Event:2022/04/07 Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - April 7, 2022 7pm-9pm

• Talk at https://meet.google.com/diw-hszw-msr or 515-428-1108 (PIN: 465814905)
• Type at https://omnicommons.org/notes
• Send proposals to consensus@lists.omnicommons.org prior to the meeting

Meeting Roles

• Facilitator/s: marquise
• Stacktaker:
• Timekeeper:
• Notetaker/s: yar, Sarah will help
• Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

• ANV: active, Silver
• CCL: active, Patrik
• CSC: inactive
• FNB: active, joe
• FYE: inactive
• GWS: inactive, jane+rachel
• LL: inactive
• Sudo Room: active, jake
• Sudo Mesh: active, juul
• Quorum (2/3 of active groups): 6 of 5! woo!

Agenda

intros

brief intro format, ~4 minutes per person total:

• name, pronoun, affiliation, land you're on, if you're a delegate
• do you have any unmet access needs at this meeting?
• what meeting roles you'd like to help with
• discussion topics or proposals you'd like to put on tonight's agenda
• announcements, updates and report-backs for your collectives, working groups, etc
• updates on any conflict mediation or safe space issues

• henry from cam publishing https://allinradio.com/
• rocco he/him https://partylifepresents.com/
• Jane gws
• micha they/she/he, building community collective, events wg
• marquise they/them bcc, guerilla garden collective, ohlone land
• imma they/she, new treasurer, looking forward to building more omni things
• rafiq they/them or he/him, CLP
• yar she/her
• joe fnb, very excited
• joey he/him, executive director of Village of Love
• maryann csc
• jake sudoroom by phone
• marc he/him mesh, in car with jake
• rachel, gws celebrating 50th anniv
• sarah she/her, safer DIY, working on ballroom & refi, relieved to see a bunch of new people excited to come in, really want for everything to work out, for everybody to get along, to run smoothly
  • sound booth PA is functional!
• patrik ccl
  • biotech conference next week, want to book disco room next friday?
• silver they/them anv
• aaron he/him. sitting next to henry. happy to see zapatismo at omni. you're doing awesome work please keep it up. omni reminded me of https://ominoday.org/
• mike: part of meals on wheels / myriad outreach project
• jacqi, sitting with mike: direct action for farmworkers
  • Jacqui and Mike here from Myriad Outreach Project/Meals On Onewheels/ Building Community Collective/ Direct Action for Farmworkers - we’re late coming out of another meeting but wanted to come in and introduce ourselves

CLP

• community liberation programs applied to be a member collective: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2022-March/003305.html
• https://linktr.ee/clp_
• we're a mass organization dedicated to serving people throughout the bay area
• want to align with political education events
• rafiq: potential to up space needed and thereby up amt of rent
• hosting community political education events
• movie nights
• have many connections to political orgs around the bay
• 15 really active organizers, larger volunteer base beyond that
• Yar: is there any changes to the proposal?
  • rafiq: still what was propoed in email, 200 a month a 10x10 area, unsecured storage area in the basement.
• supposed to directly support work in People's Park
• There is existing collaboration btwn CLP and FNB
• all non-perishable items
• sarah confirms use should already be covered by our existing insurance
• Things in basement mostly from free store, and NOMA which is no longer an org
• things can probably be condensed
• curtains may be installed
• they're hoping to move in end of april with lease perhaps starting officially may 1 or earlier
• CLP is an existing 501c3/ tax exempt org
• does not have insurance
• imma: want to support CLP! i met them as Workers Community Kitchen, did active mutual aid in peoples park.
• micha: i really enjoyed working in the hayward garden program. way they've grown is very impressive
• marquise: we need more folks like rafiq. i feel like this is a person who sees me. need more of that!
• joe: had great meetings with billy, loved the group's attitude

village of love

• in service of temescal community. shower trailers at kaspers hot dog plaza. de-escalation training to stop criminalization of houseless residents, creating alternative to calling police. overnight shelters & FEMA trailers.
• joey: we're looking to utilize the space for a day center M-F 8 hrs/day. we have full-coverage insurance for employees, spaces we rent, liability, everything. we'd like office space. would love to share space with CLP. space was wonderful. i do de-escalation trainings in the neighborhood. want to create a space like in alameda, a place to rest. want to paint walls, clean up, beautify the space and adjacent spaces. i'm a huge community person, that's where my heart is at. we'll have a TV room, a space where they can have one-on-one counseling, provide snacks, we get a lot of donations of all types of different foods from our other centers, provide hygeine kits, have a safe space where people know they're loved & cared for. optional navigation to housing, etc. build a program around what people need. (ask what you need not tell you what to do.) we've never had a building to operate out of. years ago Village of Love held a support group at omni. my uncle owned omni as a club in early 80s, have childhood memories of the space.
• we're going to have a dance show
• likely proposing $2500-3000
• sarah: glad you like our basement! i felt bad because it sounded like we couldn't accomodate what you had in alameda, but this is great. i actually just proposed building new office rooms in the basement also.
• use of room dividers, put some carpet down, make it more comfortable and homelike.
• helen: how many people do you think would come in? is it just open to anybody that wanders in? question of security
  • joey: usually in a space like that i'd only allow 10 at one time. it'll always be fully staffed. we get a lot of volunteers. anytime we're operating, my thing is to have someone upfront so they can navigate downstairs so people aren't roaming around. already have ideas about where they'd be posted. maybe 1-2 upstairs, 2-3 downstairs. haven't had many issues in alameda building. i think the security issue will be ok
• helen: during the day, FNB needs access to the east end fridges
  • joey: no problem, we could either reconfigure space, or set up dividers, or something. we can definitely work around what you need, come up with a schedule
  • yar proposes we could move fridges closer to the staircase.
    • helen: also we'll renovate the walk-in soon
• joey: i refer to the center as grandma's house. you didn't call cops, you called grandma. center filled with love, acceptance, just flows.
• imma: heard of you through alameda housing collaborative. stoked & supportive. interested in going after grants for resilience hubs, climate adaptation, green jobs etc.
• sarah: excited because we have a lot of things in basement that are underutilized. art supplies etc over to the side. those things, depending on what the space arrangement would work best, it's possible that space could also work, as opposed to in front. when would you decide?
  • joey: the chamber would like to come look at it with me. they're ready to move forward. the money is sitting with them. as soon as we are ready to move forward, they're ready.
• article: https://thestreetspirit.org/2020/09/01/village-of-love-a-new-kind-of-shelter-in-alameda/
• sarah: a sign in the entrance hall pointing downstairs to you?
• joe: great to meet you. i've heard a lot about early days of omni... italian guys used to teach boxing. where would the tv room be? if you could sketch up a little plan that'd be great. also, Village of Love is taking part of the contract to help people move out of Peoples Park. that's a tough one for me.
  • joey: i tell people, i created this program because i was homeless, based off what helped me 8 years ago, with the people who helped me. i encourage people to come talk to our guests. i'm big on love & community. i stay out of a lot of political things - if i get too caught up in that i'd get distracted from helping people. i support the fighers and activists. my part is fighting to make sure our guests are getting help they need.
  • maybe they could help berkeley folks understand what's going on
• sarah sent joey a floorplan that could be marked up for a proposal

event hosting proposal

• Cam Publishing and PartyLife have submitted something: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/attachments/20220405/60afd42c/attachment-0001.pdf
• henry: thank you for your hard work everybody! i'm glad to be in the room. these geniuses. we fell in love with the ballroom. we know every single dj & artist, they'd love to experience omni. we're not talking about nightclubs, shows that end at 10pm. help build revenue stream. we have amazing ties with the city from permits to police to security because of the relationships we've built.
• cam is a gentleman that got murdered breaking up a fight. camino beltrane (sp?)
• we want to be a part of it. if we include the city.
• with our resources we are confident we can come in and help
• rocco: proposal was vague because we don't know what you all want
• david: i think omni could really benefit from a relationship. events wg could learn from those guys about running a house. it's a skill to run safe events well that actually cash flow. strongly advocate for trying some events. i could use their help in the near term in terms of pro forma & modeling for certain events. we wouldn't have to use them for booking every single event, but i think this might be a good relationship for omni to build.
  • henry: we wanna be part of a team. if you want to hold an event we can staff it up, build the program, run the program. we can bring you peace of mind.
• written questions from juul: what's your website url(s) and what types of orgs are Cam Publishing & PartyLife Inc. (for profit? who's the owner? how are you internally organized?). what kind of profit split are you proposing?
  • Henry is officiall yh owner of Cam. Rocco is the owner of partylife. We are currently for profit but we want to open a non-profit to stop gun violence. Look up Claire Santian (sp?)
• we want to organize 7-10 pm concerts 400-500 people (did the notetaker get that right?)
• yar wondering how they're structured
  • currently they're two for-profits. all-in radio owned by henry, partylife owned by rocco
• Yar suggests having a trial event and see how that goes, but they are resistant because they want to be part of the family before putting in a bunch of work
• Henry wants to have a contract and something to guarantee after the work they do that they still have a place
• considering June 25th reggae show. maybe an R&B show. a neighborhood/community show so they can see all of us - we respect neighbors by ending early ~10pm
• joe: what are your terms?
• henry: we wanna get that refinance, be part of the solution, make sure we get that revenue and get another 3/5 years. we wanna be able to do that 6-8k each month now thru november. we wanna commit to that. we want our term to be now-november to prove we can bring that revenue.
• yar: they wanna have full control of the ballroom
  • henry: no, they wanna be part of the team that manages the ballroom. we're the ones running events.
• maryann: i really think the ability to have professional event promoters and planners to make that ballroom produce what it's capable of producing, is a real positive for us. i understand the questions that are being raised and the issues of control and all that, but it seems like what we need to do is sit down and work out some specifics that incorporate both the professionalism that cam publishing is trying to provide for us, and also the concerns about the people who are here still having some control of the ballroom. there have to be ways those two things can meet. i'm assuming everyone here wants to have a successful refinance. this could definitely help us get to that place. i'd like to see a specific proposal, and possible a counter-proposal.

Everyone can reach us via Henry@Campublish.com - 510-825-8146

new rooms

• sarah's proposal to build 2 new rooms: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2022-April/003342.html
• Build out the room on the mezzanine.
• maryann's concerned about sound impact on gws/csc room, because the wall separating those two spaces was never constructed as a full wall. would also need to finish/improve that wall to help with soundproofing.
• helen pastes yar's chat comment: new rooms proposal pdf with drawing https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/attachments/20220407/80fe1331/attachment-0001.pdf
• david: permanent tenants look better for bank than event income does. build-out could take less than a week, maybe ~4 days full time give or take.
• anka: i think we can figure out issues of sound. things need to happen at omni.

peoples budget

• proposal for omni to endorse CDP's Peoples Budget
• discussed previously
• CONSENSUS: YES (anv/silver, anka/ll, fnb/joe), ABSTAIN (ccl/patrik, sudo/jake), BLOCK (none apparently)

skylight refund

• move to finance meeting?
• Sarah L: as far as I know we still haven't received the approx $9000 from Mike that we paid him for skylights that we didn't receive; next steps?
• david: we still have skylight leaks, need that money to fix it. maybe decide on a hard date
  • yar: or else what?
  • david: he's bonded so we could get $10k from that but it'd be bad for him. it sucks.
• maryann: you're talking about my son. who paid him?
  • safer diy paid him with a check, omni reimbursed safer diy
• Patrik: we do still have some leaks - are we still expecting the 7yr warranty on that part of the work?
• joe: i propose we ask for a response in 2 weeks or ... well, there's the part that's hard. maybe pick a couple of alternative possible actions.
• sarah will share with maryann the facts and records, and maryann will try to talk to him
• payment schedule is one solution
• sarah created an invoice in paypal

covid

• keep or drop mask policy for collectives? Allow food?
• What should be our policy regarding masks, food, #people, etc. for restarting big events?
• patrik: covid numbers are looking good right now. we currently say no food allowed, masks required. should we do away with those requirements for smaller gatherings? only keep them for large events - masks, food, capacity?
• joe: we are already starting big events. i request that we allow people to eat food as long as they put their masks back on. may 6 event engaged a caterer who's going to offer hors d'oeuvre with signage about mask policy
• david: still researching some proposals to increase ballroom ventilation. IMO the safe capacity number is still unclear. we'll know more in a couple weeks when elon's available.
• yar: the change in weather has suddenly made aggressive ventilation much more copacetic
• patrik: still concerned about events with singing/shouting or loud music which forces people to yell to hear each other
• joe: one event agreed to have rapid tests before their event. i was reluctant to require that, but they offered it
• patrik: legally oakland still requires vaccination for large events

conflict resolution

• yar: conflict within Sudo. Bunch of members asked another member to leave as safe space issue. Yar disagreed - sounded like people were just uncomfortable about someone being homeless and on drugs. Need to examine what is making you uncomfortable. Yar confident this can be resolved with some communication.
  • Joe proposes a 2-day ban
  • Yar wants to speed up timeline as well, but stressful
  • Marquise, Sarah, Imma, and Silver volunteer to be added to mediation list

End of Meeting

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