It's a great issue, Patrick. Thanks for posting about it. It's important to ensure all of your potential members have a minimum barrier to entry. For us, wanting people to feel welcome also came with the sense that we don't want people to worry about their time here - we want them to focus on what they're here for - work (ok and community, but I'm focused on a point :)). So making them track hours or days/week didn't work for us - we have a very simple monthly or daily option.
I think the important question to ask yourself is how much time management YOU want to be responsible for - do you want to have to manage the time of all of your members? Do you mind having to keep track of all of their time? Make sure you keep in mind the effect that changing your structure will have on you as the managers - it is nearly as important as the effect on your members. Keeping yourself sane in the madness that is starting your own space is key. The idea of punchcards makes life easy and keeps things flexible for members - puts the onus on them for knowing how much time (hours/days/ months) they've spent. I'd consider that as an option. As for evening/weekend hours, the way we take care of that is to give monthly members 24/7 access to the space. They get keycards and can let themselves in during off-hours. We have a process (albeit a developing one) and a little bit of paperwork in place to ensure that we are comfortable with the monthly members in the space, but the benefit of giving them full access is that we don't have to manage their time. The only hours we need to focus on are the 8:30 am - 6 pm hours we keep open for drop-ins. Pretty simple! Doesn't mean we're not here on nights and weekends, but in terms of "managed time" at the space, it is nice and regular for us. Good luck, and congrats on your first 2 months! Susan On Mar 27, 5:15 am, James McCarthy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 26 Mar 2008, at 22:41, Tara Hunt wrote: > > > It sounds counter-intuitive, but we found that the more 'flexible' > > we made a membership, the less people were likely to use them. Now > > we have two memberships: you have desk or you are a drop-in. :) Our > > desks are all full and we have a waiting list. > > +1 on this, I found the greater flexibility is in removing the need > for coworkers to have to think too hard about what option and payments > etc they have to choose so we settled on 3 offerings; > > Day Tripper: occasional and only during standard office hours (which > is pretty lax in Brighton). No fee, but it is nice if you put > something back in (whether in kind, a donation or just helping out > another coworker). > > Regular Joe: 2-3 times a week during standard office hours. Paid > subscription a month in advance $120 + Tax (60 GBP). > > Early Bird / Night Owl: 3-4 times a week, need to come and go outside > of standard office hours, get own keys. Paid subscription $200 + Tax > (100 GBP) plus key deposit $100. > > We don't track their time in detail it just adds overhead for us and > the members, the easiest way is to trust to people honour and it is > easy to spot if somebody is abusing the system. With a couple of > regular standing subscriptions people know what they are paying, know > the deal and don't have to spend any additional time during the month > thinking about what they are paying for coworking, the more choices > you give people, the more time they have to spend thinking about which > choice they are going to make. > > So in a nutshell, I say, condense things down to the simplest couple > of choices that people can make once a month or even offer 3 or 6 > month subscriptions and then add to that flexibility so people don't > feel they have to closely track their usage. > > James > > > > > T > > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 3:37 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > wrote: > > > Hi, > > > We (Station C) have been open for nearly 2 months and we're wondering > > if maybe a change in our plan structure would make sense. I'll detail > > them further down this message -- and our new idea -- and you can give > > me your opinion based on those details but my basic question would be: > > most of you don't offer hourly plans for desks. Why? > > > ---- > > > Right now we have resident members who have a reserved desk and full > > time access ($330/month), we'll keep those. > > > We also have Flex 14 and Flex 28 memberships who pay $143 and $236 a > > month for 14 and 28 hours a week between 9am and 6pm, to be booked > > online (through email currently). > > > Flex signups are a bit slower than expected (although we have more > > residents so we are a bit ahead of estimates overall) so we're > > thinking of retooling the Flex plans to Flex Points where members > > would buy bundles of points, something like 200 at $3.25/pt and use > > them whenever, again booked online, expiring after 6 months. 1 point > > for one desk hour, tbd number of points for meeting and conference > > room hours. We would also have smaller and larger bundles but the 200 > > would give members something similar to our current Flex 14 with the > > added bonus of more freedom, of skipping a week for a vacation or > > coming every day when in crunch mode. > > > Space isn't an issue, logistics neither since we have the webapp for > > booking in the works anyway. The big disadvantage for us would be no > > recurrent cash entry or at least more spreadout and maybe more > > uncertain renewals as well as, in theory, the potential for more > > booking conflicts if everyone "crunches at the same time". > > > The big advantage would be for members who don't have to worry wetter > > they'll use 14 hours every week, the setup would be even more flexible > > for them. We would be "gambling'" that more flexibility and simplicity > > means more members and if we're right everyone would be happy. > > > Last thing; we are also considering expanding business hours nights > > and saturday. > > > Thoughts? Questions? > > > Thx > > Patrick > > >http://station-c.com > > > -- > > tara 'miss rogue' hunt > > coFounder > > Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com) > > blog:www.horsepigcow.com > > phone: 415-694-1951 > > fax: 415-727-5335 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
