A big update about Local Economy membership

Hello! You're receiving this email because you signed up to receive more information about Local Economy, a new community space in Oakland, which will open its doors on October 1.

So: a big update!

The response to Local Economy from the East Bay community has far exceeded our expectations.

206 people have joined as members as of this morning. 206! (Fun fact: only one single member lives in San Francisco. Thanks, Caleb Zigas, for your support from the West Bay.)

This level of support and interest is astonishing and about 2x our most optimistic scenario. We're grateful. And we are so excited to serve, work with, and learn from this community. Three months ago, this was a dream, and now we're all in it together, getting ready to build a new thing.

We are also a smidge worried about taking too many members before we really establish the groove of day-to-day rhythms in the space. So, we're making the decision to pause taking new members when we reach 250 people.

The truth is that we don't really know what the right number of members is. We want the space to feel like a thriving hive of interested and interesting people, without feeling overcrowded or like you can't do what you'd like to do there. Is the right number 400? Is it 206 and 250 is gonna feel crowded? This is all one big experiment. And we think we need some more data. In the meantime, it makes sense to us not to overshoot if we can avoid it.

So: if you've been waiting to join, now is the time, if you want to be a founding member of Local Economy. And don’t worry, if you don’t become a member in the next few weeks, you can still participate in much of the programming, attend many of the events, and come in any day for a coffee from Painted Leopard. 

SPACE UPDATE

• The space is coming along swimmingly. The last major changes are snapping into place. We recommend peeking in the front door, just to see the transformations in progress. We're tracking well for opening on schedule.

PROGRAMMING UPDATE

• We're going to release tickets/RSVPs for the first set of events in the next week. Thanks to member and local hero Zoelle Enger, we are this close to selecting a ticketing platform. If you have extremely strong opinions about this, now would be the time to get in touch. Most events are coming in at $0 for members and $10 for non-members, which feels like a nice accessible pocket that will also allow us to have some LaCroix and wine available. 

OK, that's it for updates. Thanks for everything.

Alexis & Sarah

P.S. We haven't released this page publicly yet because we're still working on it, but if you want a preview of what our event listings will actually look like, check this out.