To my esteemed Independents Hall list members, this email is a long time coming. We’re coming up on 5 months since the March 1st inauguration of this list, it’s pretty incredible to already see the effect that we’ve had on each other.

From projects evolving with the help of one another, to the city’s first large scale unconference, to a generous hat-tip in Wired Magazine (among many, many other bits of media scattered about the internet).

The time has come that our community has grown into our goal of wanting and needing a permanent shared space of our own. We’ve diligently researched, polled interest, and with fingers (and toes) crossed we should be hearing back in less than a week about a space in Old City that we’re very excited about.

Up until this point, Independents Hall has been 100% free, with open events funded out of our own pockets or through donations of time, money, and resources from individuals. Obviously, running a space won’t be free, but we’ve done some number crunching and have made it a point to consider your wallets, and make your involvement be as sustainable as possible.

Here’s the scoop on membership, tentatively, that you can read and figure out where you fit with needs and budget:

Here’s the part where you all run away screaming and my dreams are crushed to pieces: I need to ask for commitments.

No engagement rings here, no “Its not you, it’s me” excuses. I’ve been level and transparent through this entire journey so this should be a simple decision for you, nothing is hidden, this is the real deal.

Respond to me, off list, that you would like to commit to a membership and at what level. Also, since this is a 100% bootstrapped effort, we’re looking to see if anyone is able to do a couple of months up front to help, or even better, a charter donation. If there is interest expressed in that charter donation, we’ll figure out what the return for that donation would be.

Many of you are listening in and going, “well, I don’t need a desk, what does this mean for me?” It means that you should still become a member, at $25/month, since you’ve followed along for this long and believe in what we’re doing. That $25 goes to making desks affordable for everyone else, supporting the community, funding events, and making sure that this can keep happening. Not only are you giving to help that, but your name goes on the member directory, you’re on invites for events, and you do get a free day in the space and a free hour in the conference room built in and reduced day rates, should you decide to drop by once in a while.

Also, being in the member directory is a great opportunity to find work as well as workers for your projects, since our project is already getting some heavy visibility.

Finally, if you’re a business listening and you’re interested in sponsoring a desk, contact me off list and we can discuss options for that.

This is huge for us, so please be realistic and honest with your commitments. If you have questions or concerns about any of this, speak up!

Thanks again, for all of your continuing support. This is really, really incredible that we’ve gotten this far, we can’t slow down now! Viva la Philadelphia!