Throw Away Society

As a society, we throw away a lot, and with a lot of what we chuck, there's very little wrong.

• Some 50%+ of broken items don't even need a spare part to fix them
• Of those that do, many of these are a simple fuse change or flex replacement will do the job
• Other simple spare parts can cost as little as pennies to buy, but the labor cost of fitting them can make repairs uneconomical for both the repairer and the owner of the item.
• There is also the case of planned obsolescence
• We have forgotten that we can repair things ourselves. This could be attributed to mass production, clever marketing or a multitude of other things

Skill Sharing

• There are skilled members of the community hiding in every town and on every street.
• Repair Cafés give these skilled member of the community a time and place to shine.
• To pass on their knowledge and to help other members of the community keep their treasured items in good working order.

Community Building

• It's not just the Repair part of Repair Café that's important. There's also the Café aspect!
• Creating a space that's inviting, inclusive and friendly is key to getting the community involved and bringing people together.
• Whether you have something to repiar or not you are welcome to come along, have a coffee, see what we do and get inspired!
• We hope to achieve this, and in some way to knit various associations, groups and projects together. To raise the flag for Repair and the Circular Economy and to get as many people involved as we can.

Sustainability and Environment

Our habits regarding when and why we buy new products directly affects the environment, though the affects are often hidden from us overseas.

• New electronic and electrical equipment requires rare elements that are difficult to extract.
• Some of these are found in places such as the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil or in the Dominican Republic of Congo and the extraction leads to massive deforestation
• Old, discarded electronics if not processed properly can end up in massive dump sites where people, including children, burn piles of cables in order to extract the copper to sell article
• New plastic is a byproduct of fossil fuels and its production is not good for the planet,
• Waste plastic can remain in the environment for centuries and never really breaks down - it just gets smaller - and microplastics have recently been found in the human brain article and other, more private parts of the body article

Repair can help prolong the life of items, meaning that we are sending less off as waste.

When are you Open?

We don't currently have a set day of the month, we're just finding our rhythm. For now, please check our homepage for information on the latest event and which day of the month it will be held.

Our dates are all on Saturdays and will run from 10am to 2pm unless otherwise advertised.

Where will events be held?

For our latest event location, check our homepage

We currently operate in Iver and in the interests of making our event accessible for as many residents of Iver Village, Iver Heath and Richings Park we are looking to rotate around a few different venues.

• Initailly we have secured St Leonard's Hall, St Leonards Walk, SL0 9DD where we held our first event.
• We are currently speaking to 1st Iver Heath Scouts to secure use of the hut for future events
• We are looking for other venues where we could hold another event.

If you have a venue you would like to offer us to use, then please get in touch

What will you look at?

We will assess just about anything. While we cannot guarantee to fix your item, if we can, we will. If not, then we will help to put a plan in place for it, including identifying spare parts and inviting you to bring them to our next event so we can fit it, or referring you to an appropriate repair service.

We use the following broad categories to help pair you with a Repair Volunteer

• Electrical (lamps, kettles, strimmers etc..)
• Mecahnical (Non electrical tools and appliances)
• Electronic (Laptops, Radios, Phones, Tablets)
• Clothing/textiles
• Furniture (Small items such as chairs, small tables etc..)
• Toys
• Bicycles
• General (Anything else!)

Electrical items will have basic safety tests performed before and after assessment or if a repair has taken place.

Is there anything you won't look at?

We will assess just about anything that comes through the doors. It might be best to tell you what we won't look at.

We will be unable to assess:

• White-goods such as fridges, freezers, washing machines
• Microwaves
• Anything still within warranty
• Anything that could be dangerous to either attendees or repairers.

Repair volunteers have the right to refuse any item if they feel uncomfortable to do so.

Signing in

If you are arriving with an item, you will first have to go to the Sign-in table.

Here you will be greeted by one of our volunteers who will help you fill out a form about your item. You will also have to agree to our Privacy Policy and our House Rules.

If we have a relevant Repair Volunteer available, you'll be directed to them, otherwise you'll be directed to our Café where you can grab a coffee and grab a seat.

Café and Refreshments

Not all our volunteers are repairers, but they can fix you a hot drink and a bite to eat!

Our coffee, tea and pastries for our first event were provided by the local food rescue team. They will be helping us with this when they can.

We will also have squash, biscuits and other bits and pieces for you to have while you wait.

Everything is donation based, so there are no fixed prices for bits from the café.

Get your item seen! When a relevant repair person for your type of repair becomes available you will be directed to them.

Please keep open mugs away from any electricals!

Your item will be assessed, electrical checks made, fuses tested, and if possible a fix will be attempted.

The repairer will explain as much as they can as they go along and involve you in the repair where possible.

Assessment and Repair takes time, so please sit tight. Feel free to talk to other attendees, volunteers and repairers so long as it's safe to do so.

When you're done, you will need to pop back to the Sign-in desk to let them know the outcome.

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Get involved!

If you would like to get involved and volunteer your time either repairing or running the events, have a chat with our volunteers!

How can I start Volunteering with you?

Whether you would like to get stuck in fixing items that members of the community bring in, or help out with other aspects of the event, send us an email

All volunteers will be required to read through our Safety Guidelines, House Rules and sign to agree to abide by them. You will also need to read and understand our Privacy Policy and agree to our use of your data.

Our process goes something like:

• After one event ends, we open up bookings for the next one
• A couple of weeks after this, we will have a rough idea about the things we will have through the doors
• We'll send out an email to those who have expressed interest in helping out with an idea of how many fixers we will need in each area
• You respond to us telling us if you can make it
• We'll send a reminder about a week before the event to make sure you're still ok to join us
• You come along on the day 30 mins before we open for a briefing and with any tools you might need.
• Help out, assess things, repair things and enjoy yourself!
• Pack up your things and make your way home when we end!

There's no need to volunteer for the whole time. If you can only make it for half of the event, that's fine, just let us know!

What to bring if you're repairing things

If you are volunteering as a Repairer, you will need the tools of your trade!

If you are a specialist in a certain area, it will be useful to bring any tools that are specific to this area.

All the repairers bring their own tools, so if you're missing something you may be able to borrow it from another volunteer if they're happy for you to do so.

What to bring if you're not repairing things

If you're not volunteering as a repairer, you need only bring yourself!

We ask that all volunteers bring a reusable coffee mug with a closed top

This is especially necessary if you will be working with electrical items! We don't want those liquids anywhere near the work area, but understand that mugs do get put down places.

To help us mitigate this, we require that all volunteer drinks are in a closed top mug.

We do have some spares just in case.

Donations are Welcome!

We don't currently have a page where you can donate, but we are working on it!

For the time being, if you like what we do and would like to contribute to our cause, you can do so at our events where we will have collections dotted around the venue.

What do donations go towards?

Donations go towards our running costs which include:

• Insurance
• Venue hire where applicable
• Glues, tapes and other consumibles
• Specialist tool-kits (including that one tool no one has).
• Coffee, tea, milk, biscuits
• Printing costs for flyers
• Website running costs
• Other materials we may use

As we expand this may grow to include things like:

• Classroom kits to run Repair workshops for young people

Both

Our Insurance is under "Repair Café Iver"

While signing up for the Repair Café International Website I asked for the name "Repair Cafe Iver" and they gave me "Iver Repair Cafe".

I had already bought the domain "repaircafeiver.uk" and set up our email system, but when registering the Facebook page, I chose Iver Repair Café (momentary lapse)

I have no idea how to change this on Facebook.

For now the explanation is that the organisation is named Repair Cafe Iver, but that the event is the Iver Repair Café.

Not confusing at all! (I get them mixed up myself all the time!)

I'm not prescious about this distinction, but it might be important to make this distinction in the future...

Right to Repair

Increasingly the items that we think we own are not ours to modify how we would like including Repairing them. Subscription services hide hardware capabilities behind pay walls (notably BMW heated seat subscriptions - BBC) and as soon as the manufacturer removes support for a device, it can become useless.

The Right to Repair is the legal right for owners of devices to freely modify, change and repair their products. If enacted to its fullest extent, it would mean the idea of "Trigger's Broom" applying to items such as phones, laptops and more.

In the UK

• The UK's Right to Repair law was introduced in July 2021
• It requires manufacturers to make spare parts available to citizens and third-party repair companies
• Currently the law only covers some white-goods as well as televisions and electronic displays
• This doesn't go far enough and we believe it should be extended to cover all manner of electrical, electronic and other items
• A YouGov survey of 1704 people in 2021 found that a massive 81% of respondents would support the expansion of this legislation to cover phones, tablets and laptops.