David, We were in this exact situation. We were meeting for regular Jelly's, and I ran into the owner of a local interactive agency. He said he was willing to offer his excess office space for coworking, if members paid a low ($10) drop-in rate (all of it goes towards to the owner). It has worked out well for both sides. He gets something in return for his unused space. We get a beautiful space to work in. We have 4-6 people who work 2-3 days a week here now.
But we have run into limitations. For example, he had some restrictions on signange and restrictions on 24x7 access, e.g. local user groups meeting in the evenings. That is all fine, after all it is his building. It just means it's time for us to get our own space, which we are in the process of doing. The owner is a good guy, and is pretty in tune with what we are trying to do, he just has his own expenses, which is understandable. So my advice would be to go ahead and do it in order to build momentum. Hopefully their attitudes are aligned with yours. Know that eventually you'll probably want a space of your own if you want to see this thru. Gerard Sychay http://www.cincycoworks.com On Mar 26, 9:37 am, CoWorker <da...@visitgmd.com> wrote: > Fellow co-workers, > > I'm in the throws of opening a space and have been knocking around > this group for a while now. I've looked at prospective buildings, > done some community building and created a website for people to > register their interest. > > Recently, I was approached by a respected local design agency with a > potential offer to share their existing office. > > It sounds like an interesting idea but I'm concerned that it might > feel like we are just 'lodging' in their vacant desks, as opposed to > creating and nurturing an independent movement where the core values > are collaboration, openness, community, accessibility and > sustainability. > > Has anyone here found themselves in a similar position and if so, were > you able to find any middle ground? > > Am I being over protective of the co-working ethos? Maybe this is a > good thing to be closely linked with a respected and long standing > agency. > > Any thoughts on this would be very welcome. > > David. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
