Item Tickets

At Bridgewater’s first Repair Cafe volunteers attempted to track the items coming in for repairs by recording them in a list at the welcome table.

Observations:

• A lot of information is presented at the welcome table. It’s a lot for the guests to take in, especially their first time.
• When a line-up formed, the welcome desk volunteers began rushing or skipping steps in the intended process.
• Guests often left the welcome desk with only verbal instructions on where to go next and how to engage.
• When items were fixed, only the guest, the fixer, and any immediate onlookers, knew the repair was successful.
• By the end of the event, we had very little information to help us gauge the collective impact of our work.

Volunteers at the Welcome Table are now encouraged to record incoming items on “Item Tickets” rather than in a list.

Download the Latest Item ticket template here:

We’ve found after 3 events that the Item Tickets work well to address all the observations above, and enable reporting such as for the Mahone Bay event:

Opportunity:

Iterate this Item Ticket resource to include:

• Check boxes/circle list for which repair station the item is directed to
• Ticket number – fillable at each event to avoid unnecessary reprinting
• Number of items – Even when the instruction is “one item, one ticket” sometimes folks bring multiple and it makes sense to just mark “(x3)”.
• “Please leave this Item Ticket with your Fixer, or at the Exit Table”.
• “NS Repairs”