Hi Everyone
I was wondering if any spaces have formed an advisory board for their cowork space and, if so, what was your experience and what prompted you to do so? Would you advise going that route? Did you include a coworking member on the board as well?
Thanks in advance for any comments!
~Erynn
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Erynn Lyster
The Commons Calgary
a cowork apothecary
The closest thing we have to an advisory board is 100% members. It’s tremendously valuable. They were all people who we recognized as taking initiative, and simply asked them if they’d be willing to have an open dialogue with each other, and us. They’re a mix of full time and flex members, new and old members, from a lot of different industries and backgrounds.
They act as an extra set of eyes and ears for us, noticing things before we do, and more importantly, from the eyes of a member.
The other side is that we can go to them with ideas & communication and run it by them before sending to the entire community.
Having actual members contribute to your understanding of the community is SO valuable.
-Alex
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/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia
On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 12:41 PM, Erynn Lyster [email protected] wrote:
Hi Everyone
I was wondering if any spaces have formed an advisory board for their cowork space and, if so, what was your experience and what prompted you to do so? Would you advise going that route? Did you include a coworking member on the board as well?
Thanks in advance for any comments!
~Erynn
–
–
Erynn Lyster
The Commons Calgary
a cowork apothecary
(403) 399-1716 (cell) or (403) 452-7938 (office)
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Collective Agency started with a two-house democratic system:
- a Council, similar to a board. Three or four people seemed to be the ideal size. We had 2 elections; the first council was people I asked who had wide networks and complementary skill sets and could lead parts of the culture.
- members, who when we started were people who led large groups of people, and who later were changed to all people who paid for 24/7 access.
We won worldwide awards for this: http://www.worldblu.com/awardee-profiles/2013.php
This system worked great in the first 4 months: marketing/sales/PR, and operations/governance, and community. As we grew and staff and business owners got expertise and trust, members eventually voted to end their democratic/cooperative business management, but now even more so democratically initiate and lead community activities, welcome new members, etc.
Community is cooperative/relationships (initiating and leading activities, various potluck things in the kitchen, conversations, members referring more members and meetings, etc).
Marketing/sales work here is expertise/efficiency (making materials, closing sales). Of course the experience here is shaped by operations and community (the product, which is the most important thing and makes promotions/placement/price easy).
Operations/governance is bureaucratic/hierarchical (treating everybody equally within the rules, payment, opening up/closing up on weekdays, answering the phone).
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Alex Linsker
Collective Agency's Community Organizer / Proprietor
(503) 517-6900 http://collectiveagency.co
Tax and Conversation's Statewide Community Organizer
(503) 517-6904 taxandconversation.com
(503) 369-9174 mobile (503) 517-6901 fax
322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200, Portland, Oregon 97209