Still rent free: the time I did an assignment on my local bike repair/recycle non-organisation and the sustainability tutor gave only negative feedback about how my proposal wouldn't work in real life.

It was an observational report on something that was and is working in real life.

Me: this is how bikes get repaired and recycled in this one small town.
- The junkyard guy leaves nice ones out by his gate for a day or two before dismantling them for scrap.
- there are several people in the town who know they can come past regularly and take anything by the gate
- there's a guy who takes any bikes he thinks we can salvage, they are almost always kids' bikes, there are just more of those
- a rotating group of friends and people who want to learn about bikes work on them
- when they're finished we distribute them by word of mouth: is there anyone around 6-8yo who wants a purple bike?
- the bikes seem to come with lifetime servicing. No one mentions this until the bike needs servicing, then they just say 'we better get onto servicing your bike, hey?' and it happens
- you can do a trade-in/upgrade. Kids swap their bikes for bigger bikes, people service the little bike and give it to another kid
-there is no name, no official location, no contact details for this, it's an ephemeral property that emerges from the community every day that the community has capacity to do it. It is fascinating and I am glad to have witnessed it.

Sustainability tutor: so first off this could never happen without NGO administration, start there

I see the very valid argument that without administion and formal structure, continuity remains only when as the community has capacity to do it.

My argument is that's how things work anyway. You can have all the committee structure in the world, but the actual work is an emergent property of the community's capacity. If you burn out your people, you lose your collective service either way.

Edit: if anyone screenshots this one toot out of context and makes it about dismantling government, I will punch you right in the bicycle horn. This whole thread is specifically about small community groups.

@coolandnormal Like the community is the committee anyway right? It's Sunday after church or lunch breaks with coworkers or recognised and maintained word of mouth networks.