It’s time for a new membership level at Office Nomads!  We’ve heard from several of you that you’d love to see a basic membership that brings you closer into the community even if you are unable to be a Regular or Resident member.  Well wait no more, Basic Membership is here!  Here are the details, as pulled from our Membership & Pricing page:

Basic Member – $50/month

You want to be hooked into the Office Nomads community but know that you are not able to be in the office enough days to be a Regular or Resident Member.  You want to drop in from time to time, stay connected with the coworkers you met in the space, and be in the loop when it comes to events and goings-on in the office.  Get a Basic Membership and enjoy 3 drop-in days/month, with drop-ins thereafter at only $20/visit. You’ll have access to the space Monday-Friday between 8:30 AM and 6 PM.

Yes, it’s going to be nearly 100 degrees in Seattle today and I’m using snow references. 

It has been a huge week for both Office Nomads and coworking in the news!  Here is a quick break down of some of the recent articles, news clips, and blog posts that have rocked our world during the last week, in chronological order:

• Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City kicks off the week of coworking clips last Wednesday with his article on Lunch.com – A glimpse of the future of work.
• Also on Wednesday, Business Week features a variety of coworking spaces in Portland, highlighting souk, NedSpace, and The Hive!
• The Washington Post features coworking over the weekend, giving an overview on how coworking functions as a part of a new way work is getting done – where independents choose their own coworkers
• The buzz stays alive on Monday, when NWJobs features Seattle coworking spaces including Office Nomads as great places to beat the heat and get to work in air conditioned spaces as Seattle’s heat wave begins.
• Tuesday starts with the Wall Street Journal, fresh off the stands, with an article on how start-ups share spaces, including coworking spaces, to cut costs.  Office Nomads’ Pink Slip Special is mentioned, and we bask in the glow of national press!
• Last but not least, local station Q 13 airs a feature on Office Nomads, highlighting the use of shared spaces as an alternative for independent workers.

Whoa!  What will the next week bring, I wonder?  Oprah, give us a call whenever you’re ready.

Thanks to Flickr user internets_dairy for their use of this photo under the Creative Commons license.

Well, if you’re in the city, you know it’s been HOT of late!  Not used to all this sun and heat, freelancers and telecommuters alike are seeking refuge from the sweltering (in Northwest terms, of course) outdoors.  Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti-9-to-5 Guide and My So-Called Freelance Life recently popped a great post up on the NW Jobs site that is worth a quick read.  Here’s a quick exerpt:

I’ve been working from home long enough to know that trying to be productive while beads of sweat roll down your back and drip onto your keyboard is a lost cause. Once my office breaks 80 degrees, all I’m good for is a siesta.

If like me, you’re a home-based worker with no air conditioning, there’s no need to panic about this week’s forecasted heat wave. The Puget Sound area offers plenty of places where freelancers and telecommuters can escape the 90-degree summer sizzle.

Among Michelle’s suggestions are local public library branches and coworking spaces, including Office Nomads.  Thanks for the nod, Michelle – we hope to see you in the office soon!  The AC is going, fans are a blowing, and we even have the lights off to keep the space nice and cool!

Thanks to Flickr user Powderruns for use of their photo under the Creative Commons license! This shot makes me want to head down to Crater Lake and take a dip!

Q13 is doing a story on the Seattle Jelly scene

Karrie Kohlhaas of ThoughtShot Consulting hosted her first Jelly here at Office Nomads today.  Jellies first started in NYC to bring creative folks together that had been stuck in home offices.  They have since spread and grown and are saving people from isolation world wide.  It’s a simple format where you shout out to your community that you will be working from a certain location and invite people to join you.  Karrie posted this event on Biznik and it quickly filled up.  People are eager to get out of the house and find social interaction that doesn’t interfere with their work.    Coworking and Jelly have tight histories and I’m excited Seattle is embracing the concept.  There is also a Facebook page to unite folks and hopefully make these happen more often.

Q13 was here to do a story on the event and the wider Jelly scene.  We are not sure when that will go live and we’ll keep you posted.

It’s a busy day here at Office Nomads.  Not only are Biznik and Q13 running around but the front area only has one free desk today and that is after we added four more a few weeks ago.  What a great way to start the week!  I thought I heard someone say something about the economy not doing so hot but from where I sit things are getting pretty exciting.

Today marked the fourth official time Office Nomads has been fortunate enough to have Karen Lindenberg of Phyzz Yoga come in and teach those of us who are interested an hour-long session of yoga.

After today’s session, I have a confession to make: until today, I doubted that we could ever regularly host yoga sessions in the office.  Why, you ask? I am a big believer in the value of a separation between work and “home” (or gym, yoga, art) spaces. Well, today I realized that it was time for me to bend that guideline a little bit more than usual. Because yoga in the office ROCKS.

Our hour-long break with Karen each Wednesday is officially my new favorite thing about Office Nomads.  Yoga at the office is providing me (and my fellow Nomads) with a great break from sitting diligently at our desks, a time to get our eyes away from our screens, and to enjoy putting our bodies through the paces that Karen leads us through each week. Coworkers stretch alongside one another, laughing in the moments when we all struggle to hit a pose or letting out a big collective sigh when we all get to relax on our mats. It’s awesome. And I’m coming to believe that it is a key part of an effective workday, even when it happens at the office.

As coworking spaces and other “alternative office spaces” emerge around the world, I imagine there will be a constant balancing out of the desire for office spaces to put in as much “fun” as possible in the interest of retaining members or employees (this idea reminds me of an old article I read in Utne, titled “Are We Having Fun Yet? The infantilization of corporate America” – the description of working at Aquascape was particularly wild to me) without overly complicating what they’re trying to do. You can overdo office “extras,” but with the right balance between productive work time and goofing-off time, it actually becomes easier to focus and the day becomes much more productive.

At Office Nomads we have a simple goal: to be a home for 40 independent professionals who are looking for a great place to work.  But we don’t just want to be a place to work, we want to be a place where people & businesses grow, valuable conversations are had, connections are made.  This means that (even if it blurrs my clearly defined lines between work and home), we get beers together, we go out to lunch together and yes, we do yoga together.  And we’re all the better for it.

Namaste, baby.