Tracking member usage

[Kelly Sims]

Hi Everyone,

I've made a little headway towards starting a new space. I'm gaining support and exposure, as well as help from great people in the area. Meetings tomorrow and later this week to discuss things. Very exciting! Just posted up an initial blog page to start sharing things as I go forward, http://coworkingsouthbay.com/

I have a question about tracking though. In researching many of the spaces around the world, most of you have plans in place that limit members to days/month or even hours/month. Add in conference room scheduling and that's a lot of tracking.

How do you all keep track of member usage? I'm sure there are many ways, card swipe machines, wifi tracking, spreadsheets (ugh). I'd love to hear how you keep it straight. Thanks!

Kelly

[WorkAround]

Hi Kelly-

Here at WorkAround we're just doing it the old fashion way, having
members sign into a book, with each member having their own page.
Right now a lot is based on the honor system, trusting the members
sign in when they come in and don't try and game the system. We don't
have 24 hr access, so have no need for key cards, giving out keys
etc. If you don't have the need for that, I would look into Cobot.me
(Cobot). They are a software system that can track through your
WiFi. You can have scheduling of conference rooms through it, will
keep track of your members etc. One of the things it can't do though
is track if your members don't happen to sign into WiFi and choose not
to sign into Cobot, they could basically be there and not sign it, in
essence giving them a 'free day'. Again knowing your members and
building a trust with them is one of the key elements.

I'm sure you'll get others here that can comment with more experience
than myself.

John Burns
WorkAroundtc.com

[Thilo Utke]

Hi Kelly,

we use the wifi attendance tracking of cobot. Full disclosur, we have written the software to mangage our space initially before offering it to others.  We feel that wifi tracking is the best solution for us as it doesn't require a electronic door lock or other expensive equipment and is apart from the first login invisible for the coworkers. For us the tracking of attendance plus the booking of meeting rooms and equipment helps us to know what is going on in our space, to enforce certain plans is only secondary. As John said, if people don't use the Network where the attendance tracking is setup for they can evade the system. So it comes all down to trust and fairness as John said.

There are other ways though that have their advantage, e.g. if you invest in a key card system you have much more control over who is entering the physical space, a intern that does the tracking manually is way smarter than any system while signing in to a guest book has a connecting physical experience.

Just my two cents
Thilo

[Kelly Sims]

Thanks John. I'll take a look at Cobot!

[Kelly Sims]

Thanks for the input Thilo!