[Hidden-tech] Have you considered starting a new coworking space?

Shel Horowitz shel at principledprofit.com
Wed Oct 23 15:25:10 UTC 2019 

Co-working spaces in the Valley go back at least to the mid-80s and the
Creamery Building on Fearing Street in Amherst. The person I've dealt with
at Click is named Mary. I don't now her last name. She's always there for
the arts events, anyway. There are also some cool Maker spaces in Holyoke
(and I think Easthampton also) in some of the old mills that might be more
suitable for fabrication.

Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"(sm)
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On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 9:39 PM Aaron E-J via Hidden-discuss <
hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:

> In terms of the the theory side of things (coop structure, sociocracy,
> ex.) I am all set, it is more just a matter of finding people who are
> interested in committing a bit of time and resources along with me to get
> things set up.  That's the first step, after that, then we can begin
> thinking about money and a location.
>
> Aaron E-J
> The Other Realm LLChttp://otherrealm.orghttp://theotherrealm.org (Blog)
>
> On 2019-10-22 6:36 PM, Andrew Bellak wrote:
>
> This is an interesting thread.
>
> It make me think of several people and organizations in the Pioneer Valley
> that I'd like to mention in case you want to connect with them on this idea.
>
> For coops, there's Coop Power, Cooperative Fund of New England and
> Wellspring Cooperatives.
>
> For holocracy, there's Ingrid Bredenberg although she may have moved out
> of the area.
>
> If you think sociocracy is related enough, there's
> http://sociocracyforall.org/about/ and folks based in Amherst.
>
> And I believe Paul Silva ran Click Work Space in Northampton, maybe he
> started it?
>
> And I know the folks at Amherst Works co-working space.
>
> All that to say that there are good resources in the Valley.
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew
>
> --
> Andrew Bellak
> CEO
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> On 10/21/2019 8:23 PM, Aaron E-J via Hidden-discuss wrote:
>
> Yes, I am, although I am looking for a space that is conducive to setting
> up a small shop and electronics fabrication space, maybe eventually a wet
> lab – would this space be a good fit for this?  Do you have the exact
> address and know how much the lease is?  Is anyone else interested in
> such a thing?  A while ago I made some move to get a makerspace set up in
> the East/Northampton/Holyoke area and I'm interested in seeing if anyone
> else is still interested again.  As I put forward a week or two ago on
> this listserv, I am interested in changing the way employment is done, or
> at least creating another way to go about it (link to the idea, also below:
> https://otherrealm.org/Economy ).  I would like to get a group of people
> who are equally disenfranchised with the competitive nature of employment
> and business dealings and are interested in working together on creating
> such a worker cooperative model.  Please let me know if you are
> interested, I will be setting up some meeting events to try to gather
> support so stay tuned.
>
> Thanks!
> ------------------------------
>
>           A discussion that was going on a local tech entrepreneur
> listserve about the need to work for less than a fair wage when doing
> contract work got me thinking of an idea I had a while back.  The idea is a
> kind of 'jobs fair' that would be open to anyone, and anyone who attended
> would be either guaranteed a job or funding for a startup.  The amount of
> time that people spend competing for: first a college degree, then a job,
> then maybe funding for a business idea, is enormous.  It can often result
> in needing to compromise your moral principles and spend most of your time
> doing things in areas you are not passionate about.  Constantly needing to
> be judged and being told that you are not as good as someone else who got
> the job you wanted, puts a tremendous toll on your wellbeing and desire to
> interact with others.  On the other side, someone looking to hire the right
> person has to spend a considerable amount of time wading through tons of
> applicants before eventually arriving at someone you actually want to
> hire.  And if you have an ounce of empathy, constantly needing to turn
> people down because they are not the right fit feels horrible.
>
>           The way I conceived of the 'job fair' working would be in two
> stages.
>
>           The first stage would be a sign up and stakeholder gathering
> phase.  Job seekers would fill out an online form detailing their skills
> and interests and any ideas for solutions to unsolved problems they had.
> Employers (worker coops and businesses that agree to not throw their
> employees under the proverbial bus if the job does not work out) would sign
> up and agree to employ people to work *with* them and not *for* them.
> Business investors and venture capitalists would sign up and work on
> forming business ideas with people who do not see an existing role with any
> of the existing business that are hiring.
>
>           Then the second stage would be the actual conference where
> everyone gets to know each other and job seekers and job fillers seek
> mutual skills and interests.  The people who do not have career goals and
> skills in line with those being sought, and those with business ideas they
> are looking to actualize, would work with the business investors and
> venture capitalists.  Together, they would form new worker cooperative
> businesses around the solutions previously identified in the first stage
> that everyone on the table can get behind.  These cooperatives would act as
> holons <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)>, each
> independent entities, but with the ability to utilize each other's
> resources to some extent.  There would also be a buffer fund established
> that all the cooperatives earning a positive income would contribute to and
> those needing more income could draw from.  The way the investors would get
> compensated is that they would be seen as one of the cooperatives.  If the
> investors want to withdraw some of their investment, their financial
> balance would be negative and therefore a proportion of the buffer fund
> will go to them.  This siphoning of money to an investor will only continue
> until a previously agreed upon return on investment is achieved or the
> person invests more money back into the system.  Because the contribution
> will only be a portion of the *profit*, if some or all cooperatives are
> not earning a profit, they will not need to contribute to the buffer.
> Obviously exact details will need to be worked out when more people get
> involved, but that is the general way I am envisioning the financing
> working.  It may also make sense to involve colleges and others in the
> education sphere.  They could be seen as business investors.  Although they
> may not be providing financial support, they can still provide significant
> resources and as a result have a share of the profit.  However, the exact
> nature of their compensation would need to be figured out because education
> is rarely easily quantifiable.
>
>           The important point in all this is that people are not competing
> – there would be the explicit edict that no one is left out and no one is
> forced to do things they have no desire to do (of course it may be
> necessary for some people to do undesired tasks, but these tasks should be
> for the purpose of fulfilling desired goals).
>
>           What do people think of this idea and is anyone interested in
> working on it with me?  I would not be surprised if we could get some grant
> funding to get the ball rolling.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> Aaron E-J
> The Other Realm LLChttp://otherrealm.orghttp://theotherrealm.org (Blog)
>
> On 2019-10-21 5:13 PM, Val Nelson via Hidden-discuss wrote:
>
> HI HTers,
> Have you considered forming a coworking space? I know of an amazing space
> that just opened up that just looks like it's waiting for a coworking space
> to step in. It's in Northampton, in a beautiful setting. With off-street
> parking. Close to town but tucked away.
>
> I'm not looking to do this but it occurs to me that maybe one of you might
> be.
>
> Let me know if you want more info.
>
> Val
>
>
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