jonnygoldstein.com

Suggestion Box (2)

Originally uploaded by disrupsean

When I found out I was moving to Philly, I knew that I would want to get involved with Indy Hall, a coworking community based a few blocks from the Liberty Bell.

One of the things I really dig about Indy Hall is how open it is to suggestions. So far I’ve made three, and the Indy crew have made them all happen.

1) Creating a regular Show and Tell event where people can share what they are working on or just are plain obsessed with.

2) Making a board with polaroid pictures of members. This helps people match names to faces and is a nice community builder.

3) Hanging a community bulletin board. Of course, Indy Hall has an online forum where people can make announcements, but there’s something very powerful about an old school physical bulletin board like you have at a coffee shop or health food co-op.

I credit Dana Vachon and Alex Hillman for being open to ideas, and actually making them happen. Coming up with ideas is easy, creating an organization that is actually open to them and implements them is not. These may seem like trivial examples, I mean, how hard is it to get a bulletin board put up? Well, I have been in a lot of organizations where it would be hard, and I bet you have too.