FAQs

The MCN is a professional network for the spouses and partners of serving military personnel, reservists, veterans, and bereaved families from across the British Armed Forces community. Our aim is to enable our members to create and maintain professional lives alongside military life.  We achieve this through our online community and our network of coworking hubs that are located at military bases across the UK and abroad.  

A coworking hub is a contemporary, fully-equipped office space, where members can come to work, study, or learn. Membership of our hub network is by subscription only, and costs just £30/year.

What you get when you join our Online Community:

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• Free access to our exclusive online Members Area & Resource Library

• Free access to our online events & networking opportunities

• FREE business listing in our online Business Directory

• Monthly eNewsletter and other email updates from across the Network (you must subscribe to receive)

• Access to our Member Only Facebook Community Group - a private discussion forum

• Member Discounts & Special Offers.

Benefits of being part of our Online Community
 

• Find yourself again – be you!

• Be part of a strong, supportive community.

• Reduced isolation and loneliness.

• Increased well-being.

• Boost your confidence and grow your independence.

• Be inspired and change your life!

Benefits of using one of our Coworking Hubs
 

• Better work-life balance – separation from home and office.

• Increased productivity – less distractions and a dedicated space to work or study.

• Flexibility – work around your commitments and preferences - most hubs are open 24/7.

• Networking opportunities – meet like-minded people, learn and grow.

• Feel part of a community – banish loneliness and isolation, make new friends.

• Makes remote working a feasible option.

There are two kinds of membership: 

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Online Network Membership  of our Online Network is open to all spouses & partners of serving personnel, veterans and reservists, as well as bereaved families.  It's free to join and membership is for life!  Becoming a member gives you access to a wide range of resources, including free online events, that will help you build or advance your career, help you to set up and manage your own business, support your personal development and wellbeing.  There are also lots of opportunities available to connect with like-minded people around the world, just virtually.  It’s also where you can subscribe to our Facebook Community Group, which is a private forum for members only where they can request and receive support and advice, share updates and other useful information in a trusted and secure environment.

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​Hub Network Membership of the Hub Network is subscription-based and enables you to access the national network of coworking hub spaces. Our Membership Plans run for 12 months and cost just £30 for a whopping 900 hours of hot desking for the life of the plan. If you join the Hub Network first, you will automatically become a member of our Online Network.

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Visit our Join Us page and sign up to today! 

Anyone who meets the following criteria may become a member of an MCN Hub:

• Any adult partner or adult family member of a serving member of the British Armed Forces.

• Any adult partner or adult family member of anyone serving alongside the British Armed Forces, such as Foreign Military personnel or MoD representatives.

• Remote working serving personnel.

• Reservists who are temporarily attached to a regiment.

• Widows/widowers of military personnel.

• Any adult partner of anyone who has formerly served in the British Armed Forces.*

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* Subject to a majority vote by existing members.

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Other categories, including MOD civil servants with an MOD pass or a closely linked member of the wider military support community whose Hub membership, through the skills and experience they bring, would benefit the military community, may also be considered for hub membership. Members of the hub in question will be asked to tender a vote, and the majority vote will decide. Such memberships will be reviewed annually at point of renewal and subject to a further vote by members.

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Yes, you can.  We offer free trial sessions, so you can essentially 'try before you buy'.  Simply drop us an email or go online an book a trial directly at the hub of your choice.

All our hubs must be self-funding. Membership fees are used to cover the cost of equipment maintenance, printing (ink and paper), as well as tea and coffee that are available to all on an unlimited basis.

We have deliberately set membership costs starting at £30 for the year to try and make it as accessible and inclusive as possible.

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Any surplus funds are reinvested into the hubs to fund additional hub improvements that are agreed in advance with the members.

We are keen to collate feedback from people if they feel these costs are too high or not accessible for members of our community, so please get in touch with your thoughts.

There is still a lot of help and support available to you.  Simply join our Online Network and once you are a member, you will have access to our Members Area, where you will find a wide range of resources, support and advice.

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To help us understand where the need for future hubs lies, please sign our Hub Register.

The majority of our hubs are open 24/7 – some exceptions do apply.  For more details, go to our Hub Page The number of hours you can use the hub for will depend on your membership tier, but desk time is available in
3-hour blocks. Each time you book, you'll see your remaining session balance. 

You can take your membership with you.  Simply, get in touch with the team at your new hub, and carry on as always.
 

Don’t forget to join your local hub’s Facebook group so you can meet people before you arrive as well – they will be a fountain of knowledge on the local area, and you will already know people when you arrive! 

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And, if your partner gets posted to a base where there is currently no hub, we will refund you pro rata.  

The Central Support Team takes care of the administration of the hubs but we still need people in the hubs to help build their coworking community and establish a professional relationship with the base.   

These members are the core of our community and give a huge amount of effort, energy and time to make the hubs work well. 

• A contemporary office space

• Hotdesking facilities - the number of desks varies across our hubs

• Secure WI-FI

• Access to printing facilities

• Access to a shredder

• Screens, keyboards, and mice

• Unlimited tea and coffee

• Networking opportunities.
   

Some hubs are equipped with a few more facilities, but you can check out what’s available at each hub here 

Coworking hubs are a pet free zone. The only exception is if your pet is a service animal, also known as an assistance or helper animal.

A service animal is defined as a domesticated animal that has been trained to help people with disabilities or medical conditions by performing specific tasks for them. An example of a service animal would be a Guide Dog or Hearing Dog.

The MCN is still in project phase with limited funding availability, which means we are currently restricted to the number of hubs we can open.

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To help us evidence genuine need and demand for the work we are doing, you can join the MCN Online Network & Sign our Hub Register - both are FREE.

Yes!  First, join our Online Network and then check out our Members Area - it's packed with lots of useful information about organisations that can support you in this area, including training options (free and subsidised) top tips, and more. You can use our search functionality or keyword search to identify relevant resources.

If you are based at a location where we have a coworking hub , then why not join? Not only does this give you automatic membership of our online community As well as lots of remote workers, our hubs are full of people running their own businesses.  They have been through or are going through the same journey and the great thing about coworking is that you have a friendly group of people working around you to ask questions and bounce ideas off.  

Many hubs also have great links with the Local Enterprise Partnerships which can help small businesses with practical support and integration with the local community.  

Yes!  First, join our Online Network and then check out our Members Area - it's packed with lots of useful information about organisations that can support you in this area, including training options (free and subsidised) top tips, and more. You can use our search functionality or keyword search to identify relevant resources.

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Once you are enrolled on a course, our coworking hubs can provide a dedicated space to study from. Check out our hub locations here.

Get in touch!  We'd love to hear from you!  

If you are located on a military base where there is already a hub, and would like to volunteer your help and support, we can put you in touch with our members.  Alternatively, why not pop along and introduce yourself?

If you happen to be located on a base where there is currently no hub, there are other ways you can get involved. For example, you could write a blog or host a webinar on topics that could benefit the community or even run a Skill Sharing session, where you can help others to grow and learn.  There are so many ways you can help our community.

The whole project has been built by military partners, for military partners.   

We have grown purely by demand from partners around the world.  As we have grown, managing the network has become a full-time job and we now have a small “Central Support Team” who run the day-to-day operations and expansion of the network.   

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The Covenant Trust Fund has generously supported the Military Coworking Network.  These funds are held and managed on our behalf by the Royal Air Forces Association.