Recreational equipment lending library

The "other" ERE. Societal aspects of the ERE philosophy. Emergent change-making, scale-effects,...
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shaz
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Recreational equipment lending library

Post by shaz »

I've been reading up on recreational equipment lending libraries because I am interested in starting one in a small town where I used to live (and want to live for part of the year in the next phase of life). I thought forumites might also be interested so here are some links:

white belt
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by white belt »

The sharing library is a popular concept when it comes to community resilience. However, the questions are always where does the money come from and who is going to play the enforcer?

In one of the links you posted, the library required a few million dollars from a non-profit to stand up and run. The second question is one that is standard to all lending libraries. How do you deal with wear and tear on items and people who don’t follow policies?

Edit: In other words, how will you make your system resilient to bandit and stupid behavior (see Cippola)?

shaz
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by shaz »

It's a great question and one of the things I am trying to figure out. I am reaching out to the people who set up or currently run programs to learn more we about the specifics of what they do. I will make sure your question is on my list.

I am fairly confident I can raise the funds as raising funds for non-profits is part of what I have been doing for the past 25 years, but I don't know yet how to run the program once it is launched. Another tricky part will be building the community coalition that will be needed to make it successful. My next step will be to reach out to the county commissioners to feel them out on the idea. If they are willing to actively support it, they can clear a lot of roadblocks (for example, they control the public library). Or a best case scenario will be that they tell me someone is already working on something similar and I can just help out as needed.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by mountainFrugal »

You might also look into how University Rec departments accomplish this. Maybe CU Boulder or CSU have some good examples?

white belt
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by white belt »

I think partnering with an existing community group could be the right move. Libraries might already have the infrastructure and staff to help facilitate such a thing. I know my local library had a tool share prior to COVID.

shaz
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by shaz »

@mountainFrugal that's a good idea, thanks. You reminded me that I helped start and run a bike lending program and bike repair tool share/shop on my campus when I was an undergrad. Now to see if I can dredge up the memories of how that worked ...

@white belt our local library where I live now has a number of cool sharing programs. One of my favorites is the seed library. It is a mechanism to exchange seeds for plants that do well locally.

The public library in the town where I am looking into starting the rec equipment library is a sad and neglected thing. It could be so much more than it is.

I love libraries. I visit them whenever I travel to other locations. You are right that a library already has a lot of the proper infrastructure in place. In addition to having a building, staff, and lending processes, it also already has a system for verifying residency and issuing library cards.

It will be important that the rec equipment only be available to residents or the program will be in competition with the fledgling businesses that will be trying to rent equipment to tourists. The county is going to lose it's main employers (coal mines and a coal-fired power plant) in the next 5 - 10 years and they are trying to make themselves over as an outdoor recreation destination. The good news for them is they have over 1 million acres of public lands with, among other natural resources, a stretch of the longest undammed river in the US**. The bad news is they have almost no base of residents with many kinds of outdoor recreation experience* to serve as guides, equipment mechanics, etc. I think a lending program for locals could help build that skillset.

I think the opportunity there is tremendous and it could do a lot of good. I'm not confident I will have the energy to lead the charge immediately following retirement, so I will shop the idea around and see if someone else wants to take on the lead role.

*Note that big game hunting is an existing local industry so there are plenty of hunting guides.

**There are companies that offer guided trips on the stretch of river but the closest one is located 3 hours away in a different state. So you get to start your river trip with a 3 hour van ride. I think the locals could beat that experience.

theanimal
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by theanimal »

You could require a small annual fee that must be paid by credit card. Included in the sign up could be some notice about theft or vandalism that results in the charge of the card.
shaz wrote:
Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:03 pm
... a stretch of the longest undammed river in the US
Reminder that Alaska is still part of the US. ;)

Blackjack
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by Blackjack »

Many Bouldering gyms already do this (albeit at a small cost to gym members for the upkeep costs), where you can pay $6 or something to rent out a crash pad for the day or something. It is not considered a money generator, and is something i think the places break even on at best (i.e. labor cost is incidentally cheap to run the service since employees are already being paid and have downtime). I have personally done in in at least 6-7 different countries across many gyms (crash pads are too bulky for traveling with) and it all worked pretty much the same way. The process I have seen looks like this:

Tracking system / inventory system: what is checked in and out, who had it last
deposit for damage: ability to charge negligent renters for damaging goods beyond normal wear/tear
usage contract / liability waivers: tell users what is okay, what is not okay, CYA for lawsuits due to negligence, etc
gear check upon rental / return: needed to identify if good was damaged during use
small charge to users: needed to pay for the wear and tear over time as well as cost of all the things up above.

IMO I think a good way to implement this on a small scale in a small town geared towards outdoor recreation would be to open a secondary "gear" shop which also these sort of rentals. The idea would be something like "wilderness exchange" in Denver, but with an added "rentals" section. Then a subsection of the rentals (also offer paid rentals to the tourists for capital generation) can be a discounted (or free) rentals for locals who are part of the program, and the cost to upkeep the gear / do gear checkouts to locals would be the absolute minimum, as this is already a generative business model built on rentals themselves. Obviously it would probably be more complex to accomplish this than just a "outdoor gear library" but in my experience it is those sorts of setups which work the best anyways (tool libraries need employees there to do all the renting out / inventory management anyways, so may as well use them for a secondary purpose this way too).

shaz
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by shaz »

@theanimal thanks for the correction. I have always seen the river in question listed as the longest undammed river in the US but now that I look it up, I see that is not correct.

I would very much prefer not to charge fees for a lending library but it is an option to keep in mind.

mooretrees
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by mooretrees »

I've considered starting a tool library in my town but haven't acted so far on the idea. I have seen my local Nodic ski club have a small members only sharing group but it seems too small to be very useful.

Do you have a local outdoor business that you could partner with to reduce any fees? Or a local college/highschool that would be up for it? I would think some outdoor club from either highschool/college could be a good group to start with. One way to get it started without a lot of upfront costs is to only have gear that local folks are willing to share initially. Many people have gear they only use every once in awhile.

The local library doesn't seem promising for this, but maybe it's still worth talking to their director. Perhaps the local Commerce group has some grants that would make sense for this project. I recently won a grant from a local non-profit to outfit our library with food preservation equipment. I had an actively engaged librarian that supported the idea and had experience to implement it once the grant was dispersed. I was shocked at how slow the process was....but I think that was a function of the non-profit's turnover, so might not be applicable to you.

Let us know how it goes or if you need any idea generating as you work on this. I'm really curious how it goes and might use your experience to start something similar with beekeeping supplies or tools.

Blackjack
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Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by Blackjack »

I also think ReSource in Boulder https://tools.resourcecentral.org/ might also be a decent local-ish nonprofit model (obviously they are a tool library, not outdoor gear) and they would at minimum probably be able to give you some numbers on compensating employees / cost modelling for maintenance and replacement if you want to strictly lend out gear at an non-profit level.

shaz
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Location: Colorado, US

Re: Recreational equipment lending library

Post by shaz »

@blackjack thank you for the suggestions about existing programs that could serve as models or provide info. I have noted them in my fledgling project plan.

I think ideally we would have volunteers who help with the equipment maintenance. Maybe we could teach interested patrons how to do maintenance? Part of the appeal for DH and I is that we would enjoy maintaining the equipment but we only see ourselves being in that town for a short time each spring and fall. That means I need to figure out a year-round solution that isn't doing it myself.

Maybe the whole thing is a stupid idea that will fall apart as I dive deeper into the practical details.

@mooretrees also thank you for the suggestions. I am making lots of notes.

Don't hold your breath waiting for a report of progress on this. It's not a "drop everything else to get it done" situation. It is a possibility I am exploring as part of my 3-year plan to for transitioning out if my current paid employment.

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