The Bristol Bike Project is set up as Community Interest Company with a co-operative structure.  This means that we are an organisation whose focus is community benefit rather than private gain, and that we are a Member-led organisation.  Co-operatives are defined as follows:

“A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Co-operatives are enterprises that put people at the centre of their business and not capital.” (www.ica.coop)

So co-operatives are nothing without Members.  Here at the Bristol Bike Project anyone who volunteers regularly can become a Member in order to become more involved in the running and the direction of the Project.

We hold quarterly General Meetings to which all Members are invited.  This is our principal decision-making forum where the fundamental direction of the Project is decided upon.  A board of Directors is elected from our Members and they meet once a month in order to oversee the implementation of what we decide in General Meetings.

Volunteers can qualify to be a Member if they volunteer at least twice a month and, of course, if they want to be more involved in the future path the Project takes!

We are a Not For Profit organisation which means that any surplus that we make is reinvested into the Project.  We run our trading arm services – secondhand bike and parts sales, commercial repairs & servicing, maintenance courses, hire bikes – in order to sustainably fund our community work, and so we are less reliant on precarious funding.

Transparency is an important part of The Bristol Bike Project and as such, you are able to take a look at our financial accounts.

To learn more about our overall governance model, and how Membership sits within it, please see our Governance Handbook.