april-11-2010-collective-council

Agenda

  • Committee Report Back
    • Finance
    • Shop
    • Programming
    • Communications
      • Policies
      • Computer & Internet
      • Stickers w/ commonwealth press?
  • Revising the Youth Policy
  • Reducing requirements to start EAB
  • Adding incentives to volunteer staffing?
  • Incorporating “how to deal with oppressive behavior” training into the staffing manual
  • Comment/suggestion/feedback box status
  • 501(c )3

Notes

Attendance: {Rachel, Scott, Jessica, Will, Mark, Jill, Caroline, Morgan}

Committee Reports

Finance — no news for now

Shop

  • Lights are wired up. Thanks Jeff!
  • Need to order bins, will happen early next week

Communications

  • Pull emails from forms for the newsletter
  • Shared Internet w/ Creative Reuse
    • Antenna? Maybe not enough since wall obstruction is the problem, not distance
    • Repeater? More cost but may be needed. Need to check with CJ if they would permit installation
    • CJ states it needs all bandwidth it can get and therefore shall not share w/ other groups
  • Stickers, offer $100 to get them produced
  • Internal Policies
    • Good starting step on the crabgrass wiki. The page is a list of all policies we have in addition to areas that need policies created

Programming

  • Going to have a major program this summer with Positive Spin. The have funding for a large bike program and FR will be a part of it.
    • Middle school aged kids
  • Adult classes
    • Potential advanced classes offered; populated by staffers, Saturday mornings
      • Have some brainstorm topics, need to expand on that
      • Do good promotion to make it worthwhile
      • All interested should maybe agree upon the best weekend to maximize attendance
    • Fliers can be posted by Jamie, can get her fliers updated monthly
  • Bike Pittsburgh fix for sale
    • Bike friendly employers would buy from BP
    • Seems like a cool experimental program to be involved in
    • Make sure BP would get fixed bikes right away so that they don’t take up our shop space
    • BP plans to mark up each bike, so some of that may result in higher bike cost or commission compensation amounts
  • Lou wants to pitch a fixed cost to companies
  • We could suggest 2 price levels
  • If we need to produce more FFS bikes, we should try to open it up to get more certified mechanics
  • PROPOSAL: Go ahead with the program with the stipulation that once a bike is ready to go it can only sit in FR for 1 week, suggest 2 price levels for bikes, select bikes in a manner that will minimize an impact on EAB selection
    • Proposal passed by consensus
  • Youth Class that just came up
    • Enough instructors (10 students)? Yes, between Caroline, Jill and Scott it is covered
    • Price? Offer something between $600-$1,000, open to negotiation.
    • Tool kits and supplies? Should be OK from last year programs

Youth Policy

  • Lack of continuity? Need to communicate problematic behavior of specific youth?
  • Sign in the shop to make the policy super clear
    • For under 16 need to communicate w/ guardian and have waiver?
  • William offered to work on logistics for the new policy (sign in the shop, email to volunteers, updated documentation, etc.)
  • Require youth to be full member? No grace period for them?
  • Make clear that youth rules are different than adult
    • Permission slip & call to guardian?
  • Staffers should not be obligated to take care of youth, some staff will get seriously stressed by the burden
  • Volunteer sponsor? Ask volunteers as the come in if they are OK to “sponsor” a youth? Send a call out when youth arrive if anybody is willing?
    • Have a way to schedule people to staff specifically to work with youth on a regular basis
    • Need Consistency! Must standardize this type of buddy system
  • Give membership cards to youth so they can show it to demonstrate earned membership
  • Buddy system w/ more structure & also refer them to volunteer night when there is not sufficient supervision?
  • Reduce number of membership hours? (3?)

Youth Policy Proposals

1. Require completed permission slip and conversation with guardian (phone or in person, no voicemail allowed) before using the shop for any purpose.

  • Pass (no agreement reached for age range)
  • Need to make a youth log book, binder
    • Caroline to bottom line creating the permission slip
    • Should we have a way to log poor behavior or to warn staff if youth lose shop privileges?

2. Log 3 hours before getting a bike or parts. Store the youth membership info in a separate Youth binder. Behavior record should not be public, but referenced so that staff are clear on any pertinent issues.

  • Pass

3. Youth must be properly supervised by a guardian. (Interim proposal)

  • can it be up to staffer discretion?
  • The exception is taken on by the staffer and be made very clear to the youth that it only applies to the current staffer for that current day
  • “I, _____ ____ (Insert name), will let you in the shop this time, but this is only because we have shop capacity right now and because it is OK with me, ___ ___ (insert name), but if it is not OK with the staffer next time, then you can not use the shop.”
    • Actual wording will be worked out by William with feedback from the rest of the group

Oppressive Behavior in the Shop

  • Concerns raised that we are letting some behavior slide in the shop which makes our users uncomfortable
  • Free Ride has always wanted and needed a comprehensive Code of Conduct, but it’s not yet been made because it’s a big task
  • We need training among staffers about how to respectfully address oppressive behavior, and how to call one another out when we see it too
  • Rachel and Caroline volunteer to develop language for the staffing manual — focus on “tools” for addressing oppressive behavior
  • Morgan wants to be involved in possibly developing roleplaying workshop training
  • Want more broad, collective council-level discussion and approval of the content of the materials
  • We could have a confidential e-mail “go-around” about the what kinds of things we’d want to see in a Code of Conduct prior to next meeting—like what Will did in soliciting private responses from everyone about burnout last year
  • Before next meeting: everyone should feel free to “peer review” literature from other collectives/bike collectives about how to be a safe space and think about adapting such language to FR

Suggestion box

  • We now have a physical box for paper slips in the shop!
  • Should there be a more formal form instead of just a blank paper?
  • Online version too?

501(c )3 Status

  • Bylaws have been submitted!
    • Wait for PA state department
  • Need “board of directors” list & how much compensation they recieved (board is the council)
    • Consent to give this info to the IRS? Talk to Morgan directly.
  • Need to draft a policy to eliminate conflict of interested & self dealing issues since the “board” consists of FR independent contractors, so can technically set their own pay
    • Have a sound policy in place in a timely manner. Before next tax season?
 
freeyerself
2010-04-13

I want to reinforce the message that we are formally reinforcing the standard of all shop users signing in prior to receiving a stand & toolkit in open shop… possibly putting up a rope and letting them in one at a time to control flow and prevent both kids and adults from blazing in? My feeling is that Free Ride is such a complex project that it’s important that every user is as-fully-as-possible oriented to our policies and procedures prior to entering the shop. This could mean simply taking a few minutes to talk to them prior to handing them a toolkit—whereafter they will be distracted by the work they need to do. Also, to me it means having a lot more signs upon entry. We have that whooooole long fenced in hallway… why not sign it up?? I’m going to add this to the Volunteer Night Task List as an ongoing project right now!
 
   
bjsink
2010-04-13

I am totally down for limiting access during open shop….The main problem we have is lack of staffers. We usually run into a situation where one staffer mans the register while one or two others handle customers. This ratio does not work. Eventually the register person is also wandering throughout the store for various reasons because we hav so many customers. If we had more staffers we could designate one person to stand at the desk and greet people. But of course too many customers show up at the same time. So in reality we need 2 or 3 front desk people to handle the flow.
Does this sound reasonable?
Peace