Re: [Coworking] It's all in a name. Or is it?

[Randall G. Arnold]

It's an interesting topic to me, Job, especially since it hits home.   Over a year ago I started to pull together a local maker community in my area.  After many coffee shop meetups, several people settled into a collection of leaders.  At initial meetings that subject of identity came up, and I had thoughts similar to yours: I felt we needed to build community first, then start a physical makerspace once we had an organization established.  I also believed our org name should identify the community first, space(s) second.   I was outvoted at first and we came to be Fort Worth Makerspace.  Over time, as our purpose evolved more to favor community education powered by partnerships, everyone realized we wouldn't be just one physical space ultimately but many.  In fact we are working on two now, partnering with a library and university respectively.  And so everyone else changed their mind to abstract the organization from physical spaces-- our organization became Tarrant Makers, named after our county to identify our physical reach.   So I can understand your dilemma.  Your name, brand, identity-- whatever you call it, it creates an image in the minds of your community, customers, partners and sponsors.  You have to think deep about who and what you are, what needs you intend to fill going forward, how you wish to be perceived.  It sounds like you already have a good idea which way you're going to go.  Hope my rambling helped.   Randy Tarrant Makers   On February 20, 2014 at 12:06 AM Job Sonnentag <j...@alaskazone.com> wrote: About a year ago I decided to start a coworking space here in Alaska. I figured it needed a name, so that it could grow and be referenced. That name is CrankSpace. As luck would have it, one of the first things I realized, was that I actually didn't want to start a space, I wanted to build a community. And eventually, when our community needed it, we would find a location to house it.    So a year has gone by and we have a name which presumes we have the one thing we actually don't - space - and, I feel, vocalizes a value I don't see in that one thing. At least not direct value.   My question is this: Does it matter? I would love for it to be a community decision, but despite being at it for almost a year, we don't have much of an active one yet. I feel I'm losing connection with the name because it promotes values I don't believe in and fear it having a negative impact. My fear in changing it is loss in recognition, perceived flakiness or lack of viability. Not sure what to do with this one.   TL:DR - I feel our name doesn't fit our goals anymore. Does it matter?   Job   -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.   Randall (Randy) Arnold Developer and Enthusiast Advocate http://texrat.net +18177396806 -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.