Event:2015/11/24 Building Bloc

Building Bloc meeting #5 Tuesday November 24, 2015

intros

• Meeting notes & poems here: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Building_Bloc
• if you don't want your comments in the meeting notes, just say so at any time!

who's here?

name, pronoun, message for Building Bloc of January 2016, and your hopes for our collective & meeting culture

• mary, she, thriving volunteer base with lots of people wanting to wield hammers, nails & rodent traps. fix it up.
• sterling, he, providing a bridge for people in the community to get involved and feel autonomy within the community
• maggie, she, happy new year! to you and all the diverse new members we have
• yar, she, are you a member collective yet?, radical generosity, and holding each other accountable to not reproducing exclusionary and oppressive cultures
• maryanne, she, onward, lots of work, new ideas
• julio, he, we should have a party in jan
• abe, he, let's talk about how we've made the space more accessible, brought in new faces. different communities, different demographics. want our group to support that.

party

• maggie: great idea! this came out of becoming omni, which was about fixing omni's culture, figuring out alignment & autonomy of collectives, underlying contradictions holding omni back. one of my task items was to organize a party.
• mary: building bloc is supposed to be the welcoming committee. maybe make it a party / volunteer orientation event
• yar: maybe we should choose a date now
• could be a saturday afternoon brunch
• is it for recruiting new people, or just celebrating ourselves?
• yar: should we be a member collective before having the party?
• maggie: we don't want to invite people here when it's not living up to our ideals. safe space is important... but through action and activity you generate momentum. don't want to hold one thing up for the other.
• julio: i just wanna have a party anyway

new members

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Building_Bloc#New_Members

sterling

• Why are you at omni?
  • i'm interested in taking part and lending my time & abilities as well as practicing establishing a powerful community to help us all to change the world to be a better place
• What do you do here?
  • i haven't done much yet. i wander through and then leave sheepishly.
  • been given a tour but no working group yet
• What struggles do you face?
  • feelings of placelessness, anxiety. but largely have privilege of not identifying with struggles right now
• What do omni's values mean to you?
  • a necessary exploration of change in a failing world
• What do you need from us?
  • conversation, to find support, be able to express my own support for folks, hopefully explore finding feelings of purpose
• What do you have to offer?
  • enthusiasm, kindness, ability to communicate, some rudimentary skills
• What are you grateful for?
  • my family, health, ability to feel trust in people
• Do you consent to being in photographs?
  • yes
• will you follow & share with omni on social media?
  • yeah!
• do you want us to add you to any mailing lists?
  • yeah that'd be great. buildingbloc
• what's the best way to contact you?
  • email or phone. yar has it
• what's your schedule like? when are you usually available for volunteer hours?
  • weds-sat past 4. no work sun-tue
• how far away do you live?
  • 15m bike ride
• yar: how'd you hear about omni?
  • i guess word of mouth? friend of friend
  • wanted to come over and get involved. haven't been living anywhere with a collective like this. knew subrosa in santa cruz
• maggie: is it what you expected?
  • it's an incredible space. impressive already. can be a lot.
• favorite color: blue.
  • deep blue
• talk about how long this group has been around - brief history of omni
• talk about sudo's pondering period - it's meant to avoid social pressure. stirling wouldn't pressure us to make a decision
  • maybe allowing people to object by email afterwards
  • we shouldn't necessarily be the filter, but there should be some room
  • maybe people won't want to be a member, they just want to sit in and check it out
  • he's familiar with the safe space policy
  • we have means of dealing with safe space issues
• sounds like we're converging on a decision - we ask people the questions in the meeting, then they become a provisional member for a week. if nobody objects after the week, then they're a full member.

abe

• Why are you at omni?
  • i just came with the acquaintenances i had at the previous spaces - sudo, baps. didn't know what omni would be about, just came with them
• What do you do here?
  • helped out at events, cleaning toilets, random stuff. niki pushed me to do the child space. i come in at least once a week and clean it up. now that that's finished, i'm trying to help out more with other collective events, maintenance, etc.
• What struggles do you face?
  • when i talk about omni outside - particularly in another space - having to defend it was "the white space" and trying to get people to come here. it's a convo i don't want to get into. i've heard it so many times. that's my concern now - how do i get more people into this space, get rid of that reputation? i don't feel that towards the space, but i came with acquaintenances. i've been able to move around the space without a lot of issues. recently i did, but my privilege of knowing people really helped me out. i try to put myself in the head of a random walk-in. would i want to come back? i don't know. that's my challenge. a lot of people are welcoming me. how come other people don't feel welcome. that's my struggle.
• What do omni's values mean to you?
  • they represent an alternative to dominant culture - alternative way of interacting, engaging in community. i value the anticapitalist perspective that comes from this space. that's why i'm here.
• What do you need from us?
  • i don't need anything from omni. i don't use the space a lot for my own personal use. maybe using wifi, but not the equipment that much. no personal projects need it right now. but i want other people who could use these tools to feel welcome in the space. want to broaden that, let everybody know. there's tools, people here that can help with your project
• What do you have to offer?
  • my hands & feet. don't care. i clean these toilets all the time, which is becoming less fun...
  • more people need to clean toilets
  • really likes doing events
  • also childcare
• What are you grateful for?
  • that we have the opportunity to have this conversation. other places i've lived ... places here can be frustrating but in the suburbs there's nothing. step back and recognize we're pretty lucky to even have a space this big and be able to offer it.
• Do you consent to being in photographs?
  • no because concerned with my face being on a board or something. you can snap a quick photo but...
• will you follow & share with omni on social media?
  • to the extent that i use it. i don't share a lot of stuff with it
• do you want us to add you to any mailing lists?
  • sure. buildingbloc
• what's the best way to contact you?
  • email. yar will add.
• what's your schedule like? when are you usually available for volunteer hours?
  • evenings, usually after 7 to be safe. some weekends.
• how far away do you live?
  • west oakland
• how many cats do you have?
  • zero :( :( :(
  • not a vegan

Future Meetings

• Friday December 4, 5 or 6pm?
  • art show 6-9 at omni. send people there!
  • people willing to help yar in afternoon: sterling
  • mary wants to be on firstfriday list. also julio
  • yar was given $30, will reserve the space
• julio could meet dec 8 or something. that week.
  • mary has something at 4:30 so maybe 7pm? how about 6:30. ok.

What is Omni?

• how do we describe omni to newcomers - our values, expectations?
• yar thought of something ... and put it on the front page of our website: https://omnicommons.org/
• mary read the colorful pamphelet

name

• still need a new name for our collective
• ... OR DO WE?

poem

• maggie's word: bundle. because we're so cold we need to bundle up.
• julio's word: creates heat
• mary: warm feet
• yar: fire breathing
• stirling: members organize to meet
• abe: on shattuck and 48th street!