This meetings blog is meant to keep everyone up to date to what was discussed at Velocipede collective meetings.
Collective Meeting Minutes - August 3rd, 2009
August 13, 2009
General Meeting 8/3
Present: Boson Au, Tim Barnette, Lars Peterson, Dileep Monie, Gabby, Noah Bers, Barbara Carignan, Michael, Anton Schaller, Peter Hegel, Rigel Christian, Mike Stewart Later: Tony,
Facilitator: Peter Hegel
Scribe: Tim Barnette
Timekeeper: Boson Au
[Read minutes from July meeting]
Committee Reports
PR: Business cards were ordered, ready in a week or so
Ed: Classes to last monday in August, right after BikeBike!
Shop: New order soon. Talk to Lars or Noah about needed supplies
Finance:
[see VNP Secretary for financial report]
reiterated cashbox & ledger policy: Separate Parts / Donations. new / used parts.
Proposals
Noah: Money to Mexico? Discussion on Think Tank mailing list: Casida: Fundraiser 90,000 pesos. need to raise Proposal: VBP donate US $25.00
Peter: Are they legit?
Lars: has anyone personally verified that these people are legit?
Eric: We should make personal donations
Noah: Okay, will accept donations personally
Boson: Letter to Baltimore Police Dept.: (handed out letter)
Concerns:
1. We should indicate that we will pick up the bikes
2. One person should be the contact person.
Consensus: Send the letter
Proposal: Shop Cleanup day: Boson
Should be sooner rather than later: August 23rd just like last year. (opened at noon, no work on bikes, tool inventory)
(Consensus reached)
Proposal: Opening Shop Procedures: Ben
Always keep door closed until everything is ready: count till, put out sign-in sheet, put tools in order.
Concern: Should we limit the number of people if there’s only one staff member opening? Ben: Whatever that one person decides.
Concern: Should we get to the shop earlier to take care of opening?
(Consensus reached)
Proposal: Policy on Kids in the chop
Groups of more than three kids should should try to schedule ahead of time.
Question: How to schedule ahead of time? Boson: People have just come to the shop and mentioned it.
Additional Info: put this on the Google calendar
Concern: Always let people know that the shop may be full
Gabby: This issue is way too huge for just a proposal.
Ben: will table proposal for now.
Tim: Forewarning may not be enough.
(Discuss this on the forums. Eric would like to do this coordination)
Discussions:
Mike Stewart: Partner at Sonar.
Opens Sunday mornings to use ATM & Restrooms
Would put out signs, pass out flyers. Space is available.
Questions: Is there space for a small clinic?
Ben: Could we solicit donations? Yes.
Gabby: Proposal: Better to set up stands at Sonar, discuss on forum.
Lars: Stripping bikes
1. Sum is greater than the parts
2. Many parts are not interchangeable and difficult to identify on their own
3. Not sure why we strip bikes
4. Many parts are of little or no value and end up clogging up bins and drawers
Gabby: It’s a great way to teach people, part of the recycling process
Rigel: Stripping bikes is necessary to be able to build complete bikes to make money to pay rent.
Ben: This has educational value.
Peter: Two problems: Why strip bikes/How to prevent wrong bikes getting stripped
Teaches tool use.
Tim: We do need good parts.
Barbara: Why do we strip bikes: teach tool use, it gets people doing work that’s interesting, coming back to the shop.
Eric: Be more judicious about taking in cheap bikes? Also, we need more learning projects.
(discussion terminated due to lack of time)
Discussion: Merits of city sponsorship / using city-owned spaces
Lars: We should be hesitant to accept the city’s largess, any space we accept may come with strings attached.
Dileep: We can’t afford to not consider city sponsorship. Our lawyer should draft lease with the city, however Communication with the city should be the result of collective action and consensus and not individual relationships.
Gabby: We should still examine the possibility.
Eric V: Our city, our government.
Noah Bers: Baltimore won’t put property into land trusts. We should not take something from the city without some kind of long-term guarantee
Tony: Doesn’t like being beholden to the city government
Rigel: Are we sure that the co-op will still exist in 10-15 years? Is that really one of our goals? (re: land trust)
Ben: City is not a large corporation, they are our representatives.
Barbara: Should not be suspicious. Quid-pro-quo is okay?
Anton: Does not see what we have to lose. How realistic is this?
Boson: This is our government. However, we should have concerns.
Peter: Strings attached are okay, we need to examine those strings.
Tim: This is why we go to BikeBike. We should have an ambassador who collects this kind of information. Right now we are speculating, others have experience
Discussion: Bill Mill: “Junto” wants to put together a community discussion… Would we like to be part of this?
Discussion: Chain tools (demonstration)
Discussion: BikeBike! alt event for people not going to Minneapolis >> forum
Announcement: Fundraiser for Gabby’s ride: Right after BikeBike!
Evaluation:
Pete: Discussions are frustrating; just letting everyone have their say is okay.
Boson: Discussions can just open channels of discussion; closure not always necessary.
Anton: People are getting more conscious of rules of order, no food or distractions is good
Barbara: No side conversations this time
Ben: Discussions do not need to come to a close; should be merely fuel for proposals
Rigel: It’s hard to get involved. There are structural obstacles to getting involved with this shop. Meeting: far more tension than he expected.
Noah: Meeting ran well. Circular discussion (experiment?) worked okay. Can we try other discussion formats?
Eric: Position-based discussion formats are good.
Gabby: Be on time. Consider having two meetings a month, there’s too much going on.
Dileep: Discussions are hard to conclude, everything goes into a black hole. Maybe discussions should have more defined outcomes.
Lars: (too busy talking to record)
Tim: Three things: There is a second meeting, the committee meeting, with an adjunct collective meeting at the end. Two: our agenda should be better prepared and gone over beforehand. Three: Our meetings are running better but there are some things that are unclear: Roles of facilitators/ proposer during a proposal process. We should do this in the planning meeting.
Next Committee Meeting: Aug. 17th.
Next General meeting: Tuesday Sept. 8th.
Email Tim or Anna about long-term planning committee meeting agenda.
Other concerns from Rigel. Formerly worked at Bike Kitchen.
- Notes: Cost of membership is very high here. ($30/month) vs: Volunteer time is unchecked, people can skate by without really contributing.
- Building bikes for sale is a poor way to make money, competes with local shops.
- Great deal of focus on policy for its own sake.
- Email list could be open for all to participate, that would draw people into the group.
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