Advice

[StuartT]

Hi,
Anyone with experience able to offer any advice...

On the name...
Repair cafe + location.?
Or
Location + repair cafe ?
Does it matter. Seems there is a big mix out there.

what's the best way to present a repair cafe on Facebook ?
- create under my existing personal account ?
- create a new account for the repair cafe ?
- create a group ?
- create a page ?
- create a not for profit busines/charity ?

And then when looking for volunteers, how do we guage if they have the skills we needs - and check if they are experienced enough to fix rather than just bodge something?

[repaircafeweymouth]

Hi Stuart, I see you have had 0 replies to your query so I hope I can tell what works for us at Repair Cafe Weymouth.
Location + Repair Cafe. I was advised the other way round but apparently Repair Cafe org changed their standard because everyone did it as location + Repair Cafe.

Someone helped me to create our RepairCafeWeymouth facebook page. He created under his own personal account and made me an administrator. Once we had another person who could also manage the page, he removed himself as administrator. We created it as a page, not a group. This means anyone can like and follow us. They don't have to wait to be accepted into a group. We are a not for profit community organisation and created the page under this category. I could have done it myself once I saw how.

How we got and how we get volunteers and vet them: I suggested on a local Facebook page in January 2019 that a Repair might be a great idea for Weymouth. People replied saying it was a great idea, and even volunteering. I posted it on nextdoor.co.uk and got an even better response rate. I created an email address for our Repair Cafe. We called a public meeting a pub in Feb 2019, hoping to find someone to run it as well as volunteers. We got 40 people  - all either volunteers or press/ radio. We captured their contact details. At the meeting we publicly asked each person what skills they could contribute.  Our trial run, with all paperwork in place was 7 weeks later. We are very successful.

Now, people come to an event, they love it and they volunteer! I interview every volunteer face to face. We've had 2 who didn't work out - an electrical repairer who just declared everything fixed (without fixing it) or not fixable and wouldn't get things PAT tested. Also a rather doddery sewist who was a bit of a liability. We have 53 volunteers.

I hope this helps. If you would like to know more, see our facebook page and message me. Ros