All, Maybe the slowest week on record, financially-speaking, as we grossed $8. Hopefully not a preview of the rest of the semester…
Before the break we did have a repeat visitor express interest in volunteering so there is some latent interest in our offerings.
This week we will be closing down our appointment system in favor of our regular open hours offerings. Visits have not been frequent enough to warrant the extra trouble of an appointment system. We’ll be open M/W/F for the rest of the semester, barring any further mitigation efforts.
We’ve got a few bikes from the warehouse to work on and they’ve already proven to be  good teaching candidates for my staff on things like the irreparable damage kickstands can so easily inflict. No one likes leaning their bike against a wall just-so but it beats having to replace it entirely
Thanks!

The numbers:
Visitors:
Sales: $8!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 11/18.

Discussed were the following topics:

• Establishing a telecommuting/teleconferencing policy.
• Discussing working with an interdisciplinary health intern in IHR to tackle research/application of teleconferencing/telecommuting policy and commuter program.
• Establishing an EV Task Force through the Parking Department to re-assess campus EV needs.

Please see attached the final presentation used for the CTAC fall 2020 meeting as well as the preliminary results from the Vision Zero study by Dr. Rahim Benekohal's group.

All, Lovely summery weather last week!
Main event for the week was a marketing meeting to discuss new and innovative ways to promote the Bike Center, which was fruitful and really put into perspective how much stuff we do here at CBC when explaining it, even in general terms. And things like build-a-bikes vs. refurbished vs. DIY repairs will always confuse the uninitiated.
This week is business as usual. Bikes to be picked up from Parking, an Active Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, staff meetings to be scheduled, and so forth. Some suppliers seem to be restocked a bit on some much-needed bike parts but as we inch ever-closer to fall/winter, immediate demand for those parts will wane. But we’ll still stock up a bit.
The numbers:

Visitors: 12
Sales: $226.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $200
Misc: $26.50

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 10/30.

Discussed were the following topics:

• Air Travel Emissions Offsetting
• Campus Master Plan
• Campus Bike Plan
• Fleet Replacement Plans
• Reduce Driving on Campus and SOVs
• Commuter Program

All,

Pretty slow week. Had the iCAP sustainability celebration on Tuesday, which was great. Always fun to see/hear from other parts of campus that are working towards a better future for our campus. On the flipside, I had the displeasure of reporting a dangerous F&S driver that same day and then a dangerous MTD driver on Thursday.

Todd came by and cleared out scrap on Friday which was welcomed.

As of this morning, I communicated with Working Bikes that we will not be doing our annual abandoned bike donation as Parking did not collect bikes last spring, due to COVID, and thus we have no bikes to donate to them. It hasn’t been decided/communicated whether Parking will collect later in the fall/winter or wait until spring. This will also negatively affect how many bikes we’ll have for sale next spring, as the pool of available bikes is lower. But of course, most of the abandoned bikes were being donated and for sale numbers were always more dependent on our ability/time to build more than a dearth of bikes.

The numbers:
Visitors: 11 (7 UIUC-affiliated)
Sales: $225
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc parts: 8 for $55

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

Sarthak Prasad met with Shayna Talpallikar to discuss her proposal to promote bicycle registration on campus. Bicycle Registraiton has been mandatory for years, as explained in the University Bicycle Ordinance, and the university should promote it more like that. There is a new national registration system, with a one-time $10 registration fee, and it is available to all - students, faculty, staff, alumni (in C-U area), departmental bicycles, as well as the residents of Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, or any other Champaign County residents.

Shayna expressed interest in helping us out with this project and how we can achieve it. We discussed two main ideas, and thought adding signage to major bicycle parking areas to be the best option right now. Another option was to have Bicycle Registration days or events across campus where we give out free donuts and raffle option to those who register. However, this idea was discouraged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please see attached some notes from the meeting. A recording of the meeting is also available.

All,

Mike, a semi-regular at the old shop, walked in on Friday for his appointment, looked around and said, “What’d you have to do to get upgraded to such a nice spot?”

Just another positive review of our new space.

I coordinated with Parking to do more frequent pick ups—but smaller loads—of abandoned bikes, which should allow for a better flow of bikes in and out of the bike center. This should be more manageable for myself and my staff going forward, as well.

This week is a Campus Sustainability Celebration on Tuesday, a CBC staff meeting Wednesday evening, and warm weather to close out the week, which usually equals some more traffic, but we’ll see if that holds during a pandemic.

The numbers:

Visitors: 14
Sales: $178.20
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc parts: 4 for $40

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager