Our group have been offered a stall at the local Carnival to promote our group. Have any other groups.been involved with anything similar. I am unsure whether we should offer to repair things as there will be no plug sockets. We do not fix bikes. If you have done anything similar, did you do another activity or promote your group in other way. We don’t have any leaflets etc.
I am inclined to take part but worried our stall will be bit boring. Thanks for advice.
Edwina
I’d say go for it! We (St albans district Fixers) had a stall last week at the Harpenden Sustainiability Market. I wouldn’t say it was a rip-roaring success but certainly worth it.
We had our flip chart on show displaying the things we attempted to fix (with smiley/sad faces) from our last event, which was a good eye catcher. We had a multimeter and a bunch of batteries of various state and some fuses, not all good. Junior age kids seem to enjoy learning how to test those. We had my mains plug from hell (https://wiki.restarters.net/How_NOT_to_wire_a_(UK)_mains_plug) and a partially disassembled coffee maker - both good for discussion, and our PAT tester. We had some of our leaflets to hand out - well worth getting some printed even if only very simple, mainly text with future date(s) and how to keep in touch, plus a sign-up sheet for expressions of interest. And we got some printed materials on critical raw materials from Restat HQ (Materials matter - The Restart Project) - just 2 or 3 copies were taken but much appreciated by teachers.
A banner to fix to the front of your table would be good. We’re looking into getting one of those plastic ones made up, expecting it to cost in the region of £50. Even a hand-drawn paper one on a flip chart sheet or lining paper would be worth having, though it could easily get torn to shreds by the wind unless you could secure it adequately.
Then it’s just a question of nabbing anyone you can as they pass and engaging them in conversation. A couple of Restart blog postings can get you going: The UK’s new ‘right to repair’ is not a right to repair - The Restart Project and What a waste: our study shows almost half of electricals sent for recycling could be reused - The Restart Project
We didn’t offer or attempt any fixes, but worth having a screwdriver or two handy just in case - people are not likely to come by with their broken gadgets unless you advertise a fixing service in advance, but it may well be possible to steer a conversation around to what broken gadgets a perso might have, and hence give broad advice as to its fixability.
We got one potential new fixer out of it and had some good conversations. I hope you can make it work too.
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Great tips there Philip!
Edwina, One activity I’ve done in the past was to have an old disassembled smartphone on display and invite passersby to have a go putting it back together (without screws). It worked really well as people are often interested to see what’s inside a phone, and for most older models, putting it back together is a bit like a jigsaw (like the Google Nexus 4 phone I used). It’s a great way to have a chat with people while engaging them in an activity. And it also works well with the Materials Matter resources Philip mentioned.
Of course, it does mean you’d need to get your hands on an old smartphone and become familiar with disassembling and reassembling it.
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Ulverston Repair Cafe had a small table stall at the local ecofair recently. Likewise it wasn’t a space for fixing, so we simply had a couple of people at the stall just chatting with people about what we do, but it was still worth it. I would echo everything Philip has said.
There was a good amount of interest. I’d say the most common questions were - when and where are you next open, and do you fix X. We had leaflets with that info on to hand out. (As well as a volunteer sign-up sheet, although I don’t think we got any volunteer signups.)
We have a rollup/roller banner which is easy to set up and portable. We had some Restart futures leaflets on display, which kids liked - although bear in mind that in general if you hand out one, each kid wants one for themselves!
Similarly to Philip and James’ recommendation, we also had an old laptop opened up on the table as a bit of a prop - some people were interested to see all the bits inside.
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In Church Street central London we were part of a big community fair. We had two of our fixers on hand to take questions. We sorted out electricity access before hand so we were able to test, solder, etc. It was a great way to meet people and create interest in repair.
It might be inelegant but I’ve got some banners used on one side and free on the other. Can show pictures and ship them out. Got about 5 that need to be upcycled.
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Thanks. How and where is it possible to get banners reprinted?
Well I have not tried to reprint them, I suppose it might be possible! I might contact some companies and ask them if they want to print them for me, since I have a few that need to be used (really don’t want to put them in bin).