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For Organizers

When planning your Repair Café, it is important to consider the following:
  • Who will provide liability and insurance coverage for the event?
  • Are there any organizations in the community you can partner with?
  • What resources are available? Where could you get donations of tools, food, etc.?
  • Is there a space with tables and chairs, electricity, and a kitchen where can you hold the event?
  • When will the Repair Café take place? Consider avoiding summer and any holiday weekends.
  • Who can you recruit to help organize and run the event?

Our Repair Café Planning Guide will help you find answers to these questions and organize a great event.
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Forms & Paperwork

Please use these forms and documents as templates for your own event
Vermont Repair Café Planning Guide
File Size: 296 kb
File Type: pdf
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Fixer Signup Sheet
File Size: 73 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Volunteer Agreement Form
File Size: 279 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Homework Sheet
File Size: 55 kb
File Type: pdf
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Participant Exit Survey
File Size: 54 kb
File Type: pdf
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Routing Slip
File Size: 29 kb
File Type: pdf
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Volunteer Recruitment Flyer
File Size: 343 kb
File Type: pdf
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Repair Cafe Event Staff Signup Sheet
File Size: 16 kb
File Type: docx
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Repair Cafe Event Flyer
File Size: 384 kb
File Type: pdf
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Repair Cafe Sample Press Release
File Size: 159 kb
File Type: pdf
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Repair Cafe House Rules
File Size: 213 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


For Volunteers

Whether you help sign people in, serve coffee, or fix people's items, as a volunteer you will make the event happen.​
Repair Cafés need people who can repair things like
  • Clothing
  • Electronics
  • Applicances
  • Furniture
  • Bikes
  • Ceramics
  • Toys
  • Services like sharpening or mending clothes
  • Anything else you can think of
Repair Cafés also need people who can help with the event:
  • Event organizers
  • Setting up, breaking down, and clean up
  • Reception
  • Distributing/collecting surveys
  • Café staff to serve drinks and snacks
  • Photographing the event
  • ​Support for fixers and participants

What you need to know:

Liability: Each participant will be required to sign a liability waiver absolving you (as the fixer) of liability for attempted and completed repairs. You will also need to sign a waiver to acknowledge your voluntary status at the event.

Safety: is the primary concern. Please employ all reasonable safety precautions.  At this event we are modeling good behavior to budding do-it-yourselfers and children, so even if you feel confident without typical safety precautions, please employ them anyway.  

Tools: You decide which tools to bring and which materials you are willing to supply.  Personal tools and equipment will not be used by others without your permission.  If you don't have the tools or materials needed to perform some repair projects, or are uncomfortable using your personal inventory, please let us know immediately. It may be appropriate to charge people for materials you supply (such as bike tubes or lamp cords).​
Volunteer Agreement Form
File Size: 279 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Volunteer FAQ
File Size: 339 kb
File Type: pdf
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Process for volunteers and visitors
File Size: 86 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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The Fix: There are limits to what we can attempt to fix during this event.  If you anticipate that a project will be very time consuming, it is appropriate to tell the person that it is beyond the scope of the event. You are not obligated to begin--or finish--a difficult or long repair.   If you take something apart, you are not obligated to put it back together.  Participants will have been warned that they may need to take disassembled items home.

Homework
: If a project will take too long or needs special equipment, we’ll have a “homework” sheet for you to complete for the participant.  You may offer basic information about pre-work, a list of required supplies, or instructions on how to finish a repair.  You can also note helpful resources (e.g. YouTube videos).  If the repair is beyond the scope of the event, please try to refer participants to someone who can finish the job. In some cases this might be your business, but please provide people with alternatives or an end user who will take object as-is for reuse, recycling or disposal.

Your Business: If you have a repair-related business, you are welcome to provide business cards at your table.  There will also be a display area to post/provide information about your business and other repair services you are aware of.   ​​
Repair Cafe house rules
File Size: 213 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


For Participants

Repair Cafés are free community events for repairing things together. When you arrive, you’ll find tools, materials, and people with repair skills in a variety of fields. Bring your broken items from home to be repaired! These events are made possible by people volunteering their time and talents to help people fix (and learn to fix) their stuff.  If you have nothing that needs repairing you can still stop by and enjoy a coffee or snack, watch the repairs in action, or gather inspiration from books about repairs and DIY at our reading table. 

What gets repaired at each café depends on which fixers come. Please check with the organizers of the café you plan to attend for a specific list. 
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What to Expect at a Repair Café 

Number of Items
  • If we are busy today, we reserve the right to limit the number of items we fix for each person to one.
  • If we do not limit the number of items per person, we will address multiple items one at a time. If there is a waiting line after your first item has been addressed, you will need to return to the end of the line for each successive item.
Carry In, Carry Out
  • Fixers are not obligated to reassemble disassembled appliances that cannot be repaired
  • Visitors are solely responsible for the careful removal of broken objects that could not be repaired
No Guarantees
  • Visitors offering broken items for repair do so at their own risk.
  • Fixers offering repairs offer no guarantee for the repair and are not liable if objects that are repaired do not work properly at home.
  • Fixperts have the right to refuse to repair certain objects.
  • Repairs performed here are carried out free of charge by volunteers. Neither event organizers nor volunteer fixers are liable for any loss that may result from advice or repair instructions, the loss of items handed over for repairs, indirect or consequential loss, or for any other kind of loss resulting from work performed during the event.
Pay Attention: Learn Something!
  • We encourage you to learn and observe as much as you can from whomever works on your project. We hope that handiness is contagious and that more people want to start fixing things!
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Process for Volunteers and Visitors
File Size: 86 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


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Office  | 137 Barre St, Montpelier VT 05602-3618| 802-229-9383 | comments@cvswmd.org
Office Hours: M - F, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
ARCC  | 540 No. Main St, Barre VT 05641 | 802-476-1900  
ARCC Hours: M, W, F, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm and 3rd Saturdays, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
ARCC Closed for Lunch: M, W, F, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm 

*CVSWMD Member Towns: 
Barre City, Barre Town, Berlin, Bradford, Calais, Chelsea, Duxbury, East Montpelier, Fairlee, Hardwick, Middlesex, Montpelier, Orange, Plainfield, Tunbridge, Walden, Washington, Williamstown, and Woodbury. 
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Background photo (c) Adam Chandler/Flickr
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