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Projects Updates for Campus Bike Center

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  1. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was slow and I did not need the assistance of the student staff. Thankfully, a couple of them were flexible enough to agree to an on-call situation if I needed them. That was a great help to know they were available if needed.

    Volunteer presence last week was surprisingly high. On Thursday we had five people in, all to volunteer. Accordingly, a lot of much-needed organizing and deep cleaning happened. For example: all used tubes have been accounted for: good ones sorted and marked, bad ones in their own pile.

  2. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week I was sick and missed work on Wednesday. Other than that, it was uneventful. I’ve kept one student worker on per day to help, as it’s been busy enough to warrant it. That has been a pleasant turn of events—being this busy—but will likely end this week with finals happening and all.

    This week projects to be slow and I should be able to make some real headway with building up bikes for the Spring rush. I’ve got 14 for sale right now but will hopefully have about 20 by end of week.

  3. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was predictably slow. I cut back almost entirely on student staff since long stretches of open hours were completely vacant of visitors. Thankfully a few student staffers wanted to work on their own bicycle projects and were able to jump in and help out when it got too busy for me to handle everyone on my own. Those instances were rare and brief, presenting a problem from a staffing prospective: not busy enough to keep someone there the whole day but busy enough that a second person is needed.

  4. ECS Bike Share Completed

    Associated Project(s): 
    Departmental Bike Sharing
    Campus Bike Center
    Provide Working Bikes for University Employees

    Facilities and Services division Engineering and Construction Services (ECS) has three bikes for employees to share for campus business. Check out is easy and the same as checking out a department car or truck. Two helmets are available for borrowing and lock keys are color coded to the bike they go to.

    Two of the three bikes were purchased through the Campus Bike Center, with locks and front baskets. The helmets came from Neutral Cycle. The whole project cost less than $750 and will have minimum maintenance each year.

  5. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was surprisingly busy. On Friday we had all the stands full and it was something like 35° outside. That’s encouraging! We even had one person in here in shorts! Our number of for-sale bikes is slowly creeping upward as demand wanes and we have time to build during open hours. From Wednesday to Friday Michael Merriman from Campus Rec borrowed the Bluebird cargo bike for trips between ARC and CRCE (due to construction, there is a lack of car/truck parking) and reported back that he loves it.

  6. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was pretty uneventful. Visitor numbers are declining with the weather getting cooler. I’ve begun cutting back on the student staff as we get fewer and fewer visitors. We’ve got 9 refurbished bikes for sale. With fall coming on strong, I suspect we’ll see a lot of the in-progress build-a-bikes abandoned which can then be flipped for sale quicker than usual.

    This week I will coordinate with Parking to pick up the salvageable bikes from the warehouse as well as build bikes and take stock of inventory.

    The numbers:

    Visitors for the week: 62

  7. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out of town yesterday, so this report is a day late.

    Last week was surprisingly busy despite the cooler weather. I thought for sure that the drop in temps would dissuade a lot of people but we still had full stands a few days of the week. More winter commuters, I hope!

    Wednesday afternoon was the Campus Sustainability Celebration that was a lot of fun and very informative. I met quite a few people involved elsewhere in the sustainability world on campus and was able to learn about some of the larger scale work being implemented. Good stuff!

  8. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, with warm temps last week the shop remained busy. Friday there was even a line for stand time. Wednesday morning was the bike census. It was wonderful weather for it and I think it went well! One CBC student staffer and a CBC volunteer extraordinaire volunteered for the event, which I was happy to see. Thanks, Leah and Rick!

    On Friday, a Bike Project Volunteer came and picked up all the scrap we’d accumulated in the last few weeks, which will help immensely in organizing and storage.

  10. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Bicycle Counts

    All, nothing major to report last week. Shop was open, people came in, same as usual. I coordinated with Working Bikes for our shipping event that happened yesterday. We packed up 317 bikes to go back to their warehouse in Chicago and then onto South Africa. There are still 67 bikes left that WB said they will return for later this fall. There is also a collection of the good bikes we are saving for ourselves. Those total about 50 or so.

  11. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Light the Night

    All, the major news of last week was the Light The Night event. We installed roughly 870 light sets this year! We completely sold out, which is a first for me in the 4 or so years in which I’ve been involved with this event. With it still being warm out, I hope we can get some valuable feedback from people who’re using the lights in regards to which ones they like, how they’re performing, etc.

  12. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, The big event for last week was an unruly member who I had to kick out of the shop on Wednesday. Other than that, the week went smoothly.

    Lily and I tabled at the Volunteer Fair in the Union on Tuesday. We got a dozen or so signatures (maybe more?) for general volunteer interest in the Campus Bike Center and help with Light The Night.

  13. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week’s big news was the implementation of a new sign-in system that expedites the process and allows for better tracking of our members’ status (expired or current memberships). The new system scans membership cards, I-cards, and drivers’ licenses, tracks first visits, and requires zero interaction with a keyboard, saving minutes of valuable time and keeps things from bottlenecking at the entrance to the space when people are arriving.

  14. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Mechanics Classes at the Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was fine. The student workers are getting into the swing of things. Those that were away for the summer are remembering how everything works and that in turn makes them a more helpful. Our suspension of “First Visit Free” has been received well; most people are amenable to the membership fee, even if they only have a very small repair. Only a couple instances of people complaining and they leave unhappy but on the whole I consider it a success. We’ve had a lot of people who’ve had to wait significantly for stand time even with the membership-required policy.

  15. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Mechanics Classes at the Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was a blur! According to our sign-in data, we had 277 visitors. That seems high but numbers don’t lie. We were pretty much all-stands-full within the first half an hour. Unfortunately that means some members have had to wait for stands to work on their build-a-bikes. Nothing we can do about that, unfortunately.

    The numbers:
    Sales (overall): $1,867.60

    Bikes (refurbished): 1 for $180
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $46
    Memberships: 26 for $780
    Tires/tubes: 47 for $244

  16. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was—according to the visitor numbers—an unprecedentedly busy week. According to our tracker for visitors we had 239 people into the shop last week. I pored over the list of visitors and cut down two duplicate sign-ins from the original 241, but other than that the numbers bear out: we averaged about 50 sign-ins per day. Most must have been those looking for bikes and since we’re sold out, moved on quickly, because the shop never felt unbearably busy.

  17. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, most notable thing last week: Everyone was very good about leaving in a timely manner. Two or three times the stands were empty and staff were cleaning up with a solid 10 minutes left for open hours. That was a pleasant surprise.

    The bulk of the LTN lights arrived last week. I will have a volunteer this week get a tally on total units received. Todd, TBP volunteer, came and picked up scrap on short notice, which was very helpful.

  18. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was fairly busy. We had a few days wherein there was extended waiting times for free stands. We had been averaging about 100 people in the space per week but this week we were at 117, and I’m sure there were half a dozen who we missed. As it nears the Great Student Migration we’ll see more and more visitors.

    Sales: Overall: $1,661.20; refurbished bikes: 6 for $860; Build-a-Bikes: 2 for $220; memberships: 4 for $120; tire/tubes (new and used): 20 for $117.

  19. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was pretty relaxed. We only had 87 visitors into the space. Our sales were: $1,072 (overall); refurbed bikes: 5 for $640; memberships: 5 for $150; tires/tubes (new & used): 9 for $38.

    This week I have a meeting with a prospective student employee. I will also scrap the deluge of bikes that have been donated. Last week we received at least a dozen junk frames/broken bikes. A rare few of these bikes are salvageable, unfortunately. I will build bikes and continue to organize, clean, and otherwise prepare for the deluge of returning students in the coming weeks.

  20. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was slow at the beginning every day of the week but by around 4pm things would pick up drastically and we’d be “All Stands Full” for the last hour or so. I used to blame the uptick around 4pm on class schedules but it’s summer so now I have no idea why we get busier then.

    Visitors count was at 100 even (for the second week in a row, I believe).

    Total sales: $1,363.10; refurbished bike sales: 3 for $430; Build-a-Bikes: 3 for $250; memberships: 11 for $330; consumables (cables/housing, tires/tubes): 27 between the four of those, totaling $85.10.

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