2014/05/03 Omni Hackathon/Report Back

=Public Relations / Outreach / Interfacing with the Community & Gov=
 * Incorporate a persistent acknowledge of risk wrt outreach/PR
 * Different levels of nuance.
 * No PR for the next week (zero)
 * Tailor outreach to audience - specifically no drafts / circulation to city gov & planners
 * General narrative that doesn't get into super-specifics
 * Generic entree into the project, then one that's more specific
 * Introduction to collectives and radical projects for those who're not exposed to this ideas
 * Something we can deploy that's more suitable to those audiences - just an idea
 * Calendar of events (eg; business improvement / redistricting / neighborhood etc;)
 * Permanent lawyer who's used to working with the city and has a lot of political capital, to advise us on our messaging
 * Retaining control over the narrative especially during this formative period

=Finances / Business Model / Income=
 * Rent
 * Determining how to pay each of our own proportion (factors)
 * Square footage
 * Profit sharging
 * Monetary vs Non-monetary "value"
 * Needs vs actual usage
 * Use value vs space value
 * How do we determine value? How do we lay down policy around this?
 * Messy issue: Profit-sharing between for-profit and non-profit projects - voluntary? necessary? percentages?
 * How to reduce tension btw the collectives by defining how we pay for rent - need to create agreements
 * Schedule of costs and revenue for each collective / member groups (creating a relevant data-driven model)

=Fund-Raising Workshop=
 * Contingent on having a goal
 * Eliciting not soliciting
 * Knowing our audiences
 * Inner circle / wider audience / larger events & stunts
 * Showcase month of the collectives for media and other audiences

=Safe space / Dominant Culture=
 * It's okay to have some kinds of exclusive events (eg POC- or women-only)
 * Denominating spaces in a non-exclusive way
 * Non-gender-specific restrooms (naming areas in general)
 * Supportive of "Challenging Dominant Culture" group to draft safe space policy
 * Share our collective resources to outreach and challenging dominant culture
 * Work with groups that already have experience in this (eg; Qilombo, Critical Resistance) - and letting them know they're welcome to use the space, work out of it, become Omni member groups etc

=Values=
 * Identified two threads of values - 1) from the front page of the wiki, 2) processed-bases values on /w/Values
 * Conversation about how we develop our values:
 * What we want to acheive?
 * Ways of talking to different audiences
 * Political value vs processed based
 * Initiation / welcoming vs  process
 * Triggers for us to be identified for those "shopping" for a community
 * Unchanging vs changing values
 * No reducing some language for defining our values (racism, sexism, capitalism, etc)

=Bylaws=
 * Purpose a bit overly broad - Omni collective purpose is to lease, own and manage property
 * Diversity clause added
 * Membership WG needed
 * ABC No Rio & Brooklyn Base are the only ones we could find similar to Omni- ask for bylaws
 * Limiting powers of the Board
 * General decision-making of membership

=Omni Membership / Access / Public=
 * Good access control systems needed to accommodate the variety of spaces and public/access-controlled times
 * Common space open to the public at certain hours
 * Concerns: Are there areas that are common but not public?
 * Really clear signage of where people can and can't go
 * General Omni policy re: access and usage
 * Eg; If your space is open, a member is present to be accountable and steward the space.
 * Would like to be able to schedule another walkthrough before June 1 so we can have a more concrete discussion on this
 * Stewardship and Maintenance could be representatives from each group, or paid jobs in their own right
 * Using membership as a revenue source
 * Paid membership problematic, but contributions --> perks (discounts to events; magnets; petri dishes; massages)
 * Tension over whether monetary gifts should translate to access
 * Bans - should they translate to the whole space?
 * Addressed by the larger collective
 * Re: Habitation & domestic use of the space, important to have resources available for people that we don't have serviced dedicated to helping them

=Internal communications / working groups / process=
 * Communications working group charged w/ making communications tools empowering and accessible
 * Curriculum around usage and norms
 * Accountability and vision as an accessible discussion
 * Working Group Protocol - [link]
 * Work to facilitate access to the tools and resources necessary to engage in best communications
 * Spectrum of comfort with technology
 * Asynchrony really shapes the kind of conversation that takes place
 * Collective binder of printouts of all of our meeting notes
 * Ask existing working group about these options

=Using the common space / events=
 * Overlap with the definition of membership
 * Policies that would be used by all the collectives (omni policies)
 * Process and defition for those who take care of space and events
 * Input and output management (donations)
 * If a donation is made and we don't want it, then it can be traced back to the donor (accountability)

=Working Group Protocol= See http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Event:2014/05/03_Omni_Hackathon/Working_Group_Protocol

=Action Items=
 * Reach out to Critical Resistance
 * Compile resources for the houseless
 * Schedule of forecast costs and revenue for each member group
 * Print out meeting notes
 * Maximum time allotted to print out notes
 * Ask for bylaws from ABC No Rio and Brooklyn Base