+1 what Alex said. You can get lots of participation, discussion and a sense of ownership without burdening members with the niceties of legal entities. I'm the only owner/manager of Cohere, LLC. Keeps us nimble and there's no bureaucracy! -Angel
On Apr 25, 7:30 am, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> wrote: > Our decision to be a for-profit LLC is one of sustainability. Decision > making as a large group means more people need to be aligned in order to > make important decisions quickly. Once you get past 3 people, that speed > tends to become a relative impossibility. I'm always dubious of the notion > of a "board" existing before membership in any community, since I've yet to > be around one that actually moves as quick as the community needs it to. > > By keeping our legal ownership small and aligned, we remain agile and able > to do remarkable things when necessary because we know that there are only > two of us, and we're making decisions based on core values not on ego... > > By making sure that the legal owners (Geoff and I) are aligned with the > members, we've been able to work to make sure that the *sense of ownership > that counts*, the sense of pride and stewardship for the community, is more > valuable to the members than actual ownership. > > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/11/coworking-as-a-business-it-has-... > > The fact of the matter is, there's not a lot of actual benefit to being an > owner of a coworking space. There's more benefit to being a member, in my > experience. > > So I'd flip the desire to turn members into owners on its head and say - > what's a model where the owners are motivated to be active members of the > community. > > One final thought - ownership creates a stratification, even if it's only > mental, amongst the participants. A quote from a book I'm working my way > through right now seems appropriate: > > "In communities, even the leaders aren't your bosses. They are your peers." > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 9:10 AM, rachel young <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I love co-ops, and I'm a member of a few. I think they work well for many > > types of business. We considered starting our space as co-op, but changed > > our minds. I've set up a co-op before, and (here in Ontario, at least) it > > was a tremendous amount of red tape and government involvement for something > > that can be just far easier when registering as a private business. So > > instead we try to operate as much as possible like a co-op by involving our > > members in decisions and soliciting feedback from them as much as possible, > > and profits have gone back into what the space needs. > > > However, we did propose the idea of a co-op to a group of folks that joined > > us for our first town hall meeting when we were doing our initial outreach > > to the community, and one private comment from the crowd stood out for us, > > which was something along the lines of "I struggle to make my own business > > work; I can't help to run your business too." He was just one person, but we > > know the rule that if one person says something there might well be several > > who are thinking it. So, that combined with my experience in setting up a > > co-op changed our minds. > > > Plus there's the issue with that pesky hyphen... :-P > > r. > > > *____________________ > > rachel young > > *[email protected] > > > * > > * > > > On 25 April 2011 08:43, Mark Nolte <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Are any of your coworking spaces a cooperative in legal structure? We are > >> considering this model of shared ownership and would appreciate anyone > >> offering up their thoughts on pros and cons of such a model > >> Thanks Mark. [email protected] > > >> Sent from my iPhone > > >> -- > >> 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. -- 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.
