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

Wed Oct 23 18:32:46 UTC 2019

Love your idea Aaron and your interest in cooperatives and sociocracy.
This space is more office like, not a maker space.

Val

On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 11:38 AM Shel Horowitz via Hidden-discuss <
hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:

> 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.
>
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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
>>
>> --
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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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