1. First up is our official Open House/Launch Party on Friday, August 13 at 6pm. This coincides with the semi-regular Walk on Woodburn gallery walk, which coincides with exhibit openings at the Manifest Gallery down the street.

   Come in, meet some members, see the space, hoist a cold beverage and maybe eat some finger foods.  There may even be a box of wine.  Then take in the rest of the Walk.

2. We are proud to host vols. 35 & 16 (uh, counting down) of Watch This.  Put another way: it’s movie night at Coworks!  Bring yourself, and maybe a pillow.
• Wednesday, August 25 at 7pm finds us watching the 35th best film of all time according to the American Film Institute, It Happened One Night.
• Friday, October 29 at 7pm finds the AFI’s 16th best film, All About Eve.

You can also see these events on our brand-spanking new Events page. 

Event-wise, we stuffed 32 geeks into our space, brought in some beverages and ZZ’s pizza.  Unfortunately, we only had about half as many chairs, but people made do with balance balls, windows seats and the floor.  So the event was in fact standing room only!

Here are some pictures from the Meetup pool.

But we have a long way to go of course, and much in the works. Our first event is a meeting of the local PHP Users Group this Thursday, July 8th. I just hope we have enough chairs.

We currently have 6 full-time members. We still have room for additional full-time members. Some of you may have been interested in joining earlier, but had a hard time doing so before "seeing" it.

Speaking of "seeing" it, we’re currently figuring out our part-time membership structure (anything you’d like to see?) and drop-in rate. Also, expect some free days of Jelly coworking in the near future.

Watch the mailing list, the website, or Twitter, for the latest news (Facebook page, not so much)!

Watch the video.

What are the benefits of charter membership? The largest is that the monthly membership fee will be $180.00 for charter members instead of the normal membership rate of $200.00. That’s a $120 savings on the current six month’s membership contract.

You can ensure your charter membership by completing and returned the letter of intent along with a check for $360.00 (first and last month’s membership fee) to the address given at the bottom of the letter. It’s that simple.

Check out the latest info about the space on the blog.

Proposed Budget

Monthly Membership: $200 ($180 for charter members)
Monthly Lease: $1200

Cash Needed to Open: $1,140
Monthly Obligations: ($60)

Layouts

Click here to download the PDF containing proposed layouts of the space.

Then join us for an informational meeting about the launch of our new coworking venue. We’ll present the latest news about our site selection and will field questions about where we stand.

When: 6-8PM, Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Where: The Brew House, 1047 East McMillan Street, Cincinnati, OH 45206 (MAP)
RSVP at EventBrite: not required, but gives us a good sense of crowd size.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Food and beverages will NOT be provided but The Brew House has a decent menu and selection of beer and alcohol. We encourage you to support this neighborhood establishment.

We’re excited about the future of coworking in Cincinnati and invite you to learn more on March 31st. For more info email Bill Barnett.

In any case, what this means is that we’ll continue to hunt for space, and keep everyone abreast as much as possible. 

What does this mean for the Charter Membership offer?  Good question.  While the space we ultimately select will change the financials, it shouldn’t change much.  We will leave the membership offer up.  If you decide to join this exclusive charter group know that we will make it right in the end.  For example, if costs becomes lower, you will receive the difference back.  If costs become higher, you will have the choice of helping us by making up the difference, or changing your mind and receiving a full refund.  You get the idea.

So please continue to bear with us!  And drop by our current setup at Willow Creative when you need to get out of the house!

We started with a single, one-time day of coworking and had 17 people show up.  We started coworking once/week, and had many visitors and 3-4 regulars.  Then, we moved into the cozier 3rd floor, which allowed us to cowork 5 days/week!  And a couple of those regulars made that their everyday home for working.  It’s now time to get a permanent home.  It’s now time to get a space where we can interrupt each other with ideas, make lunch plans, have meetings, make phone calls, and have parties.

We’ve (hopefully) been transparent and level throughout, and this is no different.  On the Join page is our Letter of Intent.  It is not a contract.  If you sign one and recant later, no one is going to hunt you down (though you may get a dirty look or two).  The Letter of Intent’s purpose is to let everyone align on expectations.

How did we come up with the membership fees and this charter offer?  We sat down and created a list of everything we felt we needed upon opening (e.g. 1st month’s rent, deposit, desks and chairs) and a list of expenses we felt we’d incur month-to-month.  Then, we based the charter proposal and monthly membership price on that.  Since this is a 100% bootstrapped effort, if there is interest in paying above and beyond the minimum that we’re asking for – for example, a one-time donation, or several months of pre-payment – we’ll figure out what the return for that gesture would be.

And don’t worry, the drop-in rate will still be $10, same as it has always been.

Why might you sign up?  If you are tired of working out of your home and want to collaborate with others, yes. But also, you need to sign up if you believe in our vision.

Send in your letter now!  We intend to hold an evening information session soon to meet some new people in person, and to answer questions. Nothing fancy – we’ll just pick a time and place. If you any concerns whatsoever, feel free to contact me directly or use the channel of your choice.