Stephanie We're in the same boat here. Three of us funded our space and two of us work here full time. My office for my business, DoingMedia LLC is here. The other partner working in the space full time is also my wife. She acts as a kind of concierge. Between us we've had some push pull on how the space operates. I'm for "let everyone do as they will in an adult manner". She is more in management mode; she spent a long time as a retail store manager. That customer service background is perfect for a coworking space but the "managing" part is not so hot.
We are still in the mode of having people asking us for permission. So, when they ask I just tell them to go ahead, use your judgement, play well with others, etc. The rules in the kitchen are if you make it dirty then make it clean, if you rearrange it then rearrange it back, etc. But since my wife is more interested in running it like a business and not a community our members DON'T step up to do things, caretake, etc. because they don't have to. (My wife is great but she has said herself that she may not be a good fit for a coworking space.) We will soon have a member/regulars meeting to talk about how things work and how things need to work. I would suggest that you explicitly tell people to STOP asking you permission to do things. Then if somebody does something out of bounds you talk to them and start to set some norms. But now set the norm to be wild, wild west. Sort of like keeping your blog wide open to commenting and then adding moderation when the need arises. That's my $.02. Cheers! Todd O'Neill Catalyst/Partner C4 Workspace On Aug 30, 7:20 am, Stephanie Booth <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi folks! > > Haven't been very active here lately, but eclau, the coworking space I > started in Lausanne, has been doing well: I was recently able to build a > not-too-shabby conference room in the back of the space (not easy to > photograph, buthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bunny/4716835802/) and we're > going to celebrate the space's two year birthday in November. > > I'd be interested in hearing what kind of LEGAL structure your coworking > spaces have, and how it's working out for you. > > In the case of eclau, I'm the person who signed the lease and who is "the > boss". I'm aware this makes for a pretty different atmosphere than a > coworking space which is run, for example, as a non-profit. However, I'm > very open to listening to the other coworkers (I think!) and encourage > people to speak up if they have suggestions or issues. In the end, yes, I'm > the one who makes decisions, and the space isn't a democracy, but I leave a > huge amount of space for people to make themselves "at home". > > I recently discovered this was not working as well as I thought it was, when > a few people complained that they couldn't feel at home because it was "my" > space, and that there was no point in making suggestions as I could say no. > (On the other hand, many people reacted to this internal "blow-up" by saying > they really didn't see where the problem was and were perfectly happy with > the way things were. So, I'm not /too/ worried.) > > I guess I'm struggling a bit to find a balance between my need to remain the > "owner" of the vision for the space, the fact that I'm legally the tenant, > and my desire to encourage coworkers to get more involved. Am I wanting the > impossible, here? > > I'm looking forward to hearing your stories, bearing in mind that the legal > issues may differ from country to country. > > Cheers > > Steph > > -- > Espace Coworking Lausanne:http://eclau.ch| Genève:http://la-muse.ch > Spécialiste en management de communautés & médias > sociaux:http://www.sawi.com/fr/Nos_formations/SMCM > web:http://stephanie-booth.com| blog:http://climbtothestars.org > skype: steph-booth | cell: +41 78 625 44 74 | twitter: stephtara | AIM: > Gummywabbit > geotag: Lausanne, CH (GMT+1) | For the rest... Google me! -- 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.
