Notes from last night's dedicated space meeting

[Tony]

Last night's meeting was great, if for no other reason than I was able
to see a lot of the awesome people I've been speaking to and
interacting with over the past six months all in one room together,
discussing our common interest in building a coworking space.

A few notes:

=== 1. The name ===

We discussed this a lot, and could not draw any conclusions on the
name. More names got nominated, but no true front runner emerged. We
tabled the name discussion in favor of making progress on other
fronts.

I added a couple more of the ones I wrote down from the meeting last
night to the Bricabox, which I strongly encourage you to participate
in and comment on: http://nycoworkingspacenames.bricabox.com/

I believe we can expect Bricabox will be updated sometime next week
with a five-star-rating system, so you can be free to weigh in on each
name as opposed to simply indicating your support of each one.

Cowork City is my personal front runner right now. Evokes the city,
relatively catchy, easy to spell, dot com is available (after stupid
Netsol domain tasting is overwith... jerks).

Though I think Startup Alley is still the strongest brand among the
contenders, exclusivity connotations notwithstanding.


=== 2. Founding Members: What it entails ====

We talked at length about what exactly would be asked of a founding
member. This would be a person or startup who wants to not just move
into the space but take part in planning, implementing, and
administering the space.

We came up with the following things:

1. They would likely assume a portion of the responsibility for the
space. In other words, someone has to be liable for the lease, and the
founding members together would constitute that liability.

2. They would be gatekeepers of the space, with physical keys and a
say on who stays and goes. They'd be responsible for making sure the
space is kept under relative control, and the space will not be open
unless at least one of them is there to let people in and keep an eye
on things.

3. They would likely need to pay 2-3 months rent up front as a way of
offsetting move-in and lease-signing costs. This may change based on
how the space is ultimately funded, but we can consider this to be
likely until we have reason to believe otherwise.

4. Members would have their names featured somewhere online and would
likely have some sort of special signage in the physical space.

5. They would have a say in how the space is run. Decisions would be
made by committee.

6. Tricky subject... given their willingness to take a risk in running
the space, they may be entitled to breaks in their membership fees
should the space become profitable enough. Given our current business
models, I would expect any profits would be put towards a rainy-day
fund or toward space improvements, but it is something that should be
kept in mind as such a circumstance is a possibility. I would suggest
we not worry about this now and decide what to do with all our excess
money once we get to that point :-)


=== 3. Additional things to keep in mind ===

- Property insurance versus other insurance: Liability, etc
- Cleaning services costs
- Offer equipment locks for monitors/computers/etc which can be used
to secure equipment?
- Keep in mind ways to protect dedicated desk members' stuff from
abuse during events... keep in mind when laying out the space.


== 4. Moving forward ==

1. Current people who are interested in being founding members / full
time members:
--- Jeff (+2)
--- Jeremy
--- Kareem (+1)

That's six potential full-time members off the bat. I know a couple
more beyond that. Not a bad start!

2. How best to move forward: we agreed we can continue discussion
electronically here, which will be helpful when I'm out of town
starting next Friday.

Do we still want to have an in-person meeting to make more headway
next Tuesday? Up to you guys... this is a good excuse for me to try
out this social decisionmaking site I heard about today:
http://doodle.ch/m9ny2xa54zypbkip


Thanks to those who made it out last night, I hope the meeting was
productive for you too. Please add your notes as you see fit!

[Jennifer Hall]

Thanks Tony for the notes.

jennifer

*********************
Jennifer S Hall
212 731 2508
512 656 0429 (cell)