January heralds the annual transition from the year-end season of reflection to the new year norms of goal-setting and plan making. So it seems fitting to both look back at our recent history and to gaze forward at the near future of Commonplace. And maybe the most succinct way to sum it all up is that we are now firmly in a decade of joyful debt.
As 2020 began, Commonplace was still growing, slowly and peacefully. The previous year we had expanded from our original Lake Street location to a new space in The Box. Our offices were inhabited by interesting organizations. Our conference rooms were popular meeting places for changemakers. Our coworking areas were a hive of community activity and collaboration. And while we were never as full as we'd have liked, we were listening to what our community needed and were learning how to ever better meet those needs. We looked excitedly southward to the shores of the Boardman and the Commongrounds building, where we had already committed to opening our next location.
Could we throw a party in those early days, or what!?
There's no need to chronicle what came next. You already know the story, because so many of our nonprofits and businesses shared the same experience. As reality set in, the plan for 2020 and beyond quickly switched. Survival was the new goal; weather out the pandemic and do what was necessary to ensure we were there for our Commonplacers when they were ready to return.
2021 wore on. We let struggling folks out of their leases, even as we struggled to make our own rent. Offices stood empty. Coworking was almost nonexistent. Our space was eerily quite. (Even some of the motion-activated ceiling lights stopped showing up to work...) Supply chain delays and the emerging complexity of the Commongrounds project seem to continually move our new home just beyond our reach. Another year until opening? Yeah, sure, why not. Your guess is as good as ours if we'll be able to honor our purchase agreement.
At a certain point, even the crickets quit coming in…
Despite the uncertainty, several organizations— among them SEEDS, Taste the Local Difference, Golden Circle Advisors, the CHIR and a handful of others—continued to pay rent and utilize our space for their essential workers. Without them, we could not have remained in operation.
We also had several members who, while they were upfront about not intending to come in during the pandemic, continued to pay for their memberships. As one Commonplacer from Crosshatch put it "I want to do my part to make sure you're still there when we're ready to come back." So the lights stayed on and we continued to brew our morning coffee. Waiting.
Heading into 2022, Commonplace was on the ropes. But the light was also starting to show. Familiar faces slowly started to re-appear. We took on an SBA emergency loan to stay afloat, and, come hell or high water, we'd be moving in to the Commongrounds building at some point during the year.
Of course that was after we came up with the additional funds to cover the dramatically higher-than-expected build out cost for the new space we had committed to.
So basically, we were a couple hundred grand short at a time when we were already pinching pennies tight enough to give Lincoln's ghost a migraine.
Cautiously, folks started to filter back in.
Though Commonplace is a nonprofit, we had always elected to operate as a lean business, rather than a philanthropic engine. So we began working closely with some amazing local financial institutions like Venture North, Northern Initiatives, and Opportunity Resource Fund to secure additional construction loans. But nonprofit finance is tricky, and as our payment deadlines loomed, numerous obstacles still stood in the way of use securing the vital funds.
It was at the eleventh hour, that a couple of Commonplacers came to our aid. One family offered us a generous private loan and the other, Building Bridges with Music, agreed to prepay for their office for ten years. Both this incredible family and this great organization made their critical commitments at a time when the building was far more steel than real. They placed their trust in us, a fact which we will never take lightly.
Summer finally came, and with it so much of the warmth and energy which we had long been missing. Offices began to fill back up with new and interesting members. For the first time we started offering day passes and were excited to welcome folks from across the country who shared our values into our space. More than once we heard, " I didn't expect to find a place like this in Northern Michigan." We thanked them and smiled, recognizing quietly to ourselves that if not for a handful of dedicated Commonplacers, they very likely wouldn't have found it.
Today Commonplace at Commongrounds is open. And while we're still installing the last few pieces of furniture, hanging some excellent art, and putting in the plants, the place is really filling up. Our offices are packed, we only have one dedicated desks left, and interest for coworking is again increasing. We're almost done crunching the numbers for the year and what we're seeing is staggering. For example, overall meeting room rentals increased 318% from 2021.
Always nice when you can keep a high shorts to masks ratio.
Now begins the invigorating process of paying back those who have for so long invested in us. Yes with their dollars but also with their energy and their faith. Before us is the privilege of proving that their trust has been well placed.
Debt gets a bad rap. Viewed narrowly, it's generally seen as a negative thing; something to be avoided and abhorred. Something which crushes and inhibits. But, as the Romans used to say, "Only the dose makes the poison." (dosis sola facit venenum).
Viewed in another, less fear-based way, debt can be a tool of growth and optimism. It can be wonderful thing to take on the right kind of debt from the right kinds of people. People who share your values and your vision of a better community or even a better world. The repayment of debt is merely a mechanism to repay the trust which has been placed in you. It is the opportunity to prove your commitments.
For us, every payment made is a conscious decision, a step toward becoming the kind of organization we want to be.
And this is not a new or uncomfortable position for Commonplace. We were in debt from day one.
Hearkening back to our early days, Kate Redman held numerous listening sessions at the inception of our organization. Even this simple act created a willing sense of indebtedness to our community. Once we heard and understood what was needed from those around us who were in search of a collaborative work space, we were then under an important obligation to help bring that about. Our debt started the minute we raised our hands to ask what we could do to improve the place we call home.
Actually we were in debt even before that. In debt to a community which has done so much for us as individuals. And in debt to one another for what can still be done to make things better for those valuable members of our community who are often overlooked and under-supported.
We can always do more to repay the debt we owe our neighbors and our amazing community!
Though it doesn't all technically appear on our balance sheet as debt, it is true that because of decision made in the last few years, were are committed to paying more than $1 million dollars over the next thirty to our loans and mortgages. (So okay, we’re looking at more than a decade of debt, but you try alliterating“thirty years"…”)
And while this may at times feel daunting, it was the right call. For us, this is a manageable number. We have a strong business plan, a dedicated board of directors, and the support of an incredible group of intelligent and compassionate humans.
We are so grateful for our new home in the Commongrounds building, and for the amazing interconnected community of entrepreneurs and changemakers which is already emerging there. We wouldn’t trade our debt for the world.
We recently held our first All-Commonplacer Breakfast to listen to and learn from our members!
So we’re not going anywhere. We can't. Because not only are we deeply committed to our mission of "uplifting and enlivening healthy, collaborative, and creative organizations to evolve better work and places," but we’re also chosen to shoulder a whole lot of debt, and we need to repay those who have chosen to stand boldly by Commonplace.
Which is just fine with us. In the ever-cheeky words of Oscar Wilde, "Those who pays their bills on time are soon forgotten."
And so begins, in earnest our decade of joyful debt.
