Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this issue - it's been really helpful.
On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 11:34 AM, Angel Kwiatkowski <[email protected]>wrote: > I have a thousand thoughts on this as Cohere has been through every > iteration in its life. > For 2 years, we've had 2-4 reserved desk members. I have loved it. > Those members provide a refreshing consistency to the membership and > the nature of their jobs just require them to have more "stuff" > around. Our reserved desks are also blended in next to the flex desks > so it's impossible to segregate away from the other members. > > We had a brief experiment where we put a new member who had large > equipment in a semi-private space next to the main space and it was > terrible. He would come in, head down, and not say hi to anyone or > stop to chat and then be in his space (literally 10 feet from us) but > never interacting. After 2 months he said he didn't feel like he was > part of the community and moved on to a real private office down the > street. Since leaving he's more involved with Cohere now and attends > our social events. Funny! > > Some of you might remember that I've spoken out strongly against > having private offices in coworking spaces and now I have to eat my > words...with a caveat. As Cohere was preparing to move in to a new > space, 2 of our founding members told me that their businesses had > evolved and grown and they both needed private offices for equipment, > pair programming and storage/ergonomics. Rather than cut them off, I > searched for a new space that could accommodate them. Our new space > still has a majority of open format working but now includes 4 private > offices. Those offices rented out immediately and are now the most > profitable part of Cohere. The best part is that our founding members > are still with us and are getting exactly what they need. They're SO > happy. > > The other 2 offices have brought new members with refreshing diversity > that I never could have planned. We have our first non profit that > does international service learning trips for high school students as > well as an online radio station run by high school students, for high > school students. With the recent addition of college memberships, our > members now range in age from 16-50. > > So the moral of the story-as always- is to make sure that you're > paying attention to ALL of your members and listening to what they > need. Accommodate if you can, be flexible where needed and try to say > YES! > > Angel > > On Jan 18, 7:54 pm, Tom Brandt <[email protected]> wrote: > > At Workanitle, we only have shared desks. We have been kicking around > > offering permanent desks, but wondered about possible differences in > > expectations and assumptions between permanent and shared deskers. > > > > Specifically, we wondered if permanent deskers would develop a sense of > > ownership and territoriality which could conflict with the shared > deskers. > > We have a really cohesive community here and don't want to disrupt it. > > > > So, for those who offer both: > > > > 1. Have you seen a culture or expectations clash between permanent and > > shared deskers? > > 2. Do permanent deskers want a different desk configuration than do > > shared deskers? For example, lockable drawers? > > 3. Any other things we should be thinking about? > > > > Thanks! > > > > -- > > twb > > member, Workantile Exchange <http://workantileexchange.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 at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- twb member, Workantile Exchange <http://workantileexchange.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 at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
