Updates
Constituting iShed
Today we had a really positive meeting with James Touzel and Tim Pyper of TLT Solicitors who are setting up iShed CIC for us.
The first step in legally constituting the company is writing the community interest statement i.e. who your company is going to benefit and how. We had some discussion around regionality - most of the direct benefits of iShed will be to the creative economy of the South West, but it will almost certainly have a national/international context through the website etc.
IP also inevitably came up as well, TLT are IP specialists and this is an area I don't yet feel comfortable with. How to handle any IP coming out of projects iShed has brokered is an interesting area. We must consider who is best placed to exploit that IP, and whether we can take any share without damaging Watershed's position as a neutral and trusted party. One way could be a small royalty levy on exploitable IP which would be invested back into supporting projects.
As with mechanisms for evaluation and engagement, we need to make sure that all of our processes are transparent and flexible.
Some of the questions to consider:
- How do we involve stakeholders in governance of iShed?
- What is the role of an advisory group? (strategy/spotting opportunity)
- How do we use the CIC model to ensure maximum flexibility for the future?
- Will staff members be directors of the company?