There has been a lot of hype in the last few days about the Queen Street Commons. In all of the hype we’ve forgotten to let the world know what is behind the Queen Street Commons from a legal perspective. Sure, there are lots of great places to work in the Commons, and there are lots of benefits in becoming a member, but what legal setup is behind the scenes? Where are your dollars going?

The Queen Street Commons is a provincially incorporated not-for-profit organization. It is member owned and operated. That means that when you sign up to be a member you are actually becoming a part of the not-for-profit organization. Just like any other not-for-profit, i.e. Mountain Equipment Co-op, you can participate in the organization as much as you’d like. With MEC as the example, you can just treat it like a store if you’d like or you can get involved and run for a Board Position or attend the annual general meetings. With the Queen Street Commons you can just come and use the workspace and mind your own business. Or if you preferred, you can get involved. You can ask the board to do things. You can do things on your own, you can attend the Annual General Meetings, you can clean the washroom, etc. The bottom line is that as a member of the Queen Street Commons, you are a part of the organization. You are in many ways a part owner.

I know this will spawn a lot of questions so I’ll try and provide the obvious answers:

So Who is The Board?
The board is made up of the “founding” members, Dan James [me], Cynthia Dunsford, and Robert Paterson.

What is the official name of the Not-For-Profit?
Queen Street Commons PEI

What the heck does silverorange have to do with all of this?
silverorange owns the building that the Queen Street Commons runs. While silverorange is a major supporter of the Commons and is very much a benevolent landlord it has no legal connection to the organization (other than Dan James [me] being involved officially in both).

So what makes someone a member?
Anyone who successfully completes the application process and pays their first month of fees is officially a member.

When is the Annual General Meeting and all of that official Jazz?
We’re not sure. We’re new at this to! We’ll keep the members informed on the website and we’ll do our best to be transparent. We’ll try and digitize the bylaws, etc. and get them up ASAP.