Glad to hear that, Randy. My hope, other than to get help, was to highlight an issue others might have or are having to face. Congrats on your growing community by the way!
What was the effect when you changed your organizations name? Both within the group and outside? It sounds like you already had a decent following at the time you made that decision. One of the things I also realized in creating the name on my own, is that I had potentially missed out on a great opportunity for community involvement. Had I waited, the community could have helped come up with the name and as a result felt a stronger connection with it. My only issue with this is how do I go about that now that I have a name, and one that I feel is not suitable to continue with? The only viable solution I can think of for a scenario where the community-to-be helps pick is one where I keep the current name and wait until said community grows before we change it. I just don't want to rename it now, on my own, only to be in this same situation another 9 months from now. I could do something generic for the time being - E.g. Alaska Jelly Group - and wait for the community. Though I feel changing it (generic name) and then changing it again (community derived name) will have negative side effects. There is also the distinct possibility I am overthinking this. But I feel like it's an issue worth talking about. On Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:19:34 PM UTC-9, Texrat wrote: > > It's an interesting topic to me, Job, especially since it hits home. > > Over a year ago I started to pull together a local maker community in my > area. After many coffee shop meetups, several people settled into a > collection of leaders. At initial meetings that subject of identity came > up, and I had thoughts similar to yours: I felt we needed to build > community first, then start a physical makerspace once we had an > organization established. I also believed our org name should identify the > community first, space(s) second. > > I was outvoted at first and we came to be Fort Worth Makerspace. Over > time, as our purpose evolved more to favor community education powered by > partnerships, everyone realized we wouldn't be just one physical space > ultimately but many. In fact we are working on two now, partnering with a > library and university respectively. And so everyone else changed their > mind to abstract the organization from physical spaces-- our organization > became Tarrant Makers, named after our county to identify our physical > reach. > > So I can understand your dilemma. Your name, brand, identity-- whatever > you call it, it creates an image in the minds of your community, customers, > partners and sponsors. You have to think deep about who and what you are, > what needs you intend to fill going forward, how you wish to be perceived. > It sounds like you already have a good idea which way you're going to go. > Hope my rambling helped. > > Randy > Tarrant Makers > > > On February 20, 2014 at 12:06 AM Job Sonnentag > <j...@alaskazone.com<javascript:>> > wrote: > > About a year ago I decided to start a coworking space here in Alaska. I > figured it needed a name, so that it could grow and be referenced. That > name is CrankSpace. As luck would have it, one of the first things I > realized, was that I actually didn't want to start a space, I wanted to > build a community. And eventually, when our community needed it, we would > find a location to house it. > > So a year has gone by and we have a name which presumes we have the one > thing we actually don't - space - and, I feel, vocalizes a value I don't > see in that one thing. At least not direct value. > > My question is this: Does it matter? I would love for it to be a > community decision, but despite being at it for almost a year, we don't > have much of an active one yet. I feel I'm losing connection with the name > because it promotes values I don't believe in and fear it having a negative > impact. My fear in changing it is loss in recognition, perceived flakiness > or lack of viability. Not sure what to do with this one. > > *TL:DR* - I feel our name doesn't fit our goals anymore. Does it matter? > > Job > > > -- > 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 coworking+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > Randall (Randy) Arnold > Developer and Enthusiast Advocate > http://texrat.net > +18177396806 > -- 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 coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
