OK, I think it’s time to take the next step.
I’m pleased with the café sessions, we have a sponsor and that has brought more interest in sponsorship and we had 42 people signed up on the wiki today although I’m sure we “turned over” more than fifty.
I wasn’t sure how it would go with 40-odd people but then I wasn’t sure how it would go with 10 people, 18 people or 26 people either. It didn’t work for everyone, it got too noisy for some people to talk or focus on other work and the wifi was flaky at times and/or didn’t reach up to the top room which was quiet enough to work in. Prototypes break at different times for different people under different circumstances. I’m fairly sure though that we’ve established something worth continuing with and I’m bowled over by the messages I’ve had from several people who came for the first time.
The discussions I’ve had with people in the last week support my conviction that the other elements beyond the purely social – the learning space and the coworking space are worth trying out in the same fashion.
David Wilcox kindly filmed me talking about this when he spent some time at the café today. He’s also written some nice words on his blog.
We’re at the stage where we need for the group to be able to accept payments and donations without going near the byzantine constructions of my personal finances. So as I announced earlier, I intend to set up a company limited by guarantee called The Tuttle Club. The Club will exist to represent the interests of its members – you – the friends of Harry Tuttle, the Geeks of Greek Street, whatever else you may wish to call yourselves and I would suggest it does that by facilitating meetings where members can discuss, learn about and work on issues related to Social Media. We need to bash out some more comprehensive aims – I want to know what else you think we are about. I’m talking to some esteemed members of the community about becoming trustees.
We passed bags around for donations today (initially to fund incorporation) from those who were there and happened to have UK currency about their person. The bags came back with £95.98 – thank you so much, that will go a long way towards making it happen. I said though that I’d also make it possible for people pay via paypal, so here it is, click away:
OK that’s enough for today, thank you. Go back to whatever else you were doing before.
I’m with not being shut in a hotel room with a bunch of vendors. More power to your mouse.
[...] or not. Even The Tuttle Club, where Lloyd Davis is organically growing a social media cafe, is getting a bit more formal with a move towards incorporation. Will there be virtual Board [...]
nice work, bro
Hi Lloyd,
Helen just emailed about this – I have been watching it since the start (and meaning to turn up!!!) but since I’m still stuck in the sticks in Cambridge (we were moving to London but thats now on hold as we are likely going to San Francisco) I have yet to make it .
Anyway, this may be too late but I can probably help out and get discounted company incorporation if you wish – I know David who runs http://www.alphauk.com (he hosts his site with the Web Dev company which I still have a finger in).
Also, have you considered an LLP as it may be cheaper to operate ongoing.