Caroline Collective has a full time Operations Manager, Danielle, who takes an active role in running the space far beyond office management tasks. Danielle recently received her undergraduate and is trying to figure out her next steps, she currently has the time and financial freedom to accept what little we can compensate her. For a space as large as Caroline with so many different things going on it's been an absolute necessity to have her in every day. It allows Ned and I the freedom to take off-site meetings or for Ned, go into school for the day/night.
Her responsibilities are not limited to: 1. Upon arrival in the morning (Ned and I open every morning), empty the trash cans, check the coffee amount and walk the space and exterior for debris and misplaced items. 2. Greet people when they come in, have them sign in, tweet from the Caroline account about their arrival, give them a tour or explain coworking if need be. 3. Event booking including giving tours to people looking to rent the space for their own events, managing Caroline events including posts to the website, facebook/upcoming invites. 4. Schedule meetings for Ned and myself, pay bills, organize, errands, research, assist coworkers on small projects. 5. Develop her own project at Caroline that will give her related experience for her next job or graduate school in Japanese studies. If you're thinking about whether to get office help, a receptionist, assistant or the like, an incomplete list of considerations are 1) size 2) culture, 3) financial cost. 1) Size Caroline Collective has two buildings with no less than four entrances and exits. It's possible for people to walk onsite and offsite without anyone seeing them. We feel that we need someone around who is willing and available to greet and give tours or explain what's going on. Smaller spaces may not even have this consideration if the coworking space is in one room or a series of rooms. 2) Culture The work culture will vary at every space and a protocol should be in place to handle new visitors to the space, even if it's just to say hello. If the principals have heavy travel schedules or the full- timers are uninterested in showing around every new person who comes in, an office manager could fill this position. Places like Citizen Space that have a welcoming culture don't have to worry about this sort of thing because everyone that comes in is either greeted or looked at to see if they need anything. 3) Financials Many of the systems set up in coworking minimize expenditures by addressing "actual need" vs. "desires." A full-time person on duty is not always necessity for a fully functioning office or coworking space. While someone on duty can increase efficiency and/or reduce work for the full-timers and principals of the space, it is still an extra expenditure. Based on size, culture or the presence of the principals, this member of the coworking space may not be needed. Matthew On Nov 25, 7:06 am, "Rosie Sherry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It's a challenge that we have faced at The Werks. > > In the early days we tried our best to be around. There's 5 of us all > together, but we are all part time. One is part time student helping out > with finances, other is part time admin/customer service, then there are 3 > of us who 'own' the space but we all have other things to attend to. I, for > example, can only be around during school hours. Or when my son decides to > go and break his leg I can't be around at all (!). > > The Werks is fairly large and a mix of studio space, desk space and > coworking - quite intentionally evenly split to create a flow. We are > determined not to be an office space to cater for everyone's needs this > means we spend less on admin which also means we charge less. It's not just > about reducing costs though it's also about getting everyone involved. > > We have part time cowerker deal where people don't get a set of keys. Also, > drop ins are welcome, but they obviously don't get keys. Full time-ish > cowerkers get keys as do deskspace and studio space people. > > We try to answer the phone as much as possible, but quite often we are > running around the building attending to stuff. > > However, when people sign up we make it clear what the deal is: > > - we're not here to attend to their every need > - we try our best to be around > - we will support them wherever possible > - if we are not around other people answer the buzzer, make sure they are > known, let them in and even show them around the building if no one is here > to do that. The more experienced people do this, the new ones see it > happen > and will probably eventually get the opportunity to do it one day :) > - we provide the tools for people to clean up after themselves (washing > up liquid, sponges) > - everyone makes a conscious effort to support and meet the people around > them > - they know who and where to call if there is a serious problem > - werkers without keys are encouraged to come in from 10am. At the > moment there is always someone here to let them in, but in the early days > it > wasn't always the case so we had to make the extra effort to be around. > > On the face of it the typical person won't get this, but the actual result > it brings is lovely. Werkers/members end up feeling more responsible and > part of the community, and for us that is a big part of what we are trying > to achieve. > > 2008/11/24 jbb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > > Greetings, > > > This forum has been a wonderful resource. Thank you all! > > I am in the pre-catalyst (?) stage here in Portland Maine.I have the > > opportunity to lease a nice space, and am trying to work out the > > logistics. > > My obstacle right now is that in order to have flexibility in > > scheduling (drop-in, part-time, etc.) I believe I'd need someone to be > > at a front desk all the time. > > However, we don't have someone available to do that. I'd happily do it > > myself, but I travel too much. > > Hiring someone seems out of the question, being too expensive, even if > > they had something to do. (It's a small space. Three private offices > > and up to eight workstations.) > > For the ease of administration, I'm leaning toward just having people > > do full-time. Far better than working alone, but not the variety and > > flexibility I would ideally like. > > > So, I ask, what have other people done? > > > Any thoughts are much appreciated! > > > Jene > > -- > Rosie Sherrywww.rosiesherry.comwww.thewerks.org.ukwww.projectbrighton.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
