Cowork with fellow changemakers every Wednesday at NWC!
As more and more people start working for themselves, the need for new kinds of coworking communities continues to grow. These communities help to form interdependent support systems that make it possible for people to be in charge of their work-lives without feeling like they're on their own.
After being in the business of developing coworking communities (mostly our own) for over seven years now, we see an opportunity to offer up our experience, our space, and our community to support the development of new communities that want to help.
Our first such foray is in partnership with NWC member and longtime collaborator Nate Heasley, who runs Goodnik, on a special coworking session for people working in the world of social impact. See his post below!
Social Impact Coworking & Barnraising - Wednesdays at NWC
Are you starting a social impact org? Or have you been running one out of your living room and now you need to get out of the house every once-in-a-while? We’ve got the perfect solution. New Work City and Goodnik are partnering to host a recurring ad-hoc coworking session every Wednesday from 9:30am-6pm. Starting August 13th, New Work City will open a section of their space for goodniks to get together, work on their own projects, and get to know each other.
As part of the jam, we’ll also be gathering for a lunch-time “barnraising” session, in which we can each talk about what we’re working on, what we need help with, and even present larger problems to the group. If you can’t make it for the all-day coworking session, you could join just for this lunchtime gathering and still have a chance to connect with everyone else.
While we introduce this experiment, the price for the event is "pay what you think it's worth." After running it for a month or two, we will institute some sort of fee or membership requirement, but that has yet to be determined. Until then, join us in gathering social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and other impact projects for a regular jam session and barnraising.
Full event detials and RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/GoodnikOCS/events/195322382/
Note that you must be a member of Goodnik OCS to attend, and the program is selective.
Interested? Contact nate [at] goodnik.org!
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If you're interested in organizing something similar, email tony [at] nwc.co!
Our new WAMMs (Welcome Aboard Member Meetings) are awesome. Join for the next one!
Last Friday, we hosted our first monthly Welcome Aboard Member Meetings. We packed our conference room with members new, longtime, and everything in between. We learned more about each other, why we joined, what we're working on, what we need help with, and our favorite snack. (That last item will feed future Snackwars!)
We sent attendees an update which we've copied below for your enjoyment. If you're interested in joining our community, join before Friday, August 1 so you can come to our next WAMM!
Update: We are now running WAMMs on the first Friday of every month, so when you join as a member make sure to mark your calendar for it!
Hi everyone! If you're getting this email, then you're one of the fine folks who attended one of our brand new WAMMs last Friday. Thanks for joining our new thing! Below are a few takeaways and some general ideas as to how we can use resources we have at our disposal to address them. Hit me with your thoughts!
A few takeaways and open questions:
A lot of us want to be making space for writing in one form or another. I wonder how we can support each other in creating healthy space for us to write using the tools we have at our disposal; see some more on our tools below and let me know if you have any thoughts!
A lot of us use or want to use WordPress. Some of us need help. Is there an opportunity for us to organize a Work Sprint (see below) around working on our WordPress sites? Or an opportunity for an expert among us to offer up our help to others?
Biz Dev is another thing that's on a lot of our minds. It's no surprise: who doesn't need some new business? Some of us enjoy the sales process a lot more than others. How can we help each other make the process of getting new business less painful?
Accountability and goal-setting is a common need. We've developed a system, called Cotivation, that gives people a way to gather weekly to set goals and share accountability. Reply to this email if you'd like us to help you get a new accountability group going!
There is tremendous diversity in snack taste. Some members have already brought in snacks to be pitted against one another in an epic Snackwar battle; email Email Leo to coordinate (or wait for him to find you, because he will)! Also, Snackwar is on Twitter!
Handy tools we can use:
Contact members & alums through the Google Group: If you're not on it yet, get on it! If you're looking for work, clients, or new hires, if you need advice, or if you’ve left some tasty leftovers on the kitchen counter, post it to the group. With over 400 current and former members, there's a really good chance that someone has the answer to your question.
Create a profile and browse those of other members. Our member profile directory is a handy place to learn more about your fellow members. Check it out and make sure you add yourself to it!
Attend (or present) at the next Show & Tell. The next one is this Monday, July 21. See details & RSVP here! If you're working on something and want feedback from fellow members, or if you just want to sharpen your public speaking skills, this is a great opportunity for both. Email Veronica if you're interested in presenting!
Work Sprints are super handy constructs we use for focused work sessions. The idea is for a small group of people to get together, talk about what they're working on, and then undertake coordinated blocks of focused work time. This has proven to be super handy for people to get and stay focused, using their peers to keep them in line. If you're interested in helping start a work sprint, let us know and we'll help you get it set up!
Our Meetup Group, Coworking Community NYC, is an 1,800+ member group that several NWC members and I use to organize coworking events around (and sometimes outside of) the city. Join the group and tag along for a future outing, or hit me up if you're interested in organizing!
Our event space at New Work City is a tremendous resource if you're looking to host a gathering. If you're interested, fill out our event application at http://nwc.co/eventapp and contact Veronica with any questions!
Also:
The next WAMM is Friday, August 1. You're more than welcome to join for future WAMMs. If you plan to join, reply to this email and let us know!
Keep in mind that NWC is yours. By joining as a member, you are playing a role in defining our culture going forward. We've evolved a lot over the past six years, but the thing that's kept us special has always been the great people who choose to support each other through this community.
I'm always working on ideas for new ways to foster interdependent networks through coworking communities. If you're interested in brainstorming with me or are just interested in hearing more of my thoughts, email me or check out my blog. I'm frequently not at NWC, but I'm always here for you if you need and happy to set up a meeting in the space. Hit me up!
ALSO: Big huge special thanks to Sarah for hustling to get all of us together Friday. It can be really hard to get busy coworkers into a room at the same time, so it was no small feat for her to corral us as well as she did. Give her high-fives and hugs if you're so inclined!
Tony Bacigalupo
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Contact: @tonybgoode
New Work City: nwc.co // @nwc // facebook // meetup
Travel plans: In NYC now through 8/1 // Boulder 8/2-11 // NYC 8/12-late August sometime
Recent posts: Revisiting transparency // The problem with coworking (and an idea for how to solve it) // Coworking on a train to a museum: my crazy coworking experiment at six months
The warm weather is upon us! If you're anything like me (hi, Tony here!), then you want to find a way to get your work done while also having healthy time to enjoy the summer sunshine.
We're independents, after all, so we should be able to take advantage of our freedom to have a really great summer experience while still getting our work done. I'd love to find a way to do a healthy amount of both.
To me, that means setting goals, developing healthy boundaries, and getting focused-- so I can get my work done in a way that allows me to feel like I can make space to get away from my screen and be present doing awesome summer-y things.
If you feel similar, email me at tony [at] nwc.co. Our first meeting is Monday, June 16th.
We’re hiring! Help us have a bigger impact on NYC and the world.
Cross-posted from Tony's personal blog. Inspiration for this post brought to you by coffee, good friends, and the Code Your Face Off soundtrack on Songza!
See the full job posting here and apply here!
I've enjoyed taking a casual approach to building New Work City. It's just my disposition. After nearly five years of organizing, however, I'm finding myself increasingly ready to take everything we've done and set us up for the long term. Today, we're taking two big steps toward growing up as an organization.
We're hiring! Hooray for job creation!
When I first got into this back in 2007, I was transfixed by coworking and all of the opportunities it provided to meet some incredible people and learn about a world of folks who were working for themselves in ways I had never been exposed to before. Now, it's time to find someone who is today perhaps a little like I was back then.
We're hiring someone to help us run our space. Someone who is friendly, reliable, fastidious, and excited to meet a lot of amazing people.
They'll help manage the space every day, opening up in the morning and sticking around until the end of the business day every day. They'll welcome members, give tours, and generally keep things humming along. They'll help keep the space fully functional and organized by ensuring the space is well supplied and in order.
They'll also learn how to manage a community and a space, and all of the intangible things that go with that.
Leading by example
Hiring someone and maturing as an organization will help us increase our capacity for generating a larger impact on New York City and the rest of the world.
We're not planning on opening more spaces, but we do want more communities like ours to exist. To that end, we'll be documenting our experiences with our new hire and hopefully having them contribute regularly as they learn how to run a coworking community.
We hope to lead by example and inspire others to join us in building communities that help people work for themselves-- not just in high growth startups, but in developing sustainable and robust small businesses and consulting practices.
Millions of people will be pursuing independent careers for the first time over the next several years, and communities like ours are a critical part of helping people start and succeed. I sincerely believe this is the only way we are going to solve some of our biggest problems.
Help us find someone awesome
As with pretty much everything else we've done, I'm looking to all of you to help me find the awesomest person possible for the job. Pass these links along to whoever you think might be interested, or might know someone who is:
Full outline of job listing here: http://nwc.co/workhere
Application here: http://nwc.co/applyhere
You can also help us spread the word with handy pre-fab post on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+!
If you have ideas as to where I should be posting to get the word out, I'm all ears!
The holidays are approaching, and New Work City wants to share the festivities with you! True to the spirit of New Workers and to the spirit of the season, our community will be hosting an all-day "DIY Holiday Festival" filled with Do-It-Yourself activities and good times for NWC members and guests of members.
During the day members and guest members will coordinate crafts like cutting up snowflakes, creating mural drawings on the walls, decorating cookies & cupcakes, and making crafty ornament type things. Come in to the space, there's a sign up sheet n the wall, and join an activity that other folks are doing, and feel free to suggest your own activity - it's your party, coworkers!!
And when working hours are done, we'll transition to an open-to-the-public holiday party with great music, traditional karaoke, a photo booth, and mega-buttloads of good cheer!
The daytime festivities are open to members and guests of members, while anyone can join for the evening festivities. Bring drinks or a few bucks to chip in.
The following is a guest post by Leo Newball, a fabulous member and our current Foursquare Mayor.
Being the Foursquare Mayor of New Work City has its privileges! There’s access to the mayor’s bathroom, a personal chef who cooks all of your meals fresh and based to your liking, and the keys to the coworking Tesla Roadster 4 (it’s not even out yet!). Outside of the grand pompus and stature of being the Foursquare Mayor of New Work City, and your own theme song playing when you enter the space, it’s a highly coveted prize.
For the last two months, I’ve had the title of being the New Work City Foursquare Mayor, but now it’s your turn to grab for it! Beginning December 1st, 2011 I will not Foursquare Check-in to New Work City, until January 2nd, 2012. On that date, at 12:12pm, whomever is the current mayor of New Work City on Foursquare will be crowned the winner and enjoy a month of the lavish Foursquare Mayor life, along with winning the following prizes:
A formal decree singing your praises in our newsletter and blog
Your very own Mayor Hat
Sit at the front desk and DJ the music at New Work City for a day
Enjoy a fabulous free lunch
Pick the upcoming week’s #snackwar combatants
Send a tweet and a blog post from New Work City’s accounts
So get your check-ins ready, and begin to duke it out for mayorship supremacy! May the best potential mayor win!
Just when I was ready to stop seeking new sponsors, HP showed up. Their support will help us make some much-needed improvements to the space and help us clear some of our debt, which will be a huge help in securing us for the long term. It will also give us some oxygen to work on some fun projects I've had on the shelf for a while.
When it comes to sponsors, I'm ultra-wary of only working with people who care about our community and our mission. While that means I'm always a little nervous inking a deal with a giant corporation, the folks we've been dealing with have been really cool. They dig the idea of helping a community like ours and believe that their products can speak for themselves.
They also know that when it comes to printing, people rank their perception of the experience somewhere just above a visit to the dentist. They want to work with us to make that better.
Come play with some sweet new gadgets on December 6
We're producing an event with HP on Tuesday, December 6 at 7:00 where you'll have a chance to sample some of the new tech and give some of their representatives some feedback. These include:
A printer that scans 3D objects. Does it hook up with a MakerBot so you can effectively photocopy everyday objects? ... No. But does it bring us one step closer? Yes! Here's a video of the 3D scanning in action:
HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275
A printer that uploads straight to Google Docs, which means for most of the things I'd ever use a scanner for, I don't even have to think about getting the drivers to work.
A printer that turns your RSS feeds into a daily morning newspaper. That means every morning I can walk into NWC and have something to read that I can post publicly after I'm done.
A printer that scans business cards, which is good because I have too many of those.
A printer that you can print to from a mobile device. I honestly have no idea how that is possible, but sweet.
A printer that doesn't suck. If you're like me, you make your printer purchasing decisions when the previous one broke and you're on your way back from a lunch meeting. Everything looks pretty much the same, so you just pick the cheapest one humanly possible and move on with your day. The problem is, a few bucks more could get you a more efficient printer that saves you ink money in the long run. You could also enjoy a printer that's better built and not loud and slow, which is something I've always just assumed is a part of life.
Getting my hands on a decent printer might make me a bit of a printing snob, but I'm okay with that.
We'll have all that and more on hand at next Tuesday's event, along with some giveaways and other fun stuff. If playing with new printer tech gets you even moderately excited, register here and join us next Tuesday!
I'm writing this post from a cozy East Village cafe called Table 12. With wi-fi, good music, and friendly staff, it's a great place to sit and write a blog post.
It's also half a block away from another cafe that closed a few years ago called Gramstand. It was the home base for our budding new community in 2007 and 2008 before we had a space and before we were New Work City.
In the early days, I would trek out to Avenue A and set up shop in the living room-style basement, not knowing who would show up. Sometimes a bunch of fun people would show up, sometimes very few. It was unpredictable. On one particularly gross winter morning, as blankets of sleet were falling from the sky, I headed out fully expecting to be the only one at the cafe that day. To my surprise, Gramstand was packed with coworkers looking to avoid cabin fever.
Now, I only find myself alone in the space during brief periods early in the morning and late at night. When you visit New Work City now, you're all but certain to run into a bunch of really great people.
A major milestone
Last week, we hit a big milestone: 100 concurrent, subscribed members. That's a lot of people! After a quiet summer, we saw a huge influx this fall. If you look around New Work City today, you're certain to see a lot of unfamiliar faces.
It's a big turning point for me. Believe it or not, I've been in emergency survival mode for a very long time now. For years, dating back to the Gramstand days, I've dreamed of us having our own space. Now, after a long journey, we not only have that space, it's increasingly stabilizing. (Knock on wood.) I can't quite stop holding my breath, but at least I can start thinking about it.
That means I have an opportunity to gradually shift my focus from surviving to thriving. That's a really, really good feeling.
Setting up for the long haul
100 members means a lot of things. For one, it means we're at a scale that makes it difficult if not impossible for any one member to know everyone else. It also means there's a better chance there's a fellow member you should know that you haven't met yet. To that end, we're building an internal member profile directory that will make it really easy for people to connect with fellow members who have shared interests. Sara and Brian have been hard at work making it happen, and the prototypes are already really, really gorgeous, so I'm extra excited about that.
It also means we're approaching capacity. We're not there yet, but we're close enough that we need to start thinking about what it's like to be full. I'd rather we not have a big waiting list, as being open to all is an important part of who we are. Instead, I see an opportunity for us to find creative ways to tweak how we onboard new members to make our community even stronger and more participatory.
Ultimately, the goal is to get New Work City to be as self-sustaining as possible. Our community has been built, and now it's time to shore things up and ensure that it's built to last.
If you're a member now, or ever have been, or if you've played a role in helping us get to where we are today, thank you. I can't wait to see all the great things we build together from here.
For the past two months, Leo has been championing #snackwar, ensuring no one at NWC goes without sugar.
For Halloween this Monday, Snackwar is going all out.
NWC. Be here. Come in a costume, or at the very least wear whatever you'd wear if you didn't care what other people would think. Open to members and anyone who picks up a day pass for the day.
