Volunteer
I’ve Done All this before!
Are you already an experienced mechanic? Or do you just enjoy talking about bikes and learning? Become a volunteer and pass your wisdom on to others. Even if you’ve only done simple maintenance on your own bike, consider volunteering. No matter what your level of mechanical experience, you’re welcome to become a volunteer. The most important qualifications are enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. Check our Upcoming Events calendar for on-site volunteer opportunities.
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More recent updates:
Orientation video for volunteers
Would you consider being a Board Member?
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Do You Need Other Help?
There are a lot of other tasks that need to happen behind the scenes. From bookkeeping & accounting, to photography, there are plenty of things that you can help with in addition to learning bike mechanics. Here are a few ideas:
Work with the Board and other volunteers to develop ideas for fundraising activities. The activities could be online, or in the form of special events.
Handy with Twitter and Facebook? Show us how we can improve our outreach over these media.
RBH Official Photographer & Paparazzo
While we are busy working on bike evaluation, wrenching instruction and outreach we need plenty of pictures to publish on the Website, Twitter and Facebook to show the world what fun we are having.
Good at drawing up schedules and persuading people to fill gaps? When we have a good community of volunteers willing to help with open shop times and other RBH events, we'll need a volunteer coordinator to organize cover for all events.
TERRIFIC Kids Program Coordinator
This involves keeping an inventory of kids bikes in various sizes and determining where more fixed bikes are needed. It also involves moving bikes between the shop and our storage facility in Redgate Park. Once the City of Rockville starts receiving registrations for the TERRIFIC Program, I estimate the bike sizes needed based on the children's heights and use that to prioritize, or reprioritize the bikes to be fixed. This function also involves coordinating with the City for the actual bike giveaway.
Bike Donation Coordinator
The Trek store in Rockville takes trade-ins of kids bikes in their trade-up program. Rather than trying to sell the used kids bikes, they donate them to RBH. The store also will take adult bikes the owner no longer wants when they purchase a new bike. Periodically, the limited space the Trek store has for storing those bikes gets filled, and the contact us. This is usually about once a month. It involves going to the Trek store, putting the bikes into "storage configuration" (i.e., taking off pedals and turning handlebars), and then transporting them to the shop or other storage location. Part of this can also involve doing some quick triage of the bikes and deciding what program or purpose they would best serve.
Grant Writer/Administrator
This involves looking for appropriate grants and writing the grant application in coordination with other Board members. Since there is always a financial component to a grant application, the Grant Writer needs to coordinate with the Treasurer to get any required financial information. For administering a grant, there is often periodic status reporting required and/or a report at the end of a grant or upon renewal. This varies from grant to grant.
Special Event Coordinator
This could cover a variety of special events that RBH does, including the Montgomery County DOT donation event, our mechanical support for Tour de Cookie, Bike to Work Day, the Gaithersburg Fix-it Fair and Rockville Salute to Nonprofits. Looking for special events for RBH to participate in could also be part of this role.
Inventory Manager
This involves periodically inventorying our new parts like chains, tubes, tires, cables, housing and other parts we keep in stock to fix donated bikes, especially those for the Rockville TERRIFIC Kids program. Keeping on top of other consumable supplies such as rags, Simple Green and lubricants is also part of this role with the support from others working regularly in the shop.
Website Administrator
This role would manage the calendar of events and be the gatekeeper for posts and articles on the website.
Bookkeeper/Accountant
This role would assist the Treasurer in keeping the books up to date and assist with filing State sales tax and annual tax Federal and State tax filings.