After attending Bridget’s workshop I had the opportunity to help organise the big ‘Bikeoi’ motorbike protest ride to Wellington, which ultimately involved more than 6,000 bikes. Bikes from around the country arrived in Wellington on the same day to protest against the Government’s plan to make major changes to the ACC system.

The whole event was organised in a few weeks, and was run by a very disparate group, so trust became a big part of the event. I decided to set up the fund-raising/merchandising arm of the protest, and call it the ‘Scary Bikers Sewing Circle’ or SBSC.

The SBSC produced awareness-raising merchandise such as arm bands, fluorescent vests, flags and noise-making kits. The group of about six women got together each evening to make the merchandise, then sell it at protest events in Auckland and through a mail-order system to other parts of the country.

Rather than keep track of how much everything cost and how much everyone had to pay, we decided to just keep a cash float where we would put all income, and reimburse ourselves for the cost of raw materials straight out of the petty cash. We also set up a bank account where people could make direct bank transfers into the account, but told them not to bother putting references on their deposits, because we would not try to reconcile the payments when we were mailing out their orders.

On many different occasions, people at the protests did not have cash to pay for the items they wanted, so we invited them to take the merchandise and pay for it at the next event, or to deposit the money directly into the bank account.

Nobody knows how much money we have raised so far, and the fund-raising effort continues. So far we have purchased a loud hailer, paid for some repairs to a walkway that was accidentally damaged during the Wellington protest, paid for large banners to be professionally made, and reimbursed all the expenses of individuals within the SBSC. It is our belief that we have had deposits totalling considerably more than the value of goods we have produced.

Bridget’s workshop gave me the confidence to trust a wide range of complete strangers whose only common interest is motorbikes. I am sure some people have forgotten to pay their money into the account (and some may have deliberately chosen not to) but, on average, the people who have made a larger payment have made up for those who have paid less.

As a bonus, the scarce resources of the SBSC have been used to produce more merchandise, rather than putting effort into reconciling bank accounts, following up payments, and other such administrative work.