Fwd from the Biofuel list:
>From: "girl_mark_fire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 19:52:35 -0000
>Subject: [biofuel] what has worked well- The Grease Trap/ Co-ops part 2
>
>What HAS worked in the Berkeley Biodiesel Co-op's past year, and some
>advice:
>
>(many of these things are recent changes, responses to things that
>very much weren't working. Some of the changes were a 180degree shift
>from previous policies. This is one of the best `things that work'-
>we've been recently flexible and willing to learn from our mistakes!)
>
>Our coop now does both production and bulk buying/distribution of
>commercial fuel (and also biodiesel advocacy).
>
>
>some advice based on what's worked for us:
>
>Production coops:
>If making biodiesel is going to be part of your co-op, start doing it
>right away. Build simple equipment so that you can get started,
>rather than designing a complex system `on paper'- you'll always know
>more about your needs once you start producing biodiesel, and they
>might be hard to predict until you begin. Even starting with 5 gallon
>batches for learning's sake is good practice.
>In the beginning, build equipment in a way that it is easily
>modifiable- for example, don't do your plumbing with solvent-weld PVC-
> use threaded fittings that can be disassembled. Metal tanks are easy
>to modify via welding, if in the future your needs change, and
>plastic ones are impossible. I recommend making your own simple
>equipment before spending a lot of money on a pre-made processor.
>There are many ways to make biodiesel, build equipment, set up a
>site, etc, and finding what is the right way for you can only happen
>through experience.
>
>Bulk buy and production coops:
>You may want to check anonymously with your fire department, haz-mat
>officials, etc, about regulations in your area so that you can set up
>your equipment in the right way. Most likely they'll be concerned
>aobut how much methanol you store, whether you have a closed
>processor, and CONTAIMNENT- a coffer dam, containment pallet, drip
>trays or other liquid-tight structure under your processor or other
>tanks. They might not understand what you are doing, and it might
>take some effort to convince them that biodiesel is not diesel, that
>methanol is being stored safely, etc. Some individuals have used the
>MSDS for biodiesel when speaking with fire department officials about
>biodiesel storage. If they see it they'll have a better understanding
>of what you're doing.
>Often there are limits such as 55 gal or 110 gal of hazardous
>materials that you are allowed to have on a residential property for
>personal use (and there are similar regulations/gallon limits for
>transportation by individuals (non commercial vehicles), including of
>biodiesel and WVO), In CA there is a 110 gal limit on `personaly use'
>transportation of fluids without getting a permit from the Dept of
>traffic (a CA number I believe). In other states there may not be
>such regulations.
>In reality thousands of people do all of this successfully `under the
>radar' and without informing their regulatory officials.
>
>Production coops:
>Also start a bulk buy program of some sort so as to take pressure off
>the production during the learning phase. Be aware that being a bulk
>buy coop can take a lot of work and that if it attracts more members
>who are only interested in bulk buy, you may soon find yourself
>working mostly on distributing commercial fuel rather than making it.
>Discuss what your goals are in this case. If bulk buy generates `too
>much interest' for the production coop to keep up with, the
>production coop may want to spin off a separate bulk buy coop that
>will not require the production people's time and energy- so that
>both groups make their own decisions and don't require each other's
>time and money. There may be lots of people in your community who
>only want to bulk buy, and fewer who want to produce.
>
>IN our coop we have decided on our gallonage capacity for bulk buy.
>We found that the first month it took three weeks to distribute all
>the fuel to members who are getting drums, though this should be much
>less energy once the infrastructure gets set up. We decided based on
>the work involved that continuing to grow our bulk buy was not our
>desired direction. We want to encourage others in our community to
>start a parallel program for bulk buying. Bulk buy is relatively easy
>to organize, so starting parallel bulk buy coops/groups, perhaps
>based on neighborhood proximity, is very simple and practical once
>one group figures out how to do it.
>Our coop has a fairly strong faction that is opposed to our general
>co-op work being `helping start other coops' but we all agree that
>helping other local groups organize bulk buying is an exception
>because it's so simple (compared to production).
>
>Bulk Buy:
> Having one single large storage tank that several cars fuel
>from generates a lot of traffic and is high-impact on the tank site.
>We decided to organize `decentralized' bulk buy fueling facilities
>and it really seems to work well.
> We buy one large tank of fuel, and organize the consumers
>into `cells' of three or so. The cells share one or two drums of
>fuel, and decide on how they want to run the distribution. The coop
>receives fuel from the commercial distributor, and distributes it via
>volunteer labor to all the `cells' driveways (usually into drums).
>Each cell has a site coordinator, usually the person whose home the
>drums are sited at.
> Individuals in the cells might decide on things like equipment
>purchases: flowmeters, electric transfer pumps versus siphon
>pumps/gas cans, and also decide on their desired methods of fueling
>and schedules for members coming to fuel their vehicles. In our coop,
>one decision commonly made, is whether a homeowner/site coordinator
>is OK with fuelusers coming and pumping directly into their fuel tank
>(scares the neighbors), or whether users have to dispense fuel into
>cans and take it home before pouring it into their tank so as to
>minimise impact on the site coordinator's house. We organized a bulk
>buy of `carboys' (fuel cans) to make this possible.
> Taxation issues, insurance, etc, might be another decision
>that the individual cells could make rather than the entire coop
>having to work out a common position on controversial topics
>
>Bulk buy advice:
>-Take orders ahead of time, and collect money prior to the delivery.
>
>-Stay small, encourage others to organize parallel program
>
>-Instead of having a large meeting of all bulk buy program members,
>have only site coordinators meet to deal with routine decisions
>(maybe not major decisions, but routine decisions such as dates of
>deliveries and money collections).
>It's simple for a three person cell to make decisions via face-to-
>face or phone communication, and very difficult to have fifteen
>people (our bulk buy program size) do it this way.
>-We are working on organizing monthly dinners of just the site
>coordinators (rather than the entire group), so that the routine
>meetings are both `fun' to reward the coordinators for their extra
>work, and run smoothly by being small. These meetings would be for
>giving feedback on what is or isn't working, and for collection of
>the checks before the purchase happens. Other groups may not do
>frequent or monthly purchases so a large infrequent meeting of
>everybody might make more sense. We also have a bulk buy email list
>that everyone communicates on in between meetings.
>-Site coordinators collect checks and money and orders from their
>cell members, and pass it on to the main/site coordinator meeting
>-You may decide to add an extra charge onto the gallon fees for your
>fuel, in order to raise money for equipment. We don't do this. You
>may also decide to charge a membership or buy-in fee to raise money
>for equipment. In our case, the entire coop has a $25 a quarter fee,
>other groups have made the (more sensible , I think) decision to
>not `nickel and dime it' and to instead charge a larger $100 buy-in
>fee, and a $100 per year membership. For bulk buy this might all be a
>bit high, both we and the other coop I'm thinking of are also raising
>money for other activities (production, education, and more). Our
>coop uses coop money for buying equipment for the main bulk fuel drop-
>off site (the storage tank, flowmeter, pump) and the site
>coordinators and the cell members are responsible for their own
>fueling equipment and decide on how they pay for it. Most cells
>decided on siphon pumps and gas cans, others might decide on
>flowmeters and transfer pumps.
>
>
>
>Both production and bulk buy coops:
>
>-Re-evauate, re-evaluate, re-evaluate. One of our coop's strengths
>this spring has been a
>willingness to change what isn't working. I believe strongly that
>scheduling a set time for re-evaluation into your organizing timeline
>is important- for instance, "have a reevaluating meeting three
>months from now", so that if something's not working, there is a very
>obvious date at which it can be changed. Our larger coop has "vision
>meetings" (dinners actually) every six weeks, and these re-
>evaluations are meetings at which we don't make binding decisions,
>but instead discuss what is and isn't working at a low-stress time
>that does not interfere with a work meeting.
>
>-Encourage members to participate in online discussion groups and
>forums, so that people aren't all getting their information from only
>other coop members. In our area we also have a couple of good
>regional forums which helps connect others with local issues in
>biodiesel.
>
>-good communication is imperative!
>
> We have a large coop email list. We eventually split it up into a
>site list, a main list, a bulk buy list, an internship list, and an
>advocacy list.
> log all the site work you do- we have several logbooks at the
>production site which cover: oil brought (by whom, from where,
>titration values, water testing results, etc), homebrew fuel taken
>(which we tie to how many 'tasks' youv'e done- every two chores (wash
>session, oil run) you put your name on the log and are then eligible
>for some fuel, site log (everything anyone does on site is recorded)
>and hopefully 'permanent info' log (ie "don't kink the hose", "always
>check that the #5 valve is shut off when leaving", "site tube on wash
>tank is clogged" those kinds of comments that always need to be
>visible). We also have a plastic sleeve on each drum/tank of liquids
>and amnything that happens to the contents of the tanks has to be
>recorded ("wash water changed, this is wash #2, monday, april 3, by
>Jennifer..")
>
>New member orientation:
> One big improvement we've made recently is that we've started
>having new member orientation meetings, in which a rotating staff of
>volunteers hosts all the `new interest'/ new members at a meeting,
>and answers all the usual questions. These meetings are scheduled at
>the same time every month so that it's easy to publicise. The reason
>for separating the new member orientation is because we (and other
>coops) had a problem when new members would come to regular meetings
>as their first encounter with the coop- they often either had basic
>questions about biodiesel, or they were bored as we talked about
>boring details, or they wanted to participate but were new to the
>whole thing and derailed the business of the meeting. It hasn't been
>a problem since the new member orientations started.
>
>Education:
>It is also a good idea to do general public education, for all the
>people in the community who may be interested in hearing about
>biodiesle but might not want to go to meetings, join the coop, etc.
>At our coop we've had a policy of rotating public speaking tasks
>among members, with a heavy emphasis on making sure that women get
>good representation at events where the co-op does speaking (this was
>a policy that the men came up with by the way). Many members have
>joined the coop wanting to do advocacy and outreach about biodiesel,
>and getting a chance to practice doing presentations about it was
>very good for them.
>
>
>**************************************
>
>Next and hopefully last edition of "The Grease Trap" is back to
>the 'what hasn't worked' mode, as I think that's very important to
>share. Many of the great things that have worked well for us are the
>result of changes brought about after systemic problems we had which
>I believe are common to other coops' organizion.
>Mark
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