This pattern is fairly consistant in healthy coworking communities, and there's a reason for it.
Communities of Practice, a form of community known for efficiency in socially-incentivized knowledge management (the executive-speak version of *what we do*, for the uninitiated), is something I've been researching heavily thanks to some tips from Matthew Wettergreen at Caroline Collective. Not surprisingly, the "actions to cultivate a successful community of practice" list reads like my coworking crib notes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice#Actions_to_cultivate_a_successful_community_of_practice Relevant to this conversation is action #3: Welcome and allow different levels of participation - Wenger identifies 3 > main levels of participation. 1) The core group who participate intensely in the community through > discussions and projects. This group typically takes on leadership roles in > guiding the group 2) The active group who attend and participate regularly, but not to the > level of the leaders. 3) The peripheral group who, while they are passive participants in the > community, still learn from their level of involvement. Wenger notes the > third group typically represents the majority of the community. Sound familiar? Full time, lite, and basic membership, perhaps? Our basic membership & night owls, like Angel's "explorer lite", is a large percentage of our active membership (and always has been). The only difference is that nearly half of our basic members almost *never* use desks, and only attend events, workshops, etc. Not only is this an important community dynamic to build in support for, but it's good for the books, too. Our last balance sheet had basic membership + dropins accounting for between 1/3rd and 1/2 of our monthly revenue - and since those members have the lowest impact on desk availability, we can support even more of them. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski <[email protected]>wrote: > Leena just asked me via email "I saw that blog showing your weekly > trend, are you guys also tracking what type of members are using your > space weekly or monthly?" and I thought I'd post my reply here too in > case it helps... > > Hi Leena, > We have how many members of each type but don't go that granular with > record keeping yet. HOWEVER, I'd say that about 30% of members never > use the space and people with higher memberships (3, 4, 5 days/week) > use a smaller percentage of their total time than say someone with a 1 > day/week membership. The highest usage of membership is handsdown our > Night Owls. Nearly 100% of them attend for their 1 evening/week every > month. So, short story is....people with lower memberships have a > higher percentage of use than people with 3, 4, or 5 day week > memberships. > > > > On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 12:13 PM, leena <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Angel, > > I saw that blog showing your weekly trend, are you guys also tracking > what type of members are using your space weekly or monthly? > > > On Jun 17, 7:40 pm, Jerome Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > > super smart stats! > > > > Jerome > > ______________ > > BLANKSPACES > > "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" > > > > www.blankspaces.com > > ph: 323.330.9505 | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los > Angeles, CA 90036 > > ph: 310.526.2255 | 1450 2nd Street (@ Broadway), Santa Monica, CA 90401 > > > > On Jun 17, 2011, at 8:11 AM, Angel Kwiatkowski wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Our intern Phil just did a blog post for today that shows our data > > > since the beginning of the year. We've had between 30-40 members since > > > January. Check it out to see our trends by day. More blog posts are > > > coming with even more data!~ > > > > >http://coherecommunity.com/blog/coworking-membership-trends > > > > > Agnel > > > > > On Jun 17, 5:50 am, Bianca Rico <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Yes, exactly! Our shared members who drop in at any given time, are > > >> rarely here all at the same time. With over 50 shared members we have > 12 > > >> shared desks, and on a daily basis maximum 6 people come in at a time. > > > > >> On 6/16/2011 6:34 PM, Idham Abas wrote: > > > > >>> Hi guys, > > > > >>> This is a great resource for finding out more on coworking. I'm about > > >>> to start a coworking space in Brunei. Question is, how do I calculate > > >>> how many members I can have for my open space section that is members > > >>> who don't have a permanent desk or private office. I'm planning to > > >>> have about 20 tables and chairs for those monthly membership levels > > >>> that come in 3x any day of the week. Surely I can sign up more than > 20 > > >>> right? Cause not will come at the same time. > > > > >> -- > > >> Sincerely, > > >> Bianca Rico > > >> Client Services > > >> MiamiShared.com > > >> Tel: 305-929-8688, ext. 143 > > >> Fax: 305-397-1250http://www.miamishared.com > > > > > -- > > > 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 athttp:// > 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. 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