Event:2022/03/17 Delegates

+-+Omni Delegates' Meeting - March 17, 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: marquise mostly
• Timekeeper: Yar
• Notetaker/s: Yar, Patrik
• Next meeting's facilitator(s): unknown

Delegates

• ANV: active, Silver
• CCL: active, Patrik
• CSC: inactive
• FNB: active, helen
• FYE: inactive
• GWS: inactive
• LL: inactive
• Sudo Room: active, Marc
• Sudo Mesh: active, nobody here
• Quorum (2/3 of active groups): 4 of 5, yes!

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

• yar she/her
  • this saturday: mini hackathon to fix event intake processes and calendar software
• marquise they/them
  • building a garden
• imma she/they treasurer, affiliated with Sudo. Come to Fixit!
• silver they/them. Wants to do newsletter - send content.
• patrik he/him
  • ccl just had elections
• patricia she/her
  • still working on fixing the old childcare room to make a space for wellness popups
• helen fnb
• juul he/him sudoroom
  • new people showing up to sudo. still fixing organ in ballroom!
• josh. first showed up with noma, now fnb. getting involved!

finance & building wg updates

• imma's volunteered to spearhead three things:
  • bimonthly projection of event income to make sure we're on track to meet refi goals
  • compiling information on what spaces are available for incoming collectives
  • process to support building improvements group - developing a survey
• marquise is excited to start facilitating meetings about building improvements to spread the knowledge and information, and speed up new people joining
• finance also revisiting decision to hire event coordinator, potentially starting in september. spend the summer collecting info on volunteer best practices so that a culture and workflow and processes is established by then.
  • patrik: must we wait?
  • imma: it'd be doubling our work scope to onboard somebody with messy processes
  • yar: i doubt we can find the right person before september. being realistic.
  • still not sure what we can pay them, will take negotiation
  • Patrik: Also, refinance needs to be done by *December*. Doesn't leave much time for that person to have an impact on our chances for refi
  • silver: lots of details on that!
  • marquise: how can we get those questions answered?
    • yar: step 1 form parameters, step 2 form hiring committee
    • Events group can help define scope

grants

• helen: david and sarah and i and (someone else) wrote a grant to county stopwaste to convert the storage room next to trash room back into a walk-in fridge. i think it'd be a good improvement. they'd pay for the materials but not labor. labor would be ~$8k. grant is for $10k.
  • helen can forward details to omni email list
  • very curious what the timeline is
  • SL just uploaded submitted version into Omni share; notification date for grant is mid-May with funding/work to potentially begin in June 2022; guidelines for grant were a bit confusing

Property tax

• marc wrote this?
  • On 04/10/2022 Omni Commons will owe 5 years of property taxes
  • We do not want to be listed on the Alameda County Property Tax auction
  • Oldest year of taxes due is 2017-2018 at $35,211.72
• we are working on a new welfare exemption application since our original one wasn't great
  • should we hire a lawyer for that?
  • yar: sarah seemed pretty confident that she'd be able to do it without a lawyer. maybe if it's not resolved by june or july
• concern that sarah's taking on too much and we shouldn't encourage burnout and support each other, spread labor around, not depend on folks who are super swamped
  • how much can we spend on a lawyer? need a budget
  • maybe we'll ask jesse for a referral?
  • helen will volunteer to do that and ask around but wants clarity on the issue
  • marc: best way to find a lawyer is to talk to one you already trust. i'm willing to ask them.
  • patrik: make sure to contact sarah first before we contact outside lawyers
  • yar: how about first we loop in sarah, then helen asks jesse while marc asks kyle
  • yar recaps the Issue: we bought property 2016, we sent tax office welfare exemption, told them to recognize we are non-profit and to exempt us from taxes, they've never approved or denied, and since 5 years is when they start to enforce rogue taxes
  • example of new contract (may not be the latest version) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GRfoB3JSNFnDnUUHmRna3-FmlItyT97B/edit
• yar confirms that the 2022 tax auction is THIS WEEKEND and omni is NOT on the list
  • go to https://www.bid4assets.com/storefront/AlamedaMar22?col=5426
  • click on "auction folders" for list of properties sorted by APN ("assessor's parcel number")
  • click on "APNs 4-93-27 thru 14-1200-3-2"
  • omni's APN is 13-1161-1. we do not appear on this list.

remove mask requirement?

• juul: Should we leave it up to individual collectives and events whether to require masks? At previous sudo room meeting folks were on the side of removing mask requirement
• patrik: still too early
• yesterday's ccl meeting proposed to "remove mask requirement if omni does it first". it passed, patrik was the only one to vote against it.
• silver: free store requires mask. would be awkward.
• yar: why? is it just that people want to eat?
• marc: some people don't show up because they don't like wearing it. people are open to wearing a mask while passing through the entrance hall and taking it off at sudo. these events max at 15 people.
• patrik: there's a difference between masks in the building and masks during large events. also possible to increase social distancing and cap the number of people at maskless gatherings. still working on risk calculator with david & elon. ballroom is best ventilated, but large choir rehearsal would be bad. maybe choir rehearsal in disco room while 20 people in ballroom.
• agreement we'd need to wait a few weeks - next delegates mtg is in 3 weeks
• marc: consider that omicron is so contagious, most masks are useless. our mask policy is meaningless if we don't require good masks.
  • Patrik: also means people with facial hair would need to shave
• marc: some groups have masks be optional unless someone asks
  • yar thinks that's not realistic

cdp

• would omni endorse cdp's "peoples budget" proposal? http://communitydemocracyproject.org/read-the-initiative/
• yar is down, nobody objected on email list or at this meeting
• CONSENSUS: YES (marc/sudo silver/anv), ABSTAIN (patrik/ccl), DEFER (helen/fnb)
• agreement to take to collectives and formally agree on april 7th
• silver will email consensus list

rotating delegates

• every 6 months? not burden lone individuals?
• conversation deferred

End of Meeting

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