Donate to help us out!
It’s been 4 weeks since we last repaired someone’s cycle: our last Repair Tuesday workshop was March 24th. A 4-week stoppage for an organisation that usually has something happening every day is a big change! It may look like we’ve stopped, but behind the scenes, we’ve been busy trying to protect and maintain what we can, with the limited support available to us.
Beryl’s Night went online!
Team Beryl pioneered our transition to online activities, with an online zoom event discussing route planning. More like this to come, so keep an eye on our social medias and the Beryl’s Night page for updates of what to expect next month and beyond.
Still buzzing from Virtual Beryl’s night yesterday! 😄Was so great to catch up with everyone and have some old timers join from across the pond. 🤘
Watch our website and sign up to our newsletter https://t.co/YbPwiKtyww for updates on what we can still do without the workshop. pic.twitter.com/vLJi9IKDox
— Broken Spoke Bike Co-op (@BrokenSpokeCoop) April 3, 2020
Protecting our staff
We’re claiming money from the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, so we’ve furloughed our mechanics, cycle instructors and more recently, 2 out of 3 of our fixed staff team. All this, so they could still be paid something while we’re closed. So with Meike and Inês having a break (I’ve heard Tai Chi and wild garlic harvesting are the main activities), you’re left with me, Sam, as the remaining staff team member, on reduced hours working from home narrowboat.
Preserving the ol’ Spoke!
How do we support the communities around us safely and meaningfully? How do we make sure we have a Spoke to go back to? Sam and the other board members have been meeting weekly on zoom to lace our plans together to find a way through and out of this crisis.
The strongest need is for money! We can’t claim any more statutory support than wages for furloughed staff; the £10k small business grant isn’t available for us in our corner of a large premises that we sublet. We are at risk of falling through the cracks and we need your help! So please:
And also please feel free to get in touch! From those of you who might be lost without their community workshop, to those of you who as key-workers need urgent advice on anything cycling, our online comms channels are open and we are keen to support those who need us. Broken Spoke is in this with you, even if our doors are closed for now.
Keep pedallin’ folks!
