Workshops at Bike Pirates

[ainsley]

Hi Wenches!
I joined the last month in a bid to keep up to date on where things
were going for you guys. I have had conversations with many of you
about the future of Wenches, and the support and admiration that Bike
Pirates has for the Wenches project.

There is a need and indeed a demand for this kind of awesome
programming on our community, and it has saddened and frustrated many
folks - including myself and probably yourselves! - that it has been
such a challenge to get workshops going this year/season.

I have made a proposal to Pirates that we begin to offer workshops in
the space - something that we have discussed for a long time but
haven't had the initiative to pursue - and specifically that we try to
do some Women & Trans workshops, especially since Wenches is not
running this season. It looks like this will happen, some folks just
want to wait for a monthly meeting to discuss it, but I wanted to get
the ball rolling and get some input and support from folks who think
they would like to help. I have made it clear that we love and support
Wenches and want to see it continue, but if there is a gap in
programming it couldn't hurt for us to try to help fill it. We do not
intend to step on any toes, or imply any kind of replacement strategy
here!

I have offered to bottomline this project, so I would be willing to be
there for all of the workshops, open/close the space, and help to
organize in any way that goes undone by other volunteers. If any one
of you would like to help in any way, or have any suggestions for us,
please let me know. Basically I'm trying to facilitate getting
workshops happening again, be they by Pirates or Wenches or whomever.
If you are keen and want to be a part of it, that's great.

Once I have some feedback and an idea of how many people can offer
support, we'll suggest a meeting to iron out workshop plans.
A rough suggestion I sent out would have us doing workshops on Sundays
after open hours ~6:30-8:30pm, on the first 3 sundays of each month.
The 4th sunday would be left for a W&T programmers/volunteers meeting.

I hope you are all well! Hope to chat with you soon,
Ainsley.

[Shannon .]

Hi Ainsley,

I'd be happy to help out.

Shannon

[Ainsley Naylor]

Hi Wenches and friends,

Just so you know the Pirate monthly meeting is tomorrow night, and that is when I should get a better idea of how these workshops will play out, and what support we have (i.e. if folks think it is feasible to open up the shop for these extra hours each week).

Unless this idea gets shot down, I'm going to arrange for all interested folks to meet next week. Unless anyone thinks it is too exclusionary, I wanted to invite you to my house for a brief meeting and maybe some food. I could do it on Tuesday or Thursday evening next week.

Let me know. There will be some faces you may or may not know who want to help with this project. It will be great to hear from some of you who have done these workshops in the past.

(Leah, I know you are away but thought I would keep you in the loop here)

Hope you are all doing well,

ainsley.

[Candace Mooers]

Hi all,
I am no longer living in Toronto (although I travel to and fro often)
so I can't make any personal commitments at this time, except to say
that I love Wenches and I think the idea of running women/trans
workshops out of Bike Pirates the first three Sundays of the month
6:30pm-8:30pm (as proposed) is a superb plan. A solid schedule at a
single specific location would make coordinating Wenches workshops
much, much easier. Big ups, Ainsley, for taking this on.
Candace
former wench

[Kathy Kurtz]

Hi all,

Thanks for the initiative Ainsley. I'd be up for coming to the meeting next week. I'd be interested in helping in the same fashion as I was with Wenches - once a schedule is in place, I will make an effort to keep some of the training days clear to come by and help out.

Kathy

[Ainsley Naylor]

Hi folks,

So we are good to go with the workshops, starting the first sunday in February (Feb. 5th).
We can have an initial discussion on Tuesday at my place, from 7-8pm (and you can stay for dinner after 8pm if you like). I'd love to get some insights from those who have run wenches workshops, specifically what / how much we can cover in each session, and how many people we should plan to facilitate in the shop each week. A catchy name for the workshop series would be nice too - though Women&Trans Sunday Nights would work fine too :)

If there's anyone else who you think would like to help out with this project in any way, please forward them the details and my email address. and if you aren't free to come chat, I'll let you know what we discussed, and you can plug in for any tasks that need to get done.

Looking forward to making plans!
Tuesday January 3rd - 7pm
103 Gore Vale Ave. (east side of Trinity Bellwoods park)

Ainsley.

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Ainsley Naylor <needlea...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Gina Peixoto]

HI Ainsley,
 
I'm a former Wench who has been following the discussions.  I would be interested in helping with the classes (assist someone else teaching).  I could attend the meeting if it would be helpful. 
 
Gina
 

---

Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:13:31 -0500
Subject: Re: Workshops at Bike Pirates
From: needlea...@gmail.com
To: wenches-wi...@googlegroups.com
CC: juliaste...@gmail.com; will...@hotmail.com; stef.h...@gmail.com; leahlik...@gmail.com; happil...@gmail.com; Keren.G...@ipsos.com; kca...@gmail.com

[Kathleen Banville]

Hello thanks Ainsley for getting this rolling. I'd be happy to attend the meeting tmrw but will be coming after work so not sure if I'll make it right for 7. 

I can do some workshops on Sundays, that day works well for me. We have some resources such as lesson plans and feedback forms from wenches to help with planning. Wenches is usually a 4 week program so we'll have to figure out how to condense the class. 

See you soon

Kathleen 

Keep it real. 

Sent from my iPhone. 

[Ainsley Naylor]

Hey friends, this is tonight. Hope some of you are able to come by despite the freeze on outside! There roll be hot (and spicy) food here for you :)
Call if you are lose or locked out: 647 773 2453
A.

[Ainsley Naylor]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the awesome meeting last night, I had no idea so many people were going to show up! Just as a review of what we discussed:

- 3 workshops per month, on a repeating schedule
- possibly using the 3rd workshop as a rotating "advanced" session (i.e. wheel truing one month, ball bearings the next, etc.)
- sessions will be on a drop-in basis, and $5/pay-what-you-can, unless either of these proves to be unreasonable
- Cap on # of participants is unclear, though ~15 would seemed to be where folks felt comfortable. This is partly dependant on how we decide to use and arrange the workspace.
- Decision was that this should be framed as a community collaboration between Pirates and Wenches
- Kathleen B will get a hard-copy of WwW curriculum/handouts for Ainsley to pick up. Copies will be brought to Pirates for our volunteers to look over and discuss.
- Lulu and Julia are willing to start working on design ideas for poster/flyer.

We will be having a meeting at Bike Pirates on Sunday January 15th, starting at 6:30pm. Those interested in trying to arrange curriculum to fit the 3-workshop format should come by earlier - 6pm (this is when the space closes for the day).
Meet in the Kitchen at the back of the space.

At this meeting we hope to:
lay out curriculum
decide on a poster/flyer
confirm name for project
get an idea of who will be volunteering (including a bottom-liner) each sunday in February
other suggestions:
set goals for promotion (internet, blogs, list-serves, posters in shops, etc.)
get volunteers for preparing props for workshops and to do photocopying

We will have a train the trainer run-through at Bike Pirates on Sunday January 29th. Not sure what time we decided to do this, as Sunday Pirates will be having a pot-luck at some point that day :)

Please forward this to anyone I might have missed.

Thanks,
Ainsley.

[Gina Peixoto]

HI Ainsley,
 
Thanks for the summary.
 
I had an idea for a name, and thought I should send it off before I forgot....
 
Bike Pirates presents....
 
Wrench Night
 
Sunday evening bike repair workshops for women and trans only.
 
ah...doesn't sound flashy, but just a thought.  (It could also read "Bike Wrench Night")
 
Gina
 

---

Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 14:18:40 -0500

Subject: Re: Workshops at Bike Pirates
From: needlea...@gmail.com

To: needlea...@gmail.com
CC: happil...@gmail.com; Keren.G...@ipsos.com; juliaste...@gmail.com; kca...@gmail.com; stef.h...@gmail.com; wenches-wi...@googlegroups.com; will...@hotmail.com; winter.s...@gmail.com

[Kathleen Banville]

ive attached some documents. the pdf is all the old lesson plans as a pdf format. you can check them out but keep in mind we've updated the first two. right now i have just attached the flat fix lesson plan thats been revised, will add the other once i find it. just wanted to get this sent out...

kb


Keep it Real

[Kathleen Banville]

here's the intro lesson plan that we revised at last years train the trainer workshop. and all the handouts. they definitely seem out of date but creating a new handout will be a lot of work. i'll try to figure out the scanner at work and scan my bike anatomy handout i made this week.

kathleen

Keep it Real