They would want you to ask an early adopter who has proven they can be a productive part of the community to leave if a brand new unknown unproven person came along? I wonder if you'd have a hard time getting members if they knew there was an end date to their membership. In fact, I wouldn't be comfortable calling it a membership at all. What they'd have is a fixed term rent with little to no chance of extension. It's pure office rental, not community building. This certainly wouldn't allow for seasoned members to advocate the space on your behalf. And what are these early adopters to do after the first year? Go back to the distractions of working from home or the noise and annoyance of coffee shops? They may as well start somewhere else where their membership won't be terminated strictly because the calendar says so and some young buck comes along. The first in/first out rule is the most ridiculous condition I've ever heard.
I can sort of see why they wouldn't want part time memberships, but I'm confused as to why they would be collecting the funds. As the space owner or manager, that would be your job, yes? They are a university, surely they can take multiple payments. And if they want to see many people using the space, part time memberships are perfect for that, so why put the onus on the member to collect the fees and be responsible for the other members using that desk? Surely that's a lot to ask of someone who is just trying to make ends meet and pay their own bills and grow their business. If your facility is full in its full year, congratulations! You shouldn't be punished for it, nor should your members. These are major red flags in my opinion. I would proceed with caution. It sounds to me like they want a regulated club with ridiculous rules, not a productive shared space where business owners can grow and learn from one another. Keep us updated? r. * * On 7 April 2011 04:41, CoWorker <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all. > > It's been a few months since my last post and could really do with > some advice. So, we've been working with the local university and > government for quite a while now to get our site open and I had a > progress meeting earlier in the week. I discovered that a few odd > conditions of membership have crept in. The two that I'd like to ask > advice on are these... > > 1. If, after 12 months there is a waiting list, the first member to > join will be asked to leave to make way for a new member. So, first > one in, first one out rule. If no waiting list exists, you will be > offered a 3 month extension. > > 2. Part time membership is not an option. Instead, one person will > need to commit to a desk/office and then find others to chip in and > share the cost. There will however, have to be a single designated > person who is responsible for the payment and conditions of the > agreement. > > From what I can gather, what's driving these conditions is > accessibility and the recovery of fees. Firstly, they seem concerned > that people might not get an opportunity to experience the centre > because it will be full in the first year, so they need to make room > for more people to join. Secondly, they are not willing/able to > collect fees from a larger number of part timers. They also believe > that by letting people share a membership, they are making the centre > more accessible to a larger number of people because, by sharing the > cost of a desk/office, it becomes more affordable. > > I wanted to try and digest these revelations before asking for a > sanity check from you guys but, which ever way I look at these > conditions, they seem counter productive and flawed. Am I being > unfair? Are they actually really good ideas? Am I missing something? > Does anyone else operate a similar model? > > I'd really love to hear what you guys make of this, please. > > Cheers, > > David. > > -- > 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.
