Somewhat along the lines of what Chris said... If someone was "out of line" in a regular office place, it would be the boss's job to say "yo, cut that out, or hit the road". In a coworking space, there isn't a boss. But there's something much more powerful.
In the case of a coworking space built on top of a community, as I believe a coworking space should be (see Tara's latest thread for more reasons why), you end up with a self-moderating group as a filter before you get to that "yo, cut it out" stage. The community of members is just as proud of the office as we, the folks who run it, are, and as such they are willing to stand up for and protect that resource that they are proud of. We've been open for a whopping 2 months, and know that eventually, something like this might happen. But in 2 months, we've been incident free. The widespread use of the space is much greater by community members (who know better by now) and less random drop ins (though they do exist). As part of a "welcome" process for those day rate folks, we make it clear what people are here to do and how it works. If you do something offensive, destructive, or otherwise detrimental to the space or, even worse in my mind, the community, that is something that I will not stand for. But, instead of trying to worry about every single corner case of things that might happen...we focus on doing things to make sure that the regulars that we have, and like, stick around. As a last resort, if the community doesn't step up to moderate that trouble-maker out...it's my (or one of the other office managers) job to step in and say "yo, stop being an ass". Our membership agreement isn't as loose as Citizen Space in the fact that, well, it exists :-). One thing we unofficially do is encourage (don't force, but strongly suggest) that people work from the office for a day before signing up for a membership. That lets them make sure that the inner workings of the office are a good fit for them, and also, makes sure that they are a good fit for us. It's not for everyone. Our group is different from other coworking groups, I'm sure. But...we have a community, and that's what has helped us stabilize office use, income, and be confident that we can sustain the office. -Alex On 10/13/07, Chris Messina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I'm not sure how helpful my advice/experience will be, but #1 if you > run the space, it's your job to set the mood/tone/standards for > behavior. Therefore, if there's someone unruly or who is generally > affecting negatively the atmosphere of a coworking space, it's up to > you to protect the space from this kind of unwanted intrusion. > > It's the same with an online community or social network. The host of > the venue is more or less responsible, at a macro level, to make sure > everyone feels comfortable and is taken care of. That's not to let off > each individual coworker from managing their own happiness and > contentedness, but when things go wrong, it is important to know in > advance who can make things right. > > For Citizen Space, we actually have no contracts with our tenants. > Instead we employ an emergent mutual-respect model. In others, we > treat people like responsible adults and expect them to do the same to > us in return. In nearly a year of running our space this way, we've > not had any issues with our tenants. > > The one issue we did run into was with a community wine-tasting event. > At the time, we didn't charge any money for such events to use our > space. Ironically, this lead to a strange kind of attitude of > entitlement about the use of our space. After the first event (which > left the space unkempt and rather dirty), we put the event planner on > notice. After the second event where the planner was rude to the > coworkers, we disinvited him and told him to go elsewhere. It was a > painful experience, but in order to protect the positive atmosphere of > the space, we had to intervene and cut out the negative influence the > event was having. > > After that, we started charging a basic $25 fee to use the space for > non-profit or small interest groups; more for folks who were charging > access to their event. > > We never entered into any legal agreements with anyone who used the > space in this way either. > > Now, I'll contradict myself a little and suggest that you do clearly > spell out expectations and roles. Everyone who visits a coworking > space or hosts and event at one should have some boundaries and those > boundaries should be clearly stated and ideally written down. We have > some of these expectations and responsibilities on this page: > > http://citizenspace.us/pricing/ > > Anyway, it's different for every place, but what I do know is that > trying to predict everything bad that might happen in advance and > guarding yourself against it will invariably decelerate serendipity > (we emphasis *accelerating serendipity*), will potentially reduce > trust and will also leave you bound by rules that may not actually > apply or make any sense after 2 or 3 months. > > Again, after almost a year, we only have one or two things that we > could have made rules against, but still we've decided to go with > lower overhead and spend more time getting to know and building trust > relationships with our community and with our tenants. I won't speak > for Citizen Space coworkers, but I think that this has resulted in > much more positive energy for the space and greater and more > widespread sense of ownership and pride in the space that, as far as > we're concerned, is as good as any kind of legal protection. > > Knock on wood, right?, but if I were you, I'd try to keep it light and > focus my energies on a document that captures clearly what my > expectations are of coworkers, but also what coworking tenants should > expect of me and of the space. > > Chris > > On 10/13/07, Fernando Maclen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I see the coworking spaces pictures on their websites and everybody > > looks happy and having a great time, but what happens when there's a > > member that makes trouble? > > > > Does the contract he/she signs has any topic about canceling the > > membership? Is it legal to kick him out whenever you feel it doesn't > > belong to the space? Do you need approval from the rest of the > > members? Are you protected against a lawsuit from this trouble member? > > > > I would really appreciate the advice on this, I'm about to meet a > > lawyer in a couple of days but I want your opinion first. > > > > Thanks! > > > > ------- > > Fernando Maclen > > * Starting a space in Buenos Aires (Argentina) > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Chris Messina > Citizen Provocateur & > Open Source Advocate-at-Large > Work: http://citizenagency.com > Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog > Cell: 412 225-1051 > IM: factoryjoe > This email is: [ ] bloggable [X] ask first [ ] private > > > > -- ----- -- ----- Alex Hillman web.developer.innovation.consultant vocal: 484.597.6256 digital: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | skype: dangerouslyawesome visual: www.weknowhtml.com | www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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