Join Shareable for our free Library of Things Co-Lab! Our thirteenth session, “Fix-It Fairs, Permanent Repair Cafes, and More was led by Kami Bruner of Repair x Reuse Washington, Tatjana Uskokovic of La BOM, and Jessa Wais of Station North Tool Library.
Libraries of things (often called LoTs) are a community space for the social practice of borrowing and sharing to take place. They hold true to the traditional mechanics of a library while pushing borrowing material to a new edge. Instruments, gardening tools, camping gear, sporting equipment, and more are up for grabs to be borrowed throughout the community.
The Library of Things Co-Lab makes this culture-change movement accessible for every community of resilience. This Co-Lab operates as a resource-sharing hub that guides organizers through the process of incubating and strengthening libraries of things as a social practice for communities.
The Co-Lab offers a robust digital toolbox, educational resources, a peer support network, facilitated project groups, monthly educational sessions, and a fellowship for a select group of organizers in marginalized communities in the US who will receive additional resources to incubate a LoT in their community.
The FREE Co-Lab will feature 12-weekly workshops running from Tuesday, March 5th to Tuesday, May 21st.
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A PDF version of the presentation is available:
file:///Users/CandiceSpivey/Downloads/LoT%20Co-Lab%20Session%2013_%20Repair%20(slides).pdf
W okay great all right welcome back everyone my name is Candace she her pronouns and I am the program manager for solidarity works it is good to see everyone after a break from our library of things collab I am Stephan in for Tom he’s had some computer issues but it looked like he is joining so welcome back Tom I hope everything is going well there he is all just finish out is that okay or you want to jump in no go go for it all right so tonight we’re coming to you with fix it repairs um our presenter tonight are Cammy Bruner Jessa ways and Tatiana and so up first we’re gonna come with Cammy Bruner so Cammy if you want to go ahead and share your screen we will go ahead and get started make sure I’m not m did still okay is it holding on holding on okay uh hi everybody uh for those who don’t already know I’m Cammy I oversee repair reuse Washington and forgive any lags of my internet because it’s not always very consistent um Y come back here there we go um repair reuse Washington is me I just want to clarify there’s not like a whole organization but I I work to convene a broad array of community repair groups tool libraries remaker and sort of an ecosystem around around that uh to elevate repair and reuse I focus on Washington State and do a lot of intensive support there but kind of like the the tool Library Alliance that has been in the works um I’m working with groups across the US and Canada to some degree to to elevate all of our work and try to reduce the burden and the siloing that so often happens and what I want to share with you all today is sort of the broad spectrum of how I’ve seen repair events and repair groups doing their their things across this network and the for everything that I say there will be at least six exceptions to that rule that’s not a rule but the main takeaway is that every repair repair group does it differently and I think that’s great so firstly this uh what I have been calling the philosophical Continuum on sort of one end you get your classical repair Cafe that is inspired by uh the international repair Cafe started by Martine postma in the Netherlands and it’s its impetus was more community building and environmental motivations so it’s it’s very much like fix fix for Neighbors so inviting people to sit down um spend time get to know their fixer just chat uh and keep some things in out of the landfill in the process hopefully um it’s very it’s very sweet a lot of the groups um really focus on like having coffee and and snacks for folks um so that it is more this just sort of like a cafe Vibe at the other end of the spectrum is some of you may be familiar with Peter mu’s Fixit clinics and he takes a a much different approach where you come through those doors with your brok an item and you’re going to be handed tools and expected to be part of part of your own repair process there are coaches available and they will provide some guidance but ultimately the the goal is not necessarily to fix the item but to overcome fears about approaching whatever the the issue is and to like get in there dig in and feel empowered um becoming more familiar with tools becoming confident like maybe you’re going to break it more and that’s okay um repair is definitely a byproduct in in this scenario I would in a way I would say it’s kind of a byproduct in all of the scenaria on one hand you have more like Community as a goal and the other empowerment as a goal and then in the middle it’s just sort of a mixture of both uh I’ve seen a lot of groups where they will invite there’s there a set of fixers and they invite guests to come sit with them and to the degree that the guest feels comfortable they can assist with the repair or like work on part of the repair while the fixer is working on a different thing so it’s different different goals here but uh all means to and end that are I think Noble in both cases and there are are very strong feelings in both camps uh then on the location and frequency Continuum some groups are just they like pull all their resources and are just going to do a one-off event um maybe maybe it’s annually um but there’s sort of no guarantee so that it can be sort of like a oneandone just try it out um raising awareness event sometimes these happen as parts of like a a sustainability festival or something on the other end and I think we’re going to hear from labom in more in this vein that it’s part of their like regular operations so it’s it is really everywhere along that Continuum a lot of the groups are aiming for at least a few times a year I think I’ve seen most most of them do like maybe quarterly events some are doing weekly events they’re very small scale typically um the the larger larger scale less frequent events uh I think there’s sort of like a builtup demand so people there’s a lot more promotional effort there and people like keep their things for sometimes months to go to this one event so it’s the weekly events they are smaller they are not promoted so much um and there’s just it’s sort of a slower more casual Pace the less frequent events it’s it’s more of an event a production really and I think they all work um I don’t I don’t love the popup event because it can be the most stressful and labor intensive uh typically these events are at a host location where you can’t there’s no possibility to store supplies and sometimes even to bring supplies in prior to the event uh so you have to load everything in day of set up a room get get all it’s it’s very labor intensive push whereas the embedded uh more frequent events that are just part of a tool Library space or um let’s see who else has more regular ones let’s just say tool libraries in this case or libraries they already have the space set up maybe some chairs need to be rearranged but they have the supplies there you just sort of get some things out and it’s it’s a very it’s much lower lift then who was who was organizing these events um the group that I got involved with uh repair Cafe Pasadena several years ago they have they were always and continue to be all volunteer run um and then one of the groups that I’ve been I don’t work directly with them but they’re sort of in our ecosystem here in Washington state is King County and the King County runs repair events uh everywhere outside outside of the Seattle area so it is embedded part of their government programming and as such they have um County staff that are tied to specifically running that program they both have benefits and then in the middle uh more like nonprofits um some other smaller Community institutions running it so sometimes there are paid staff focusing on the program sometimes not so much um but they all have benefits and they all have challenges with the all volunteers obviously it’s all volunteers so there can be a lot of turnover and you you lose some of the institutional knowledge gained um especially when uh somebody in a more leadership role leaves so it can it can be a challenge to get somebody else to commit to that and get up to speed but they tend to be very agile and they don’t have to wait on um lots of bureaucratic permissions or for Grants to come through they can host them as often as they feel like rallying around um or as infrequently there there’s sort of no expectations um but they as you see under the limitations they’re often they don’t have fiscal sponsorship so they have a A reduced capacity to take donations or seek funding and of course there are some um administrative challenges that can come along with that like who’s who’s going to field requests who’s going to get the um mailing account where we send newsletters from Etc um organization based which is is more where I I did significant work recently um through zero Washington it’s it has more support there are some organizational resources to tap into but uh kind of like with that program it became dependent on specific funding that allowed uh those to exist so once if if funding is not consistent then programs can very easily go away uh the government backed programs I’m working with a few groups right now who are trying to get their their counties or their cities on board and it can be a once they do it can be a huge benefit but that process can be very long um and one one group is struggling particularly with concerns about liability right now uh because it’s this is nothing like they’ve ever done so they’re like oh but all all of the like question marks that we’re now introducing and this we’re government and we’re not we’re not comfortable with that so there can be wins and hurdles for each one data collection uh this is one of my favorite enduring topics and again it is all across the board um one of the fixer there’s a finny fixer Collective that um is in Seattle they they just show up and people just show up nothing nothing is documented anywhere um so it it results in a very casual setting friendly chats and it’s and then it uh wraps up then with more typically the like organization based groups uh there’s some impetus to collect a little bit more how many people attended uh take some pictures so you can share that with your constituency um sometimes if it’s a grant based program then there’s a little bit more need for a you know we need to know a bit what’s what happened during the event so a little bit additional data and finally all the data you need all the data there are some advantages to this but it is um it is intensive so particularly with grant funding particularly with government-based programs they to cover liability you just you need to get all of your your waivers your contact information back like things to things to keep you safe and to keep the guests safe so a lot of concern around liability um getting insurance coverage for the event space if you’re if you’re at a a community center um and additionally because you’re looking more into like what populations are we serving there’s uh more push to collect demographic data travel how far were people willing to travel to do this or I think a little more insidiously where people traveling from outside the the service area not great but some of the things that can be collected at these events that feed Higher Goals which I’ll try to touch on later um are what things were brought in where were there certain models um that were fixable that were not fixable um how much weight is being saved from the landfill how uh how many greenhouse gases are being theoretically offset by this item being kept in service for long longer and in some cases those those pieces of information are just being fed to the funer um which is fine and it it serves like Solid Waste um County city state needs but for even higher purpose uh when it’s reported through things like the open repair Alliance or the repair monitor which repair monitor comes out of repair Cafe International open repair Alliance is part of the restart project and some of the other uh non-repair Cafe uh entities it’s it’s actually filtering up and becoming a data set that anyone around the world can access to see oh this kind of coffee maker is really just not repairable um can we groups like iFixit uh rep.org they’re able to go to manufacturers increasingly and and also in the US US perg go to the manufacturers to push for changes in design so maybe at some point things will become more repairable but it it’s a little bit um trying to introduce accountability into consumer goods development so it’s very burdensome to collect this amount of data but it can be useful and then some of the locations besides tool libraries that I’ve seen groups doing uh repair events at it’s all over the map um popping up in parking lots obviously maker spaces are a good fit breweries food banks block parties um one one great option is partnering with a local hardware store because if a certain part is needed for an item it’s very easy for the guest to just go quickly grab the item bring it back and get it fixed because as we know so many times it’s a broken part that you just don’t happen to have with you uh and even though we at in many cases uh repair groups ask for guests to bring the replacement part with them people often don’t know what the replacement part is or even when to if it’s a if it’s a part that’s the problem sometimes it’s it’s not a part sometimes it’s things that are glued together and they don’t even know how to get into the guts so that said collocating or partnering with a hardware store is a great option but any of these locations work pretty well for the level of effort and community that you’re trying to serve and I guess that is that’s sort of the through line for all of all of these organizing um groups is what makes most sense for you as organizers how much energy do you have to devote to it how how many resources do you have to rely on what is the community that you’re working with need maybe it’s not appropriate to try to do it every week because it’s that’s just not needed or location wise it’s not going to work for it to be at a single location all the time maybe it’s better to move it around the the community to make it a little more accessible um I I tend to be more in the camp of making it a little more consistent in a consistent location so that people can plan better um rather than just like trying to move it geographically a lot because introducing inconsistency in timing and location means that it it feels a little less reliable people can’t plan for it as easily even if it’s not so conveniently located to you if you know where it’s going to be always then you can maybe make arrangements to get there um yeah uh I did I can touch on the um right to repair Tom maybe a little bit later but in the meantime if you all have questions feel free to reach out uh I oversee the repair economy Washington site and all of the groups here and run the repair economy annual Summit and co-host the shop talks which are just a monthly Gatherings for people to well talk shop about what’s working what’s not and ideas that they want to chat about so that’s me oh hello hello should I just jump in it okay yes you’re good to just jump in okay uh I’m gonna share my screen uh wait [Music] all right can you see it yeah um okay hello everyone I’m Tatiana I uh I come from France uh so bear in mind it’s English is not my first language it’s not even my second language so just be patient with me um I’m happy that Tom uh asked us to present or repair Cafe um we had a chance to have Tom over twice actually uh in our association in our nonprofit building and um and so I’m really happy to to be able to talk to people that are not in our on our continent and in our country so um I think like the story of our repair Cafe is how I’m sorry Tatiana can you give me just one second I just wanted to check in um to make sure we didn’t have if see if anyone had questions for uh Camy and if you do just drop them in the chat and we’ll get we’ll get to them later thank you go ahead Tatiana thank you um yes so KY is that is that how I pronounce it KY is that right okay so KY I was really inspired actually by your uh presentation so I I kind of like put it in my presentation in kind of I don’t know I hope it’s clever so basically we are we are nonprofits based in uh uh in the outskirts of Paris right next to Barry actually we have the Metro uh and uh we are a library of things but we’re also many other things uh and one of one of the things we do is uh we hold a repair Cafe twice a week so that’s like uh 10 hours of repairing um uh in our building and we also have repair events uh in the city and in Paris and that’s like three or four times a month so now we have like Partnerships with the hosts that will welcome us to have those repair cafes because we’re really identified as um as fixers in our community I guess um so we open in April 2022 just as a little bit of background where we have three full-time employees and I I I feel like uh from having checked the uh Tom’s work around around libraries of things I feel like we are a library of things that has a lot of employees actually because a lot of libraries that actually uh volunteer run uh and we have three full-time employees but we also have like around 30 volunteers um we have uh 1,400 members uh 800 items and we hold 20 workshops kind of around 20 workshops per month so we have those repair cafes but we also have workshops on seing woodwor um anything that has anything to do with reusing so it can also be around uh um activities for children um will use uh waste and try to build something new from it and that’s that’s what we do and um and yeah so that’s that’s a little bit of a story uh uh we fixed last year we like to say that we fixed one uh item per day um which was not exactly how it was but we we fixed a lot of item um uh for us it’s not exactly a goal for us as you said Cy uh the goal is not to have a 100% success rate and uh and or um in repairing but it’s still I feel like we have a very Hands-On approach to repairing so we are uh we are close to the repair Cafe philosophy but we are also we we’re aware that we have one uh fixer who’s an employee which makes it a bit less um um a bit less maybe a bit more kind of professional even though he’s not a professional of fixing so he he’s not a repair man he just learns how to repair uh from his experience and so he Prides himself that he has a 70% success rate which is true actually like a lot of our uh a lot of our items are repaired um very often um and sometimes it can be a bit at the cost of the learning process or at the empowerment you know we’re not exactly on the empowerment Spectrum which is why we hold workshops that are kind of uh more uh about empowering uh for example we have um workshops on uh DIY or home repair uh for women uh and uh gender minorities and that’s why we that it’s kind of a space we we try to have spaces where it’s more about learning and or repair Cafe is kind of about learning but it’s also a lot about actually repairing uh which I think makes it uh interesting because um when we started the repair Cafe um we were not exactly aware of what was the need if if there was a need for a repair Cafe in the neighborhood we just tried it and um quickly we we saw that people were coming in uh and usually there were people not the same people that come to the library of things you know so uh usually there are people who have um who come here for a come to repair for more economic motives and um and so it was interesting for us that they really needed kind of needed to have an object repaired because uh that would that would mean not having to buy an object uh n and um not everyone is in that kind of philosophy but it was still there was still a need for that and um we started like to open more slots because we we work on uh on actual slots so it’s Wednesdays and Saturdays and it’s half an hour for each repair um and so uh and so we started out uh like this and then we uh started to have a real volunteer community around uh our our full-time paid worker and um and then um uh yeah that’s that’s how we work now so we work twice a week uh and uh and we have a a pretty decent success rate um I wanted to touch on uh how much does it cost to actually have um two twice a week to have a uh repair Cafe I feel like probably our models uh are very different in the US and in France we have a lot of government gr grants here but very little um uh help from companies foundations we we don’t actually have any help from the private sector we really work with the public sector and um and so they help us a lot and and it’s it’s represents actually maybe 75% of our budget uh for the repair Cafe and overall for the whole nonprofit it represents around 65% and then we try to have a economic model that works for us so we we also started um we started selling service to uh housing service companies I don’t know if you have that in the US but basically in France there are companies that run um public housing and they usually need to uh uh they now have kind of environmental standards and uh standards on waste management and especially around the behaviors of people that live in those uh in those buildings and so it’s kind of a way to uh make them part of the of the solution and then you you just we hold workshops um um where the building is and then people just come downstairs and they bring their stuff and we help them repair and then they know about our work at labom and they will they tend to come more often to see us and have the the point is having the reflex to repair uh those objects rather than throwing it away and sometime throwing it away in the on street and and so that’s that’s a whole thing we we try to we we sell those uh services and it brings us actually 20% of our budget which which is quite interesting for us and then there’s some of the budget I’d say around 5 to 10% that is just memberships and donations and our membership is I think it’s very low compared to a lot of libraries of things even in France uh we we have a 24 euro per year which is I think around $30 um and then people can just borrow anything and uh we have a free donation policy with the repair Cafe and all of our workshops so we try to encourage people to have be conscious of the work that is um that we take um and um and so we encourage those free donations um still I feel like it’s not it’s probably not a very sustainable way uh to to have that model but for us it works because the in France and Europe in general there’s a whole uh there are policies uh uh around repairing I think Tom talked about with jie earlier about those policies that you you have in some of the US states and um um and so they’re encouraging repairing uh what we have in France is that they will give uh for uh standard repairing that we’ll have in uh with big companies they will offer people to have a um how would I say that like they they will pay for some of the uh repair uh and so instead of paying like 80 EUR to or1 EUR to repair your washing machine then you’d pay only like 50 EUR and it’s a whole thing but we are out of it because we can’t like have um uh it would mean for us to to Really apply those standards those company standards so making a quote uh having a a fixer that is uh that has a diploma uh so repair diploma like an official diploma with that and then you have to make a quote and then you have to have a lot of data also um and it’s Al it’s all too heavy for us as a um as an organization so we we just kind of try to make it an argument to still like get government grants uh because we do a lot of work we do a lot of repair work and we are way cheaper than those companies that do repair and um and yeah so we try to benefit from it and to uh yeah to benefit from it uh I’m I wanted to show you a little bit um our software I hope I’ll manage it um it’s not really a software it’s more like just so you can see like about the data and all the information it’s in French but I’ll I’ll explain it to you um so basically if you can see my screen um this is what it looks like for us um to um uh to look for a slot and to uh to reserve a slot for the people to book a slot for the people who come to labom and ask to repair something usually people come with their object and they’re like I want to repair this item can I can I come in can I do it and usually have to tell them okay we’re gonna have to wait a little bit as you see this is like uh tomorrow um and Saturday and actually this is not very busy because it’s that time of the year where it starting to be less less busy uh we’re going to be closed from the 24th of July till the 10th but as you can see I feel like it’s a good model um even though like I feel in the repair Cafe feel philosophy I know it’s like we don’t have slots and it’s that’s how it is but for our fixers it was really kind of a security to have this so they can uh kind of control the amount of people that come in uh because usually you’d have all of this in red you know the whole week the whole next two weeks actually and then what we have is a history of what we did which I think is also super interesting so uh so you’d have the name I mean don’t mind it you’d have the name of the people that come in and then you’d have the object that they wanted to repair and then the status of uh the reparation um is it fixed here you you you can see that someone didn’t show up which happens also um and so it’s kind of the data we do have which can allow us to say oh we had 70% repar uh yeah reparations done um even though sometimes they forget to fill it um and that’s how it is that’s I think it’s a really good um it’s a really good um tool for us to really follow what’s happening um and then we can also like from this extract some information to see if the people that come in to repair things are also the people that will uh that will buy borrow which for us is very important to have some kind of um cohesion to have some yeah to have a system where people will come to the workshops and will borrow things and Will Repair things and it’s and so it’s a whole um Integrated Service it’s very important for us um all right and then um so I just wanted to like stay humble I feel like we still have a lot to learn even though we have a it’s a major success for us uh the repair Cafe because um it’s become as big as important a service to the community as true Landing uh definitely because we have uh a lot of people that are coming in for this a lot of people that are coming through this and then getting to know the rest of the things we do and then we also have that intuition that we are trying to um to uh to to see if it’s actually true through a sociology study that we’re doing um to see who are the people that come in and repair things who are the people that come in and and borrow things and who are the people that come in and go to workshops but our intuition is that we have the capacity and do uh touch people that are maybe less um um how would I say that that maybe have less money and that are less um [Music] um uh there are less into like the ecology and all of that you know that’s thinking and and it’s good because it’s a way to really make them uh make them uh contribute to that and so to stay humble we still have a lot of things to go through we need to uh build on the data a little more we definitely need to uh be more about the learning process as I said I feel like maybe we’re missing something through having very Hands-On fixers and um and um I would say um we need a lot of people say that we do need a little bit more sessions that it’s not enough uh which makes me really wonder how how many days we would we should have to repair but it’s the same problem we do have with the with the lending um and library of things because it’s um uh we we’re open only two and a half days a week so it’s still it’s a struggle you know I feel like everyone has that struggle when you volunteer around and even if you’re not volunteer around it’s still struggle so you know uh so we are trying to make it better and I hope uh we will and that’s it awesome yeah maybe for the sake of time I can just jump in and then do questions at the end if that makes sense um yeah that sounds good all right um so hi everyone my name is Jessa was and I a co-director at the station North tool Library um and I’m going to talk about both the fixed fairs that we run as well as a free toolkit that you all can use that maybe can help inform you creating your own repair events um so yeah I wanted to start with just some of the Flyers throughout the years because our branding around fix it fair continues to change we’re always highlighting um especially in the more recent iterations that it’s a free event you don’t want to hide that fact um but I wanted to kind of put our events on Cam’s Continuum because I thought that was a cool way of thinking of it um so we do lean more towards the uh popup side I know that um my co-director lyanna’s presented a few times so I think you all are familiar with the station ORS tool Library um but we are a tool lending library we’re a nonprofit We have four full-time staff 80 plus volunteers um and we do we run 30 plus classes so we do a lot Fixit fairs are the things um historically it’s been around two times a year so we definitely fall more on the popup side of things in terms of frequency um we are really excited about building more capacity to have more um I’m going to talk a little bit more about um what a fix it fair with the tool Library looks like but yeah for now it’s twice a year um it’s all sorts of repairs so it’s you know PL es bikes clothing repair um like Camy mentioned it’s a ton of Labor to run one of these because we need to cover all of these different areas of fixing um but we’ve especially been excited about adding more repair clinics so maybe just doing mending one day or just doing bike repair because that would be a lot easier capacity wise um in terms of the philosophical Continuum we definitely fall in the Blended sphere here um so you work with your fixer um um we do it kind of within reason so if there’s something like um taking something apart will help match like here’s the right screwdriver driver for the for the job um would you like to learn how to take this apart um but at the end of the day if the person’s um not super comfortable doing the fix we will uh do the fix for them but we’ll also we’ll never be um you know fixing it for them and having them drop their item and leave we want to make it an uh instructional uh um moment so folks are at least at a bare minimum they’re the fixers explaining what they’re doing um with the participant but definitely fall in Blended um I can’t see the chat also so if people do say stuff feel free I don’t mind um if folks yeah interrupt me with other questions um I did want to talk a bit because this was a huge success for us um almost every fix at Fair we’ve run uh has been on site at the tool Library um I’m going to talk a little bit about the pros and cons of that um but our most recent one was April in April um someone’s audio is on um all right um so yeah our most recent one in April we partnered with our local public library system um this was our first fully funded fix it fair so instead of um our organization kind of footing the bill for this free event the our Public Library System gave us five ,000 and there was a lot of trust there they didn’t need to see you know um the details of how we spent that money they just said here’s $5,000 like make it happen which was perfect for us um historically our events have been fully volunteered powered other than our full-time staff doing some of the backend work um typically so like for this most recent one there was one full-time staff member myself and then we had a planning committee of with four other volunteers and met weekly to make sure the event was a success um fix it fairs are always free like taana mentioned um we definitely will take donations and tend to bring in um a little bit of money from folks who are excited about the event and had a good time um and I’m going to talk a little bit more about volunteer recruitment as well so yeah quickly um on-site versus offsite um it’s it’s kind of obvious but when you do it at tool Library all of the tools are here so we do some work to set up the zones but at the end of the day we’re we’re running into the library to like grab that specific item um we have just home turf Advantage we know the space um we have like a lot of control um I always love the way that Fixit Fair on site promotes classes and membership and open shop because you get to really show someone like here is the space Here’s what the lending library looks like now you have some more knowledge about tools and you can borrow the tools you use today from the library so there’s a lot of perks on about um in terms of having a fix it fair on site um though we had a lot of fun having it offsite it was a ton a ton of work but we really have been focused on building kits that um actually live in the library and are sectioned off by type so we have mending we have tinkering um and because we got funding for the last Fixit Fair we were able to buy separate tools and consumables that are designated for fix it fair and that’s going to go a really long way in expanding our capacity because we don’t have to pull all the drills from the library we don’t have to pull the fix a kit from the library um we get to really have like designated uh tools and consumables um so we feel much more prepared to do it offsite um we all knew that it would help us reach new people but I was like pleasantly surprised by the number of new people we reached it was really at a central place in the city so many folks who had never heard of the tool Library were excited we had folks like running home to grab broken items and running back to like make it in time for the event which we definitely love to see um it was a chance to just have valuable partnership development um but yeah definitely you want to be intentional about the needs of the event we were lucky it was at a public library but they told us you can be noisy you can make a mess um it was in the central Hall so it was just anyone coming in into the library learned about the tool library and the event so I just quickly wanted to touch on on-site versus offsite um and then another thing just thinking about being an organization that relies on volunteers we have done a lot to build this volunteer base of Handy fixers um the skills that we’re looking for in a fix it fair volunteer are the same skills we’re looking for for internal volunteers so our fixers uh the majority of them will come in and help us fix broken tools at the library um in addition to this like specific event so yeah while it’s a lot of work to run these events we definitely view it as an important volunteer recruitment um method as well so our the one this is um an image from the last one we had so we’re in that Central Hall I mentioned that lobby area um and we had over 47 volunteers make this event a ity um almost everyone I would say maybe 35 or 30 folks um are more regular volunteers and then maybe 15 folks only come for fix it fair though a lot of folks were also emailing us like I want to help fix tools as well um so yeah it goes a long way little things like making sure everyone got to take home a tool Library t-shirt we felt very professional very legit um and then we’re going to talk a little bit more about uh this with the the toolkit but just a reminder the volunteer signup form is a great place to gain insights on folks experience I always love when you meet someone who’s like I’m a general fixer I can do uh jewelry I can do electronics I can do this I make like a special star next to them because I know we are talking about managing the line having floating fixers has also been really helpful so we can meet the demand that’s there um on site so for the sake of time I’m going to um go through these next slides pretty quickly um we have been doing better with data collection one thing I really um appreciate is our attention to detail with checkout so any time um we see someone we it’s really important they check out so we can have accurate data on how successful we are and then whenever an item was fixed we weigh the item so we can get a sense at um the potential carbon emissions that we diverted um so this is kind of a quick view of that and then every time we do a fix Affair we release Graphics that look something like this so our last one we had over 130 people participate over 150 items similar statistics that have been mentioned um which we’re we’re super happy with and then we also like to do a little breakdown um by uh category I will mention um another perk of having it on site is we could do knife sharpening um so we take dull knives and sharpen them that’s an area we have really high success rate um so our numbers were also a little bit lower due to that but since it was at a public library there were no weapons no knives and and things like that so that’s another consideration um but without further Ado I want to um quickly show you the toolkit um is this is this a good view for yall it’s kind of hard to tell I will assume it’s a good view um so yeah this was a toolkit created by Emily strope and our team here at the tool Library um Emily was doing like a Capstone project in her graduate at our graduate school um and it really goes through you know what is a fixed Fair what is the right to repair movement how do you plan a successful event volunteer recruitment day of details post event with some examples so this is an image of what it looked like uh when we had the fix affair on site um you can see a little Glimpse at that qem some that um I’m happy to talk about uh once we hit um our time for today but just to quickly show you this is on our website it’s linked in the slides um we put a decent amount of work into this and it goes through the different roles of the planning committee um it goes through a calendar how long it takes to run an event like this um again just for the sake of time I’m going to kind of quickly go through this and I’m happy to answer questions and um dig deeper anything I have a few minutes after this to um to stay on um marketing this I have a more robust list of materials and tools so I’m happy to show that out but this is an example of what some of the materials uh checklist can look like a learning for us has been definitely sending out the tools and consumables to all of our volunteers beforehand so they can kind of know what to expect and then it also worked really well to have fixers bring their own tools if they have them it just makes things run a lot smoother this is an example of like one of the floor plans we definitely like to group things like items um a bit more about volunteer recruitment um again for the sake of time I’m going through this super fast but um given the interest in the chat I do want to highlight I think having our floating volunteers that’s something that’s the role I typically play because I know almost all of the fixers I know their expertise um being able to spend time hosting checking in on people moving the queue through um I think has really helped in terms of uh keeping the line from forming and then we have the fixer roles Etc um for the sake of time I am gonna stop well I guess I’ll just quickly sorry I’m going to stop with the toolkit and just finish off um because I don’t see enough people doing this the photo booth y’all I feel like the photo booth is a a really awesome way to celebrate the event um it really encourages check out we say you have to check out and give us you know the data but the photo booth is totally optional um but I love the visuals of like fixed it fix it fair we’re trying to get folks using that on social media and stuff as well so just a couple quick photos from the photo booth and then another thing we want to do better is the swag um these stickers one of our volunteers made um but these were super super popular I think they go a long way in getting conversations started um so highly recommend having free stickers and other swag for your event um as well so yeah I will stop with um just for the sake of time there um but yeah that’s again that’s that’s what we do over at the tool Library we are excited about having more repair events but for now have leaned more into these like super big um bring any item we’ll do our best category and like it’s been mentioned has been mentioned the most common thing we hear all the time is um when’s the next one when’s the next one I have something broken help me fix it so we know that there’s a demand out there for for these types of things woo that was a lot from start finish from all three of y’all yeah thank you um I love the photo booth it’s and just the the images of that getting to share that all around I think that’s an awesome addition so good on you for that one and the toolkit is is very clear and clearly have have uh brought in a lot of that institutional knowledge uh to be able to share it through that so um I just posted that in the chat for anybody who missed it if you want to check out the the um fix it fair toolkit um questions and I know there’s been a a lot of questions and answers going back and forth in the chat um but any other questions uh for for Jessa uh Tatiana who’s still here maybe in the background icing uh an extracted tooth and and Cammy oh and uh Tom to your question earlier about right to repair laws I’m going to put something in the chat oh that’s not now not the right hold on let me go find it I was going to put um the link well I can just do rep.org has a great uh upto-date iteration of like where all the repair laws are passed in the US only sorry um and how they will affect what is happening in your state and they are advocating along with you as perg and um I fix it for more producer responsibility and possibly uh a repairability index like France already has right we’re at the we’re at the hour so if we’re oh maybe question just come through uh oh yeah the sticky notes do you want to just yeah let let’s let’s do maybe a quick little round robin about how to manage uh people because there is definitely a lot of of chat in there and it would be great to kind of capture some of that on video yeah I I can just quickly say Obviously supply and demand having a lot of fixers on site clearly will decrease the weight time um we’ve done better at training our fixer volunteers a lot of them are really stubborn and hardworking and awesome but we have to say like at a certain point you have to it’s not a good fit for the event um so we say if you’re not making progress in 30 minutes um that might be a time to to move on but no longer than an hour on any one fix is is our rule of thumb um so yeah that’s important because if you have one fixer fixing something for hours then not it’s going to create more of a line um and then I think just the transparency of knowing where you are in the queue is helpful um the first fix it fair I helped organize um we didn’t have this transparent system so there was just like confusion of like wait I was here first like but this person’s getting seen before me and that’s not the vibe we want so each um area has its own whiteboard Queue at the for the tool Library um and you get when a fixer comes in um because we have two shifts for fixers as well their name gets added to the Whiteboard they get matched with um the participant and it’s also really nice because they immediately know one another’s names um we write what the item is so if I we can’t find someone a floater will be like I’m looking for someone with the broken toaster and I would like go and find them and make sure you know it’s their time in the line um and then fixers can actually manage their own queue so once every fixer has a sticky note attached there’s a an a line order um in the que 1 2 3 4 so once you put it in the dumb pile you pick from the Que and it like again I think the transparency helps with waiting um and we also will engage folks while they’re waiting and talk about the library and things like that so that’s kind of the long of the short but page 25 also goes into it um in the toolkit we shared uh and on the sticky note topic I I’d shared that when I was still doing Fixit fairs we had moved to Blue tape you might consider a lighter colored tape because we found that the blue tape was sometimes too dark to read the Sharpie on but um we indicated the the letter of the fixed category so e for electronics let’s say and then the number of the item as it came in so the item got tagged oh that was loud um tagged with that um number and then the person got the corresponding number to keep with them so all the items were filtered to the appropriate fix station and then this this is where it allowed some flexibility because uh as I think it was Laura who mentioned it’s not always what is next which is doable um so since we have typically you know let’s say five to 10 Electronics or mechanical fixers um some who have more advanced skills than others things didn’t always flow just as first first come first serve in the line so it gave you a little bit of flexibility of like oh now this item that seems to be a little bit simpler can be pulled and then the guest uh guest finder would go find that person and it it just it softened the the feeling on the guest’s end but having additional activities is real useful and the sticky notes uh we found that like just sticky notes they were like fly all over the place and get lost because they weren’t sticky enough so the tape was a real win for us I’ve also seen like paper tag safety pinned that doesn’t that doesn’t work in a lot of cases silver Sharpies yeah true they’re more expensive though aren’t they yep and extra sticky sticky notes I love that any any other questions questions or or just uh advice when for hosting a fixed fair or repair Cafe uh anything that hasn’t been mentioned already somebody listening in I guess since it was only in the chat maybe we could um talk a little bit about the ratios of attendees to fixers um anybody well for for us I think our experience is that we since we have it twice a week um we’re kind of careful to not have a fixing burn out you know from our our fixers so uh we usually have so you have eight slots per day and we have at least two fixers or paid employee and one volunteer who loves to volunteer who is always here and then and all the other volunteers kind of do extra so like people who were not didn’t book a slot so we just kind of have them over anyway and they will go with the other volunteers or things that we struggle to repair you know they will spend some time uh uh with people to to uh to try and repair it and sometimes without people I know J said that that definitely we try to to include people in the process but we do have stuff like if I could show you like for our our space is buil with with with stuff all around with items and so we kind of do repair um outside the slots too you know and try to to give it back to people if we can so yeah I would say definitely four eight people I’d say you need two fixers you know I think the ratio adjus ratio it was one if you take 130 attendees for 35 fixes I think it’s about the same it’s like three three and a half people three and a half attendees per per fixer that’s what we do too oh yeah that’s a good point Amanda um some people will interpret items collectively so an entire set of kitchen knives is not one item um and that will that can become challenging in messaging you’re going to get them anyway but uh gonna have to manage expectations uh on intake I actually have a question for you because I see like a lot of um um we are mostly fixing electronic electric stuff um we also have a space dedicated to seing which is uh we which we do like with uh less often it’s once a week um about sharpening um I feel there’s you have to have a special skill right to sharpen some tools so how do you do it do you have people that have that skill or do you learn it yeah so we at the tool Library we have a knife shop so we actually teach folks knife making one of our teachers also teaches a hand sharpening class um I will say we don’t do serrated knives so we tend to do more like Chef’s knives um and then we do Tool Sharpening so like ax sharpening um you know and things like that um and then we have grinders and handstones and things like that so it’s mostly our knife making teachers and we have monitors as well who have a lot of sharpening experience um those are the folks that will do knife sharpening yeah so they come to us already knowing how to sharpen and then I’m also adding in the chat um we did more marketing around what items to bring what items not to bring and in case it’s helpful um this is how we like one of the constraints we put on it was size we were like big items you need help carrying like please we’ve had people try to bring big couches it’s just not a good fit for the event it literally takes up too much space gas powered items knives at this one this was for the um the one at the library um weapons smartphones computers which we actually do some fixing around that but it’s it’s kind of a tricky area and then we also did more on promoting what to bring um because we had for the first time someone doing um that was we we I didn’t use weapons language um before Tatiana but we have a Nerf guns which we did fix um but it’s something luckily that hasn’t been a huge issue we did have someone DM us if they could bring um a vibrator at the last event and um yeah we we did say no on that one um did you Cammy what did you say when you got that request I think we ultimately said yes but they didn’t show up just like some of it’s on you to be sure that the item that you bring is clean San and then also we have and people wearing gloves and have sanitizing yeah anyway the person didn’t show up so yeah yeah but we you know we still said it and then it also was cool for the first time we had um a volunteer spec specifically doing leather care and we had um book mending which pros and cons of that one it took they did two repairs and it took them forever but it was kind of you know it was cool they they had fun um so yeah that pre uh messaging is um really helpful for folks to help them understand what to expect um and then the registration I mentioned can be helpful with telling folks like this isn’t a good fit for the event oh if you know that this is broken we recommend bringing your own replacement part we only have so many items um so yeah that pre-event communication goes a long way in managing expectations um yeah Amanda said microwave microwaves are um often a nogo there are some fixers who do feel comfortable with it but it’s uh it can get pretty lethal if yeah if you’re not careful so a lot of groups will just say no microwaves for those watching the video we’re all just chuckling about the chat um all right I feel like we are now at quarter after um unless there’s anything pressing I do want to wrap this up and let those of you that are still on we didn’t get a chance to say it but we will be again this is the first of uh six monthly sessions for the rest of the year so we’ll be sending out um information about the next one within about the next week or so and all these recordings will continue to be put up on canvas as we’ve been doing with all the the previous library of things recordings so we’ll get those out within the next week well thank you all for for sharing and thanks for staying up so late Tatiana yes thank you thank you I’m re tired I’m sorry if I didn’t make too much sense but but I’d be happy if any of you wants to talk about it again and thank you very much it’s a great initiative and to shable and and