keeping the good parts of office life

web worker daily posted a great article a few days ago about how independent workers can keep the good parts of office life, including the commute.

yes, that’s right, some people miss the commute when they work remotely. some good tips:

The commute.  Since we no longer commute as often to go to the office, we miss out on some of the good things about commuting. After all, the commute allows us to prep ourselves for the day ahead, go around the neighborhood, and do some idle thinking. In my previous post, WWD reader Michael said that he liked the commute home, because it gave him the chance to unwind.

Of course, commuting can also be seen as a negative if you commute in a noisy, overcrowded, and polluted metropolis. But what can you do if you actually liked the commute?

Taking a walk or a bike ride before you start your workday can give you the same chance to prepare yourself for the day ahead, and go around the neighborhood as well. Or, if you absolutely love a long commute, drive a few hours, then check in and work in a different city for a couple of days.

some other suggestions that come to mind: have a good workout prior to starting your day, dine out for a healthy breakfast, or join a breakfast networking group.

shout out to a fellow canadian coworking facility

thunder bay has a hot new coworking facility in downtown north called ottawa house. their century-old building provides a beautiful backdrop to the collaborative space for local designers, writers, engineers, and other independent workers in the area.

it’s great to see another canadian coworking facility come to life!

a plan is in place

okay folks, wayne and i have hammered out a workplan with an approximate timeline. this is going to be a lot of work for both of us, but when we weighed our schedule with our tasks with our budget we figured that by mid- to late-nov we can have a coworking facility up and running.

we won’t be updating you on every step of the way, but we will announce key milestones when we surpass them.

now that we have this plan, it is even more exciting for us to be able to put this together. we hope you’re excited too.

status update

After careful consideration, we have decided to move ahead, not as a co-op but as a partnership between the two of us to open a coworking facility.

We evaluated our options, listened to the concerns of the community, and decided that the bureaucracy of establishing a co-op at the start had outweighed the benefits of getting this going. The urgency needs of the community is more important than the business model we wanted to establish, and so by eliminating the co-op business model we can create a much more accurate timeline. We still feel the co-op business model could work for a coworking facility and will always keep it in mind as an option for the future.

Thanks everyone for your patience and your continued interest. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do and will make progress announcements as we can!

call for board of directors

wayne and i are going forward with the coworking facility initative and with structuring it as a co-op. and so, we need to form a board of directors to make decisions on how the co-op will be formed and to develop a plan to move forward.

we are looking for a mix of people with board experience, co-op experience, coworking experience, and general business experience, so don’t feel like you may not have what it takes to be a director if you don’t have all points.

there are three positions to fill, and we figured that the best way to determine who would be suitable would be to ask for a resume/cv as well as to speak to these three points:

1. describe why you want to be on the board of directors for a coworking co-op
2. describe any work or experience you may have done for a coworking facility, shared office space, a co-op, a collective, or any democratically run organisation
3. describe your vision for the coworking facility

please be as creative, innovative, descriptive, or brief as you feel is necessary to convey your answers. applications can be in a recorded format of any kind as long as it is a standard format that we can easily access electronically. applications in non-standard format may be asked to be converted to other formats. applications must be in english.

applications must be sent to both rachel@camaraderie.ca and wayne@camaraderie.ca by jun 15, 2008.

a general description of board member responsibility is:

• make decisions on matters brought before it
• report to members on any actions taken on its behalf
• review and approve budgets prior to submission to members
• promote membership growth and development and membership involvement
• participate in the setting of strategic plans and policies that will guide the affairs of the co-op
• ensure that those plans and policies are properly implemented
• develop, monitor and adhere to budgets as approved by members

please consult the section on directors in the co-operative corporations act before submitting an application.

this call for directors is only open to canadian residents 18yrs of age or older. proof of age and citizenship will be required upon selection.

directors must be members of the co-operative, so if selected, please be prepared to join as a member!

we look forward to all applications!

jelly in toronto – casual coworking

coworking is still coworking, whether it is housed in a facility or is casual like jelly. one of the local jelly organisers came out to our town hall meeting and we were happy to give her a few mins to plug the first jelly event, happening this fri:

Jelly’s a casual work event where everyone’s invited. It’s for anyone who’d like to work alongside other creative people in a welcome environment.

It’ll take place at the Linux Cafe which provides comfy spots, wireless internet, and tasty treats to buy.

You bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get work done) and a friendly disposition.

Fri May 30
11:00am to 3:00pm
Linux Caffe
www.linuxcaffe.com
326 Harbord St

for more information, you can e-mail jelly.toronto@gmail.com or go to www.jelly.to.

a great start

we had a really great town hall meeting on tue night to see what the general interest was for a coworking group for toronto, and we’re very pleased with the results.

wayne and i welcomed everyone and announced a few of the things we have been thinking about. first and foremost is that we have named our initiative camaraderie, an appropriate name for a coworking facility, we think!

the second is that we want our business model to be a co-op, so we spent some time explaining what a co-op is, what the benefits are, and why we feel it is appropriate for coworking.

we also took some rough estimates by show of hands of how soon someone would want space, what sort of time commitment they were thinking of for space, and which neighbourhoods they would prefer, and then collectively created a facility amenity wishlist.

since then we’ve created other ways to spread the word. e-mail for the domain camaraderie.ca is already in use, but our website will take a bit of time. we have a twitter account (camaraderie), our own google group (torontocoworking), a facebook group (camaraderie coworking), and of course this blog.

with such a great start, we’re going to press on and make this happen.

now if only i liked coworking with hyphen or co-op without a hyphen, since “coworking co-op” looks awkward. [ sigh ] the things i worry about!

coworking town hall meeting

We’re trying to gauge interest in developing a permanent dedicated coworking space in downtown Toronto. This might include shared office space, some anchor offices, meeting and training space, and a private cafe. It could be any or all of those.

Let’s have a discussion with a brief presentation to explore what it might be and why you might want to be a part of this.

Where: Epicure Cafe, 2nd fl, 502 Queen St W, between Spadina and Bathurst

When: Tue May 27, 7:00-8:30pm

(The meeting space is reserved from 6:00pm through 8:30pm to allow for sufficient time to get something to eat or drink, but we will get started with a brief presentation at 7:00pm and then open it up for discussion. Please register to let us know if you’re coming so that we can adjust plans accordingly.)

Who: Anyone who wants to get out of their homes or lonely offices and into a shared collaborative space

Why: It’s lonely working by yourself, and cafés can get noisy

Please register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/116040079

Hope to see you there!

coworking video