Xyzyxzyg

I've been a volunteer at a local community bike shop for about 8 years.
Maybe 95% of our work is refurbishing unwanted bikes and donating them to kids, the homeless, and the economically disadvantaged.
We also teach kids how to ride if needed and show folks how to work on their own bikes.
If they won't learn how to do their bike repairs, we ask that they give their business to a local bike shop (we sometimes get folks wanting us to do a free tuneup or overhaul on their bike after getting an estimate from a LBS).
It's a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere with folks from all walks of life...high school and college folks, retirees, all sorts.
You can ride your own bike to the shop and work on it before or after hours, use our parts and tools, etc.
What tips can anyone offer to attract and retain members?
Our current and past members have put the word out at their schools and other volunteering places, but it seems folks just aren't interested in working for free.
Some of the negatives is we rent space from a church, although we're not a religious org and not affiliated with it in any way. A few folks tell us they would have worked with us, but naturally assume we're part of the church.
Also, I'd guess that most of the potential volunteers is put off by the fact that we work with the homeless.
Due to the shortage of volunteers, we're only able to be open 3 or 4 days a week for a few hours.
Tips? Suggestions?

rydabent

I have in the past, it was called Mad Dads. We refurbished mainly kids bikes, and gave them away just before Christmas. We did have some good quality bikes donated that we sold to buy part etc for the bikes we donated.

Xyzyxzyg

Any ideas on finding volunteers? We've tried schools, retiree groups, other orgs, etc. but pickens are slim.

Pratt

Great idea! Personally, I would love to volunteer at a place like that. Perhaps contact local Boy Scout Troops. Leaders might be a source, and an older kid, working on Eagle could help.
Talk to local machine shops/car repair.
Local cycle clubs.
Other similar. Old Spokes Home is a bicycle shop in Burlington Vermont (oldspokeshome.com) 802-863-4475. Ask them for any tips.
Good luck.

HumanPerson

Scout troops are a good idea. I'd have much preferred helping at a bike collective to the stuff I did as a Girl Scout.
Do you have any colleges or universities nearby?

What about doing a workshop on changing flat tires or something at a local event or the public library (when it is safe to do so). Or even just tabling at an event. I'm thinking that might be a way to let people know who you are and that you're not affiliated with the church. Someone more clever than I am might be able to come up with some wording for your signs/flyers that lets people know without alienating your landlords.

What kind of experience do volunteers need? Do/can you train volunteers too? I've never been to the bike repair group near me, because I don't know how to fix bikes (yet!). If they offered training, I'd go.

This organization sounds awesome. What a great thing to do for your community!

ericoseveins

This is always an issue for volunteer-run bike collectives but every collective situation is a little unique, so it really starts with assessing the problem and the strengths and weaknesses of the collective. I've participated in an all-volunteer collective that is really advantaged by low overhead and by operating in a city with a lot of young single adults. We tried to leverage that to develop non-monetary benefits to motivate volunteer engagement. We've played up the social benefits with parties and happy hours and almost every clinic ends at a bar for some afternoon drinks. We've tried to make sure that everyone feels there's an ongoing effort to push the envelope into advanced skill sets (e.g., frame design, welding, machining, etc.) that requires persistent fundraising/investment in tools. We also give all volunteers the ability to order parts at distributor prices through the collective. And a lot of the people who migrate to the city are very activist-minded, so we've tried to emphasize the inherent activism of volunteerism on community and gender equality issues. It all sort of works okay and there's a constant flow of people moving here and moving away so we get away with engaging volunteers even for short periods.

It sounds like you've already identified a lot of possible barriers to retention in your collective. For the compensation issue, you might be able to create non-monetary incentives or you may have to consider creating a compensated position to take up the tasks that volunteers are resisting. (Just keep in mind that having an employee alongside volunteers creates negative as well as positive ramifications - you need to keep money coming in, it alters the group dynamics for everyone, and it changes what volunteers may see as volunteer-appropriate work.) If you think religious resistance might be contributing to volunteer resistance, you could try having well-branded activities that are clearly secular and maybe away from the church grounds. Maybe benefits/collaborations with other local organizations or shops, pop-up clinics, or events like races or parties? As far as resistance to working with homeless clinic visitors, IDK - it's a little hard for me to see a middle ground solution between either changing the volunteers you attract or changing the mission of your collective. I'd imagine neither of those options sounds very good.

I also just want to say that being open for three or four days a week is pretty impressive for a volunteer-run collective! Not many collectives that I know do better than that and certainly not those that are all volunteer-run. TBH I'm not sure how realistic it is to be more prolific than that without crossing over into having a paid employee. The collective may want to start with a hard assessment of its short- and long-term goals and consider the pros and cons of growing. If it definitely wants to maintain extensive shop hours after that, then probably the path forward involves grant applications and hiring paid employees. This would itself require adjusting the mission to meet grant criteria and milestones as well. It's definitely doable, but things would be different.
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downtube42

Bike Collectives Network is a great resource.

Attracting and retaining volunteers is right up there with funding as the biggest issues faced keeping a bike collective running. I was a volunteer for many years and president for a few at the Columbus Bike Co-op in Columbus, IN.

I've made it a point to visit bike Co ops across the country as I've traveled for business and leisure. I started one from scratch in San Angelo, TX, and have volunteered at two here in Portland, OR. In TX, my dependable volunteer was a homeless man. In IN, it was a combination of twenty-somethings and retirees.

The common theme among successful organizations, imo, is they are welcoming, friendly, fun places to be. There needs to be something to do, it needs to feel like important work, and there need to be just enough rules to keep it functioning.

Your volunteer pool might not be who you expect. Homeless, retirees, young professionals, people in distress; if the co op is a place they can go, be treated well, and do meaningful work, they will return. Getting them there the first time is a challenge. Get the word out.

Xyzyxzyg

All great ideas, folks.

We have teachers who are also Scout leaders trying to find unique ways for the kids to learn, but most of them aren't interested.
Funny story: we had a STEM teacher bring her old bike in to ask us to guide her in reassembling it. Seems she was using it for her students to learn the physics of bicycles and how to reassemble things...but the kids took it apart and couldn't figure out how to reassemble it. They just sat there and played on their phones. They took everything off the bike they possibly could, down to the bottom bracket cable guide and brake adjustment screws.

Our guy in charge always visits other bike collectives when he travels to get ideas. We currently have an AmeriCorps volunteer who handles all the mundane stuff like meetings, emails, partnerships, etc., that keeps us away from the bikes.

We keep a fridge stocked with drinks, and whenever we have public events we all get free food.

One unadvertised perk is we can each get a free bike per year. Maybe 99% of what is donated to us are Wal-bikes, but on occasion we get a nice vintage one. I took home an old vintage BMX bike and completely restored it, just for practicing skills. Or, we can offer to buy a nice bike for a substantial discount.

Right now, our volunteer pool includes a college student, a teacher, a contractor, retiree, salesman (former Army soldier) and myself. We have a university and several colleges nearby, but each has their own bike shop.