I’m a big fan of the sharing economy. Services like Airbnb, Über, Craigslist, and Stubhub directly connect people who buy stuff with people who want to develop an interest in business without having to do it full-time.
A couple weeks back I had this little Twitter conversation with Mark Matlock, a fellow youth worker who travels a lot.
The Genesis of an Idea
@MarkMatlock @brianaaby we need a YM version of Airbnb.
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) August 3, 2014
@MarkMatlock Sounds like a project for somebody! I’d certainly use it.
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) August 3, 2014
@MarkMatlock sounds really fun. Setting up a reminder for myself.
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) August 3, 2014
@MarkMatlock @mclanea we’ve hosted you both, happy to send you an invoice as the first ym airbnb if you’d like?
— Brian Aaby (@brianaaby) August 3, 2014
The Idea
That got me thinking… “You know, I bet we really could work together to set-up something similar to Airbnb?”
If you think about it a lot of youth workers travel for a wide variety of reasons to a lot of places…
- We go to conferences and we either need a place to stay at the conference… or I know plenty of people who drive far enough where they overnight somewhere.
- We take students places and often need a cost-effective place to crash.
- We get away with our leadership teams, often times borrowing space from someone in the church or finding a place on Airbnb, VRBO, or Craigslist.
- We’re all broke… so we need to go somewhere on vacation and sometimes we just can’t afford to do it.
And there are a lot of youth workers who have space they could make available…
- I’ve stayed in a lot of guest rooms.
- I know a fair number of youth workers with guest houses, cottages, or other types of vacation property.
- Tons of churches would be open to letting other churches utilize their space for traveling youth groups for a small fee.
So what would happen if we created a clearinghouse where these people could find one another?
Similar to Airbnb, we could create something (either a stand-alone website or integrate into something existing) that acted as the middle-man, hosting listings, collecting money, handling payments, setting up policies, offering a level of service.
Obviously, we’d make it so that it self-sustains and doesn’t make anyone rich… it’s just out to connect the dots and make youth workers lives easier. (Or, if you’re a host, you could use it as a way to create a little side-money which might help make your local ministry a bit more self-sustaining.)
Is this an idea you are interested in?
This is as far as the idea has gone. I think it’s interesting, Mark and some other folks think it’s interesting, but before anyone proceeds we’d all have to know it’s interesting to you.
So, before I go any further, I need to know if you’d be interested in an idea like this.
- Leave comments below with thoughts about the idea. How can we make it better? What do you like or not like about it?
- Fill out the form below to show your interested. (I promise I won’t contact you for anything else, just this idea.)
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