Member Mail

Hi Friends!

I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

Since we filed the CMRA paperwork with the USPS and we’re located across the street from the Post Office, we make an effort to play by their rules. I had a small fire safe for hanging file folders collecting dust somewhere, so we use that. Their folder is their mailbox. It’s locked but the key stays in the lock. It can be self-service when I’m not around, but we’re managing mailboxes through SphereMail so I have to log the mail as picked up. It’s easier to do that if I get their mail when they ask. And yes, I’m considering eliminating the SphereMail management for members to make it even easier for me.

Glen Ferguson

Phone: 301-732-5165

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://coworkfrederick.com

Address: 122 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD 21701

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On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Ehmandah R. [email protected] wrote:

Hi Friends!

I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

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


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I would love to learn more about how spaces handle this (formally or informally). And also how spaces deal with packages.

-Melissa

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___
Melissa T. Goldman
[email protected]

The thing to be prepared for - that I frankly still haven’t found a solution for - is how often people don’t pick up their mail or packages. It’s baffling.

Smart, talented, professional, otherwise awesome human beings just leave mail for months. Unless it’s a client check, of course. :wink:

People have weird, often unexplainable habits around mail. I don’t have a great solution for this. It’s just something to be prepared for, however you decide to approach it!

-Alex

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On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 9:09 AM, Melissa T. Goldman [email protected] wrote:

I would love to learn more about how spaces handle this (formally or informally). And also how spaces deal with packages.

-Melissa


Melissa T. Goldman

[email protected]

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


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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.

Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org

Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com

My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten

We have about 85 companies and most have mail. We have virtual offices that are solely mail/business address, private offices that come with mail and desks that have a mail ‘add-on’ option (which is essentially a discounted virtual office.) We have ‘plus services’ that can be added, such as forwarding, scanned, notifications and preparing outgoing.

Honestly, mail is a huge part of the business but it is poorly designed here. The ‘mailboxes’ and ‘large package cabinet’ is upstairs and no mail deliverer will put it up there. So daily I cart things upstairs to file. And at one point members were allowed to accept personal mail so I have been transitioning this part to ‘company name’ only accepted because accepting and lugging up all your amazon shopping is ridiculous.

A larger portion than I would like is previous members who have ignored or refused to change their ‘business address’ after they leave, what I am curious about is how other spaces deal with this?

Ehmandah and Melissa, if you’d like to speak further about mail you can reach via email so we can discuss more! Hope this helps a bit.

+1 to what Alex said, our Community Manger regularly says to people, “Um, about that mail? It looks like something you might want to, say, I dunno, OPEN?”. Or words to that effect.

I think a lot of mail is not picked up because of the inscrutable habit the government, banks, etc have of sendng both electronically and via regular post. So I thnk sometimes it’s because they already have the mail.

Our system allows people to say what they want to happen when their mail comes in. Some folks just come by every so often anyway, and they just want it where they can get it. Some folks want us to app them a picture of their mail when it comes in. Some folks want us to scan it and email it to them, or physically mail it to wherever they are in the world, which service is offered by one of the other coworkers.

We have a central office storage cabinet like this sort of

And it contains coworker stuff. Many of our coworkers who come regularly anyway, have an archive box in the cabinet for their post. Like this here:

Or for smaller companies, like this:

Image result for file folder documents

For folks who just have a one-off delivery or our more nomadic members, we have an alphabetical sorter like this:

Image result for alphabetical file sorter

All of these items are in the cabinet. Folks who have a door code can just get their stuff. Folks who do not, have to wait for the Community Manager to give them their stuff.

Small packages can be accepted and handled in all the spaces; large packages, pallets, machines, and other unwieldy items are sent to one of our two spaces which have warehouse space. Anything not picked up in a month is subject to a storage fee unless arrangements are made. I did this last because for whatever reason, people will pick up their mail to avoid paying very small amounts of money. shrug. But otherwise (for some folks) it threatens to compost while waiting to be picked up. :slight_smile:

Jeannine

Hi Ehmandah! Since you use Meshwork, I thought I’d mention we’ll be rolling out some mail notification functionality which hopefully will help at least let people know if they have packages or mail to pick up. But I wonder if something like https://www.receivingroom.com/ would be helpful. Or even a locker system like http://packageconcierge.com/, although that looks like it would be considerably more expensive.

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On Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 2:03:19 PM UTC-6, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Hi Friends!
I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

Thanks Doug. Looking forward to the updates. I'll check out the links.

E

Thank you!!!!

One of the jobs of our community managers is to sort the mail and put it away into the mailboxes that we keep in a central location. The mailboxes are typical office mail sorters that we purchased on Uline and labeled with member names. There is no security other than the mailroom is internal to our space (just off the lobby) and next to the printer station; so gets lots of traffic. Mail does pile up, and we also get a lot of boxes thanks to Amazon. When mail piles up and when we get big boxes, our community managers deliver the mail to the members’ desks. This gives the community managers an excuse to chat and catch up with the member, and it also reminds the member that we “care” about them. Very simple, old-school, and can take a bit of time … but we think it’s worth the effort. Good luck! Keith, BizHaus

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On Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 1:03:19 PM UTC-7, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Hi Friends!
I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

This is super helpful, thanks everyone.

I’m curious whether spaces have restrictions on packages versus mail and how you lay the parameters out when you talk to prospective members looking for a mailing address.

Size of packages? #? Are you liable if packages getting damaged or stolen?

My main concern is having packages pile up. I do NOT have a lot of extra space on site, and certainly nowhere to store large packages under lock and key.

-Melissa

···

On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 3:06 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Ehmandah! Since you use Meshwork, I thought I’d mention we’ll be rolling out some mail notification functionality which hopefully will help at least let people know if they have packages or mail to pick up. But I wonder if something like https://www.receivingroom.com/ would be helpful. Or even a locker system like http://packageconcierge.com/, although that looks like it would be considerably more expensive.

On Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 2:03:19 PM UTC-6, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Hi Friends!
I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

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


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Glen, thank you for recommending SphereMail.co and being an early adopter! We very much appreciate it!
Ehmandah, Melissa, Jeanine and Rachel: We’d love to demo SphereMail. Our solution have evolved quite a bit since we started more than 5 years ago, in addition we use it on daily basis at our sister company SpherePad Coworking with two locations. We have solved many of the issues you could encounter on daily basis managing mail. We’re happy to guide you through the process of how setup your space with USPS, setup your physical mail space and manage your customers’ mail.
You’re welcome to reach out to Tom or myself at: 415.413.4700.
Either way, I’d be happy to answer any questions.
All the best,
Hasan Mirjan
CEO
O:(707) 787-3009

	M:(310) 622-3687

	M:(415) 316-4423

	[SphereMail.co](http://spheremail.co)

	 Access your paper mail whenever, wherever "Did you know about our batch mail feature? Don't enter mail one at a time, use batch mail feature instead"
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On Friday, November 4, 2016 at 7:27:53 AM UTC-7, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Thank you!!!

Thanks, Hasan. That’s helpful info.

I’m curious if spaces have policies about receiving personal versus business packages (not sure how that could really be determined, even). Hauling everyone’s Amazon boxes and Blue Apron doesn’t feel sustainable. Up to now we haven’t offered mail service for members, but that’s going to change.

All best,

Melissa

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On Nov 7, 2016 4:05 PM, “Hasan Mirjan” [email protected] wrote:

Hi Melissa,
From our experience, for every 100 customers you get about 15 packages on average a month. Normally packages don’t sit for a long time since customers are eager to pick them up. If they don’t pick them up then SphereMail system will automatically start charging an overage fee 30 days after the billing cycle, for example $1.50per pound (you can set whatever price you want for overages). SphereMail system may also lets you restrict the number of incoming mail you want to receive before start charging an overlarge.
Liability: I strongly recommend speaking with an attorney, but basically add a language in your terms of service that you are not liable for any lost or stolen or damaged mail in case of fire, flooding etc., or items forwarded to another customer.
Here are a couple of examples:
https://foundryclub.spheremail.co/voffice/get_voffice
https://thefoundershub.spheremail.co/voffice/get_voffice
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Hasan Mirjan
CEO
O:(707) 787-3009

  M:(310) 622-3687

  M:(415) 316-4423




  [SphereMail.co](http://spheremail.co)

   Access your paper mail whenever, wherever "Did you know about our batch mail feature? Don't enter mail one at a time, use batch mail feature instead"

On Monday, November 7, 2016 at 12:33:14 PM UTC-8, Melissa Tapper Goldman wrote:

This is super helpful, thanks everyone.

I’m curious whether spaces have restrictions on packages versus mail and how you lay the parameters out when you talk to prospective members looking for a mailing address.

Size of packages? #? Are you liable if packages getting damaged or stolen?

My main concern is having packages pile up. I do NOT have a lot of extra space on site, and certainly nowhere to store large packages under lock and key.

-Melissa

On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 3:06 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Ehmandah! Since you use Meshwork, I thought I’d mention we’ll be rolling out some mail notification functionality which hopefully will help at least let people know if they have packages or mail to pick up. But I wonder if something like https://www.receivingroom.com/ would be helpful. Or even a locker system like http://packageconcierge.com/, although that looks like it would be considerably more expensive.

On Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 2:03:19 PM UTC-6, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Hi Friends!
I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone

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


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

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We created mailboxes by utilizing cabinets from Ikea and modifying them with locks and they are each assigned to a member who has mail privileges. Not all our membership levels include mail service. For larger packages we have a larger locked cabinet that we use.

Right now we only see a handful of people getting mail on a regular basis. Probably 6 members so far but since we will be adding offices (high demand offering), we put in more mailboxes to start.

···

On Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 3:03:19 PM UTC-5, Ehmandah R. wrote:

Hi Friends!
I have a boutique Coworking space and I was wondering how smaller spaces provide members mail pickup. Do you a location in the communal where they can pick up their mail (mail slots) or is stored in a location for the community manager to give when requested?

Thanks Everyone