House Rules vs Membership Agreements

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

Oren,

We (swivelspaces.com) are new to coworking as well. Like you have suggested, we opted for the community rules posted under our website’s terms of use. We want to create an atmosphere that is in keeping with the spirit of coworking while still keeping our attorney happy.

Linda

···

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2012, at 4:40 PM, “[email protected][email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

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At Workantile, we have a license agreement which:

  • spells out in broad terms how members may use the space
  • clarifies that members are responsible for their own property - we are not insuring it
  • specifies that Workantile does not provide alcohol to members, but members may share drink among themselves - this gets us and our insurance company off the hook in case something alcohol-related happens (we hope)
  • spells out membership
  • spells out how/when Workantile may terminate someone’s membership. We have had to do this only once in three years.
    We don’t have rules, we do have expectations. When you have rules, people get bogged down in minutiae. It is better to invite members to figure out how to make the community even more awesome than it is right now, than it is to dictate what people can and can’t do.
···

On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Linda Rolf [email protected] wrote:

Oren,

We (swivelspaces.com) are new to coworking as well. Like you have suggested, we opted for the community rules posted under our website’s terms of use. We want to create an atmosphere that is in keeping with the spirit of coworking while still keeping our attorney happy.

Linda

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2012, at 4:40 PM, “[email protected][email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/6nXel_jihkYJ.

To post to this group, send email to [email protected].

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twb
member, Workantile
@twbrandt

Sorry, bullet 4 should read “spells out membership levels and associated dues”.

···

On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 5:10 PM, Tom Brandt [email protected] wrote:

At Workantile, we have a license agreement which:

  • spells out in broad terms how members may use the space
  • clarifies that members are responsible for their own property - we are not insuring it
  • specifies that Workantile does not provide alcohol to members, but members may share drink among themselves - this gets us and our insurance company off the hook in case something alcohol-related happens (we hope)
  • spells out membership
  • spells out how/when Workantile may terminate someone’s membership. We have had to do this only once in three years.
    We don’t have rules, we do have expectations. When you have rules, people get bogged down in minutiae. It is better to invite members to figure out how to make the community even more awesome than it is right now, than it is to dictate what people can and can’t do.

On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Linda Rolf [email protected] wrote:

Oren,

We (swivelspaces.com) are new to coworking as well. Like you have suggested, we opted for the community rules posted under our website’s terms of use. We want to create an atmosphere that is in keeping with the spirit of coworking while still keeping our attorney happy.

Linda

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2012, at 4:40 PM, “[email protected][email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/6nXel_jihkYJ.

To post to this group, send email to [email protected].

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected].

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

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@twbrandt


twb
member, Workantile


twb
member, Workantile
@twbrandt

Hi Oren,

I work for Cobot (a software app for coworking spaces). We have a monthly newsletter and last month we wrote an article about coworking agreements. We analyzed the pros and cons of leases and service agreements, and we also posted a coworking service agreement you can use as a model.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about our post, and good luck with your research!

Cristina Santamarina

[email protected]

···

On Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:40:36 PM UTC+2, [email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

Deskmag had a recent article worth checking out as well!

···


/ah

coworking in philadelphia

On Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Cristina Santamarina wrote:

Hi Oren,

I work for Cobot (a software app for coworking spaces). We have a monthly newsletter and last month we wrote an article about coworking agreements. We analyzed the pros and cons of leases and service agreements, and we also posted a coworking service agreement you can use as a model.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about our post, and good luck with your research!

Cristina Santamarina

[email protected]

On Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:40:36 PM UTC+2, [email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/nVKuO3tRiFUJ.

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Here is the DeskMag link

Thanks everyone for all your helpful feedback!

Does anyone have anything to add to the three components mentioned in the DeskMag article?

Their key points were to cover Respect for Fellow Coworkers, Respect for the Facility/Equipment, and Access to the Building.

···

On Monday, August 20, 2012 1:27:25 PM UTC-5, Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking wrote:

Here is the DeskMag link
http://www.deskmag.com/en/contracts-in-coworking-spaces-agreements-530

Pedro,

It’s on our website. Go to workantile.com, click Member Info, then click License Agreement.

I hope you find it useful

···

twb

Sent from my Phone of i

On Sep 14, 2012, at 4:32 AM, CoimbraCoWorkSpace [email protected] wrote:

Tom, can you please send us a sample of your license agreement?

Thank you,

Pedro

On Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:10:03 PM UTC+1, Tom Brandt - Workantile wrote:

At Workantile, we have a license agreement which:

  • spells out in broad terms how members may use the space
  • clarifies that members are responsible for their own property - we are not insuring it
  • specifies that Workantile does not provide alcohol to members, but members may share drink among themselves - this gets us and our insurance company off the hook in case something alcohol-related happens (we hope)
  • spells out membership
  • spells out how/when Workantile may terminate someone’s membership. We have had to do this only once in three years.
    We don’t have rules, we do have expectations. When you have rules, people get bogged down in minutiae. It is better to invite members to figure out how to make the community even more awesome than it is right now, than it is to dictate what people can and can’t do.

On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Linda Rolf [email protected] wrote:

Oren,

We (swivelspaces.com) are new to coworking as well. Like you have suggested, we opted for the community rules posted under our website’s terms of use. We want to create an atmosphere that is in keeping with the spirit of coworking while still keeping our attorney happy.

Linda

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2012, at 4:40 PM, “[email protected][email protected] wrote:

Hey there all you global coworkers,

I’m still a bit new here, so forgive me if this topic has been covered before (couldn’t find it via a cursory search).

I have a few questions to get a discussion going regarding everyone’s opinions on guidelines for member behavior:

  1. Do you provide a membership agreement to each coworker, post house rules in a public or both?
  2. What are the key principles covered in either?
  3. Can you provide samples of your house rules or membership agreements?
    I feel like there might be room for both, but there seems to be more value in house rules since coworkers can see these all the time vs. an agreement that might be more detailed but only read once, signed, and never considered ever again.

What do y’all think?

Thanks!

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/6nXel_jihkYJ.

To post to this group, send email to [email protected].

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected].

For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

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twb
member, Workantile
@twbrandt

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.

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Cristina - the Cobot model service agreement has been a godsend in helping me get our coworking site up and running in a hurry. Very thorough. I truly appreciate the resource!

Hi Chris, great to hear! We are putting some more resources for opening a coworking space in http://learn.cobot.me - maybe they can be of help!

Cheers,

Cristina

···

On Monday, February 3, 2014, Chris Willis [email protected] wrote:

Cristina - the Cobot model service agreement has been a godsend in helping me get our coworking site up and running in a hurry. Very thorough. I truly appreciate the resource!

Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com


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Cristina Santamarina

T: @crissantamarina | M**:** +49 151 19446249 | **W: **http://cristinasantamarina.com