One barrier is that the party kit downloads are a little confusing - I want to propose a bit of focus on some key aims of the party kit, and how well the current content - three downloads plus an ‘all in one’ download - can be improved.
My proposition is that one of the key aims of the party download (singular, even if the zip has plenty of different parts in that single download) should be to do the maximum to encourage and enthuse repair event organisers to promote and contribute to Restart, by making the content directly valuable to them.
I have one specific example of an aspect that I feel could be improved: the fixometer takes specific fields like brand/model/age - and the party download could include a ready-made a template for the customer-registration document that includes these fields, and could include a template spreadsheet that will then make it much simpler for post-event data upload. Can we give new organisers a sample document with empty spaces for the group name but pre-populated with the fields the fixometer wants?
I can see that the party kit is currently a lot about branding, but if we can make the branding unobtrusively integral to the kit and it offers value by relieving new organisers of the need to create so much stuff themselves - that will help encourage them to use it.
And, say I’m Joe/Joanne Public on the Clapham/Copenhagen/Chicago Omnibus, browsing the webnet on my way home from work after a long day at the metaphorical coal-face and I happen across the Restart website, what would be my first impression? While I really like the “Move slow and fix things” strapline, and the image of soldering and screwdrivers, I observe that it’s not targetted at Joe/Joanne, it’s targetted at people who might like fixing stuff. Why not feature some fixometer content or a teaser for it, that might interest Joe/Joanne?
And for the would-be repairers, give a link to that great graph you showed above, showing something quite concrete about how repair events are going viral.
One of the follow-up actions from the last repair event at Crystal Palace was to create a printable registration form that mirrors the data capture requirements of the Fixometer. This would be filled in by the participant and fixer, collected by the event host at the end of visit and entered into Fixometer.
This would improve the data quality (an issue highlighted in the recent Data Dive), increase the detail of data capture, improve the ‘process flow’ of the event and allow fixers to contribute data directly at the point of repair. The flipchart would be still be used as a summary and for overall event tracking but we were finding it doesn’t cover enough of what we need for the Fixometer.
We’ll trial this at the next event in May but happy to share if other groups also want to trial this approach. If it works I’d propose to include in the party hosting kit.
Registration form / spreadsheet template
This is something we’ve talked about in the @Staff-team. Providing a registration form certainly has the potential to improve the quality of data collected, which would be really valuable, as you mentioned Steve. I know this is something @Wouter_Sterkens has done some work on. Wouter, would you be able to share the template you put together for the Leuven Marathon the other week?
I think this topic tends to revolve around a few key questions:
how willing are repairers to fill out paperwork while/after working on a device?
do we want to maintain some kind of public list at the event (like the classic Restart flipchart) so that participants can see what else is going on (and where they are in the queue)?
If we do ^, would having a flipchart and registration forms feel like duplication of effort?
For number 1 I like your idea, Steve, of the participant and repairer completing the form together. This could be an interesting way to involve the participant in the repair (especially if it’s too tricky for them to be particularly hands-on) and introduce them to some of the wider issues around barriers to repair.
Restart Party Kit
Some really great points here Ian. I agree that the kit probably doesn’t do enough at the moment to enthuse potential organisers. We could certainly tailor it more and put more emphasis on practical tools (than, say, branding). This is something we’re starting to do in other places (such as this thread) and it makes sense to review the kit through this lens too.
Another project in the works is some automated design tools for groups (to generate posters etc.), though this is some way off yet.
This is the template I made for our repair marathon last week (in dutch): Logging list - dutch.pdf . I think this template is nice when there is no host present to take care of writing down the rapair data.
I am also going to make a flyer version to give to participants instead of repairders in the future.