Bike!Bike! 2010

Bike!Bike! 2010 was hosted in Toronto, Ontario by Bike Pirates in the summer of 2010.

Workshops

In the overview, please make mention of the facilitators, format of the workshop, and whatever other information you might think helpful. The overview should contain a description of the topic but no record of what happened in the workshop. Feedback is meant to be a constructive aid for those who ran the workshop; keep in mind many of the facilitators had no prior experience with this type of workshop before this conference.

Don't be afraid to make changes to someone else's work if you can make any improvements.

Bike Sharing!

Notes

• Have education as a component so people take better care of bikes
• Check-in/Check-out done through rec-center, can use web-interface
• Waiver & be sure bike is in reasonably good order
• Need to be a member of the co-op in order to be eligible to borrow?
  • Can be a good incentive for people to become members at Free Ride
• Can buy a bike and get 1/2 back for what they pay
  • Somebody can buy a fixed-up bike and then return the bike to get 1/2 of their money back when they are done with the bike. This would be like a library bike system except that it is OK if they end up keeping the bike permanently
  • Also makes the price of borrowing depend on the bike and can scale to let people borrow the nicer bikes so they are not limited to only the bad ones
• Keep designation simple, one group make all the bikes the same color. The library became known as the "yellow bike program"
• Some groups used an open-source software to keep track. I think it was called something like bike-a-ma-jiggy developed by Andrew Hall and Bernetts? (Not sure on spelling, etc.)
• http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/freebike/details.htm

Cargo bikes!

Overview

The cargo bikes session was lead by members of the Troy Bike Rescue (www.troybikerescue.org), and in particular Dakota Callahan and Andrew Lynn. The presentation was a picture powerpoint accompanied by discussions and Q&A regarding DIY cargo bike creation and use. The aim of the discussion was to see what the role of the cargo bike will play in our pedal powered revolution, and how we can make them a integral part of our shops and our daily lives.

Notes

Many of the attendees were interested in building their own cargo bikes for their shops or personal use. Such things were discussed as how to build jigs, what type of steel is ideal, how to determine what kind of steel you are using, and what kind of wheel systems are most efficient.

Jigs: @TBR we use an assortment of basic jigs to achieve our main goals with bicycles. These main goals are to either A) Extend bicycles or B) make them taller. We use a large PVC pole that is the same diameter as a standard head tube for the purpose of stacking head tubes and maintaining proper alignment, as well as using long sets of angle iron and clamps to align bottom brackets so that multiple frames extended remain straight.

Type of steel: More info later when i am not at work

Wheel systems: 2 wheel systems seem to be the best choice for most situations and light to medium cargo-ing-ness. 2 wheels are easier to pull along than the traditional 4 (2 on bike and 2 on trailer) as well as maintain stability at higher speeds. Anyone who has dragged a trailer before can attest to the sometimes awkwardness of high speed travel with a non leaning load on the back of the bike.

that being said, heavy weight and low speed is easily dealt with on a 2 wheel trailer, as many of us have seen before with other peoples mobile clinics and general cargo usage.

Co-Op Incubator Program

Notes

Getting volunteers

• Try a volunteer exchange
  • A fun idea brought up where different cities provide housing for visitors to work in a different shop for a period of time
• Develop a mission statement and review regularly to keep the organization on track
  • One of the first things newcomers learn about is the mission statement
• Wrench 10 shifts, 2 hour orientation, use a D-list specifically for shadows, quarterly "cooks" meeting (Bike kitchen)
  • Shadower workbook that is like an interactive quiz that can be signed off
• Staff (council) must all wrench at some point, some minimum amount.
  • Everyone must be involved in the shop
• Weekly potluck
• Staff-only nights have been helpful
  • Sopo has tried a few things are really like the staff-only nights
• Keep track of active/inactive "cooks" (Staff)
  • Have a way for people to keep track
• Use shiftboard and an appointment book to schedule people
• Pizza & Beer every Saturday after shop closes, makes an informal and fun environment

Space

• Find community leaders & politicians about finding space.
  • Must be persistent with asking
  • Highlight value to why this is a good use of the space
  • Establish a community interest
    • Network and publish annual report to make success publicly known

Grant writing and Government Contracts

Notes

Earned Income

• Inconsistent for some
  • (Vancouver says their shop has fairly consistent income flow)
• Some question making profit from donations (bikes) but it can easily be worded to show its positive side
• Adopt-a-bike idea is another way to earn money, bikes are paid by suggested donation
• Money can be earned though bike sharing, if only though late fees
• Repairs:
  • Some shops do them, some don't
  • Some shops that do, do not guarantee a return time, in fact warn customers that they may not get their bikes back for a long time but many customers support the idea enough to be okay with that

Private Funding

• Lots of potential sources
• Create partnerships with similar organizations
• Do some research and find out what an organization funds
  • Often listed on their website
  • Some organizations only put funding into very specific areas of interest but you can often find one part of your organization that fits into one of these areas
  • For example, Norco will put finding into parts but not into non-tangible items
• Call an organizations personally and create a relationship with the person/people who actually have a say in who gets funding
• Start by writing small proposals and work up to larger ones
• Many organizations with not be the sole funders, they want to see that your organization is sustainable and seeing that you have multiple funding sources puts them at ease
  • Usually 50% or less
• Full support from private funders should not be relied on for the long-haul as it cannot be counted on from year to year
• Have a set of written rules or constitution to abide by as to what concessions your organization is willing to make for funding
  • Ex: We will not include an advertisement or logo on our shop front
  • These rules should be agreed on and followed by everyone but can be changed as needed
• Having a volunteer or employee that is dedicated to writing grants can be key

Government Grants and Contracts

• Generally not lenient with deadlines and working outside of the agreement as private organizations
• Often do not pay upfront but your organization must first have the money to fund itself for a few months until it applies to be refunded
  • Requires that you have some money in the first place or that you take out a loan

Volunteer Orientation Part 1: telling folks how you work and plugging them in

Notes

High Level

• Boise: have definition for volunteer and communicate mission
  • Can make a distinction between volunteering and work-trade. Free Ride does not, but other shops do

Designing an orientation

• Highlight how every bit of work fits into helping out in the big picture
• What goals do we have for what volunteers can be?
• Build expectations and give them to members & volunteers
• What do volunteers get out of helping out? (Try to come up with at least 3 things)

Implementation Details

• Brake into small groups; explain the shop & emphasize the *mission*
• May want to vary the frequency and scheduling of the orientation (Other groups have 1/month with about 20 people at each orientation

Separate into 2 sections

• • Introduction
  • First steps in being trained (scraping bikes or some other hands-on activity, like doing a safety check maybe)
    • The hands-on activity becomes like and initiation process, allowing people to become part of the group

Process for Orientation

• Talk to Sopo (Atlanta I think) & Boise projects to learn more about the details of their process

• Use a "workbook" with specific skills. Each skill can be signed-off and when completed a person has finished "training."

Extra Discussion

• (Association of management of volunteers) Volunteer intake should be made long and arduous with several steps
  • People who are a good fit will make it through the steps and others will get self-eliminate
• Role playing is fun & brings active participation to orientation
• Follow-up: personalized thank-you.
  • Be sure to follow-up quickly to have a good impact
  • One group mails out hand-made cards to everybody
• Elevate the position of being Volunteer as something very important and something to have pride in

Volunteer Retention and Burnout

Overview

A discussion of common problems and possible solutions for lack of volunteer retention and volunteer burnout. This workshop was facilitated by Zoe of the Brick City Bike Collective and Godwin of The Bike Root. It was divided in half by both topics and on each half, a go around was done to identify the most common problems then a brainstorming session was done to see if possible solutions could be found to many of the problems. Approximately 40 people turned out.

Notes

Retention

Why do we lose volunteers?

• Sometimes the work they do starts to feel meaningless
• Volunteers may not get the help needed and may get frustrated
• Organizing meetings can be very long
• Don't feel qualified
• Don't feel empowered or welcome to start organizing
• May leave once the weather turns foul

Solutions:

• Volunteer nights
  • approximately 3 hours long
  • one every week or two weeks
• Talk to volunteers, see what they want to do
  • Have one-on-one meetings to ensure that volunteers are interested in what they are doing
  • Keep occasional volunteers interested and you'll get more long-term volunteers and mechanics
• Develop a volunteer structure
  • Create a tiered setup with specific volunteer levels and rewards
  • Have dedicated roles with written job descriptions
• Identify what the boring tasks are
• Make a task list or binder
• Make it Social

Burnout

Causes:

• Not resolving problems
• Feeling like no one else will do it
• Loss of interest

Solutions:

• Behind the scenes work
  • Burnout notice
  • Talk with the volunteers
  • Offer a sabbatical
  • Plan a group retreat to talk about issues
• Have more honesty in meetings
  • Have meetings to only discuss and vent volunteer issues
• Don't plan long-term putting out fires
• Rotate tasks
  • Write out tasks in a book
• Make a policy that when only one volunteer shows up, close the shop and walk away

Winter Riding Skill-share

Overview

This workshop covered safety issues and how to deal with the winter fashion police (i.e. how to dress appropriately!). As a group we discussed different ideas to get more people to ride during the winter months.

Notes

• Winter Riding workshop handout: Gives a quick overview of safety issues, bike modifications and dress tips.

• Ideas to get more people to ride in winter
  • Coldest day of the year ride & January 1st rides
  • A box with donated winter riding clothes (e.g. extra gloves, sweaters, waterproofs etc.)
  • Ice polo / Ice races
  • Taking kids/others to parking lots (or other secluded / car-free spaces) to show them how much fun winter riding is!
  • Pledge signing / peer pressure: "I swear to not use a car for the duration of the winter"

Women and Trans Hours: Policies, Politics, Allies

Notes

In Davis, Women/Trans/Femme Night allows men who are core volunteers to attend one meeting with permission in advance only, to give them a sense of what happens/how it works when they aren't around. We also found that putting out large, painted signs has helped significantly for passers-by to understand that this isn't open shop.