Event:2014/08/28 Weekly Delegates Meeting

• Facilitator: David Brazil
• Stack: Emji
• Timekeeper: Stephen
• Notes: Matt
• Delegates: (sufficient for quorum)
• Quorum: Check!
• Vibe Reader: Alana

clarify hand signals that are used in the meeting (so everyone can be on the same page) clarify where notes & proposals can be found (on a whiteboard?)

intros

• ice breaker question: What are you excited about?
• Danny, Brel, Emji (TIL), Judy, Joel, yar, Chris, David K, Stephen, David (La Commune), Kevin (governance committee), Matt, Gabriella (Rise Above), Troy (Librarian, wants to start a Library working group), Koral (unaffiliated, wants to co-bottomline space ops), Mary (CCL), Laura (BAPS), Scott (BAPS), Ken, Chanru, Matt (sudo), Steve (la commune), Pam (La Commune), Owen (La Commune), Athena (backspace), Dragon (backspace)
• Delegates: Pam (La Commune), Matt (sudo), Athena (backspace), Mary (CCL),

Working Group Report-Backs

Uneven distribution of labor. Empower working groups to take on more work autonomously, so individuals do not always have to pick up the slack! Everyone who does not know what they're doing in the omni should connect to a working group.

Communications

Usually meets on Mondays, includes internal and external communication

Danny reports-back:

• Calendar issues
  • See progress at http://cal.omni-oakland.org/
• Tech talent, please participate!
• Contact forms, especially for membership and events
• Flyers from potluck were truthful, accurate, and representative. Keep it up.

Finance (Danny)

• Meets every other tuesday at 9pm (see Sept 2nd for next meeting)
• developing a process for quarterly reporting to give better information on collective fiscal status
  • Includes both how things went and where you're going, especially ability to pay.
• Also includes financial projections, dealing with value (work-trade?)
• Help figure out how to keep The Omni in place

Challenging Dominant Cultures (CDC)

• Developing safer space and conflict resolution policies for the omni as a whole
  • Drafts are still not perfect, would like to discuss the policies with everyone tonight. Need fresh eyes.

Governance

Two proposals that came out of our meeting

1. Formalize, accept existing working groups
2. About changing scope and financial commitmen from member groups.
3. Formalizing space reservation, bringing it to the meeting.

Building

Contact Brel!

Proposals for this meeting

• Big drywall repair in ballroom (needs to be replaced and matched paint)
  • Alternatively, could paint all of the walls.
  • Means painting over the murals.
  • Proposal to paint over all the murals--there are positive and enthusiastic affirmations, but also concerns about posterity/history.
  • Alternative is to document murals before being painted.

Fund-raising (separate from finance)

No one is bottom-lining it.

Space-ops

Contact Patrik D and Koral about their potential bottom-liningness

Rise Above

• Currently paying $1,100/mo across the street
• Looking for $1,000/mo perferable $900/mo New proposal includes some changes of walls, changes of hallways, and some updates to where we do some washout (e.g. a "mop sink")
• This is currently possible with the utility room, but could be moved to the northwest corner storage room (staircase?)
• Most vacant storefronts / light-industrial (live on 44th)
  • Don't require either storefronts or light-industrial locations
  • Existing locations are very pricey
  • Don't need particular zoning, but I'm not doing any art events per se, so don't need a direct storefront What about doing the silkscreening next door to La Commune (cafe). Apparently, according to David, that the door between the cafe and silkscreening should be closed, and that should be okay?

Voting on whether to let her rent from us, but tabling the discussion of exact location. No location is guaranteed.

• Vote: 7 - 0 - 1
  • Abstention was changed to a block after the meeting, making this vote actually 6 - 1 - 0
  • Sudoroom hasn't had a chance to talk about it yet
• It does not pass, we will vote again next week

standing committees

The following two proposals are put forth by the Governance Committee. These are proposed with the intention to assure the basic functions of the Omni are addressed in Standing Committees, and that Working Groups can continue to form on as-needed bases. Additionally, these two proposals are intended to activate member collectives, build goodwill, and help alleviate those who are currently overworked.

forming them

• Six Standing Committees are defined by the Omni. These are Communications, Governance, Fundraising, Finances, Facilities, and CDC. In order to meet the standards of a Standing Committee, each group must meet on a regular basis (self-determined by the group, minimum quarterly), and must be populated by a minimum of two people in order for OOC to continue to function.
• Patrik D. proposes to set up an additional Building Construction WG, separate from the Space operations/governance WG.
  • http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Working_Groups#Building_Construction_and_Maintenance_Working_Group
  • Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/group/omni-building
• Each committee needs one person who is the bottom-liner. Bottom-liners are responsible for making sure meeting times are announced publicly, that notes are distributed, and they are the contact person for their respective committees.
• One person cannot bottom-line more than one committee (i.e., each committee should have a different bottom-liner). Bottom-liners are encouraged to rotate quarterly.
• Other Working Groups are important and are invited to form and populate on an as-needed basis.
• Names of groups are not important. Bikeshedding...

Vote: 6 - 0 - 2

populating them

• Each Member Group of the Omni will be required to populate at least 3 seats in at least 3 committees. Member Groups with more than 12 members will be required to populate at least 5 seats in at least 3 committees.

Vote: 7 - 0 - 1

ceiling tiles

PROPOSAL: Remove the ceiling tiles in the ballroom rather than patch holes.

• CONTACT BREL to help!
• Expose yourself (and all of us) to a beautiful stained redwood ceiling
• Get ready, we're about to pay $8000+ to rent a scissorlift to rip those tiles off.
• They don't help very much with sounds--they are awful and they are a fire hazard!
• David Keenan claims
• Vote: 7 - 0 - 1

Who will research and acquire a scissorlift?

• Dragon and Joel, instead of Niki

6 month review

• For the first six months, all projects will participate in the Omni collective on a trial basis. At six months, each group must re-submit its project to the collective for full membership to Omni. This will allow each project to demonstrate its participation in the Omni community, that it engages in the dialogue and decision making of the collective, that it pays its bills, that its values in practice line up with the Omni's founding vision, and that it is using the space in a way that has a positive impact on the collective and the larger community.
• Maybe add this line: During this trial period the project would have the same voting/delegate rights as any other collective.
• All member groups will be required a 6-month check-in and proposal will be taken up by the governance committe and revisted within a month.
• Vote: 6 - 0 - 2 [it is ambiguous what we voted on exactly]

painting

PROPOSAL: Paint ballroom walls black, especially walls adjacent to the wall that is being replaced. Due to multiple voices from the community re: the need for ballroom to be multipurpose/more neutral, also at some point, paint over the "fallen angel" murals, but not before they have been thoroughly documented.

• Why black? Traditionally in performance spaces, often can be black. Practically speaking, easy to paint over black with black.

Voting on things separately:

• Paint over wall that needs work (7 - 0 - 1)
• Paint over murals in ballroom (7 - 0 - 1)
• Pay for paint out of general funds
  • Chris offers to pay
  • Get free paint from SF Recycling Center
  • Vote: 7 - 0 - 1

events

8/26 Proposal: That the scheduled Alette in Oakland 10/24-26 event be proposed, the schedule described, and consensed. Apparently it never got proposed to OOC. Whomever is bottomlining this event, this would be good to do as a point of process.

• Vote: 8 - 0 - 0

Proposal: If an OOC member wishes to reserve the ballroom or any other common space it must be brought to an OOC delegate meeting for approval, until we have a coherent system in place that won't require word-of-mouth consensus. "Reserving" a space means you absolutely have to use that space and cannot share it with other groups for a given date/time. In other words, you don't have to reserve a space if you could easily move your event/meeting to a different space/time.

• Vote: 7 - 0 - 1

Voting on some more upcoming events:

• Critical Resistance on Sep 20th (8 - 0 - 0)
• BACH on October 11-12 (8 - 0 - 0)

pay lawyer faster

• halve the schedule and pay $1000/mo for 4 months (instead of $500/mo for 8)
• Vote: 7 - 0 - 1

Update on Timeless Infinite Light Community Print Studio Progress!

• progress report
• transcribed from yar's memory: "when we formed the OOC we agreed that TIL would create a community print studio. this is the manifestation of that."
• question: why that corner in particular? emji: "ventilation codes"
• Intended for community use for qualified (proficient through training)
• May break this off as its own collective
• facilitator: "anybody with questions, talk informally after the meeting"

The meeting ended here. Things below were not discussed.

NOT DISCUSSED

form for new groups

• 8/25 PROPOSAL: New form for new groups to be posted to wiki / website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VKTdV6A9M0gVnEz7GRwGe-sv7S230XSVCMzXjH2HZyE/viewform

Money

• PROPOSAL: A financial health and sustainability questionarrie to be filled out quarterly in combination with the signing of the sublease: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DVJMQL3RVlstDNjlCSbd2j-duubNOgpRkrjsbNCs6EQ/
• PROPOSAL: To split utilities equally between collectives and tenants of the OOC and to commit to rent on a quarterly basis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TZVzac1Vz10LJqfYjFsjfPA2-eBrq0n99l83aBkbkbY/

building modifications

• groups must now announce these at meetings (and also by email)!
• PROPOSAL: electrifying sudoroom
• PROPOSAL: For security/safety purposes, create a sign-in sheet at front entrance, stating name, group affiliation/whose guest you are, time in, and time out. This is for the safety of everyone in the space, and so that if you are the last person leaving, you can check to makes sure everyone has signed out and if not, do a walk through to make sure no one is injured/unsafe. This is a preliminary safety/security precausion, not meant to be a "policing" measure, but for everyone's well-being.
• 8/26 PROPOSAL: standing committees that are empowered to make any decisions autonomously should have a clearly defined scope for their responsibilities and operational leeway by October 1st, containing at minimum these 4 parameters: 1) what the group is tasked with, 2) what the group is empowered to do autonomously, 3) what the group is not empowered to do autonomously, 4) how the group cooperates functionally with other OOC organs
• 8/27 PROPOSAL: CCL will be painting the ceiling and walls, and treating the floor in the storage room closest to the exit. See https://wiki.counterculturelabs.org/index.php/To_Do_List#Building_the_Lab_Room . Exact dates TBD, but nothing that should require any permits. If we need to make any electrical changes, we'll notify about that separately. We'll also let people know when they can expect any noise or odors.

events

• 8/26 Proposal: That for the time being all big events possibly creating lots of peoples hanging about outside or are noisy begin no earlier than 10AM and end fully by 9:30pm. Mostly to avert noise complaints before all the relevant permits are hunky-dory. Consense?
  • critical resistance event for september 20th (Dreaming Wildly) already advertised ending at 10pm
  • http://criticalresistance.org/oakland-dreaming-wildly-fighting-to-win-with-cece-mcdonald-and-ruthie-wilson-gilmore/

• 8/26 Proposal: That the proposed 12 rehearsal dates/times in the ballroom for the play 'Annes White Glove' be proposed, discussed and whomever is bottomlining it. (Will they need use of the stage?)

• 8/26 Proposal: October That we see if we might be able to offer the potential BayBucks conference - for which they may apparentlty pay $4K(?) - but taking place the same weekend as Alette in Oakland, be able to use the ballroom during the day and the Alette conference use the ballroom in the evening (Compare both schedule of events). And if BayBucks schedule overlaps, ask if Baybucks can move into the basement in the evening for a reduced fee (e.g $2K?). At any rate see if some sort of compromise might be reachable.

permit reportbacks

• CASp inspection reportback (Hol, Yar, David)

finances

• Proposal: Member entity income be reported periodically to the financial committee of the OOC as a basis for determining fairly shared rent across all member groups.
• Rationale: The fundamental basis for each group's financial contribution towards total rent was how much could each group actually afford to pay, not so much what the space used by that group is 'worth'. This basis remains in effect as everyone's base rent, but as the Omni succeeds and groups grow, there is no process for assuring this initial figure will still reflect the financial state of any member group in question as time goes on. The proposal is, that a structure begin to be worked out now (perhaps by the financial committee) so that if a group starts pulling in hella cash for example (cray as it sounds), that this upswing in income be reflected in an adjusted rent in some fair and mutually-agreeable way. By the same token, if shared rental such as the ballroom can decrease the shared rent burden, or, if perhaps a group is facing an unfair rent burden due to some unforeseen evolution of the space, that this could be reflected in a decrease in rent along the same lines of fairness.

safer space & conflict resolution policies

• Request from the CDC to review and discuss the safer space and conflict resolution policies. If not possible at the meeting, let's figure out concrete next steps for crafting both policies.

bans

• since these now must be considered at meetings, let's always keep a section here to remind us

Delegating tasks to committees

• AUG 19 proposal from the Governance Working Group
• In order to avoid burn-out and more evenly distribute work, there is a clear need to delegate tasks that are currently being done by Niki and David (among others) to committees.
• Once all committees have been populated, we propose to schedule a day/time for Niki and David to delegate tasks that could be done by committees to representatives of those committees.

split monthly costs equally by default

• PROPOSAL: AUG 19 The following costs will be invoiced w/out consensus (all collectives will split these expenses equally unless otherwise agreed upon at the General Meeting): Rent, utilities, internet, insurance, taxes, basic supplies (not to exceed $50/mo - tbd by facilities working group)

defining purpose of consensus blocks

• AUG 19 proposal by Governance Working Group
• Blocking is only to be considered in the case that a delegate believes that the proposal violates the mission of the Omni Oakland Commons or their collective's mission.
• In the case that a delegate does not want to consent nor block a proposal, abstentions are allowed. Delegates can also request that the facilitator allow more time for discussion in order to reach consensus on any given item.
• Governance will work with Sarah Larsen to incorporate general information on building consensus into the facilitation trainings in Sept.

Delinquent Member Groups

• PROPOSAL: 8/28 Proposal from the Governance working group that a member-collective who defaults from their sublease be subject to the loss of their last month's rent and deposit, the money being put to paying two month's rent as the O.O.C. finds a member-collective to replace the errant one.

Preparing to be Open

A collection of proposals from La Commune: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Preparing_To_Be_Open

• Many Omni working group meetings, Public School classes and Sudo Room meetups take place between 6-10pm.
• Sudo Room is open to the public 24/7 so long as a member is present.
• It might be easier to actually propose a live-in building manager once the owners move out.
  • Re: live-in mgr; building is not legally zoned for residential barring a special CUP we would have to apply for, fire is far more strict for residential too, might change building use, needs to be researched
• Consider adopting Sudo Room's language for all Omni Collective members: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association#Article_5._Empowerment_of_members
• Again, most groups' events, classes, workshops happen after 6pm. I think it would be confusing to put out the message that 'The Omni' closes at 6pm simply because La Commune intends to close its doors then.
• Note: Among other complications, closing off access to the only currently-planned ADA-upgraded bathroom in the building (in the bar-room) may pose a problem for official daily 'public' access to anywhere else in the building during times the cafe may be closed or locked up, unless/until other bathrooms are also upgraded to ADA. May also be fire code complications (blocking means of egress from other rooms in the building). See logistics list for more infos on this.
• CASp inspector: if the lift and ADA bathroom are in the bar-room, the ballroom cannot be open to the public unless the cafe-bookstore is open.

Facilitations

• Please communicate to your respective collectives: Personal belongings / messes left in common spaces may find their way into the trash!

Parking

• Need a plan. Frazee Paints? pedicabs? bike parking (Mary Ward is working on this)?

insurance loophole in lease

• john could pocket building/nnn/fire insurance money in his name
• need better subrogation waiver or really lease should be amended.

Litter

• people litter outside
• neighbors hate it, building's been cited before, it risks our permits!
• who will pick up the litter every day?

improving meetings

see proposal here: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Event:2014/08/14_Weekly_Delegates_Meeting#improving_it

Working Groups

• Space Operations and Communications have not been meeting and need bottomliners! Can we revitalize these working groups?
• New mailing lists have been created, and are listed on the WG wiki page: wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Working_Groups