Hey there,

Huzzah, we all made it to May! Since there has been a lot of news this week about Governor Reynolds' plan to reopen our state, I thought it would be a good time to update everyone about our latest plans for Gravitate Coworking.

Our business is built on the value of bringing people together in one place so social distancing has been hard on us emotionally, mentally and financially. That said, even though we can’t wait to jump back in with both feet, we won’t do that until we feel that it is safe for our members and our team to do so.

The Governor issued an official proclamation Monday about the state’s economy reopening. One thing she said that I agree with wholeheartedly is that this virus isn’t going away any time soon and we need to learn how to function as a society in Iowa with it in our midst.

In that Monday announcement, she said she’s relaxing stay-at-home directions and other restrictions in 77 of Iowa’s 99 counties today. Polk County, where both of our communities are located, is not among those 77. She set a target date of May 15 for us and the other higher population counties in the state to follow suit.

The Gravitate Coworking team has been working hard to figure out what this means for us and for what it means for all of you. Our monthly members have been allowed access to our spaces all along at their own discretion; member use has been minimal but constant. We don’t have a specific date for a full return to operations—it won’t be like we “flip a switch” and things will be like they used to be—rather, we’ll phase things in as we feel them out and the first phase will be having our staff onsite more regularly. Our community managers, Abby and Kyle, have been in our spaces daily since this began in mid-March to process mail, sanitize surfaces, make sure that supplies are stocked, etc. and they’ll be the ultimate decision makers for each space.

While our re-entry plan isn’t yet complete, we’re constantly seeking information from experts, collaborating with our peers in the coworking industry around the world and working to implement what we believe to be best practices (side note: “best practices” is a hard concept in a literal unprecedented situation).

Here are some of the things we’re currently evaluating for our workspaces:

Mask wear—we’ll ask people to wear masks when they’re in the common spaces like the coworking rooms, restrooms, kitchens, etc. Ideally, everyone will bring their own mask each day but we’ll also have others onsite (disposable when we can get them -it's appropriate to not take away from the healthcare system, as well as cloth ones that we can launder each day).
Temperature Checks—we’re considering touchless temperature checks for people who enter the doors. We’d need to obtain the right equipment and be able to do this in a safe manner but this is something that has proven successful in other countries. If someone is running a fever, they wouldn’t be allowed to come into the space.
Cleaning/Disinfecting—we would continue to clean and disinfect the common areas of the space as often as we can but certainly daily. We’d ask members who use the space to help out by cleaning their own location or work station each day both before and after they use it.
Social distancing within the space—we’ll de-densify the coworking rooms by removing many of the chairs. We’ll likely mark the best places to sit to keep people 6’ or more apart.
Table dividers—we’re looking into the possibility of purchasing or constructing dividers to further separate the dedicated desks from each other, particularly in the “pod” groupings.
Member reservations for specific desks—some coworking communities are making specific desks in their common space reservable for members.
Office users—we’d ask you to implement similar plans within your own office but the exact procedure would be up to you and your organization. When you have a plan in place, we’d love to see it and share with the other members in the space.
Your own good sense—as much as I hate to default to this term, it is key to everything. If you feel sick, please stay home. If you find out you’ve been exposed to the virus, please stay home for 14 days (even if you’re not symptomatic), wash your hands regularly, use hand sanitizer, etc. you know that sort of thing.

What else should we be thinking about in our re-opening plan? We expect this to evolve as those “best practices” come into focus around the country and we’re all for evaluating every option on the table.

In other Gravitate news, our entrepreneurial events with the West Des Moines Business Incubator returned last night in a new virtual format. Gravitate members Brad Dwyer and Joseph Nelson were the first guests for our first virtual “Founder Fireside” as we discussed their entrepreneurial journeys and their current computer vision startup: Roboflow. (the video is available on Facebook if you missed it).

Our next virtual event is this Thursday, May 7 at noon and will be a moderated panel of Startup & Entrepreneurial Press featuring Tyler Jett of the Des Moines Register, Kate Hayden of The Business Record/Innovation Iowa and Jake Slobe of Clay & Milk (register here) and on May 14 we’ll host a virtual event called “How to audit your Expectations” presented by Rina Jensen of the Corridor Connection Network (rsvp here).

Our online Gravitate community is as busy as it has ever been. If you haven’t had a chance to join in, a bunch of us are typically together on Tuesday mornings at 8:30 AM for a virtual coffee meetup and Thursday afternoons at 4 PM for a virtual happy hour. You can catch a bunch of folks in the #wfh-office-rewatch channel on Slack to watch and chat about a new episode of The Office on your lunch break each day (starts at 12:05!), a group is challenging each other to hit their step goals in #fitbit-accountabillity-club (I think Kyle cheats, FWIW) and a group of entrepreneurs and small business owners are sharing their experiences navigating the economic side of these weird times in #covid-19-biz-resources. One of our most popular online gatherings is around the “Question of the Day” post in #gravi-chat (be sure to check that out each morning).

Finally, how are you holding up? We miss seeing you in person and if there is anything that we can be doing in these weird times to make it better for you, reply here and let us know.

Best,

—Geoff Wood (and Abby, Kyle, Jake and the rest of the Gravitate team)