Event:2017/01/05 Delegates Meeting

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - 5 January 2017 7pm-9pm

Agenda

  • Introductions, Meeting Roles, and Delegates Count [10 minutes]
  • Announcements [10 minutes]
  • Bans [10 minutes]
  • Working Group Report-Backs [15 minuntes]
  • Proposal X: [15 minutes]* Proposal Y: [15 minutes]
  • Discussion Z: [10 minutes]

Introductions

Introduce yourself: Name; Preferred Pronoun; Affiliation Katrina Julian BAPS Ken CCL Kazoo Art ABDC David Steve BAPS Mary Ann CSC Lori GWS Dragon LL Liz LL

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Helen
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response"(wildcard), etc.
  • Stacktaker:
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s: Lori
   ** URL of this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
  • Vibe Reader:
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • ABDC: Kazoo
  • BAPS: Steve
  • CCL: Ken
  • CSC: Mary Ann
  • FNB: Helen
  • GWS: Lori
  • LL: Dragon
  • Sudo:
  • TIL: Inactive
  • YES:
  • Quorum:

Announcements

  • Kazoo studio is working on a proposal to move into the main space.
  • Steve working on a BAPS project called political activity as research or and research.
  • Ken couple of events at CCL, academy of science, and at the end of this month and exhibition. Finished lighting and power outlets and sink is all almost done.
  • Mary Ann CSC having a big fundraiser to raise money for the schools in Chiapas last Saturday of the month. Told to get $400 worth of insurance, renters insurance covers serving alchol according to their insurance broker.
  • Ken put a draft proposal on the list serve about booking issues that were problematic with an event, ie smoking, alcohol and skiping out on paying their fee's.
  • Helen proposed this be discussed at Common's group at a smaller meeting.
  • Dragon said that on the website is says if there is alcohol at events or not. *
  • Laura - helen is right. this is comething that should be discussed in the COmmons meeting. Proposals need to be sent to the consensus list to be put on the agenda for the delegates meeting.
  • Mary Ann thinks that we are in a difficult political situation we are in and thought it should be discussed by a wider group.*
  • Helen moved the item to after the proposal that David had on the agenda.

Bans

Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

  • Meetings: Mondays at 8pm

David trying to get bids for elevator, fire alarm, sprinklers total of $450,000. Wanted to find out what it would cost. Can submit that for a grant.

Commons

Meetings: Second and Fourth Tuesdays at 6pm

Communications

Finance

Meetings: Currently conjoined with Fundraising (Mondays at 6pm)

Fundraising/Buy the Building

Meetings: Mondays at 6:00pm


Proposal by David to repurpose the OOC's EIN w 501c3 status

From consensus list 1/3/17: The proposal is in essence the following:

1. Repurpose Omni's 'extra' 501c3 corporation we no longer need, which originally was going to be wound down, to be used as a non-profit Land Trust and resource specifically for DIY / community spaces (also for DIY living spaces) currently in need of much support as they are presently facing a wave of punitive code enforcement and eviction.

2. For this to happen, some logistical hoops have to be jumped through:

- Complete the disengagement of omni's finances of last year, from our old 501c3. Yes, I'm told this could take a while, but I'm optimistic :)

- Mild modifications to the old c3's statement of purpose, charitable activities, bylaws (this being mostly low-level stuff.) Jesse, our lawyer, has verified this should be possible.

3. After such a proposal was approved and the necessary logistical steps taken, this land trust could then optionally become omni's land trust, at the collective's choosing -- i.e., a Trust ensuring that the building stays used for community use into the foreseeable future and follows its own bylaws, founding document, statement of solidarity etc long after we are all gone.

Personally I think this is very important to the long-term survival of omni, but that particular aspect, of being Omni's land trust specifically, is not part of the scope of this proposal at this time, as it would have to be a later and more substantial proposal unto itself, encompassing many logistical aspects.

So this proposal is just a proposed use for our old 501c3, for when we have fully disengaged our finances from it and no longer need it.

4. In the immediate wake of Ghostship (note: which occurred after I made the original proposal), members of the wider oakland community assembled to help DIY spaces stave off eviction, code-related closures, and to commit core fire life-safety improvements: The 'DIY Safety Group'. This group, which I (among many) helped to assemble, currently raises donations for such work, and this money is presently being stewarded by Omni as a fiscally sponsored project to the tune of ~7% in fees (not atypical for a sponsoring 501c3.)

The sooner Omni is able able to unmoor our 'extra' 501c3 corporation to use as a land trust dedicated to helping and preserving DIY spaces like Omni, the sooner that group can take on the accounting overhead, eliminate this 7% fee and rather use 100% of funds raised to help other critical community spaces are currently being actively threatened.

What to do with the extra 501c3. How can we use this for another purpose and is suggested turning it over to a landtrust. He's said that most landtrusts focus on housing and this is a different model. It was recommended by other people who are working on co-housing land trusts.

  • Steve Can the land trust by land?
  • David - The proposed land trust would help facilate others to set up spaces like Omni. Can it be a land trust for any other groups, ie Omni or other groups who want to move in this direction.
  • Mary Ann did you talk with the Native American Land Trust. [this is the "native american land trust" Sogorea Te' Land Trust: website http://sogoreate-landtrust.com/]
  • David said he would be happy to talk with them, so much is focused on housing.

Kazoo - do you know people involved in this.

  • Mary Ann do know people and have read literature. Native American want to put as much land as possible into community use as much as possible. I have the email for one of the women.
  • Helen - what is the administrative burden.
  • David - no administrative overhead once this is taken on. There will be work to modify the laws. Jessie reviewed it as a favor and said it wasn't a lot of work.
  • Laura - I dont have anyting against using the 501d3 for this purpose. My comment is that it is too far out to decide on any uses for it at this time. OOC has difficult tax and accounting issues going on that need to be resolved in addition to the difficult task of separating OOC and OC accounting-wise. It will be months before it is available. At least 3, probably more considering the skills we lack in this area. and it may end up that the best thing to do is to let it die completely.
  • Kazoo - what does it require to keep this alive?
  • David - we have to do the usual filing taxes, etc. Downside is that a lot of people in the community who want to do something this. It would make it a shorter period of time for people ready to do this work.
  • Kazoo - supports the idea especially for the greater community, but understands what Laura is raising. Would you be willing (David) to take this work on.
  • David - Yes I would be willing to take on this work.
  • Julian - worry about the potential competitive nature now that I have looked at the Native American Land Trust.
  • David - all totally over worked and need resources and people to help with the work. Land Trusts tend to be fiscally conservative, if anything they want to work together, it is a way to help them get spaces.
  • Laura - Anyone who is ready to do the work of starting a land trust should just apply to be a 501c3 if they need one. Waiting for OOC EIN to be unencumbered isn't necessarily going to be any faster.
  • David - said he considered that and it took a really long time to get the 501c3 for Omni, up to 2 years.
  • Mary Ann - it took 6 weeks to do that process.
  • Omni took a long time to complete the application becasue by the time we filed we were an incredibly complex organization whose books were a mess

The turnaround at the IRS was short.

  • Lori - think it is an important direction to be moving in to get a land trust.
  • Helen - if this issue is one of time, do other people need a 501c3 sooner than what we can provide, then they should go ahead and get their own 501c3. Since we are going around in a circle and saying similar things I want to call the question.
  • Katrina - the proposal isn't really clear enough, do we want to have a land trust for Omni or for other people?
  • Mary Ann - would like to talk with a lawyer to understand more
  • Julian - read the proposal from David
  • Helen - it seems it a question of timing
  • Ken - gathering information, the 501c3 is

Straw poll, BAPS, FNB, ABDC agreed with the proposal; CSC, LL, CLC have not discussed the proposal. What are you voting on?The proposal that David sent out? No it was a straw poll to see where groups stood.

  • Julian suggests asking these questions.
  • Kazoo - we want to see this building as a community space, what problem is their in our keeping out 501c3.
  • Ken - it will take at least 3 months to figure this out, not going to hurt to take the time to work this out.

Discussion on the event before Xmas when there was a noise complaint

  • Ken gave a summary of the event. It went till 6am in the morning, Robb and I were concerned about how loud it was and went outside to check this out. Robb had them turn down the sound at 2am in the morning and it sounded better, but it was still very late. But the sound went back up. Went to the lobby to check on the sound again and a crowd was smoking cigarettes, nobody was doing anything about that, there were beer cans around and I didn't know if they had a permit. At 5am they turned the sound back up. There was no confrontation or interaction about these issues. There were some complaints on Facebook.
  • David - The person who complained on Omni Facebook page, probably also called the cops. The cops were acrossed the street and taking statements from people leaving, is what I heard. Our internal proceedures were not followed as well and their were communication breakdown. We may get something from the city. Thought that we should speak to the neighbor about the problem.
  • Mary Ann - my concern is that the police came and took down statements from people, I am so concerned because they just called the Humanist Hall a nuisance due to a neighborhood police. There was a petition to the city, and some of the stuff they used to shut them down is less problematic. We need to have policies that moderate our concerns and the concerns of the community. If we have the community complaining we're not going to have a great future here. We need to deal with people who were disturbed, so we can not let this be repeated. Policy take into the legal political situation, and take into consideration the neighbors concerns as well.
  • Dragon - we should find out from Commons group how this happened, they should have had a last minute contract. There was a contract.

Laura- Since the main people who were working the event Joe (the main PP), Anka and someone else who was also present, and Julio, are not at the meeting it seems not productive to be trying to have a discussion about what happened unless you have first hand knowledge.

  • Julio: if anyone has questions about what happened, I can funnel answers. Just email me.
  • Helen: Have there been repercussions?
  • David: So the people holding the event went to get an alcohol permit, the cops knew about the event before it happened, and they may have got Tim Low to shut down the Omni. Seems like they are building a case, they are gathering information.
  • Katrina - in Germany what we would do, we would report the people who rented so the fault would be the people who rented from us and broke the contract and wrote a faulty check.
  • Mary Ann - we could go to Small Claims court.
  • David - Need to look at the policy around this issue because we are not going to get a special events permit.
  • Helen - need to get the event planning process clear.
  • Julio: folks are welcome to attend commons meeting on Tuesday at 6pm. I'm not sure what the point of continuing to discuss this now is. Is there a goal?
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