The answers I think are yes and yes, but the first one is a hurdle that several spaces have tried to clear over the years, some more successfully than others.
We had a really interesting discussion on this board about something similar to #1 which was initiated by Will Bennis, though he did not frame it the same way. Here it is: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!searchin/coworking/Will$20Bennis%7Csort:date/coworking/KSj1E913T_k/LRB3IF7JPB8J For it to happen in an organic way (sticking with the seed metaphor) your best bet is to locate a sub-community within your community and transplant them to a space focused on their needs I think. For us that was Internet based retail and services which 1) have some identifiable shared needs and/or some identifiable shared values and/or 2) have some needs which can be problematic for other coworkers. (Packing and storage space which just sort of spreads out all over the place like a crawling ooze). I have helped some folks with #2 in their setup phase. It can be done, there are some legal issues to look out for if the faith based entity has restrictions on coworkers. The line between identifying allied businesses and illegal discrimination is not always obvious to people who have a particular point of view. And I mean that without rancor; often they do not see it. Also, zoning. :-) But in general it is a really fun and inspiring experience. I recommend it. Shoot me an email if you like, Jeannine @ Opencoworking.org. We can put up a page on the Wiki just for you guys to collaborate if you like. Cheers, Jeannine On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 10:04:46 PM UTC+2, Jennifer Kready wrote: > > As I don't have a space yet, so I host cowork mornings at coffee shops my > community. This morning we were talking about coworking and two of us were > pastors. The pastors were seeding a church and coworking offers them a > place to meet, but they were also interested in hosting coworking for their > parishoners and general public within the church. The pastors helped us > understand how a church seeds future churches, from within the sponsorship > church walls. So I wonder... > > - Can an established cowork space 'seed' a future cowork space? > > - Can a cowork be seeded from a faith based entity? > - As most of us know, church space is pretty empty during the day > and the church knows they're spending a lot to maintain these unused > spaces, too. Without the typical fear of 'our coworkers will be > evangelized', is it possible to partner with a church (rental contract > perhaps) to use their space to grow a community (outside the coffee > shop) > and move them to a cowork space? > > Jen > -- 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 [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
