I think the most important thing is to set your hours and keep them, even if you will be open less often than you’re prefer. Being closed when you’re advertised as open is a quick way to have volunteers stop showing up (let alone customers).

So if you would like to be open four times per week, but only have enough regular staff for three, then keep it to three. Even two. You can always grow as people learn to trust that you will be open when you say you’ll be.

As an example, our shop is established and we usually have few problems with staffing, but an org. similar to ours in another part of town seems to be inconsistent, sometimes having their door shut when they are advertised as open (which is only two times per week). And they do not announce on social media or their website that they will be closed on one of their “open” days, as we do for holidays, etc. People show up there and the door is locked, and not even a sign on the door with an explanation. I hear they’ve having trouble finding enough volunteers, for some reason…

We have two people that look after staffing, one for our Head Mechanics, another for our Mechanics and Shop Assistants (we have roughly forty staff). Staffers give them their availability and preferred times, and each month the announcement goes out that next month’s schedule is being prepared, and to advise if there are any changes needed. We use Google Calendar so that everyone can access this schedule, and anyone that needs to swap shifts has the responsibility to notify our email list and find their own replacement.

Mark Rehder - Coordinator re-Cycles Community Bike Shop http://re-cycles.ca

On Aug 7, 2018, at 5:18 PM, Sarah FioRito sarah.fiorito@gmail.com wrote:

Hey Folks!

We at Kickstand community Bike Shop in East Vancouver have had ongoing challenges with staying open for all our our regular shop hours because we sometimes do not have enough volunteers signed up to volunteer to facilitate our volunteer-run shop on a given day.

Does anyone have strategies for encouraging volunteer commitment and regular shifts so that we can reliably open for our posted hours?

Obviously, transitioning to having paid staff is one pathway, though there are probably many other alternatives that would meet our needs and encourage community participation in keeping the space open.

Sarah ____________________________________

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I second Mark's advice, my experience is similar. Fewer, more reliable days are more important than wishful advertised hours. Not being open when the public has been notified that you are is a surefire way to deflate broader support and visibility - much better to disappoint with fewer days that people at least know they can trust. People want to know whether you're for real.

Unfortunately my experience has been that the only way to get real reliability is to pay people. With only incentives and no real penalties, people will always flake out. Maintaining a comprehensive and easy to use system for coordinating volunteers similar to the one Enzo suggested could work, but my take is that it would need a dedicated and reliable facilitator.

One unorthodox alternative might be to never have posted hours. Once upon a time our shop unofficially operated that way, we had posted hours but this was before Facebook and the physical shop sign was worn enough to be illegible. We had a paid manager/director, but they often flaked.

There were out-of-control key holders, in other words an unknown number of them (I was one), and basically during these years the community got trained just to roll by RIBs when they had needs to see if the shop was open. I think we also had a landline then and sometimes people would call and see if anyone would answer.

Partially this worked (sort of) because RIBs was situated in the heart of the physical community it was servicing; people only had to walk or roll a few blocks to check on us.

The other reason that it worked was that competent keyholders were in the shop so frequently (albeit at random) that rolling by the shop rewarded the visitor with open doors more often than closed ones.

Eventually this system broke down because for whatever random reason the critical mass of these competent keyholders ablated and the shop was closed more often than not. But it is worth considering that if a less structured and more anarchist way of functioning is attractive, proliferating keyed access to a growing, trusted group might keep the shop open often enough that predictable hours becomes less important.

On balance though, I'd say begin seriously considering paid positions in mixture with volunteer ones. It really helps.

cyclista Nicholas

On 2018-08-07 22:03, Vincenzo loco wrote:

Our shop offers incentive in several ways. Maintaining hours is how you retain your status as a 'volunteer member'. Benefits of being a 'volunteer member' include discounted parts, voting membership (being able to vote in meetings), free use of the space, the ability to order stuff through our distributors. In addition we have regular potlucks and movie nights at the shop to encourage shop community.

Another strategy has been selecting folks who can maintain a regular shift (one specific day a week) and having them be a key holder. We encourage new volunteers to select one specific weekday that they will volunteer. The key holder will also usually keep an open group text for the regular volunteers on that shift so they can communicate days they might miss earlier and try to find an alternate to cover for them.

To keep the volunteers on the tuesday shift happy (the one I have the key for) I often will buy cheap pizza or donuts for the group. Best Enzo

On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 2:40 PM, Mark Rehder mark@re-cycles.ca wrote:

...

I think the most important thing is to set your hours and keep them, even if you will be open less often than you’re prefer. Being closed when you’re advertised as open is a quick way to have volunteers stop showing up (let alone customers).

So if you would like to be open four times per week, but only have enough regular staff for three, then keep it to three. Even two. You can always grow as people learn to trust that you will be open when you say you’ll be.

As an example, our shop is established and we usually have few problems with staffing, but an org. similar to ours in another part of town seems to be inconsistent, sometimes having their door shut when they are advertised as open (which is only two times per week). And they do not announce on social media or their website that they will be closed on one of their “open” days, as we do for holidays, etc. People show up there and the door is locked, and not even a sign on the door with an explanation. I hear they’ve having trouble finding enough volunteers, for some reason…

We have two people that look after staffing, one for our Head Mechanics, another for our Mechanics and Shop Assistants (we have roughly forty staff). Staffers give them their availability and preferred times, and each month the announcement goes out that next month’s schedule is being prepared, and to advise if there are any changes needed. We use Google Calendar so that everyone can access this schedule, and anyone that needs to swap shifts has the responsibility to notify our email list and find their own replacement.

Mark Rehder - Coordinator re-Cycles Community Bike Shop http://re-cycles.ca

...

On Aug 7, 2018, at 5:18 PM, Sarah FioRito sarah.fiorito@gmail.com

wrote:

...

Hey Folks!

We at Kickstand community Bike Shop in East Vancouver have had ongoing

challenges with staying open for all our our regular shop hours because we sometimes do not have enough volunteers signed up to volunteer to facilitate our volunteer-run shop on a given day.

...

Does anyone have strategies for encouraging volunteer commitment and

regular shifts so that we can reliably open for our posted hours?

...

Obviously, transitioning to having paid staff is one pathway, though

there are probably many other alternatives that would meet our needs and encourage community participation in keeping the space open.

...

Sarah ____________________________________

The ThinkTank mailing List

Unsubscribe from this list here: http://lists.bikecollectives.

org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

...

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