Quick note:
Tire recycling – Morgan and Jami to take care of tire recycling for now. Morgan has a truck to use.
CJ liaison – Rachel is taking over for Stuart. Zach and Caroline were also interested, and maybe interested for the future?

Agenda:
- membership
- programming committee budget
- Mobile Bike Repair Project
- committee updates
- 501c3-ification

Membership -
- a volunteer recently went through the membership binder and counted about 114 or so members, 32 with no hours, and only 10 people redeemed hours for membership stamp.
- collective council members should remember to log their hours and/or actually make their member sheet.
- staffers should remind Free-Rider users to redeem hours for membership on the member form
- TO CLARIFY: anyone who does an EAB becomes a member from doing the classes
- when people sign up their EAB, they should get a stamp on their card
- staffers should check member cards more often
- maybe we can have a volunteer go through and pull expired memberships at the end of the season, at least once every three months – maybe more often.

Proposal – notate on page when someone becomes a member with a stamp and a date (in addition to stamping the card). PASSED
Proposal – Tuesday night volunteers will go through and put people who haven’t done their member hours in three months into a separate binder. Scott G says he will get it started. PASSED
Proposal – Log meetings as volunteer hours! If you want to be a collective council member, you’re responsible for writing down that you went to a meeting on your member form. PASSED

MBRP -
- last year, we wanted to put mobile bike shops in public housing projects. Jami and Scott worked with Urban Youth Action (employment training org. for youth) and did presentations.
- some kids are eligible for a paid summer internship.
- 6 weeks youth internship with Free Ride – youth trained in bike mechanics for about 40 hours, then will put together a mobile bike repair station and haul it out to different sites and repair people’s bicycles for a donation
- kids will work 30 hours per week, in a crew fashion. (one crew: one instructor and 3-4 kids)
- Caroline interested in doing this too, to make a second crew, but we’ll wait for her to make sure she can do it.
- there is ALSO paid organizing time – about 60 hours at $10 an hour. Open to collective council members
- Buffalo Blues interested in putting up money for youth possibly? Could this be a sorce of funding?
- how will this program impact Free Ride?
- ordering tools specifically for project (one set per crew)
- do we need more money for tools? tool total might be higher than on Scott’s budget.
- this is the during busy season for youth classes, but we are going to work around that
- kids could participate in open shop to meet hour requirement
- plenty of oppurtunities for other council members to get involved
- will discuss party later – maybe a party can fund youth program
- need to make bike liability waivers
- Scott (and Caroline if she ends up being an additional crew leader) will be getting paid for this and needs to be on the payroll – not an independent constractor – BikePGH is fine with it.
- other things to consider like various insurances that go along with putting Scott G. and a second supervisor on payroll
- adjunct people need to be clear on how they are getting paid
- should we have one crew or two? might be a good idea to have one crew of three or four kids + one supervisor – would that reduce costs? the biggest cost is the instructor labor, but there are bigger picture things to look at
- is being thrifty important? we should be thrifty but there are these bigger picture things to look at
- two crew leaders can make it stronger because they can share work/ideas
- Urban Youth thinks there is going to be two crews – what should a deficit be?

Proposal: Deficit for entire programming committee shall not exceed $3,500 and that if it does exceed that amount, the programming committee will be responsible for making up that money. PASSED
*The 2nd instructor will be Caroline or no one else. If Caroline ends up not being able to work on this project, then there will only be one crew leader – Scott.

WE ALSO:
- went over programming committee budget
- need more instructors for youth classes
- community kids classes are intended to bring together kids with a mentor in a class setting – last year we were unable to attract enough kids. school year had just started, lots of kids involved with sports. we didn’t end up going through with it.
- will not be happening this year.
- trying to convince Braddock to take all those kids bikes in the shop SOON
- tubes – maybe we should try to give them away on craigslist
- maybe post something on craigslist about selling kids bikes for really cheap

Youth Program benefit party?
- fundraiser party – maybe have the party in late July? WHO IS PLANNING AND WHAT DATES
- Rachel will look into party planning options.

Updates:
Communication – how to get staffing training to happen.
- make shop map and work with shop committee to help organize shop
- bike processing guide (self-guided bike stripping)
- will be looking at web page to make it more straightforward for staffing stuff

- we should have a trainer there twice a month or so: Caroline, Zach, Jessica, and Rachel interested in doing trainings.

Finances – new accountant to start this summer.
- co-op money is now in pnc money-market account

Shop committee – trying to improve lighting, working with Home Depot. Coordinating with CJ. Proposal: Cap for lighting: $300. PASSED.

- organization of small parts ideas.. coming soon!

Programming committee – budget sums it up.

501c3 Stuff:
- we’re fiscally sponsored by BikePGH, doing business as Free Ride.
- we are now seeking our own independent status
- Morgan and Jake have been filing paperwork
- Duquesne Law School operates a clinic and will help us out with it
- semester just ended but we’ll get an intern team in August
- information for this is on crabgrass so you can follow along
- our non-traditional structure doesn’t match up with some of the legally-binding bylaws, but the law school can help us find a balance between something that is legal and something that suits us.
- bylaws and articles of incorporation need to be looked at by the collective
- Morgan in communication with bikePGH about spinning off.
- Duq. seems pretty organized and there is a professional lawyer overseer.
- the group should go through bylaws together.

• Final check-ins about stuff before opening
• Fill the staffing calendar
• Decide about womens’ night
• Brainstorm Code of Conduct
• How to strengthen & improve the FR community

Final check-ins about stuff before opening

what to call “volunteering”?

• free ride night
• community building night
• give-back night
• housekeeping
• organization
• team night
• member night

Info from the EAB committee meeting:

• new form for volunteering for classes – like a ticket that shows you have done their hours before taking a drop-in classes
• We are using Google Checkout for registering for program classes – won’t pay a fee because BP has already done
• enrollment for EAB will be done at a set time on each open shop, maybe 8pm
• Monday drop-in classes – will allow a set number (e.g. 4) of the participants to pre-register.
• will we not set a hard limit on the number of EAB’s in progress at any time?
  no – because there are all the other limits
• reminder about who can get trained – only council members until we feel we have straigtened out our finances – you also need a key
• training to be an instructor – shadow, then co-teach respective (or all) drop-in classes

Village Bikes project – in a couple of months, contact them. They give us a container, we fill it up with ~ 560 bikes, they send it to Ghana.

What needs done before the shop opens

• Women’s night: backup person with a key; if there is no female staffer, fall back to a male staffer to offer women participants to staff women’s night.

• Who qualifies as council members at this point: people who spent time on restructuring meetings and work? Yes.

• Who should get a key?

• Fill the staffing calendar: send an eamil about it!

• Need to make posters about new organizations

• Order general parts (not funky parts for very specific types of bikes) that we are short on in order to build bikes
  • need to find out what
  • create a system to know which parts are low
    • rrevise the parts drawers, especially the small parts
  • may buy some used parts from Kraynick

• functional gauge for easy sorting of tubes and tyres by diameter and maybe thickness – WillW will make one
• Could make and hang more charts around the shop explaining e.g. which tubes fit on which rims

• Website can be easier to understand – Philip and WillW will consider and offer suggestions.

Brian organized four light fixtures for free – need to

• organize with CJ to put them up
• drop them lower and spread them around the shop, esp. the back dungeon
• will organize lights in the corridor

How to strengthen & improve the FR community:

• more the black community
• what about donating bikes to the local communities?
• more communication among FR for the ones that have the contact with organizations we deal with.
• documentation about the organiations that we dealt with in the past and have some more info about how we dealt with them in the past (pros and cons)
• how do increase more access for kids to the shop?
  • what about a parents’ night?
• advertisement so that we advertise the shop more around Pgh
  • to increase the number of kids we cuold target schools
  • there was a suggestion about coming up with a strict and organized program to go to schools and see if they are interested
  • Jessica said that there is a brochure about it already and people interested about it can see it and see what they think about it and maybe suggest changes if needed
• We need a sign for the top of the door.
• social events:
  • rides
  • special topics event
  • quarterly
• Philip is interested in createing a teach class for how to ride safely

How to improve conflict resolution between individual members?

• there is nothing concrete to unify the collective like sports teams might
• need more guidelines about when you can act autonomously and when do you have to consult the group?
• discuss issues non-personally
• more focus on collaborative work – many people don’t have experience
• we are a group that changes people a lot
• bylaws – objective criteria for what’s ok, so it’s not
• conflict resolution team or mediator
• vibe monitor person
• check out ideas from other groups

Brainstorm Code of Conduct

• check out other groups, companies and the Quakers
• cover the legal stuff
• something about pro-active resolution of conflicts
• how to ask other people to leave the collective

Date: 02/11/09; Location: Mick’s place.
Attendees: Jessica, Mick (host), Morgan, Philip, Will W., Zach, and Massimo.
Roles:

• Facilitator: Zach;
• Minutes tacker and time keeper: Massimo,
• Stack/Queue holder: Philip

Meeting Agenda:

• Financial Stuff
• Earn-a-Bike counting report from Mick
• Deliverables and Action items for the EAB and membership proposal
• Volunteer night discussion
• Shop reorganization
• Agenda for next week (02/18/09)

WORD of the Night: DOCUMENTATION

Financial Stuff:

• Jessica shared an info she got from Kitty. Assets from a non-profit stays non-profit. This means that if we go for-profit we will say goodbye to it and it will stay with BP.
• Massimo also shared the fact that Kitty sent an email to him a day or so ago and he said he was going to forward the email to all the group. The general jest of the message is that she is getting up to par with things like 1099 forms and that she need any tape or receipt from end of 2008, which Rachel has so diligently collected, already.
• Morgan offered his help for making the shift to whatever status we decide FR will decide to become. He time restrain doesn’t allow him to do this till late March, 2009.
• Jessica suggested that we ask Scott B. if we could have 1 year to make this shift.
• Morgan covered some details about the meaning of non-profit, corporation and board
• Jessica pointed out that there may be more that one class within the 501.c3 status and we should investigate them
• After this discussion a series of question were raised that we would try to answer in the coming weeks:
  • Q1: What does “Volunteering for Incentive” mean in term of tax purposes as a way to pay someone?
  • Q2: Is it possible that we won’t be able to pay people as indip. contr. as it used to be till now? This is in case make the financial change.
  • Q3: Is it true that the Board (and not the executive manager) is fiscally responsible for the organization? (financial duty)
  • Q4:What are our options in term of legal status? Pros and Cons for each to decide which way to go.
  • Q5: Could it be that a for-profit or not-for-profit represent a possible good choice for us?
  • Q6: Should we ask a lawyer what the legal aspects are for any of the possible choices we have?
    • Zach’s dad is a lawyer, and Zach offered to ask him about our options and possible legal aspect of each
  • Q7: should we start searching for an accountant?
    • Last night committee felt we should.
  • Q8: What is the problem in changing the register from the one we have now?
    • Philip offered to look into a replacement register and evaluate costs for the change.
    • The people attending the meeting felt that Tuesday (02/17/09) is a very short time to get the current register reprogrammed
    • There was a suggestion: Will (PGH), Philip, and Massimo showed interest on checking the reprogramming of the register.
    • The committee agreed to check with Rachel by Monday (02/16/09) to see if Will, Philip, and Massimo feel that they can reprogram the register but they just need a little more time.
    • Suggestion for the Shop (Action item): Add better documentation about using the register in the shop.
  • Q9: How do we want to make sure the Financial task force is operating and moving along with their task?
  • A9: We could set deliverables and deadline.
  • Q10: What these should be?
  • A10:
    • Take money out of the EEFC account.
    • Twice a month prepare a report of finances with income and expenses by FR.
    • We need to have a definitive list of people that are committed to be involved with the financial aspects of FR.
    • Send out an email setting a meeting with Kitty and also to have another mini-group meeting to discuss the finances future of FR.
    • Formulate some questions to ask Kitty in person.

Report from Mick about 2008 EAB Stats:

• Departed bikes: 173
• Rejected bikes: 167
• Most common amount of hours spent on a bike before departure: 12
• Suggestions for EAB:
  • We should check these numbers on a regular basis to see how the new program is going and if we are getting close to the number of departed bikes in 2008.

Deliverables and Action items for the EAB and membership proposal to be completed before reopening of FR:

1. EAB:
   • Change forms (possibly)
   • Put a new explanation of EAB program on the FR website; posts around the shop (maybe as a list of bullet points), and other information items as a brochure.
   • Instruction, signs, rulse of EAB
   • Gather all the documentation already existing about EAB and see what needs to be changed/modified
   • Ask Erok about any possible electronic version of this
   • How is the current system for paying for the drop-in classes? Is the system already ironed down?
   • Enrollment for EAB and rules
   • Explanation of the limitation
   • Proposal approved last night about “Low-income” EAB users:
   • If a person is able to prove that he/she is a low income (by showing an Access card) then access to the two classes required for the EAB is free.
   • Try to promote volunteering as a way to pay for the two classes for others.
   • Aside note: The Programming committee has to figure out the sign up for classes should be implemented
   • In the EAB proposal there should a change from drop-in classes to just two mechanics classes.
   • People at the meeting are concerned about asking people to pay using a CC instead of checks. Some people don’t like to use CC online.
   • Also, there is a concern about using web tools like “google checkout” to accept donation payments. FR has to pay a fee for each transaction. Is this worth?
   • Possible alternatives are to program the register to accepts classes payments and that way we can keep track of that income.
2. Membership proposal:
   • most of the documentation is already available in crabgrass but not entirely ready yet

Volunteer Night Proposal:

• We need to be committed to do this volunteer night and then we felt that we can actually do it!
• During this meeting the following points have emerged:
  • volunteer coordinator is hard to do for some of FR’rs
  • some volunteers don’t like the feel that the coordinator doesn’t know what is needed to be done
  • There is a need to improve utilization of volunteer time
  • Suggestions: Let’s make a commitment to have this volunteer night and to be clear since start and then we will organize it.
  • There was a discussion about the fact the most of the people at the meeting felt that this proposal was passed a few meetings ago, but at the last meeting (02/04/09) we were not so sure anymore. We would like to bring this proposal to the committee attention again.
  • We felt that it is important to elevate the maintenance of the shop organization to have a more efficient and pleasant environment for the regular open shop nights.
  • Volunteer night will be like a group/social event where we take some time to give back to the shop.
  • We need to:
    • Pick a night (reach consensus)
    • concerns: we need to account for EAB completion
    • create documentation that describe the new volunteer night
  • Explain how the other open shop night will be different
  • Start a crabgrass page about the list of task that we feel the shop needs to have done (regular/non/regular basis)
  • The communication committee need to address the documentation needed to self-direct volunteer during regular open-shop nights so that the volunteer coordinator figure will be removed from those nights.
  • Concerns about this proposal:
    • Add an additional night or take place of one open shop night?
  • We concluded that since we are doing all these changes about EAB and coop, then we could just add the changes for the volunteer night.

Aside comments:

• We need a documentation/communication committee meeting to take place
• We identified some communication needs:
  1. description of tasks to do in the shop during regular open shop shift that will allow the volunteers to operate without the volunteer coordinator
  2. prepare a task-list that can be kept in the shop for people to review and to identify needed tasks to be accomplished
  3. documentation about volunteer night
  4. Documentation for the EAB program as listed above
• In the past we talked about addressing education in the shop: is this still like a plan or in some people mind?
• The shop is very unorganized and some people get frustrated when they have to spend hours of their time other people time to fix their bike for the EAB program.
• A few of us noted that on the FR website there is the wrong schedule about the opening of the shop. Zach reported to have seen many people at the shop on Sat (02/07/09) hoping that FR was open. This should be fixed.
• Is is possible to have a combined place for the shop calendar and staffer calendar? Confusing to have two separate places as it is now.
  1. Philip will look into some options
  2. calendar in the shop so that people would see it.
• Morgan is going to look into getting a computer into the shop and the cost of having a DSLconnection.

Agenda items for next week (02/18/09):

• Shop reorganization ideas/suggestions
• Volunteer night issues to be addressed
• Check on implementation task for the proposals

January 28, 2009 Meeting Minutes!

(Additional notes posted on crabgrass, if any, will be added) – Rachel

(Please complete and correct any parts that you find missing or incorrect in these minutes)

Some council members who wanted to attend could not due to bad weather. Therefore, no big decisions will be made at this meeting.

Agenda

• Finance position to replace Shaun (sp?) (15 minutes)
• discuss Earn-a-bike (EAB) proposal (45 minutes)
• discuss co-op proposal
• talk about the process of meetings and decisions

Finance position

Need to fill the finance committee and replace Shaun (sp?). Also, Bike Pgh’s accountant (Kitty) left her job, and BP will need to find a new accountant soon.

Responsibilities that Shaun had:

• count money, don’t lose it
• write rent check every quarter
• pay the phone bill (monthly?)
• liaison with BP accountant
• answer questions about where checks went
• report Kitty’s findings to the group
• liaison with other members about how to handle money
• maintain the cash register, support staffers
• deposit money at Free Ride’s bank account at PNC Bank and at the bank account at the East End Co-op Credit Union, which is in Shaun’s name
• mail report for cash register to BP
• maintain the credit card for QBP
• write checks
  (Kitty does the data entry)

Shaun wants the EEFC account and QBP credit card to be changed from his name to a different name. He is willing to wait till the end of February, and instruct anyone about the tasks he has been performing. We should not ask anyone to take a personal account in her/his name. Ideally, we want one bank account with credit card at a credit union, but EEFC does not offer business accounts or credit cards. Massimo and Philip will look for an appropriate credit union.

Proposal: tell Shaun to close his personal account at EEFC and transfer the money to the PNC account. Tested for consensus; three neutral votes, the rest agree.

Jessica said: Proposal: set a timeline for transferring to a new credit union.

Proposal: get a focus group to work on the financial issues, if there are already people interested. Even though no decisions will be made, research can begin.

Morgan said: Ordinary non-profit organizations deal with finances by having all members prepare reports about how they spend money. Then the board of directors typically hires someone to review and summarize the reports, so the board can make decisions. We should consider hiring someone as an accountant to have the “feduciary” responsibility.

EAB restructuring proposal

Goals:

• limit participation
• low administrative overhead
• avoid having a waiting list

Proposal:
Everyone who enrolls in EAB must begin by taking two drop-in lessons of their choosing. EAB enrollment is only done on specific days.

The two classes will be useful for the EAB participants.

Will Pgh said: there are six lesson topics, and EAB participants will only take two lessons. Is that a good idea? He thinks not. May be better to restructure one or both lessons as a more general intro.

What about people who have already done EAB once? They still have to take classes.

How to synch the online and in-person sign-up lists?

Massi: we can incorporate tracking of classes on the members’ ID cards.

(Mick had volunteered to count the EAB projects completed last year.)

Morgan: people should be vetted to be class instructors.

Jessica: dilemma about having sign-up only in-person at the shop: it is restrictive, but signing up online is so easy that people sign up but do not show up.

Massi: according to the proposal, people can’t sign up for EAB at the shop and start EAB right away. But can people sign up for classes and attend right away?

Will: there is a problem that people don’t know what classes will be most useful to them, because they don’t know what work their new bike will need, because they have not seen the bike.

Philip: can’t they pick a bike before the first class? Or during the first class, if it can be restructured as an intro class?

Philip: the problem of people signing up but not showing up is usually solved by taking money at sign-up, then allowing the time up to (say) 2 days before the class to reschedule or cancel.

Some additional EAB Notes

Ideas:

• People must attend 2 classes to start EAB (Monday drop-in)
• Fixed time to enroll in EAB program (weekly?)
• People can’t go to shop and start an EAB on that day, they have to do some stuff first
• Limit on simultaneous EAB’s in process
• Doing 2 (of 6) classes at a greater level of detail is perhaps better than trying to quickly skim over everything (i.e. making a 2 class EAB 101 curriculum)

Potential Problems:

• Proposed Monday drop-in schedule is on a 6 class rotation (vs. 2 class EAB requirement)
• What to do with people who have done an EAB already and already taken 2 classes?
• Synchronizing signup for Monday Drop in between those who show up at the door and those who sign up by Internet or at Open Shop
• Who teaches? (equitable distribution of opportunities for paying work)
• What to do about slots reserved for people who sign up in advance and then don’t show up?

Data We Need:

• How many EABs did we do per week/month/season last summer (someone though Mic was going to count the forms)

Co-op proposal

Propsoal (as detailed in the proposal on the wiki): there are three types of shop users: non-members, members, council members. These are in increasing level of participation in the collective and increasing benefits. Non-members pay $2 per bike they work on during open shop. Members have free use of open shop, free use of small parts, discounts to classes and social events, access to paid opportunities. Members have 1 month grace period to pay $32 or work 4 hours, or a pay part and work part. If they pay, they can later earn their money back through work. (Council members must be members and have more contributions, and have benefits.)

Rachel: if people can earn back their money, we will not know how much money we have.
Jessica: we can have a set period for earning back membership fees
Morgan: is it necessary to offer earn-back, considering there is a grace period?
Will: How to pay people back – cash? check? How to document it?
Jessica: it’s already practiced in the shop, but probably not documented as a transaction

Will: the two novel things about this proposal are:

• closing the shop somewhat to those who want to use a tool on their bike and leave
• adding lots of volunteer hours. Need to think how to use those.

Morgan: some co-ops use a barcode scanner to sign in. Morgan and Philip are interested in investigating this idea and computerization more generally.

Morgan, Rachel, Erok: the barrier to staffing and paid opportunities is too low. Paid opportunities should require familiarity with issues (coming to meetings)
Jessica: they still require training

Morgan, Rachel, Erok: the administrative overhead may be too high.

Morgan: QBP benefit for members?
Erok: It’s not legitimate, strictly speaking. Distributors allow shops to sell parts at wholesale prices only for employees. Council members can be argued to be employees thanks to their higher involvement. But probably not members. But he thinks some bike collectives still do it. He will investigate. ]]> http://freeridepgh.org/2009/01/29/january-28-2009-meeting-minutes/feed/ 2 http://freeridepgh.org/2009/01/22/january-21-2009-meeting-minutes/ http://freeridepgh.org/2009/01/22/january-21-2009-meeting-minutes/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:18:50 +0000 rachel http://freeridepgh.org/?p=459 January 21, 2009 Free Ride Meeting Minutes
Feel free to add whatever!

REAL QUICK! Recently, a Point Park student contacted Jessica about doing a documentary about Free Ride. We decided that now is not a good time to have someone do a video on us, so this will not be happening.

In this meeting, we evaluated the ideas we came up with in smaller groups (one about Earn a Bike, the other about employing a co-op model/moving volunteering to its own night) over the past week. Towards the end, you’ll find the working proposals along with concerns expressed by the group. We’ll decide on these proposals during next week’s meeting.

We summarized and evaluated what the EAB meeting came up with:

1. We want to reduce staff burden by limiting EAB enrollment
- put a cap on the number of people who can do EAB.
- make the requirements stricter.
2. We would like to see education as more of a component in EAB.
- encourage EABers to use Monday drop-in classes as a formal resource.
-create in-shop learning aid tools – bike component displays, create a form with a picture of a bike on it so that staffers can circle problems an EABer needs to deal with.
3. Additional changes to our structure will be implemented slowly – no large schedule changing, no additional hours at first until we see what’s working and what isn’t.

** By the end of the EAB meeting, we had not overcome any hurdles but thought that reducing EAB enrollment along with a focus on education was a good way to begin. EAB/volunteer coordinating could move out of open shop, but as we’re staffed now it’s not feasible to make a huge leap. It’s better to start small.

Q: What’s the path from small steps like what we proposed above to larger changes?
A: – for now, we could run Monday night sessions, see how they go, and use that experience to see if we need a night just for EAB.
-  we could start an EAB-night committee at some point, but we’re not sure if we’ll be ready to do that by March. About 6 people at the meeting were interested in working on a committee to transition EAB to a separate night.

Q: What does staffing a separate EAB night entail?
A: – a higher level of staffing.
-you would need to be a trained instructor. We do not have a training program for that right now. We only have 4 people (out of 15 present at tonight’s meeting) who have taught classes at Free Ride.
- about 12 people at tonight’s meeting said they’d be interested in staffing a separate EAB night.

- putting a limit on the number of EABers could make a big change when coupled with putting emphasis on education and re-directing people to drop-in classes. It’s possible that EAB would not need its own night because we would no longer be strained.
- the Monday classes, which would cost $10, provide a structure which would repeat every three weeks. Two topics of six would be covered each week. If we had a separate EAB night, people would have all kinds of problems with their bikes so a variety of subjects would need to be discussed in just one session. It could potentially be unorganized.
- we should look at how many EABs we turned out this summer to figure out an appropriate EAB limit.

Next, we summarized and evaluated what the Co-op structure/separate volunteer night meeting came up with:

1. We want a co-op structure with 2 levels of membership – members and collective council members. We want there to be requirements and responsibilities for these tiers.
- by creating a lower membership level, we would create small step to becoming a collective council member. This might give people a sense of belonging to Free Ride.
– the separate tiers would also communicate that the shop is run by a community of people, and there are expectations of you if you want to use the shop.
- members would pay small fee or volunteer have access to open-shop.
- membership is geared more for people with their own bike who want to use the shop (maybe for EAB, membership can be free?)
- this system should address the imbalances present. It will lessen the burden on staffers. It is more respectful to users in a sense because we ask them to contribute to something that has already been built.

Q: What is the transition process? How do we do this?
A: We need to be clear about the expectations of shop users. We will have to communicate the new structure on the website and in the shop. We need a good tracking system.
-Some of these expectations of shop-users may already be there, but not communicated formally.
- the membership system needs to be simple in order to work, and we need to make sure it doesn’t add complexity for staffers.
- we need to keep it cheap for people.
- we should find out what other bike shops who use a co-op model are doing. What is working already? The bike co-op in San Francisco has a co-op-style model.

Q: Does this go against the “free” in Free Ride in the sense that we’re limiting access? A: If our current system isn’t sustainable, then we’re not exactly limiting accessibility or cutting off benefits. We can’t claim to have benefits that we can’t actually provide. Using the co-op model will give shop-users a stake in the shop by engaging them more.

PROPOSAL: Employ a co-op structure with 2 levels of membership. YES

2. We want to reduce the staff/user dichotomy to empower more people to use shop on equal footing.
- we have created problem for ourselves by telling people we will help them every step of the way, but now, we should vary the way people can learn from our shop.
- we’d like to have teaching stations and other educational tools besides asking a staffer for help (emphasis on self-directed learning).
- documentation of how things work in the shop could help people pick up volunteer tasks better.
- make tools more accessible and easier to find
- have a reference guide for repair manuals to point people towards the best place to find a solution.
- make a map to show people where things in the shop are so that they feel more empowered to use the shop.
- we might need to make a communication committee.
- the first proposal in this section reinforces this idea of making it easier for people to get involved.

- the difficult/necessary part of these proposals is that there are situations where we will have to restrict people and they will go away frustrated. The way to sustain this project is to give members more control. If we diversify responsibility, more of our needs will be met.

** A problem to keep in mind: It’s hard to ask people to be part of a community when that community isn’t very diverse racially. We need to acknowledge that we need to make sure all kinds of people feel welcome and relatively unrestricted. What are we missing? (We did not address this issue directly but it’s something important to think about)

3. Remove the volunteer coordinator position from open shop. Have a separate night for it. Implement new systems for in-shop education.
- the volunteer night will be for bigger projects which are hard to do during open shop.
- EABers will no longer come to open shop to try to find tasks
- people can still volunteer as mechanics during open shop, but we may need to find a way to make it clear to others who is volunteering and who is not.
- we will have to create a system for coming up with volunteer tasks if we’re going to do this (maybe during regular Free Ride meetings)
- we need to be creative in restructuring our weekly schedule to fit volunteer demand and open-shopper demand.
- a potential problem: having volunteering happen on a different night might mean we’ll be turning away potential EAB people who would have been interested in volunteering that night… they might not come back.
- discussion of steps for how volunteers can start carrying out big tasks needs to happen before march.

** Would we be into extending our closed-time? We asked the group and people didn’t seem into it.

4. Create a committee task force for documentation, member training, and communication.
- this committee would set up a system of communication and make sure tasks are done in a timely way.
- responsible for documenting what all committees do, so that anyone else could pick up the shop and run it.
- document Free Ride’s history so that mistakes aren’t repeated.
- we’ve been bad at communication/documentation in the past because we haven’t made it a high priority.

** We have lots of committee ideas. There maybe should be a limit on how many committees a person should be on.

** We should have a break-out group on communication/documentation (keep in mind that we already have an Inreach/Outreach committee which hasn’t been well-populated) so that changes we make during closing can be properly communicated to the public. A time/place for this break-out group will be decided via e-mail.

**** Working Proposals to be decided on next week ****

1. No large schedule change, limit EAB enrollment, encourage drop-in classes and self-directed learning tools.
CONCERNS:
- the limitation should be reasonable because EAB is in high demand and important to community.
- we need to make sure limitation is communicated openly and clearly to the public.
- amend proposal to include the idea that moving EAB to different night may be appropriate and that we are willing to work on that in time. (Subsequent changes to our system will be done incrementally.)
- how are we going to do a transition? Gradual shift or in a certain amount of time will we all of the sudden change it?
- we need to be clear to the public that we are going to limit services provided by staffers in open shop, because right now there isn’t a clear reason for people to go to drop-in classes. We need to be explicit about open-shop not being a place to get serious mechanical help.
- regulating EAB # is good, but will this really alleviate big structural problems? This proposal may work better in conjunction with other proposals.

2. Co-op model: introduce member level with a low bar of responsibilities and a collective council level.
Concerns:
- administrative overhead to enroll people as members.
- benefits and responsibilities of members need to be simple.
- member cost for users needs to be low -no higher than a few dollars.
- likely problem: some people may want to pay to use, but then volunteer their money back.
- some of us are not comfortable until more details about this are heard.
- worried about excluding people.. can we have a transitory member tier?
- we could get taken advantage of by people not fulfilling their responsibilities (but, this is the only way to really start the co-op model)
- this model needs to be very straightforward and easily-enforced without a lot of leeway – is that possible?
- we need a good documentation system for membership and recording volunteer hours. People would expect us to help keep track, but we need a system that is member-sustainable. This could be a big task for documentation committee.
- may be big barrier for people who want to casually use the shop, but would help out if they could do so easily without dealing with member duties.
- it’s possible we might not even need this proposal if the other proposals provide enough change so that people are empowered.

3. Replace one of the open-shop nights with a volunteer night and remove the volunteer coordinator position from open shop.
Concerns:
- it may not be appropriate to replace a shop session. It needs to fit into what we offer.
- we may have a back-up of people wanting to start EAB and it may slow down the EAB process if people can only volunteer one night a week.
- there is nothing in the proposal which explains how we can have volunteers do more useful things than what they are doing now.
- not replacing an open shop night with this may demand too much from us. This night is supposed to make us more sustainable.
- Jami is really into staffing a separate volunteer night.
- we need a system for having things to do on volunteer night. The white board is a solution, but we need to figure out stuff that works.
- is having a separate volunteer night sustainable? Will we still have worthwhile tasks for people to do in say, 6 months?

4. Proposal: Move volunteers out of open-shop to its own night. YES.

5. Set up a communication committee.
Concerns:
- it’s important, but do we have people for it? New people need to ration themselves out.
- how is it different than the in-reach and out-reach committees?
- don’t know what all the committees are yet, so wouldn’t know which ones interested in.

** Payment of staffers: dependent on what happens with our new organization. We’ll discuss this later.

Just to recap, the two proposals that went through tonight were:
1. Employ a co-op structure with 2 levels of membership.
2. Move volunteering out of open-shop to its own night.

What’s next!
- sub-committee meetings for this week – EAB and co-op model meetings will be arranged by e-mail and proposals will be discussed further.

In the next meeting we will…
- go over proposals.
- figure out who will replace Shaun (accounting/finances)

• Split Earn A Bike (EAB)

• Limit EAB Projects

• Incentives for Staff/Volunteers

• Retention of “lazy” staffers

• Free Ride as Bike Co-op

• ‘Monday’ Night Drop In Mechanics Class (Schedule not set)

• Free Ride Computer Database

• Free Ride Classroom

• Create a checklist for EAB projects that has a bike diagram where problem parts can be circled
• Assess EAB problems in the proposed split EAB night
• Extract EAB from open shop

Retention/Incentive

• Reward/Incentive system: once a month party/dinner
• Make staff time more enjoyable by changing the structure of open shop but shifting responsibility to Free Ride users
• Time Out Box for staffers
• Group Bike Rides scheduled and posted
• Open shop nights for committed volunteers that have logged a set amount of time
• Rotate staff jobs throughout the shift

Administrative/Communication

• Update WIKI, mailing list, blog, crabgrass
• Create messageboard that is accessible through website
• Inquire about BIKE PGH link to messageboard
• Consolidate issues: How do we modify schedule, increase educational opps. and provide volunteer incentives in a single solution?
• Provide avenues to meet up with knowlegable teachers to fix specific bike problems

Project management/Issue Resolution

• Create task based committes to solve issues.
• Integrate education with volunteerism and reinforce participant feeder programs
• Seperate education from open shop and have work time only on designated days
• Institute Co-op model for open shop which requires active management and provides perks

Last night the collective held the first meeting of a series of meetings to be held while the shop takes a break. Jessica held the meeting at her house as well as a potluck beforehand (thanks Jessica). An in-depth history of Free Ride was given as well as discussion about goals/visions/values and problems. A few solutions were mentioned though they will be talked about more at the next meeting. Here are the lists that we came up with! (they can always be added onto though)

Goals, Visions, and Values (personal and collective)

· Mutual Aid

o Immediate and over time

· Burn less fossil fuels

· Build strong communities

· Personal empowerment

o Confidence

o Knowledge

· Less waste/recycle

· Legitimize cycling

· Have publicly visible community center for bicyclists (tangible rallying point)

· Education space

o Mechanics

o Social

o Bikes as transport

o Sustainability

· Open to anyone (class, race, gender, etc.)

· Gateway to alternatives

o Lifestyles

o Transportation

o Modes of organization

o Communities

o Etc. etc. etc.etc.

· Resource for cyclists

o Repair, tools, knowledge, etc.

· Experiment in alternative organizational practice

· Non-hierarchical organization

· Learn mechanics

· Anti-oppression (pro human/respect etc.)

Problems

· Not clear how to become more involved

· Staffing/collective membership is too taxing

· Tension with having a functional yet non-hierarchical organization

· Not enough time for planning/questions

o Pressed by functional needs

· Lack of health in personal feel to organization

· Lack of accountability

· Lack of follow through

· Personalized knowledge

· Community is less cohesive/social than in past

· MORE COMPLEXITY

· Less enthusiasm

· Tension from being open to anyone

o Conflicting ideas

o Disproportionate use by certain groups

· Open shop can be difficult, exhausting, no fun

· Organizational structure slanted towards doing tasks (Open Shop)

· Don’t use volunteer labor well

· Not enough benefits for volunteers and collective members

· Not enough people resources to accomplish needed tasks (or not well used people resources)

· Needs not communicated

· Organizational structure/procedures not well documented

o Compounded by more people

· Don’t transition to new volunteers well

· Not good communication between committees and general Open Shop volunteers

· No opportunity to learn mechanics for new volunteers

· More demand for Earn-A-Bike/Free Ride services than we can accommodate

· Can’t identify staffers in Open Shop

· Imbalance in number of people who run Free Ride and number of people who use Free Ride

Ideas for Solutions

· Message board

o General internet

· Computer at shop

· Accountability

o Small group committees

o Periodic shifting “directors” to encourage accountability

· Job rotating (and organizing education)

· Interactive Stations (mechanical education documentation of shop procedures)