Meet the Collective

The Sibley Bike Depot is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization with a dedicated Board of Directors. In addition to the nine members of our Board of Directors, our organization is made up of Paid Staff, Core Volunteers and Advisors.

The Sibley Bike Depot has an intentional organization for sustainability, which values it's people and community. Our 9-person active board shows up, plans and participates in our programming, demonstrating our commitment and sense of purpose.

Our operational model is a consensus-based collective, where all board members participate and have a say in the vision and outcomes. Through this model we are able to keep our focus on our mission, identify projects, desired outcomes and tasks to get things done. Board Directors all share responsibility and have overlapping roles. We all know and feel we are contributing to something important in the community. During the 2008 Season, in addition to actively participating in our programming, our Board of Directors met weekly to plan, organize and direct the operations of the Sibley Bike Depot.

Combined with the board, our selective, targeted staff and special teams such as the web/technology team, communications/outreach team, finance team, operations team and education team, give us the ability and flexibility to match need with the right response. We are creating new partnerships, programs and even our own curriculum to meet those needs.

Our Collective Board of Directors:

Ashanti Austin- Ashanti came to us from California and has a background in non-profit organizations, collectives and fundraising. Ashanti was instrumental in getting our Women and trans night going and is helping to transform us into an accessible space for community to happen! Ashanti is also the leader of our community outreach team and is responsible for developing community partnerships to make our organization more sustainable and accomplish more!

Dan Kueny- Dan leads our facilities management team and recycling operations. Dan leads the salvage, evaluation and sorting of recycled parts and bicycles. Dan also is instrumental in the coordination and delivery of bicycles we donate to other organizations, such as the bikes we sent to a hospital in Africa through Global Health ministries. Working with a key volunteer Dan also organized repair and delivery of bicycles to New Orleans after the huricane to a partner organizaton with similar goals as ours.

Carol Sevin- Carol is an AmeriCorps member and loves working with kids. She has experience with planning and leading youth activities with the Science Museum and other groups. Carol does bike touring and has experience leading bike tours in the U.S., Canada, and Europe with Bike & Build and Teen Treks. She's also an avid bike commuter. Carol works with our youth coordinator, leads our Fundraising, Grants and Donations team and is part of our finance team, helping to lead the way to a sustainable organization.

John Carlson - John loves people and the good that happens when you have a community space like Sibley Bike Depot! He also loves triathlons and enjoys racing against himself and the clock! John brings organizational skills, past leadership and community building ideals to the organization and is dedicated to building a useful, real community resource. Over the past four years John has served as volunteer, group bike rental coordinator, President, Board Treasurer and is the current 2009 Board President. John is also part of our financial management team.

Heather Brown - Heather is an artist and a senior at Macalaster College. She loves working with bikes and people in our free open shop. She also works with our volunteers and staffing the shop. Heather took our basic bike maintenance class and was hooked! She loves to figure out how things work and getting her hands dirty. Heather also commutes everywhere by bike and is on the Visibility/Outreach team, the Facilities Team, and the Volunteer Team!

Lance Erickson - Lance is into sustainable transportation and self-reliance. In his full-time job, Lance manages inventory, ording, and returns. Lance is the current 2009 Board Treasurer and part of the Finance team, improving our business model and inventory practices.

Tom Phelan - A Macalestar College graduate, Tom has a B.A. in Sociology and recently completed a year with AmeriCorps VISTA as a Job Developer. Tom regularly shares his patience, dedication, flexibility, and experience in community organizing with Sibley. Tom is the current 2009 Board Secretary. Tom is a key part of our Board leadership, facilitating good communication, accountability and transperency. Tom is also on the Volunteer team.

Nate Kerr - Nate originally comes from the blue collar suburbs of Detroit, specifically Warren, and never heard of a bike commuter until he went to college, where he became one. Ever since, he has not owned a car, gets around almost exclusively by bicycle, and has worked in bicycle advocacy in some form or another every since. Nate works at the Midtown Greenway Coalition through Lutheran Volunteer Corps. He has experience in back-office automation and record keeping as well as running their youth biking program. Nate loves working on and riding bikes, and is leading our board in project tracking and documentation, volunteer tracking and reporting, and is part of the finance team.

Adjunct Board Members:

John Finkle - John is our first Adjunct board member. Adjunct Board members participate in the Governance of our organization in an advisory role, bring years of experience and organizational wisdom to our team. John is a native St. Paul Resident and has a lot of community bicycle shop experience from around the country. John bicycles thousands of miles every year and has been a grass-roots organizer, supporter and volunteer at many community bike shops. John brings community organizing, collective operations experience and long-range bicycle transportation experience to our organization. John is also an excellant carpenter and mechanical inventor.

Staff:

Kevin Kalla - Kevin is great with people and loves kids! Kevin designed, planned, coordinated and helped implement our new volunteer program, our youth Junior Mechanic program and the earn-a-bike program. Our ultimate growth and sustainability is going to happen through our volunteers and Kevin is making our vision come true. Building on his success in 2008, Kevin’s position has been divided into two paid staff positions. Volunteer Coordinator and Youth Coordinator. Kevin’s new position in 2009 is Youth Coordinator. Kevin also teaches and produces film. His experience in working with kids through SPNN and other organizations has greatly enhanced our programs at Sibley. Kevin is also part of the Web development/Technology team responsible for creating our new website, keeping our computer systems and network running and secure.

Jason Tanzman - Jason is a Macalester College graduate and bicycle enthusiast who helped found the Mac Bike, bike-share program on campus. He spent the last two winters in Mexico and South America working as a volunteer for several non-profit organziations. This winter he volunteered at our sister organization in New Orleans, who received bikes and supplies from us in 2008 and Maya Pedal in South America, where he helped build bicycle powered equipment. Jason has been a long-time volunteer at Sibley Bike Depot and in 2008 was the President of our Board of Directors and the Education Coordinator, responsible for setting up and teaching our bicycle maintenance classes. Jason is also a professional bicycle mechanic, currently employed with the Hub bicycle Cooperative. Jason also speaks Spanish, making our shop more accessible to our community. In 2009, Jason was hired by our new board of directors in our expansion position as Volunteer / Education Coordinator. His new position will overlap and share repsonsibility with the Youth Coordinator. Jason’s experience, technical expertise and collective organization skills will be applied to our volunteer progam and developing a stronger internal training program.

Alicia Dvorak - Alicia is a trained, experienced mechanic and volunteer. She helps us with training volunteers, staffing open shop and fixing bikes for donations and sale. Alicia also helps coordinate and staff the Women and Trans night at Sibley Bike Depot. Alicia is employed at the Hub bicycle Coopertive. Her experience at the Hub doing ordering/receiving, sales, marketing and mechanic work, brings a whole new level of expertise and efficiency to our organization.

Sibley Intern:

Emily Hanson was awarded the Lilly Fellowship from Macalester College and has been an incredible addition to the Sibley crew this summer. She chose Sibley (lucky us!) to complete her research, work with our youth programs, and of course wrench. Emily has already expanded our youth programing to include a mentorship program for girls called, "Girls on the Move." We are hoping to carry Emily's torch by focusing our Women and Transgender Night to work towards educating and training future mentors and instructors.

Core Volunteers:

Without our other regular volunteers our programs would fall flat. Part of our team making all of this work are:

Frank - Frank is a machinist by trade who is currently looking for gainful employment. Thankfully for us, he is mechanically inclined and can figure out many of the creative re-engineering projects. Frank has a soft spot for old, historical every-day people bikes. Some of those bikes are truly restoration projects! Frank also helps with our youth program and recycling operations and helps other volunteers around the shop.