Event:2022/01/28 Events

Omni Event Group meeting notes, Friday January 28th 2022

• present online: yar, joe, lee, jamila
• present at omni: david, sarah, silver, gary/romii, trae

• skating event february 13 2-8pm
  • how many people?
  • will be low maintenance, we can just show up and assess? evaluate how we work together, how this simple event went and how we'd like it to go in the future
• joe: somebody needs to have oversight to make sure the necessary things are done. make sure we have those things that went wrong covered. have a checklist to make sure we know what needs to happen, be covered
• how bout we start with what went wrong? do we have a list of things that need to be covered?
• silver: a omni person cannot steward their own event. i was wearing both hats with immortal, shouldn'tve happened. also, there should be an omni person for every 50 people. also security guards.
• david: so maybe first task is to have a partner
• yar: biggest problems i saw in december was with noise and covid compliance. more generally our biggest problems as a group is clarifying the contracts and the process for signing one.
• gary/romii: i'll be your test dummy, give you this easy event so you can take notes. so we can have answers to questions.
• sarah: a lot of it is housekeeping stuff. stocking tp & hand sanitizer. do all the toilets work? are the fans on? the exits blocked? you can't expect everyone coming in to know how things work or where to go and whatnot. passive aggressive signs.
• gary: where are they written down?
• david: they're written down but we need to start over
• joe: i think we need contracts. it's nice that we know gary and maybe we'll know the first couple of people who want events at omni. but eventually we may need to rely on contracts. they cover times, process, food, a/v, insurance, etc. if there's any inclination to get around contracts i'd like to hear about that.
• sarah: setup was a problem in december. tech needs were communicated at the last minute, i showed up the day before an event and was told "people want to use PA, whereas before they didn't". if i wasn't around to show them how it works, how the lights operated, that needs to get determined. we can't always be on call. same with making sure things stay on time, when things are set up, what spaces people are using or not using, when people take stuff away, what happens if they don't?
• gary: i haven't written any notes down. but we need continuity as a team. shouldn't just be one person, but key points, assign meeting roles at the beginning. not just take notes, but write down key points that were elaborated on to keep forward motion.
• when it rotates at random it allows people to feel they have more of a say and it's more even
• silver: this is the largest meeting i've seen of this working group in 4 years
• david: we want to make it more economically accessible and safer. we're still working on our ventilation. and omni is requiring proof of vaccine status?
• sarah: no, you're wrong, omni has never required vaccine status. but starting tuesday city of oakland is requiring that of all venues
• david: we've had roller events before but we didn't call insurers to ask first. regular policy covers slip-n-falls but not for 50 people in skates. sounds like we want to mainly talk about getting ready for events?
• jamila: probably sometime in spring break. march 20th? reggae fest with vendors, food, whatever we can get support with there. it's just me doing back end organizing, him with the band and manpower.
• lee: we'd go 8-12...
  • yar: can't have music til 12
  • lee: basement?
  • david: no, basement's not safe right now. not to be relied upon
  • lee: well, event from 8-12, looking to have a dance that goes til midnight, fairly loud music, maybe i can talk to my org and see if we can alter the scope and revisit. maybe they'd be ok with just doing the talent show and ending at 10. idk
• sarah: as a group we need to revisit setting base levels - what's max volume after 10? our sound system ...
• david: we're going to have a decibel meter that records history
• talk about logistics of enforcing decibel limits during events - who controls the amps, speakers, how can people get around it. it should be an omni person ultimately controlling the speakers to avoid conflict of interest.
• silver: in the past, omni would get event hosts to pay an AV person $25/hour
• david: events are a lot of work, people should be paid or they'll burn out
• sarah: contracts decide that. omni should pay people so they don't rely on being paid by hosts.
• david: how we hold out omni as a venue has to change in order to ensure we get our welfare tax exemption. we need another meeting to talk about how money flows at omni. for most events that means holding us out as a venue vs an event hall.
• yar: that's the contracts we've been using for almost 2 years. also means we stop using the R word (rent)
• next meeting friday february 4th, 5pm