The Community Manifesto

In February 2009, Station C will be one year old. We’re growing and evolving. So it’s time to better articulate who we are, the role we play in the Mile End and Montreal, and what we want to achieve.

We’ve started gathering the nitty gritty about how we operate into one document to make it easier for folks to pitch in. Knowing how the projector and espresso machine works is important stuff. And we’ve drafted a Community Manifesto. It’s meant to lay the groundwork: explain our vision, tell others what to expect, guide our decision-making, help people decide if they want to join or run screaming in the other direction.

Here it is:

Station C is a space that fosters community, collaboration, innovation. People come here to work and connect. We are a hub for creators and innovators: entrepreneurs, geeks, artists, social activists.

Station C is part of an international coworking movement, which brings together the best elements of the office, cafe, and salon. This movement is built on a set of common values:

Community — We are a community that thrives on connections and mutual support. Everyone participates, contributes, and benefits. Station C members take the initiative to care for our collective space, welcome visitors, orient new members, start conversations, and host events. We also reach out and contribute to our local community.
Collaboration — We work together, intentionally as part of project teams or in an ad-hoc way when someone needs a hand. We help each other out by sharing ideas, learning, solutions, resources.
Openness — It is beneficial to share and build on each others’ ideas and knowledge. We encourage this in a concrete way by working at shared tables in an open space. We’re a modern agora, providing a public space for informal community gatherings and encouraging folks to drop in and work with us for the day.
Diversity — We want people with different ideas, perspectives, and ways of working. People from different backgrounds. People at different stages in their life and career. Diversity means occasional misunderstandings, annoyance, and arguments — all of which are a small price to pay for sparking creativity and avoiding groupthink.
Sustainability — Financially, Station C was designed to sustain itself and the community, not to make a profit. Each of us is responsible for finding our own work. Environmentally, like everyone, we are still learning and finding ways to lower our impact and promote sustainable products and behaviors. We need to do more and welcome help with this.

On the diversity piece. I’d like to get an “Innovation Desk” program started. Local companies or government agencies could sponsor a space at one of our tables so that someone who could not normally afford to work with us can benefit from being here. We’d have a special spot on our website to recognize this and the person would blog about their experiences and learning. I’m still developing the idea and welcome your feedback.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge that parts of this text were built on Citizen Space’s philosophy and ground rulez. I’ve also been influenced by Alex Hillman at Philadelphia’s Independents Hall and Tonya Surman at Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation — see their Theory of Change. And (of course!) this content is yours under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License.

So, what do you think? Please leave us your comments below so we can post the final version.