Social Network for RSA Fellows
Physical Spaces for Fellows
One of the points that is consistently raised by Fellows is a space to meet and network with other Fellows in John Adam Street.
As mentioned again on this forum by Peter Bebb who wrote last week wrote, ‘Give free or close to free use of the John Adam Street rooms when these are not being used by fee-payers”.
Previously Fellows have also suggested setting aside one larger room for use on a particular day of the week or month or to increase the size of the Gerard Bar.
The RSA has responded to these suggestions in a number of ways, but essentially my impression is that due to financial and contractual obligations the RSA is unable to consider these suggestions.
However, I believe that this topic is very important and worthy of deeper discussion within the Fellowship and hopefully also with the Fellowship Council.
What do Fellows want to use the space for?
Networking?
My guess is that when this subject comes up, that Fellows have very different ideas about what sort of space they would like to have, and how they would use a space. For example, some Fellows would simply like a larger space to meet other Fellows in a more relaxed, less pre-arranged way. Alternatively something along the lines of Tuttle Club, which meets every Friday morning would suit some Fellows has also been suggested.
The RSA has answered this request by Clare Reilly from the networks team kindly arranging a meetup on the first Thursday of the month at the South Bank Centre. There are also similar regular meetings arranged regionally, for example, the South Central Committee arrange and host a monthly get-together called RSA First Mondays in the Portsmouth area.
Are there further opportunities to extend these types of networking events, and are there any Fellows who would like to initiate further events, perhaps more specialised or more local?
Networking plus occasional work space?
Great examples of these types of spaces are exemplified by The Hub and One Alfred Place. Although they offer rather different facilities and atmospheres, they share the common characteristic of providing excellent space to work, meet, network and offer varying degrees of flexibility of use. Mostly these spaces work brilliantly for people who don’t want to take on their own office space, wish to share facilities and create a good professional impression… and be social.
To focus on these two spaces as examples the membership frameworks are as follows:
One Alfred Place
Annual Membership Costs £1500 – one off joining fee £175
There are some ‘out of town’ rates for less frequent use.
The Hub
They offer a stepped membership based on the number of hours of proposed use. This ranges from £10 per month for 5 hours use to £125 per month for 50 hours use, to unlimited use at £310 per month (£4560 per year!!)
Are there Fellows who would look to the RSA to provide these sorts of facilities, and if so, would they see an RSA run space of this sort more enticing than the existing places?
Fellows at the RSA already enjoy some working space in the Library and in the Gerard Bar, but many Fellows (but obviously not all) feel that this isn’t sufficient. If any changes were possible, and I am very unsure that any are possible, what would those Fellows like to see changed/added here?
Somewhere to hold events and workshops?
The facilities at the RSA are beautiful, but financially prohibitive for anything other than professional, funded events. Would Fellows be more encouraged to initiate more casual spontaneous events and get-togethers if there was some freely available space for that? Not having such a space currently may be discouraging Fellows from arranging smaller, informal learning and sharing based events that would enliven the Fellowship?
Project working Space?
Are there Fellows who are looking for a new type of space? Perhaps a space designed specifically for informal project development and co-design?
There are signs that people are increasingly impatient with online collaboration (because it really is difficult) and are looking for new ways to work together face-to-face. The RSA, The Hub etc and even coffee shops already provide venues for pre-arranged meetings with people. Would a space, which worked around casual, less pre-arranged contact offer Fellows (and others) more opportunity to get to know each other better and increase the chances of developing projects together?
I believe that there are many RSA Fellows who could be described as Social Designers, so I have had a good look at what approach designers in general are taking to their workspaces. It seems that designers are paying more attention to how their spaces work – predominantly to encourage and facilitate collaboration, both accidental and designed.
Example 1 – IDEO – San Francisco Office
According to Bill Moggridge of IDEO, their San Francisco office is changing more and more of their office to ‘project working’ space. He described in a recent talk how they needed less space for individual working and more for collaboration.
“Working with lots of different people from different backgrounds, if you are going to make it work, it is actually pretty difficult. I think there are a couple of factors: the culture and the space, that really matter quite a bit. One of the things we are lucky with is decades of practice in brainstorming. So we get people from different backgrounds to come around a table and think about an issue and very quickly they will come up with a huge number of ideas. We expect to get 100 ideas in an hour – maybe 2 of which are good.
Always think of project rooms rather than individual offices or conference rooms. Project rooms are so powerful because you put everything to do with a project into a space, however rough it is. So at IDEO we have project rooms everywhere and people are working on three or four projects at the same time.”
You can watch Bill Moggridge's full talk here.
Workstations are located throughout the open and continuous old warehouse space. It was necessary for the office to be flexible to accommodate the fluidity within the office, as teams would be reconfigured with the completion of projects. Devices such as semi-mobile furniture with casters on one side or mobile walls were incorporated to facilitate modifying the office layout.
Example 2 – Pixar
Famously Pixar artists have their offices in sheds which they personalise and move about on castors to facilitate collaborating on projects.
Example 3 – Stanford University’s Center for Design Research
As described by Christian Basson :
“Flat screens are ubiquitous, the walls are all covered with whiteboards, and large notices describing case studies and project descriptions hang beneath the ceiling. Lego bricks lie scattered on the shelves, and in one corner of the room sits the entire dashboard from a German passenger car. On the other hand, there are no partitions separating the various workgroups, and no bookshelf stands more than waist-high.”
There are also a few new types of community spaces springing up which are really interesting.
Example 4 – Backstory Café – Chicago
From their website:
“We believe stimulating public spaces play an important roll in fostering positive social change. Through our programming, we aim to become a hub for creative cultural activity and collective learning.
Situated between the disparate neighborhoods of Woodlawn and Hyde Park, we serve as an inclusive gathering space where people from diverse backgrounds can meet, interact and build meaningful relationships. Please contact us if you have a community event you'd like us to host!”
How could a new types of spaces be developed for RSA Fellows... Should they be considered at all?
Fellows needs and wishes vary widely, and there may be multiple visions for new types of spaces. As mentioned, I think that this is a worthy conversation, and below are some of the questions that might be valuable starting points.
1. Can we start envisioning new spaces? What could those spaces look like?
2. Could new spaces be developed by the Fellows (with some assistance from RSA)?
3. What sort of financial model could be developed? How would a space cope with the complexities of space use that isn’t uniform?
4. Could a movable space be envisaged to take advantage of cheap rents?
5. How would we consider the fact that the Fellowship is spread widely geographically?
6. Could the Fellows create a space that encouraged collaboration of social projects in an inclusive way i.e. not just Fellows?
7. Could Fellows manage the space – giving their time to share duties (even the boring and mundane?) Could we consider this sort of space a community space, rather than a professional, presentable one? Would this make it 'feel' more creative?
8. How many Fellows would use this sort of space? Potentially how many Fellows would it take to create and manage it?
9. Does any Fellow have an empty old warehouse we could use as a trial?
The RSA is SO keen to help Fellows develop projects, start new things, arrange new events. How can Fellows and the RSA work together to create new possibilities, new vehicles of change and new working practices... starting with looking at *space*?
What do Fellows think?
As mentioned again on this forum by Peter Bebb who wrote last week wrote, ‘Give free or close to free use of the John Adam Street rooms when these are not being used by fee-payers”.
Previously Fellows have also suggested setting aside one larger room for use on a particular day of the week or month or to increase the size of the Gerard Bar.
The RSA has responded to these suggestions in a number of ways, but essentially my impression is that due to financial and contractual obligations the RSA is unable to consider these suggestions.
However, I believe that this topic is very important and worthy of deeper discussion within the Fellowship and hopefully also with the Fellowship Council.
What do Fellows want to use the space for?
Networking?
My guess is that when this subject comes up, that Fellows have very different ideas about what sort of space they would like to have, and how they would use a space. For example, some Fellows would simply like a larger space to meet other Fellows in a more relaxed, less pre-arranged way. Alternatively something along the lines of Tuttle Club, which meets every Friday morning would suit some Fellows has also been suggested.
The RSA has answered this request by Clare Reilly from the networks team kindly arranging a meetup on the first Thursday of the month at the South Bank Centre. There are also similar regular meetings arranged regionally, for example, the South Central Committee arrange and host a monthly get-together called RSA First Mondays in the Portsmouth area.
Are there further opportunities to extend these types of networking events, and are there any Fellows who would like to initiate further events, perhaps more specialised or more local?
Networking plus occasional work space?
Great examples of these types of spaces are exemplified by The Hub and One Alfred Place. Although they offer rather different facilities and atmospheres, they share the common characteristic of providing excellent space to work, meet, network and offer varying degrees of flexibility of use. Mostly these spaces work brilliantly for people who don’t want to take on their own office space, wish to share facilities and create a good professional impression… and be social.
To focus on these two spaces as examples the membership frameworks are as follows:
One Alfred Place
Annual Membership Costs £1500 – one off joining fee £175
There are some ‘out of town’ rates for less frequent use.
The Hub
They offer a stepped membership based on the number of hours of proposed use. This ranges from £10 per month for 5 hours use to £125 per month for 50 hours use, to unlimited use at £310 per month (£4560 per year!!)
Are there Fellows who would look to the RSA to provide these sorts of facilities, and if so, would they see an RSA run space of this sort more enticing than the existing places?
Fellows at the RSA already enjoy some working space in the Library and in the Gerard Bar, but many Fellows (but obviously not all) feel that this isn’t sufficient. If any changes were possible, and I am very unsure that any are possible, what would those Fellows like to see changed/added here?
Somewhere to hold events and workshops?
The facilities at the RSA are beautiful, but financially prohibitive for anything other than professional, funded events. Would Fellows be more encouraged to initiate more casual spontaneous events and get-togethers if there was some freely available space for that? Not having such a space currently may be discouraging Fellows from arranging smaller, informal learning and sharing based events that would enliven the Fellowship?
Project working Space?
Are there Fellows who are looking for a new type of space? Perhaps a space designed specifically for informal project development and co-design?
There are signs that people are increasingly impatient with online collaboration (because it really is difficult) and are looking for new ways to work together face-to-face. The RSA, The Hub etc and even coffee shops already provide venues for pre-arranged meetings with people. Would a space, which worked around casual, less pre-arranged contact offer Fellows (and others) more opportunity to get to know each other better and increase the chances of developing projects together?
I believe that there are many RSA Fellows who could be described as Social Designers, so I have had a good look at what approach designers in general are taking to their workspaces. It seems that designers are paying more attention to how their spaces work – predominantly to encourage and facilitate collaboration, both accidental and designed.
Example 1 – IDEO – San Francisco Office
According to Bill Moggridge of IDEO, their San Francisco office is changing more and more of their office to ‘project working’ space. He described in a recent talk how they needed less space for individual working and more for collaboration.
“Working with lots of different people from different backgrounds, if you are going to make it work, it is actually pretty difficult. I think there are a couple of factors: the culture and the space, that really matter quite a bit. One of the things we are lucky with is decades of practice in brainstorming. So we get people from different backgrounds to come around a table and think about an issue and very quickly they will come up with a huge number of ideas. We expect to get 100 ideas in an hour – maybe 2 of which are good.
Always think of project rooms rather than individual offices or conference rooms. Project rooms are so powerful because you put everything to do with a project into a space, however rough it is. So at IDEO we have project rooms everywhere and people are working on three or four projects at the same time.”
You can watch Bill Moggridge's full talk here.
Workstations are located throughout the open and continuous old warehouse space. It was necessary for the office to be flexible to accommodate the fluidity within the office, as teams would be reconfigured with the completion of projects. Devices such as semi-mobile furniture with casters on one side or mobile walls were incorporated to facilitate modifying the office layout.
Example 2 – Pixar
Famously Pixar artists have their offices in sheds which they personalise and move about on castors to facilitate collaborating on projects.
Example 3 – Stanford University’s Center for Design Research
As described by Christian Basson :
“Flat screens are ubiquitous, the walls are all covered with whiteboards, and large notices describing case studies and project descriptions hang beneath the ceiling. Lego bricks lie scattered on the shelves, and in one corner of the room sits the entire dashboard from a German passenger car. On the other hand, there are no partitions separating the various workgroups, and no bookshelf stands more than waist-high.”
There are also a few new types of community spaces springing up which are really interesting.
Example 4 – Backstory Café – Chicago
From their website:
“We believe stimulating public spaces play an important roll in fostering positive social change. Through our programming, we aim to become a hub for creative cultural activity and collective learning.
Situated between the disparate neighborhoods of Woodlawn and Hyde Park, we serve as an inclusive gathering space where people from diverse backgrounds can meet, interact and build meaningful relationships. Please contact us if you have a community event you'd like us to host!”
How could a new types of spaces be developed for RSA Fellows... Should they be considered at all?
Fellows needs and wishes vary widely, and there may be multiple visions for new types of spaces. As mentioned, I think that this is a worthy conversation, and below are some of the questions that might be valuable starting points.
1. Can we start envisioning new spaces? What could those spaces look like?
2. Could new spaces be developed by the Fellows (with some assistance from RSA)?
3. What sort of financial model could be developed? How would a space cope with the complexities of space use that isn’t uniform?
4. Could a movable space be envisaged to take advantage of cheap rents?
5. How would we consider the fact that the Fellowship is spread widely geographically?
6. Could the Fellows create a space that encouraged collaboration of social projects in an inclusive way i.e. not just Fellows?
7. Could Fellows manage the space – giving their time to share duties (even the boring and mundane?) Could we consider this sort of space a community space, rather than a professional, presentable one? Would this make it 'feel' more creative?
8. How many Fellows would use this sort of space? Potentially how many Fellows would it take to create and manage it?
9. Does any Fellow have an empty old warehouse we could use as a trial?
The RSA is SO keen to help Fellows develop projects, start new things, arrange new events. How can Fellows and the RSA work together to create new possibilities, new vehicles of change and new working practices... starting with looking at *space*?
What do Fellows think?
Views: 83
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tessy Britton on -
Thanks David for your comment. And for yours (and David Jenning's) generous comments and links to it on the OpenRSA ning. Although this topic is mentioned fairly frequently I am not sure exactly how many people aren't satisfied with the current arrangements at JAS. Or indeed how many would want more in-depth involvement in working on new Fellow-led initiatives on spaces?
The potential to experiment with new sorts of spaces for new types of collaborative activities still really appeals to me though. A space where we roll up our sleeves and do the washing up seems to be something completely different to what is on offer for people wanting to work and be collectively productive on a less formal basis.
I found myself eyeing up the closed old B&Q warehouse in Wimbledon yesterday from the train! Sigh.
David Wilcox said:Tessy - thanksfor reopening this discussion within such a thoughtful framework. It is, perhaps, the most important one for Fellowship development whether that is for social, business or collaborative project work. I think the networks review lessons emphasised conversattions, relationships, trust before action. The last two years show online may support this, but cannot be in the lead.
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Permalink Reply by Tessy Britton on
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I found another great example of a project which acknowledges the importance of the physical spaces and face-to-face contact to build relationships and community.
The Pie Lab is a pop-up project:
"At Pie Lab we hope to bring out the heart of Hale County by uncovering the ideas, stories, aspirations and talents of this underserved community. We also hope that through fostering conversation between neighbors at Pie Lab, we
can provide a neutral and open forum for members of the community to expose and discuss some of the deep-rooted issues that still segregate this rural southern town."
One of the thinks I like about the project is that they say how difficult communicating and collaborating can be:
"Creating something is easy. The hardest part is getting started. No matter where people are, communication between people is difficult."
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Permalink Reply by Tessy Britton on
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Thanks Bob for telling us about your plans - The Melting Pot looks great. A space of some kind at RSA continues to be a wish for many - even for trial period would be interesting?
Scottish Fellows seem to be up to all sorts of marvellous things!
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Permalink Reply by Terry Grundy on -
I don't live in London so don't have as much standing in this discussion as others but, like everyone else who's participated, I can see that the only way to use a room at the John Adam Street House is by hiring it -- even if the activity to occur in the room is directly germane to the mission of the organisation and the acknowledged role of Fellows -- and that the rates in question are equivalent to what one would expect in a hotel or other place of public accommodation. No doubt this is because of the financial pressures faced by the RSA but, still, it's a shame that the house (except for the public programmes) is run more as a commercial venture than as a place for Fellows to come together spontaneously to plot the progress of 21st Century Enlightenment. Since we're trying to promote ourselves to the world as a source of energy for social transformation, we would do well to act more like a social change movement than like an innkeeper.
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Permalink Reply by Maria Ana Neves on -
Hi Tessy
as a new FRSA, and just starting to explore the ning groups...just found this discussion!
what happened since you posted this discussion?
could you share developments?
I am developing a project called The Thinking Hotel which resonates with the core challenges listed. The vision is to create it as a social entreprise, which would be open to every person in every city, offering the space, time, resources, tools services for thinking fostering collaboration, imagination and direction for people, projects and businesses/organisations.
let's discuss this?
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Permalink Reply by Tessy Britton on
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That sounds amazing Maria! I will get in touch!
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Permalink Reply by Terry Grundy on
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We ought to distinguish between the interesting ventures of our various Fellows (providing work and creative space for the public as a social venture) and the original topic of this discussion. The original question, posed by Peter Bebb, was whether or not the RSA should provide free or nearly free meeting/work space to Fellows at the John Adam Street house. It would be a benefit and one that would allow the RSA a concrete way to show its appreciation for its Fellows. Now, Fellows are treated much as the public is treated in the House, except for the Vault, of course. One would think that the RSA would want to encourage the society-improving work of its Fellows -- at least by giving them space at the House in which to engage in it.
Tessy, do you know if there have been any developments with respect to Mr Bebb's original question?
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Permalink Reply by Maria Ana Neves on
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Yes Terry, you are absolutely right the two are different things and would be brilliant to know if there was a development - it's nearly a year!
Meantime Tessy shared a number of interesting examples of spaces which are a fantastic source of inspiration - and what I am learning about the RSA is that the value, power and potential is from the synergies created between connecting fellows and ideas than expecting the Society to 'deliver' for the fellows... so, why not use it?
all the best
maria ana
Terry Grundy said:We ought to distinguish between the interesting ventures of our various Fellows (providing work and creative space for the public as a social venture) and the original topic of this discussion. The original question, posed by Peter Bebb, was whether or not the RSA should provide free or nearly free meeting/work space to Fellows at the John Adam Street house. It would be a benefit and one that would allow the RSA a concrete way to show its appreciation for its Fellows. Now, Fellows are treated much as the public is treated in the House, except for the Vault, of course. One would think that the RSA would want to encourage the society-improving work of its Fellows -- at least by giving them space at the House in which to engage in it.
Tessy, do you know if there have been any developments with respect to Mr Bebb's original question?
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Permalink Reply by Tessy Britton on
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Hi Terry/Maria
To my knowledge, and someone might correct me, but the decision at this time is that the RSA House needs to run as a commercially viable sub of the RSA. Terry, I certainly share your ideals about using the House as a hub for getting social innovators together etc, but I also see some of the organisational constraints around this - particularly where they are trying to create some *equality of offer* to all Fellows. Getting the balance between 'think tank', 'club' and 'social innovators hub' is not easy - but I am not sure we are currently at quite the right balance for many enthusiastic Fellows?
I think that the RSA Fellows network has many ideas and resources and there is a great deal of potential in developing these ideas into something exciting - I love Maria's idea for example.
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Elliott-Hunter on -
One of the key elements producing value output from the RSA is communication and networking. Not just in the sense of collaborating on a specific issue, but the general value of thought generation and creativity. This has been mentioned in various ways above and while the lovely house should, in my view, enable some 'free' space for it's membership, (without which it would not exist of course), it opens to discussion the wider issue of networking and enabling Fellows to engage with 'society'.
Perhaps what we should looking hard at is a) space at the house and (perhaps more importantly) b) space in the real-world outside London.
With the right approach, I would imagine that somewhere can be found just about everywhere. The process of finding locations itself can be really valuable in creating awareness, enhancing status and engaging others.
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Permalink Reply by James Fallan on -
A rather late addition to this stream....
I was at the House yesterday to meet a couple of people. Needing caffeine we arranged to meet in the tiny (and packed) Gerard Bar. Whilst I understand the sacrifice we all have to make during the renovations, I found myself having to apologise for the the very loud banging and drilling but could do nothing more than smile, embarrassed, as we watched dust descend from the ceiling around one of the light fittings!
You have to be eagle eyed and faster than Usain Bolt to grab a seat or table in the Gerard Bar anytime between 11am and about 2pm - and remember this was on a Wednesday afternoon in January. So if you plan to meet at the Gerard Bar any time between now and July 2012, I suggest you bring a dust mask and a list of prepared apologies or as many will (I fear), just arrange to go for a coffee or a drink somewhere else.
From a rather disappointed new Fellow.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Kavanagh on -
I'm new too, and thoroughly enjoyed the new fellows' event, with an opportunity for informal mingling and sharing of ideas. I would hope there would be a space/opportunity for this to happen more often (where/what time is the monthly Thursday meeting at South Bank?). But I hoped to be able to host events - book launches/talks etc at John Adams Street, and as has already been expressed, hiring a room is horribly pricey.
I shall just have to continue to have events at Friends House in Euston -a great place to meet for coffee, by the way - but part of joining RSA was to share ideas and extend activities to a wider network. Thanks for all your efforts.
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