Coworking Spaces with Cozy Community

“Collective Agency” is at the former location of Souk LLC coworking, 322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97209, with the same furniture.

“Collective Agency” is available for meeting room/conference room rentals by non-members, and 24/7 access by paid members. For more about what we have, visit our homepage.

As described on the http://soukllc.com/ website and on this website’s first blog post, Souk closed when the owner decided to move to Bend.

“Collective Agency” is a totally separate organization, and is not affiliated with the information on the soukllc.com website: our rates are better, our hours are more open, and more.

“Collective Agency” is here to stay, and growing. There is a new 5-year lease, and as shown in today’s photo of part of the main loft area, many people here.

Photos by Reid Beels, of the WhereCampPDX opening night here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reidab/sets/72157628076230536/

From Lifehacker.com: “We’ve covered the benefits of coworking before… but a new European survey shows that the concept might be better for you than previously thought.”

“For example, 93% and 86% of people say their personal and business circles have grown, respectively, and 76% say they’re more productive. More importantly, 88% said their isolation has decreased, which probably influences their productivity (and happiness). A good chunk of people even trusted these strangers enough to leave their stuff there unattended, because 96% of them thought community was an important value among coworkers.” Read more…

Thanks to “Collective Agency” member Bill Burcham for the link!

Thursday, December 1st, 4pm-7pm, we will welcome Sam and Emanuel to the Coordinating Council with a potluck-style party here.

There are two new candidates for the two new positions on the Coordinating Council, to be representatives, one of paid members, and one of non-members, December 1 through June 15. With only one candidate per open position we will not be voting for this election.  Emanuel Costache will represent paid members and Sam Balter will represent non-members.  Learn a little bit more about them below.

Coordinating Council Nominees

Emanuel Costache
Coordinating Council Candidate – Representing Paid Members
ecostache@gmail.com
@ecostache

1) Time Commitment?

Twenty-five hours per month.

2) Skills? What skills do you bring that you want do?

I bring, unfortunately, more than two years experience doing management consulting in higher education. I say unfortunately because though my firm’s mission is a semi-noble one — to help colleges and universities use grant funds effectively so to better serve students — the money often comes with mandates rooted in old thinking about what successful initiatives look like. The most successful projects I’ve seen turn away from tried/tired models, bend the rules, tackle “impossible” problems, and, in doing so, do something cool. I am badly in want of doing something cool.

For the two years prior to that stuff, I lived in a coop with twenty-four others. The glue that held us together was served as a vegetarian dinner, Sunday through Thursday, at the unholy-early hour of 6:30 pm. We took turns cooking in small groups, we took pride in our dishes. We managed, somehow, to make enough food. Our funds were pooled and every expenditure approved by consensus vote. From preferred apiary to laundry detergent. We had a lot of meetings.

My second year, I acted as treasurer of the party fund — money we collected separately from essentials fund. I asked from each only according to his/her ability. Near the end of the year, I noticed we’d cut costs 20% by taking note of which wines people actually drank and only buying those, not serving margaritas when it was snowing, and replacing plastic cups with decent glasses. (Whereas red plastic cups seem to scream praise for the excesses of frat boy delinquency, a glass made of glass, well, it even rhymes with “class.”) As for the savings, we voted, of course, to blow it all on the last party.

3) Vision? What do you plan to do?

I want to help the council and members build upon the Herculean amount of work that’s gone into creating this space in order to grow it into a sustainable organization.

If Alex, Fitz, and Summer disappeared to Alaska tomorrow, the future of CA would depend entirely on another small group stepping up to fill their shoes with equal vigor and double socks. I want to be a part of an organization where one wo/man’s drive isn’t the only driving force keeping the thing afloat; where we are all — to some degree — always-already filling each other’s shoes.

4) Learn? What do you want to learn in this experience?

I want to learn about organizational democracy from Alex. I want to meet everyone I share this space with; I want to hear their stories and learn from their experiences. One of my favorite teachers always seemed to speak in paragraphs… I want to do that and the only path I see to getting there is littered with lots and lots of conversations. Let’s chat.

Sam Balter
Coordinating Council Candidate – Representing Non-Members
sambalter@gmail.com

1) Time Commitment?

I am available for roughly 10 hours per a week but am happy to work extra hours when the situation calls for it. I am free after 4:30 on weekdays and anytime on weekends.

2) Skills? What skills do you bring that you want do?

Sales, Marketing, Project Management, Data Analysis, Decent Cook.

3) Vision? What do you plan to do?

I plan to improve the experience of current members of the Collective Agency by providing additional services focused on helping members connect to one another and collaborate on group projects.

4) Learn? What do you want to learn in this experience?

I want to learn how to be better at creating/ running events and working with a wide range of people.

5) What else?

Working for the Collective Agency would be a lot of fun because I am interested to meet a lot of different people and work on a wide range of projects.

Time Line

• November 1st & 2nd – Nominations – Nominate yourself! or think about who would be even better!
• November 14th-18th – Election Week – Voting booth will be here (but no voting)
• December 1st – Welcoming Party – Party!
• June 15 – anual elections for all 5 Coordinating Council positions.

Election Basics

• Mid-term elections for 2 additional council members, whose term will be Dec 1-June 15
• Two open positions on the Coordinating Council
  • One paid member representative
  • One non-member representative

More Info

• Press Release
• Who We Are
• “Collective Agency” Constitution

For any unanswered questions contact:

Fitz Ryland, Coordinating Council member
(503) 517-6900 landline (503) 517-6901 fax (404) 626-6666 mobile
322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200, Portland, Oregon 97209
Council@CollectiveAgency.co

Note by Alex: I’ve updated these terms April 24, 2012, to encourage interest in members nominating themselves for the Coordinating Council. Info here.

Mid-term elections for two additional positions for the Coordinating Council are in progress, for December 1st through June 15th. The first part is nominations. Self nominations.

And, gratefully following Fitz’s lead about this opportunity to make something, I’m writing this post to provide an overview of Coordinating Council logistics, and then vision.

Logistics:

“Collective Agency” is an unincorporated association. That means that it’s a group name, like any discussion group has a group name, and it’s also a location name. It’s not an entity: only individuals can do things. There are entities involved:

• I’m the leaseholder,
• liability insurance is held,
• Fitz and I are independent contractors who accept payment for meetings and members,
• there are nonprofits and LLC’s part of “Collective Agency”, there are other independent contractors involved doing work whom I or Fitz pays,
• there are more than 150 active volunteers 50 members many of whom are active volunteers,
• there are about 250 people here each week during the day Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm, not including paid meetings or diverse Community Workgroup meetings evenings and weekends, which each have 6-45 people at a time, and
• the Terms of Service are at https://collectiveagency.co/terms-of-service/the Community Guidelines, the page “Volunteer or Paid”, and the homepage.
• There is a Constitution.

Might you like to be a Coordinating Council member here with me, Fitz, and Summer, if you have the time and interest in that? https://collectiveagency.co/election-central/

The time commitment as a volunteer would be two hours per week, and could be more.

Making decisions overall is important, by considering the various people here, getting advice/feedback from members and supportive non-members about what they want here, and being seen as one of the main people here.

Nominations are today.  Elections are November 14-18. We might extend the nomination period if we need to.

Vision:

And why… why do I call myself a Community Organizer? This is a workplace, after all. Some people expect community organizers to work to promote self-organizing teams and actions, loosely coordinated, where diverse people want something to happen. And that is what I do as a Coordinating Council member.

There is a lot of coordination. We have a representative democracy style, for people who are into that. Along with Coordinating Council members, 25% of members total regularly are involved at civics meetings, and other members plan group activities and conversations the Community Workgroup Organizers are also members here, and actively lead their groups while volunteering by coming to monthly representative meetings.

Volunteering as a Community Workgroup Organizer is checking and coordinating and doing a lot of hard work while having fun. And that inspires amazing things: professional development, community, personal growth, and _______________________________________.

By asking work to be an organic human expression, friends are made, workers learn that while their work is important it doesn’t override the intrinsic value of who they are, and the person doing the work becomes more understanding of themselves, their neighbors, and life as a whole. My personal experiences led me to see that the best way for this to happen is through a representative democracy that incorporates an open vulnerability and wholeheartedness in communication that embraces us all as fallible humans whose mistakes or surprises can be as awesome as the things we do “right”. Emerging from wholeheartedness, a strong integrity and enduring support provide people with the security and freedom necessary to passionately create. Enabling people to be an active part of shaping the world they live in by self-organizing teams, influencing future perspectives, and celebrating life is both my motivation and ultimate goal for our collective agency.