File:BikeWorks Report October 2011.doc

Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’ Society
BikeWorks Coordinator October Report
Alex Hindle

BikeWorks Monthly Statistics
# volunteer hours accrued: at least 196.50
# volunteers who put in time at the shop:27
# patrons (estimated by # of transactions):181
# bikes sold: 15
$ bikes sold: $1210.00
$ parts sold: $1,462.11 (total), $825.61 New / $636.50 Used
# workshops/courses for public: 2
# workshops/courses for volunteers (including new volunteer orientations): 1
# new volunteers: 3

Bike Building Monthly Statistics
# bikes built:13
$ initial value of bikes built:$525
$ added value to bikes built:$625
$ total value of bikes built: $1150
$ spent on bikes built (in parts): $250
# volunteer hours spent building bikes:55.5
# staff hours spent on bike building program:10.5
$ cost of food for bike building: $100

Please note, I was away between the 11th and 16th of October.

General and Ongoing Activities

Bike Building
Recent attendance at Bike Building has been very high. Thanks to the offer of space in
Adam Burgess’ and Kevin Schmidt’s garages, we should be able to realize the vision
of building and storing nice finished bikes to sell in spring. We should be able to store
at least 40 bikes between the two garages. A larger spring sale will be organized in
March or April of 2012 that should be very profitable. Bike Building also continues to
be an excellent introduction and learning tool for new volunteers and has seen around 10
people attending over the last few weeks. Suggestions of a second bike building night
have been made and will be considered pending attendance over the next month.

Bike Rental Program
Demand for the rental program has been waning as the weather turns and I anticipate
very low usage over the winter months. We will retain 4 bikes at BikeWorks should
there be demand during the winter and move the rest of the rentals into storage until the
spring. Still working on updating the rental documents to make them more volunteer
friendly. Will be building up a few extra bikes for the program to expand our selection
for the next season. 2011 report still in the works but not quite done.

Babac Order
Placed a Babac order to hopefully bolster our dwindling chain supply amongst other
things.

Current & Upcoming Projects

BikeWorks Improvements
Malcolm Roberts and others have been working to make some further improvements
to the BikeWorks space. Specifically, Malcolm and I are making room for more wheel
storage above the west work benches. Malcolm is also creating a plan to build a hanging
bike parking area attached to the fence that should improve the congestion caused by
volunteers and patrons bringing their bikes inside. This project is in the planning stages
at the moment but should be finished with the month of November.

BikeWorks Volunteer Appreciation Party
Currently looking into options for a volunteer appreciation even to be held in late
November or early December. My initial plan for a pool party was thwarted by the
Bonnie Doon Pool being booked solid for the next 6 months but I will find an alternative.
An appreciation event is a good way to keep morale high during the winter and remind
some of the less active volunteers about the fun times to be had at BikeWorks. Will aim
to make it inclusive, not too expensive and fun. Suggestions welcomed.

BikeWorks Patron Worksheets
Worksheets for patrons to use to track their time and parts used are now available on
the shop floor. As per the decision of the BikeWorks Committee, these sheets will at
first be optional until we are able to gauge their usefulness. The benefits of the sheets,
and similar systems such as attaching whiteboards to all repair stands (as has been much
discussed) is that it will make it easier for patrons to accurately determine how much they
owe EBC for their use of the shop and parts. For those patrons that are inclined to not
pay for parts or time, the presence of the sheets may offer a mild disincentive towards
this behaviour. However, the downsides to making this idea mandatory, I believe, are
numerous:

ª
ª
ª
ª

Enforcement will be difficult
It further complicates the process of using BikeWorks
Patrons inclined to steal can simply lie on the sheet
Patrons with a close existing relationship with BikeWorks may be disinclined to
use the sheets or not take them seriously
ª There will be a lot of grey area over when to use the sheets and not; for example,
should a patrons coming to just buy parts be required to use the sheet?
ª Whiteboards attached to bike stands specifically would be difficult as they are
hard to secure to bike stands, get in the way of those using the bike stands, and
wouldn’t be useful for those performing repairs but not using a stand (say wheel
truing). Pens and erasers would also go missing frequently and provide frustration

to either the patron or volunteers.

I am very hesitant to make any such policy mandatory as I think it’s of limited utility and
will be difficult to implement. The BikeWorks Committee was not in favour of using
whiteboards and preferred instead to try the optional sheet system and I think we should
try this for a few months and see if it seems to work well before making a decision on
whether or not some form of parts/time tracking should be mandatory.

BikeWorks Volunteer Management Plan
I am about halfway done creating a formal volunteer management plan for BikeWorks.
The plan specifically addresses three challenges:

1. How can we encourage volunteers to be more involved in BikeWorks’ overall
operations with increased self-direction and initiative?
2. How can we diversify our volunteer base?
3. How can we improve volunteer retention and satisfaction?

These challenges are analyzed by looking at the current context, existing obstacles,
strategies to meet the challenges and benchmarks for measuring success. Approximately
10 to 15 more hours of work is needed to complete the plan. The plan will provide a lot
of specific details about the culture of volunteering at BikeWorks and how it compares to
other community bike workshops. Using data from the 2010 census of community bike
shops we will be able to identify areas that BikeWorks is strong and weak and this should
further help us address the above listed challenges. Implementation of the plan will begin
immediately.

Comments/Suggestion Box
A comment and suggestion box with associated comment forms has been installed
near the main door to BikeWorks. This will provide patrons another avenue to provide
feedback to us. Patrons are informed on the comment form that they are also welcome to
email or mail in comments, suggestions, concerns, etc.

Delegation of Responsibility Amongst BikeWorks Volunteers
Formal volunteer position descriptions for BikeWorks have been written and will be
used in orientations as well as to provide prospective and existing volunteer a clearer
understanding of the work they are expected to perform as a volunteer. Position
descriptions were written so as to provide some challenge to volunteers and will be
included in the aforementioned Volunteer Management Plan.

Internet Issues
The reliability of the internet had been very poor for a long time at BikeWorks. Upon
Chris’ recommendation I bought a new router and Steve Andersen made it work. Now
everything seems just fine.