Community maturation
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Tony Bacigalupo
Feb 16, 2012, 1:17:02 PM2/16/12
to coworking
Hey hey everyone!
I've been thinking about the evolution of New Work City's community over the course of the past few years. I've noticed that it's changed quite a bit over time in terms of the kinds of things we do, the kinds of people who join, and the daily interactions. I used to think of some of these changes as bad signs, but now I'm not so sure.
Given how much has happened since we started, it makes sense that the culture and composition of the community would evolve accordingly. We went from a tiny sublet to a giant dedicated space, we changed neighborhoods, and we overhauled and improved everything over time.
I was 23 when I discovered coworking. Next month I'll be 29. When I first got into this, going out for beers or having a Guitar Hero night were logical community building exercises. Now, many if not most of my members are married, and many or most of them have kids. And the kids aren't old enough to drink beer yet, at least not in this country.
I was 23 when I discovered coworking. Next month I'll be 29. When I first got into this, going out for beers or having a Guitar Hero night were logical community building exercises. Now, many if not most of my members are married, and many or most of them have kids. And the kids aren't old enough to drink beer yet, at least not in this country.
So I feel like I should be adjusting my expectations to account for the natural evolution and maturation of the business, the members, and me. I'm just not sure what those expectations should look like.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Cheers,
Tony
PS - Jeremy Lin is my BFF.
Angel Kwiatkowski
Feb 18, 2012, 6:16:59 AM2/18/12
to Coworking
Tony,
I've been marinating on the same thing lately. I feel like I could
write a whole book on it :) Here are a few of my thoughts...
Our community has changed drastically in the last 6-9 months. At first
we had hoards of members who joined and never showed up. I think they
just got excited and wanted to be members but never figured out HOW to
be members. During our membership slump about 6 months ago, most of
those inactive members un-joined. At first, it was a huge hit to our
revenue and I felt worried but then without my emotional baggage of
trying to figure out how to engage of a bunch of people I never saw I
was able to focus on the ACTIVE members again. Now, out of 37 members,
I can count only 2 who I haven't seen in the past couple of months.
IT. IS. INCREDIBLE.
To now have most of our members engaged both in person and online has
allowed our community to mature and weather the annoyances of having
to move to our new office. I've noticed that nearly everyone is using
at least 75% of their membership days allotted to their membership
level. This has resulted in the members really getting to know one
another. There are far more shared lunch dates, coffee breaks and
outside of Cohere socializing than ever before. We also seen our first
start-up be born from Cohere by 4 formally freelance-only members who
have now banded together.
I've also noticed that the members used to want structured educational
classes...a LOT of them. Now, when I ask what they want to do, they
want more parties and socialization. I would have guessed that the
opposite would be true but not for us. In fact, I think our next 8
events are social only with no educational component.
Last, ya'll know I have a baby on the way so I'm finding more and more
in common with the parenting members of Cohere. I envision that I'll
naturally start to build in more family friendly activities in the
very near future.
This will likely be my last contribution to this group for several
weeks. I'll miss seeing you all at GCUC this year! Take lots of
pictures!!
Angel
I've been marinating on the same thing lately. I feel like I could
write a whole book on it :) Here are a few of my thoughts...
Our community has changed drastically in the last 6-9 months. At first
we had hoards of members who joined and never showed up. I think they
just got excited and wanted to be members but never figured out HOW to
be members. During our membership slump about 6 months ago, most of
those inactive members un-joined. At first, it was a huge hit to our
revenue and I felt worried but then without my emotional baggage of
trying to figure out how to engage of a bunch of people I never saw I
was able to focus on the ACTIVE members again. Now, out of 37 members,
I can count only 2 who I haven't seen in the past couple of months.
IT. IS. INCREDIBLE.
To now have most of our members engaged both in person and online has
allowed our community to mature and weather the annoyances of having
to move to our new office. I've noticed that nearly everyone is using
at least 75% of their membership days allotted to their membership
level. This has resulted in the members really getting to know one
another. There are far more shared lunch dates, coffee breaks and
outside of Cohere socializing than ever before. We also seen our first
start-up be born from Cohere by 4 formally freelance-only members who
have now banded together.
I've also noticed that the members used to want structured educational
classes...a LOT of them. Now, when I ask what they want to do, they
want more parties and socialization. I would have guessed that the
opposite would be true but not for us. In fact, I think our next 8
events are social only with no educational component.
Last, ya'll know I have a baby on the way so I'm finding more and more
in common with the parenting members of Cohere. I envision that I'll
naturally start to build in more family friendly activities in the
very near future.
This will likely be my last contribution to this group for several
weeks. I'll miss seeing you all at GCUC this year! Take lots of
pictures!!
Angel
Cheryl Jaycox
Feb 18, 2012, 4:19:29 PM2/18/12
to cowo...@googlegroups.com
Angel, I will miss reading your comments and hearing your
thoughts....Good Luck to you and your new family member! There is no
better trip to be on than that of motherhood!
Hugs
CJay
thoughts....Good Luck to you and your new family member! There is no
better trip to be on than that of motherhood!
Hugs
CJay
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Cheryl Jaycox
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Micro Office Suites & Business Center
The HIVE@44,Business Coworking Community
Phone: 636-405-3130
Cell: 314-800-4305
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