Fwd: The Hub Inter-views

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Hub Brussels <thehubb...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 4:49 PM
Subject: The Hub Inter-views
To: The Hub Brussels <thehubb...@gmail.com>
Cc: Farzad Private <farzad....@gmail.com>, Dante Monson <dante....@gmail.com>, Daiken Nelson <dai...@mac.com>, Jaime Gutierrez <jaimegu...@gmail.com>, Christina Stadlbauer <christina....@gmx.at>, Simone Poutnik <pout...@gmail.com>


Dear Friends, Connections, Hub-bers and Active Fans,

It is almost the Summer Solstice and as you have seen from the last newsletter there is a lot of action going on in and around The Hub!

Meetings, laughter, coffee-breaks, serious working, brainstorming, flipcharts, business plans.  These are all things which are very frequent in The Hub Bruxel these days! And like all hard work, there are some very good fruits coming from this!

Hopefully you can take some time to read this very short email and help us with development of this new phase of working on the new The Hub Bruxel.

Not only are we looking for a new space and sponsors, but we are also actively concerned with your needs and how we can best serve you. We want to adapt our space and offers to suit them the best to your needs.

The only way to fully know what the Hub community needs, is by asking and meeting you! This is why we created a questionnaire which would give us a clearer picture of the needs.

But there would be no boring filling-in part, but a nice meeting over a coffee or in the park, to talk about your needs and what you would see as the ideal Hub.

You will be contacted by one of us to set up a time for an interview. The total time commitment would be around 1 hour.

Thank you in advance for input and collaboration in the continuing evolution of The Hub Bruxel.

Warm regards,

Your interviewing team
Christina, Daiken, Dante, Farzad, Jaime, Koen and Simone

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Following this mail ,

a brief overview of my own , personal intentions and vision of a hub , which might differ from other people that might feel involved in the hub brussels :

I understand that a hub has many different layers.  It is not simply a shared office space , but also involves a growing social network and all the interactions and events that might be sparked by individuals and synergies of individuals meeting or connecting through hub channels.

Costs :

I , personally , envision a space , who s costs would be shared by the members , and as the number of members grows , would be reduced.

For example , renting a space costing 2500 euros a month could cost 50 members 50 euros a month ,

100 members 25 euros a month , etc

and , as with other such spaces I know , for example , in Berlin ,
such costs can be further reduced through grants ( from foundations , the EU , tax deductible donations from companies - depending on the statute of the hub , etc )
and through the organizing of events , for which entrance fees can cover a part of the renting and other costs ( electricity , water , heating ) of the place.


Governance and management of the space :


I believe in a open organization model - although we would still need to define what we mean by that.

I feel we can inspire ourselves a lot from , for example , the C base in Berlin

http://www.c-base.org/


I imagine individuals can mutually empower each other , and self organize.
Individuals " host each other " , or if at some point the community of members feels a need for it ,
there may be full time hosts that can facilitate processes , and the community of members ( of the cooperative ) then decides how much money to pool in every month to support the host , or eventually , turning hosts , eventually compensating for the extra time they invest.

Although ideally , tasks would be shared among the community , or be taken over my volunteers , whose credibility rises following their involvement and participation.

I believe everyone should be empowered , and included into the process of the hub ,
and there need not be a specific disconnection through some image of allocating permanent roles to " employees " , as I feel this would very much lead to dis empowerment through the potential " client - consumer / employee - service provider " relations this could lead to.

to come back to inspiration related to

http://www.c-base.org/

I remember , a few years ago , they where examining some model ( using information technologies ) that would facilitate leadership that would be project based ( when it concerned members of the platform ) - members voting ( through the net ? ) , whenever it was needed , who would lead a specific project , based on personal initiative ( for example , a member sets forward an initiative ) , on availability , and on experience of the member.

Another interesting idea for the development of projects within a social network , is a money pool , where members allocate a certain amount of money every month to projects , and decide together where to allocate it to.  There can be project proposals , and every month a different project can be funded. , ...


Any further suggestions and views welcomed

Greetings

Dante

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

and a last detail I d like to mention , in relation to my own personal vision of a hub :

- as for ownership , I believe there should be no ownership - or rather , it is managed by the community of members.

Membership stays open to people sharing the ethical chart , and whoever is a member has a vote.

Non members that might be involved with the cooperative community / social network can propose suggestions to the community.

- There should ideally be no debts , or eventually very punctual permissions , under certain conditions , to get into debt for a limited period of time ( paid back after a maximum of three months ? )

Cordially

Dante

[Simone Poutnik]

Dear Dante,

I admire your vision and what you outline below is a great idea. In fact there is an organisation in Brussels, Barcelona and London called Precare, a sub-group of Citymined, that does something similar for artists. Check it out http://www.precare.org/Website/Precare/Main.php?lang=En&Menu=1&O=1&PHPSESSID=50626f82831b10ad173fb8a534aff0f0

However the Hub's vision and concept, as I understand it, are different. The Hub uses co-creation, not complete self organisation. Many things in the Hub are self organising, e.g. a lot of the learning and knowledge sharing, but often small interventions are needed that can really function as a catalyst. Many Hub members don't want to organise things, they just want them to work and are happy to pay for that. The Hub's vision is to "inspire and support people with imaginative and entrepreneurial ideas for a radically better world" and we do this by providing hosted collaborative work and meeting space, facilitating connections and knowledge sharing and access to the necessary resources. The Hub is a self sustainable social enterprise. Does that make sense? 

Life is about decisions and the people, who are involved in co-creating Hubs all around the world, who are taking risks and making very big investments, have decided to use this model. If you don't resonate with it, you might want to decide to direct your great creative energy and thinking to another project that is more in line with your ideals. And if you decide that you want to support us and operate within this model, you are more than welcome.

Love,

Simone

The Hub Brussels

Rue D'Assaut / Stormstraat 1

1000 Brussels 

website: www.the-hub.be

blog: thehubbrussels.wordpress.com

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Thanks Simone for these clarifications.

So following these clarifications , I would further like to ask if there would be a specific " ownership " of the hub , with shares , and profits shared according to investment ?

Perhaps you can guide me and others to some other page where you might have already outlined these ?

Thanks

Dante

[Simone Poutnik]

In short:

From the end of this month, the Hub will be a cooperative "The Hub Bruxel cvba/scrl", which is owned by shares, but does not pay dividends. Profits will be re-invested into the Hub's social mission, as stated in the statutes, that are now with the notary and will be published at the end of this month. At the moment there are 4 "owners" or founders: Alexander, Eric, Jason and me, who are investing the fix capital. 

The cooperative is open for membership, if  by investing into the cooperative by buying shares that will constitute the variable capital of the cooperative. One share is 250€. In the general assembly, which will decide on strategic directions of the cooperative, one person will have one vote.

Members of the cooperative the hub Bruxel

- firmly believe in the vision of the hub and agree to steward and contribute to the hub's development.

- agree that the organization is open to anyone who agrees to abide by its purpose and principles

- agrees that the general assembly's task is to steward and serve the hub's global and local vision 

- will become an ambassador for the hub Bruxel

- commit with their investment for at least a 2 years period

The board of directors reserves the right to refuse someone.

Does that help?

S

The Hub Brussels

Rue D'Assaut / Stormstraat 1

1000 Brussels 

website: www.the-hub.be

blog: thehubbrussels.wordpress.com

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

These clarifications are very useful.

Thanks Simone.

So it is likely that the organizational format tends more towards a corporate structure ,
but with a Cooperative status , and with not for profit , potentially ethical objectives ?

Cordially

Dante

[Simone Poutnik]

Dante, you must be familiar with the concept of a "social enterprise". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise#Social_enterprise_from_a_European_perspective, which comes pretty close to what we want to do.

Does that answer your question?

Warm regards,

Simone

The Hub Brussels

Rue D'Assaut / Stormstraat 1

1000 Brussels 

website: www.the-hub.be

blog: thehubbrussels.wordpress.com

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Thanks Simone

yes , I understand.
and there are different pathways for governance according to such vision.

One going potentially more in the direction I tried to describe , and another that you described.

In the one you seem to describe , the members are not the owners , and specific control is limited to a much more restricted number of individuals.

Cordially

Dante

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Dear Simone , Manfred , and all

to further continue in relation to this interesting reflexive , organizational culture and hub meta views thread ,

It would be great if we could converge some of the lists of links that we know in relation to social entrepreneurship ,

and eventually in relation to governance.

I tend to collect and share them on

http://del.icio.us/deliciousdante/socialentrepreneurship?setcount=100

http://del.icio.us/deliciousdante/socialentrepreneur?setcount=100

...

and links in relation to governance :

http://del.icio.us/deliciousdante/governance?setcount=100

I understand Simone and some more of us might also have gathered a number of links and references in relation to other groups involved or interested in social entrepreneurship.

It would be great if you could forward us the links to the references you have collected.

Or if they are not openly available online , feel free to forward them to me and I can help you setting them online ,

so that we can , together , maximize opportunities , and overcome the issue of artificial hoarding of information ( and the underlying unwanted power structures emerging from such hoarding ) ,

setting examples along the intentions we share directly through our own collaborative approaches.

By the way , Simone , could you post to me and all of us through the mailing list the Minutes of our ( monday 9 June ? ) meeting revolving around organizational culture ?

Or if you are too busy , perhaps I could ask Manfred if he could re-send it to all of us ,
and eventually also to the list - feel free to join :

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/imaging-the-hub/

( or if not , some others of us that are on the list can fwd it there )

Looking forward to hear from all of you

Cordially

Dante
http://en.hitchwiki.org/Dante