I'm just going to past Tony's email that begun this thread here because, well, this is getting out of hand:
Hey all. Serious stuff here. Let's take a step back for a second. I believe we are in a dangerous place right now, because money is involved, and everybody is going to have an opinion on how it should be distributed, who should be involved, who has what percent control over what, etc etc etc. The thing that makes this coworking movement so nice is that it's a decentralized "starfish" organization with no leadership structure, hierarchy, or bureaucracy. The coworking concept is one which we all subscribe to, and that concept lives outside of any formal entity. This group, the wiki, and the blog were carefully crafted with the idea in mind that they facilitate communication amongst a body of people who subscribe to this concept. We're going to have to work on making this thing as fair as possible, but I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY advise that we do NOT try to go in ANY direction which takes us down a path of centralization, raising more money, or hierarchy. This domain purchase was done to secure our word and our movement against co-opting from an external interest, and that's it. The site should be super simple, continue to facilitate conversation and information sharing in an open, decentralized way, and nothing more. If those things are to exist, they should exist outside of the coworking.com discussion, when we're able to think about it for more than a couple of days. I gave my money to Alex with clear terms that he set, and I trust him to use those funds to act in the best interests of the movement, and that's it. I don't want a vote, I don't want a board seat. That being said, we just witnessed how much power we collectively have to pool together our resources and accomplish something. If a group of people wants to form an organization that does similar such things, like conferences and software and whatever else, that sounds like a really cool thing to work on. But it should be separate from this domain discussion. The terms Alex suggested are imperfect, and will have to be improved to better facilitate the participation of everyone who believes in what coworking is all about. But injecting structure and hierarchy will do a lot more bad than good. The same way the current blog/wiki/group sites are managed in the background by people who have the best interests of the movement at heart, so too should this domain be managed in a lightweight, nonbureaucratic, and effective manner. Love you guys. Let's keep coworking the beautiful starfish that it is. Tony --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Work City - Work with, not for. Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc Email: [email protected] Phone: (888) 823-3494 On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 8:54 AM, Tara Hunt <[email protected]> wrote: > Reminder that 501c3 or whatever non-profit status ironically costs about > $20k after filing and legal fees (there is a helluvalotta paperwork) and > requires gobs of administrative work and reporting going forward, meaning > you need to hire people for money to do that for you as it's awfully > complicated. > > I watched Freecycle go through this painful process and they really regret > it. > > T > > > On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:19 AM, rachel young <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> Ah, thanks for the clarification. Learning the a corporate structures of >> other countries has been a steep learning curve, but this does make sense. >> You do have a lot of lobby groups, after all. :-P >> r. >> >> >> >> >> On 23 February 2010 01:32, Mike Schinkel <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Hi Rachel, >>> >>> >>> This is great stuff, really! Thanks for all the effort. >>> >>> One point of note on your non-profit "con" about political lobbying, at >>> least in the USA, if an organization elects 501(h) instead of 501(c)(3) then >>> they can lobby. Generally, organizations that make the 501(h) election under >>> the 1976 lobbying law may spend 20% of the first $500,000 of their annual >>> expenditures on lobbying ($100,000), 15% of the next $500,000, and so on, up >>> to $1 million dollars. >>> >>> >>> http://www.muridae.com/nporegulation/lobbying.html#lobbying_who_may >>> >>> >>> http://www.asaecenter.com/PublicationsResources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=12202 >>> >>> >>> -Mike Schinkel >>> Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking >>> http://ignitionalley.com >>> >>> P.S. I've recently looked into this issue for another non-profit I'm >>> setting up. :) >>> >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<coworking%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. >> > > > > -- > tara 'missrogue' hunt > > Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://www.thewhuffiefactor.com) > Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com) > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue > phone: 514-679-2951 > -- tara 'missrogue' hunt Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://www.thewhuffiefactor.com) Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue phone: 514-679-2951 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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.
