over the top when we're still scratching and clawing for volunteers.
But, willing to listen to the voices of experience.
Carl carlvoss@mac.com Mobile: 515-210-0237
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:
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You may find that the law will require you to record serial numbers.
So best to check with your local Police, because you don't want them
visiting and possibly putting your org. through the wringer.
We record serial #s for every bike we sell or scrap, though not the
ones we never get to process and donate overseas or whatever. Also,
the cheaper bikes often don't have numbers.
We started recording stats for a grant many years ago, and we keep it
up because it allows us to review each year and see what's going on.
We track:
bikes sold
bikes recycled (made ready for sale, scrapped, donated elsewhere)
people served (volunteers, DIYers, shoppers - basically anyone that
comes into the shop).
volunteer hours
income
After we implemented our "hour for hour" deal a few years ago (one
hour of volunteering is worth one hour of shop time) we now track any
hours redeemed.
For an example of the usefulness of tracking: we moved our shop last
year. and we knew we became a lot busier. It was nice to have the
actual numbers show a medium to fabulous rise in every statistic.
Good for bragging rights, if nothing else. ;)
Mark Rehder - Director re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op http://re-cycles.ca
On 11-Mar-09, at 6:58 PM, Carl Voss wrote:
Hello from chilly Des Moines!
The Des Moines Bicycle Collective is just about to hit its first
anniversary. Miracle of miracles, we're still above water.What have you experienced collectives learned is important to track
regarding shop activities? We think these things are key
(especially for applying for grants): *bikes received *bikes given away *bikes sold *Earn-A-Bike completions *bikes recycled/sent to scrapper *tires recycled/sent to scrapper *volunteer hoursAre we missing anything? A couple board members want to create an
entry for each bike received (record serial number) and track
hours spent on fixing, parts/tires invested. Seems a bit over the
top when we're still scratching and clawing for volunteers.But, willing to listen to the voices of experience.
Carl carlvoss@mac.com Mobile: 515-210-0237
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank- leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
participants (5)
-
Carl Voss -
Mark Rehder -
MoBo Bicycle Co-op -
Patrick VDT -
Stuart O Anderson