Tom: I too would be very interested in learning about how you identified and invited the 20 non-profits for you "Friends of" program. I look forward to learning more.
I concur with Alex ... great post. Tracy Wilson [email protected] On Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 2:50:07 AM UTC-8, Tom Lewis wrote: > > We have a very similar demographic to you in that most of our members are > older, married with kids, and few can afford to live in the centre of Bath, > so people commute in and out. This means that there is limited demand for > memberships outside the 9-5. We looked at doing community memberships, > partly because we do have people asking about the benefits we offer > (discounts at local cafes and events etc) but we decided that it would end > up diluting our community not enhancing it. I think an important thing to > remember is that all communities are different, and we all approach > coworking in the way that suits our community (both inside and outside the > physical space) best. We were worried that we'd lose what makes our space > special. However, we so worry about being seen as cliquey or elitist. > > So, what we've done is turn the situation around. We've taken the > approach that we should make ourselves more attractive for those who could > enhance the community, and who can actually come here, but who aren't able > to do so (mostly due to cost). So we've done three things to address this > > 1. About a year ago we launched our 'Friends of The Guild' programme where > we invited 20 local not for profits/charities to take us up on the offer of > a free membership. This has been a huge success- not only do these > organisations really benefit in terms of practical things like fast > internet access, but they've embraced being members and have gained a new > platform to share what they do with our other (paying) members. It's > really enriched our community, and we've found more events happening, more > goodwill and an overall better sense of mission. The NFP's also spend lots > of money on room hire, which we didn't plan, but they tell us they'd rather > spend it with us than anywhere else (obv we give them max discount) > > 2. We realised that we have a very small but loyal subculture here of > people working late, many of whom are second jobbers or on the side > startups. We've decided to formalise this and are about to offer night owl > memberships, at a very affordable price, so we can attract people who > otherwise couldn't afford to be here- particularly younger people, > students, older people. We are discussing how much day time use to include > as well, because we don't want these night time members to be strangers. > > 3. We've identified some areas of diversity where we are lacking (and > we're a city of 80,000 mostly wealthy, mostly middle class, mostly white > people so it's not easy). We're going to offer really juicy 'getting > started' discounts to younger people, people who have just started a > business, and return to work parents > > We hope that this is a constructive way of enriching our community. I > always have in the back of my mind Alex H's words of wisdom- it's all about > net givers not net takers. We're looking for more net givers, who will > take a free/discount membership and give something back. That's our best > approach to building community outside our core rack rate paying members > > On Friday, 27 January 2017 22:15:16 UTC, Julia Ferguson wrote: >> >> Cowork Frederick has been considering adding a community membership - one >> that does not include any use of our coworking space, but are struggling >> with why someone would want such a thing. We want to position the >> membership correctly and make sure there is real value there before we >> starting signing people up. >> >> Members of Cowork Frederick like the friendships they've built here and >> most of our members freely talk about how they are more successful, more >> productive, or just plain happier because of the other members in the >> community. That's pretty cool, but it currently happens because they come >> here to work and are running into each other, getting to know each other. >> Because our members haven't been interested, we don't have a lot going on >> outside of people coming together to work. 80% of our members are married >> with children and, when they are not working, they want to be home with >> their families. >> >> To those who have community (only) memberships - what sorts of things do >> you do to help those who don't come into your space to work connect and get >> value from their membership? >> >> We've just relaunched a lunch & learn series (members teaching members) >> and do a something social (networking without networking) each month. We're >> also on the verge of launching a program that aims to bring leads to our >> freelance members. We have a Slack group, but it's not very active. There >> are many, many Meetup groups and other ways people can find others of >> like-mind and connect free of charge. I can't get my head around why >> someone pay us for a community membership. >> >> Why would you say your community members pay you for their membership? >> What value do they get? >> > -- 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.
