The Reno Collective Town Hall was held on Dec. 15. We had equal parts members and non-members in attendance. (Lots of people from Hack4Reno!) Here's a recap of the announcements we made, topics we discussed and some insight into our vision for the future of Reno Collective.
As mentioned above, Reno Collective is not making enough money to pay our monthly expenses. Several members have stepped forward to help the Collective through this transition. The Reno Collective is currently open because of significant, monthly contributions from Colin, John, Don and Chris but we are within arm’s reach of being entirely sustainable. While this assistance is not a long-term solution, it does allow this important resource to continue to function. We think the Collective is very, very important and we're keeping it going. It is common for coworking spaces to not reach break even until after their 2nd year of operation which is pretty much spot on for us.
If you’ve been paying attention to our area recently, you have probably noticed that there is a lot of discussion around economic development. Look even closer and you’ll see that this discussion is not just between our elected officials and companies in town. It is taking place amongst the people! We believe that we can have a positive impact on the economic future of this region and are actively pursuing funding to help make this belief a reality.
We see Reno Collective as a model for economic development that puts the focus on opportunity identification, talent incubation, and member support. We are in a great position to be among the first to hear about new opportunities and initiatives in and around our area. We have a core group of extremely diverse and talented members that can mentor, guide and support new companies and ideas. Who better to provide support for people that want to build something for themselves than members of Reno Collective?
Most organizations and companies are structured as a hierarchy. Reno Collective is not. We are a community. A collective. Or at least we want to be. This has always been our goal but it's something that we haven't done as well as we had hoped. Moving forward, this organizational structure will be a priority. We are going to practice what we have been preaching - we want the Reno Collective members to help shape the future of the Collective. We are transforming the Reno Collective into a decentralized, open source project that allows anyone to contribute at any level. Help grow the community, the workspace, our events and classes.
What does this mean?
Reno Collective is going to be an open source project as soon as we are officially a non-profit organization. Reno Collective will be managed by Don and John - they will make sure the bills are paid, and keep the power, internet and of course, caffeine flowing. To this day, not a single person has been paid a salary to run Reno Collective. It has always been a volunteer organization - we're just making it official.
Who decides what events/classes occur? What about the direction of the Collective as a whole? Who will pick what projects are started? The answer is: You. Want to see a class taught or have skills you want to share? Create the class, get members to pitch in and make it happen. Do you feel like you'd be a great mentor? Do it. Think the building should be wired with ethernet? Looks like we’ll be having a wire pulling party! If you’re great at speaking to media, we’d love to have you involved in promoting community events and the successes of our members.
Open Direction
The direction of the Collective should reflect the direction of the community and the members within. If we have more technical members that are driving us to do projects and outreach, the Collective will be more technical. If we are full of artists, perhaps we'll focus more on artistic projects and support. It's up to us.
Open Dollars and Cents
We value the "open" part of open source and to us it is synonymous with transparency. In keeping with that key tenant, we are going to be transparent about everything. Where we get our money, where that money goes, the impact of our funds, etc. All open for anyone to see.
Open Membership
We are introducing new membership levels to make Reno Collective fit more types of work schedules and be flexible enough to make sure our members love working at Reno Collective.
Open Space
We are actively working on a new system to allow better building access with the eventual goal of 24/7 usage possible for our members.
Open Organization
Running like this, as an open self-organizing collective, we will not only show each other what we are capable of (individually and as an organization) but we will be demonstrating to the city and the region what can happen when you are truly passionate about your craft and the work that you do.
Mark these in your calendar!
Over the next few days and weeks we will be releasing information and behind-the-scenes information about Reno Collective and how it runs. If there is something that you want to be involved with, we invite you to join in and build the future.