BikeSavioursProposals

Wiki Etiquette: Wikis were designed from day one for anarchic, decentralized, collaborative document development. If you are a Bike Saviours fan, please feel free to create an account and start editing. Just one request - use your real FirstnameLastname as your account name, eg: "RobertBushman," so we can track document revisions and ask for more info where needed. I'm also happy to set up and administer a wiki for Bike Saviours to own, if desired.

Intro: Who am I? What's my game?

I'm Bob Bushman. I've been a volunteer at Bike Saviours for about a month. I'm the big shaved head guy.

This may seem like an overactive case of freshman fever, but it is something more. Retirement is not too far in the future for me, and I am not good at sitting idle. I intend to start a 501c3 with a charter around shifting automobile miles to bicycle miles. I want to develop a strong relationship with Bike Saviours; both to learn how a co-op works and so I can launch my org as a symbiotic partner of Bike Saviours.

My best way of learning is by doing. To work toward my long-term goal, I intend to be enthusiastic in helping to grow Bike Saviours.

Proposals For 2021-12-05

Volunteer Email: Sunday Volunteering

Bob will send the following email to any volunteer who has done a shift in the past month:

Greetings, volunteers!

We need more volunteers on Sundays.

Bike Saviours is extremely grateful for your support of our mission. Together we saved 40 bicycles from the landfill last month, preventing the release of 4 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Production of a new bicycle results in 100 kilograms of CO2 emissions, you are helping to reduce the number of unnecessary new bikes!

Our return to "no appointments" has shown that we have a lot of demand for what we do. Sundays have been especially popular, when we have far more patrons than we can serve.

If you are available on Sundays, especially if you are comfortable being an instructor mechanic, please sign up for a Sunday shift - the community needs you!

Bob

Volunteer Stimulus: $20 Shift Credit

Bob will send an email in late November. If we do not yet have an increase in Sunday mechanic volunteership, we will begin a program of offering a $20 store credit.

This will be offered to the first 3 volunteer mechanics for each shift on Sunday.

Bob will administer the store credit. Details TBK.

Rough concept:

• First 3 people to sign up and work each Sunday shift will get a $20 store credit toward used goods.
• Only sign up if you are absolutely certain you can be there.
• Signing up may result in others not signing up. Therefore:
  • Signing up but not showing up will result in ineligibility for one month, no exceptions.
  • Not showing up twice will result in ineligibility for three months.
  • Not showing up a third time will result in permanent ineligibility.
• Credit good towards:
  • Build-a-Bike
  • As-Is
  • Ready-to-Ride
  • Used merchandise.
  • Classes.
• Not good for:
  • New Merchandise.
  • New Old Stock Tubes

Hire an Additional Staff

• Income
  • Current Income: $7,592.41/month
  • Current Donations + Interest: $1,588.86/month
  • Current Total Income: $9,181.27
• Expense
  • Current Expense: $10,892.25
• Deficit
  • Current Deficit: $3,499.89

Delta Sales Required

Proposals For 2021-10-03

Weekly Volunteer Engagement Email

Proposal: Bike Saviours will grant Bob Bushman access to the volunteers email list, which he will use for a once-weekly email on volunteer engagement.

This email will include topics like:

1. Recognition of the positive work our volunteers do for the cycling community.
2. Upcoming projects or events we would like help with.
3. Upcoming shop schedule time that is understaffed.
4. Call to action for volunteer engagement outside the shop (social media, group rides, community outreach, etc).

Bob B will develop a template and provide a preview email to Bike Saviours leadership two days before each send.

Bike Saviours Periodic Volunteer Email Template

EmailCampaignManagementTools

Bike Saviours Subreddit

Proposal: Bike Saviours will recognize https://old.reddit.com/r/BikeSaviours as an official social media outlet for Bike Saviours.

Bob Bushman is the current administrator and moderator, and will pass the baton or add others according Bike Saviours' leadership requests.

Administrator and moderator rules and practices are and will be at the discretion of Bike Saviours leadership.

Bike Saviours will post a link to the Bike Saviours subreddit on the front page of the Bike Saviours site.

Future / Noodling

Advanced Volunteers

Proposal: Bike Saviours will develop a notion of an advanced volunteer: Volunteers who are sufficiently committed and reliable that they can provide the necessary support for Shamus and Nicole so that the shop can be open when only one of them is on site.

This would facilitate Nicole or Shamus taking days off and open up the possibility of having more hours or days available for scheduling.

Saturday Sales Day

Proposal: Contingent on the success of the Advanced Volunteers proposal, Bike Saviours will explore the possibility of adding a Saturday sales day.

This depends heavily on whether either Nicole or Shamus are available on Saturday and whether the Advanced Volunteers proposal develops sufficient volunteer support to ensure Bike Saviours can consistently be open on Saturday.

Developing customer trust strongly suggests having a fairly regular schedule of hours, even while Bike Saviours is by-appointment. As such, we should make sure that we have a solid slate of Advanced Volunteers and enthusiastic buy-in from Nicole or Shamus before attempting Saturday Sales Day.

Bike Saviours Volunteer Bling

Proposal: Bob Bushman will survey volunteers for their level of interest in various types of volunteer bling, such as T-Shirts, bike bottles, round buttons / pins, license plate brackets, bumper stickers, etc.

Assuming favorable response and good guidance on what type of bling is most well received, Bob will make a subsequent proposal for purchase of schwag.

The intent is that increased volunteer activity will enable things like Bike Fair and Saturday Shopping. Volunteer schwag will be funded from the net proceeds of these expansionary events.

"Virtue Signalling" has a negative connotation, but I think it is good and just to fly a flag and take pride in pro-social behavior like volunteering for your local bicycle co-op.

Meetup Group

Proposal: Bob Bushman will start a Meetup group for Bike Saviours. The group will host low overhead events like group rides and higher overhead events like mechanic clinics.

Example 1: Weekly beginner pace line ride. Learn to ride in a single or double pace line. Targeted at beginners; lots of learning and very little yelling.

Example 2: Rear derailleur adjustment clinic. This is a one hour course with intensive focus on adjusting the rear derailleur. There will be a webcam connected to a monitor and to a live stream. Come to the shop and bring your bike, or watch from home and follow along with your own tools.

Each event begins or ends (inclusive or) with an appeal for volunteers and donations.

Targeted Donations / Project Fundraising

Proposal: Bike Saviours will create Projects for targeted donations. These will create focuses for patrons to feel more connected to a tangible improvement at Bike Saviours.

Caution: Doing too many of these could lead to donor fatigue or cannibalize non-targeted donations.

When I was young, the church I went to held occasional targeted fundraisers - send the youth group to camp, fix the furnace, whatever. They'd have a big thermometer set up to track the fund as it grew toward the goal.

Of course, this is what Kickstarter does. We would investigate the overhead of the various crowdfunding platforms and consider using them - possibly with a comparative trial against a non-Kickstarter project.

Patreon: TL;DR: 8%

Kickstarter: TL;DR: 10%

Example 1: A big sonic washer.

Example 2: Laptop, monitor, webcam, tripod, AV cart for in-parson and streaming clinics.

Volunteer Social Media Survey

Proposal: Bike Saviours will enter into the monthly meeting minutes the following results of an informal social media survey.

Bob B stopped at the shop briefly on 2021-09-03 and surveyed 3 volunteers, 1 patron, and Shamus.

• Does not use social media: 1 of 5
• Specifically advocated for the BikeSaviours Instagram: 3 of 5
• Would use the Bike Saviours Subreddit: 4 of 5
• Uses email: 5 of 5

No other social media systems had positive support from more than 2 people.

Several people noted that Facebook has a good interface for group conversations, but that the culture is toxic.

Several people noted that Reddit seems good as a low-barrier option for Bike Saviours fans to socialize.

Monthly Bike Fair

Proposal: Bike Saviours will put on a monthly bike fair, on a Sunday, starting in early to mid October.

Bob Bushman will spearhead the effort, as outlined here: Bike_Fair

The approach will be iterative, with the first version in October being a Minimum Viable Product, and subsequent events being adjusted in size and focal areas according to patron feedback.

The event scope will be scaled with the development of volunteer commitment, to keep the scale of the event aligned with the number of on-site personnel.

Commitment to a date, including scheduling of third party resources, will remain on hold until we have sufficient volunteer commitment to ensure at least a minimum viable product.