Notes from the BIG Meeting

This is what I wrote down during our meeting, so if anyone catches anything I've missed, please add it to the Comments below.

Winter Schedule

This Week: Tuesday, regular work hours, 6 - 8
Saturday, regular checkout hours, 10 - 1

December 23 - January 5: closed
Reopen January 6, regular checkout hours, 10 - 1


The New Division of Labor

Nothing has been officially decided as to who will do exactly what, but we need to consider what duties we can all cover. Several ways to split up tasks were discussed, including assigning two or more people to one job (so they can work out their own schedules/workload) and assigning jobs to different people each month. The jobs are described below in the earlier post about agenda.

Volunteer Coordinator was added to the list of duties. This is kind of a big one, but anyone with much experience at the Bike Library should get comfortable directing new volunteers. The Volunteer Coordinator's main three duties are recruiting, screening, and training volunteers. It's important to take on volunteers who are willing to make some level of commitment. It can deplete our time & energy to train a new volunteer for a month, only for that person to leave within that time.

Bike Organization: Anyone with skills in spatial organizing and keeping up on our seemingly endless intake of used bikes would be great for this job.

Bike Repair: James has, almost by default, become the head mechanic. Perhaps James and a couple other skilled volunteers could field this one, i.e. keeping repaired bikes up with demand, directing volunteers to tasks appropriate to their skill levels.

Money: Brian & I (Cody) have been taking care of this for a while, and I'm comfortable to keep doing it. It might be nice to add one more person to this task, maybe someone with skills keeping the books balanced.

Contact Person: Any good talkers out there? PR is pretty important, so the BL won't fade from the collective public mind.

Spring Schedule: I'll try to set something up online, so people can sign up without waiting for the BL to be open. We'll probably have to be more strict about signing up for days volunteers want to work (even if it's only a couple days in advance), since it got a little crazy several times last summer. (If we aren't able to set up something effective online, we'll just have to stick with the big calendar inside the BL.)


Phone for the BL

I (Cody) would like there to be a ground-line phone with answering machine at the BL, because I have been the voice of the BL for almost a year. Before that, it was Brian. It would be good for all volunteers to have to answer the phone once in a while. It's a good way to learn the operation when somebody's on the line asking a handful of odd questions, and it's a good tool in an emergency.

I'll do the research to find out cost, and I'll put it in the hands of EA, since it's really the board's decision.


Rental Bench

Rental Bench hours have been decided to be on Saturdays from 1 until 5. One person can rent the bench at a time, and volunteers (up to 4) can also use this time to work on their own bikes. Steve has committed to sitting in for rental bench hours to get it started, but anyone else who wants to share this easy effort can talk to Steve.

Rentals are free with membership to EA, BIC or the IBC. Otherwise, it's $10/hour, which includes incidentals like grease and lube. Renters should be encouraged to buy their parts from a local bike shop, but if it's dire the BL can sell parts at retail price.


BIC Bike Giveaway

For the holidays BIC is going to give away new bicycles to kids in the area. We don't really have any details yet, but the BL could help with assembly of some of the bikes. I'll update here as we find out more.


PARTY!

The Bike Library party will be Saturday, December 9th at 7pm. It will either be at Sam's or the Brewery (I'll call to find out prices and if they can handle a slew of us that night). Everyone is invited, from BL volunteers to EA boardmembers! It's in our budget to buy a round of pizzas, so come on!!


Other Issues

Trailer Rentals and a policy to deal with our new 8 footer as well as the old wood-bottomed Burley will be worked out by Del, Steve and me (Cody). Anyone else who wants to join the Subcommittee on Trailer Affairs should let any one of us know.

Roadside Breakfast has been the baby of the BL since last May. We discussed diversifying this event by getting some sponsorship. Maybe BIC would like to be involved. Maybe New Pi would like to donate some of that fine, fair trade coffee.


The Issue Regarding Storage

We still don't know what we're going to do about space now that we've lost the bus depot. Brian will do some more work on this, and hopefully we'll have good news by Monday. I'll update here as soon as I know.

It ain't always easy, doin' what we do, but it will all be fine. Really.


Well, I believe that's all I've got. Thanks to everybody who met yesterday.

See you all soon.