A Fresh Look and a New Home: FLEXspace Joins with HETMA and Readies Its Portal Version 3.0

• 03/11/24

Lisa and I were both in the fortunate position of co-founding these highly respected, community-based organizations. The FLEXspace team was founded in collaboration as was HETMA. Erin is taking over as HETMA Chair in July, and I couldn't be more excited that helping to grow HETMA and joining FLEXspace to HETMA will be among her priories as the new chair.

Stephens: While we're on the topic of key staff, I can also mention that FLEXspace was endorsed, from the beginning both by SUNY and by the California State University System. Many of your readers will be familiar with Dr. Rebecca Frazee's extensive development and leadership as director of FLEXspace while at San Diego State University, a CSU. Rebecca, now at a new post at the University of California-San Francisco, will continue to contribute to FLEXspace as her time allows, as our valued advisor and friend. Rebecca joined FLEXspace at just the right time to help us grow, and now we're joining HETMA!

Erin Maher-Moran: This joining of FLEXspace to HETMA is indeed the missing piece — what we need that will bring a lot of things together for HETMA that we were hoping to do for the higher ed AV community. We are excited to be able to offer a place for people to share their designs, and to draw inspiration from others.

FLEXspace complements HETMA's core beliefs, being by education and for education, and all about sharing experiences among institutions.

FLEXspace complements HETMA's core beliefs, being by education and for education, and all about sharing experiences among institutions.

To me, it's particularly compelling to see some of the smaller member schools gain insights from peer schools as well as from prominent, top-tier institutions. With the 3.0 portal, we'll see new levels of sharing and collaboration. It's fantastic to be able to inspire others.

The HETMA community is a very collaborative and sharing culture. Now, paired with FLEXspace, I'm sure we'll see our HETMA members show their collaborative nature even more. And with FLEXspace 3.0, as we've already noted, better tools for collaboration will take us to new heights. I think all of this will be a big draw, which will grow the membership, too, not just with numbers, but with various roles represented among the membership.

The HETMA community is a very collaborative and sharing culture. Now, paired with FLEXspace, I'm sure we'll see our HETMA members show their collaborative nature even more.

Stephens: FLEXspace has always been at the intersection of AV technologists and the faculty, pedagogy, librarians, and instructional designers — including the designers and facilities planners. Still, participation was usually driven by the AV community. But now we're starting to see more and more from the other groups I just mentioned.

Maher-Moran: True. It will be very timely to bring different groups into the picture, to make sure our systems are holistic and meeting the needs across the board. FLEXspace will go the distance to bring this all together.

Stephens: I've noticed over the past ten years or so, an even broader cultural change; a change that's more inclusive of not only the roles we just mentioned, but socially, in a broader sense. It's likely that more use of collaboration tools has improved communication. We're looking forward to seeing what the next ten years will bring, with FLEXspace 3.0 now coming up on the horizon.

Grush: What does the memo of understanding say about the joining of these two successful nonprofit entities? I'm thinking that though this may be technically and financially an acquisition, the service and community emphasis and cultural similarities of these two organizations would create certain expectations beyond the typical "one company absorbing another." And what about the longer-term identity of the FLEXspace brand?

Stephens: I think it's more of a merger, where FLEXspace is entrusting HETMA to continue the spirit and intent of the innovation fostered out of SUNY. We were very clear that FLEXspace is not to be commercialized and will continue with its own branding and identity, though we'll likely see a lot of interconnectivity and interaction with and among other brands and functional products that HETMA oversees. SUNY supports the transfer of FLEXspace to HETMA as outlined in the MOU.

Maher-Moran: HETMA is probably the best entity to take on FLEXspace. Because we are a nonprofit organization, we have no interest in trying to monetize it or make any profit from it. It's in our best interests to keep building on FLEXspace as it exists and not try to bring it into a corporate space. We want to do this for the good of higher education.

It's in our best interests to keep building on FLEXspace as it exists and not try to bring it into a corporate space. We want to do this for the good of higher education.

Stephens: And it's about trust and recognition from the community. We are working among a larger group of peers. HETMA functions pretty much the way we do. To talk about this with a pinch of humor, I could even say HETMA is like FLEXspace without the pictures. But seriously, it's such a good fit, because the core values match so perfectly.