A little more background on our 2 former office managers and their stories:
http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2009/08/06/how-indyhall-got-the-best-office-manager-without-hiring-an-office-manager/ http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/11/a-story-of-discovering-potential/ -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected] > wrote: > First and foremost, it depends on the expectations of your members. But a > little about how we've handled things: > > We've been able to build ourselves in a way where there's a very strong > "DIY (do it yourself)" ethos to Indy Hall - if you see something that needs > doing, don't expect it to be done for you (it might be, but don't expect > it). On the same token, if there's something you want or need, ask, and if > there's a way we can help YOU accomplish it (not have it accomplished for > you), we're in. The result of this is: > > a) much lower overhead > b) much more interesting things are done (not just the things we can dream > up, but the things from the whole community) > c) spilling beyond Indy Hall's daily operations, a much stronger sense of > giving is embedded in our community. > d) people have much stronger sense of attachment to Indy Hall, since > there's a good chance that there's something in the room that they > contributed to in some way. our retention rates are ridiculously high > because of that last one. > > With that mentality in mind, we've been able to operate with one part time > person as the space administrator - being the friendly face at the door, > providing tours, being a consistant point of contact if/when something is > wrong, handling billing/invoicing, etc. Overall, though, even at our size > (~5000 square feet, 50+ desks, 130+ members, 5-10 dropins a day) its a part > time job. > > Because of that, we've taken a fundamentally unique approach to that role > in the fact that because the role is part time, we' specifically look for > people that want to be at Indy Hall - but have other things to work on. It > gives them the opportunity to use the perspective gained at the front desk > of Indy Hall to figure something out for themselves. > > We've had an art school grad become a software product manager/support > lead. We've had a psychology major become a video game designer. And our > latest addition, a program manager for the American Composer's Forum, is > finding himself while helping run our desk part time. Each time, within > ~12-18 months, that person's approach to their own professional course has > changed dramatically. > > We're looking for ways to extend this model into our own variation on an > "internship of self discovery", but in the mean time, have found that it's > the best way to create thick value for the space and the member handling the > space. > > -Alex > > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Jack <[email protected]> wrote: > >> We are going through the process of opening a space in Prescott >> (Launch Pad Prescott at http://launchpadprescott.wordpress.com/). We >> are trying to decide if we need to hire someone to act as the Space >> Manager/concierge and wanted input from other space owners on how they >> have handled that. >> Thanks >> >> -- >> 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. >> >> > -- 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.
