Event:2015/03/29 CDC Meeting

Attendees

• Sarah, Dusty, Julio, Niki

Agenda

• Recap of Last week
  • Talked about burnout
  • Redefining the scope of CDC
    • Spoke about trying to reach out to welcoming and how we organize and had discussion about the lack of existence of these groups.
    • Sarah: That we have been discussing being involved in more cultural work.

• On Conflict meetings:
  • Could we send email to conflict group to meet every other week?
  • Niki: Perhaps we could make a suggestion to have other working groups do the same thing...we could have these committees and they would just alternate. People would just have to be patient with the process. Could develop the communication to let people know that our processes take time.
  • Julio: Would that mean that there is just more stuff to do when we meet?
  • Niki: Some groups would probably have to meet weekly like commons, but the defunct working groups could meet less, which would mean that they could still be alive.
  • Sarah: Only problem I see is that it may have to rotate days, I think it's great...I can see a time when the welcoming meeting happens every month we can tell new-commers that we have one orientation, down to work on that with Dusty.
  • Julio: Two tracks....cultural, and maybe something just practical and maybe they're interrelated. Talk about the cultural?

• Burnout, The CDC
• Sarah: The more dificult piece, involves us basically unlearning oru capitalist training and trying to do that with each other and I think that's super important. Part of it could be on the individual, some people stepping up and not being able to and making this okay. I feel unclear as to how we have these conversations more, the way we value and applaud this over-work is not sustainable and not part of the world I'm interested in building.
• Niki: I think a big part of the problem is how to communicate these things to a large group of people, people who you don't have relationships with, peopel who don't participate in the meetings are not hearing this at all. Don't know what to do with that. Someone told me about aconversation about someone kicked out of a space in SF, the reason the space gave was that this person had a sense of entitlement not comisurate with their level of participation. Articulated an expectation of participation. Like the idea of having a monthly dinner that's mroe casual for people who wouldn't come to a meeting but would go to that.
• Sarah: The world I want to see is one where things are a bit more causal where people would show up and not this whole work work work thing. Could the CDC initiate a potluck and have other groups organize a potluck for the next month, etc.
• Julio: Is there a measure of sucess with at.
• Amgo: This feels so, like how do you hook people who are here who are sort of floating. Social part was overwhelming to me you know, The sense of duty to the cause you know, like this had to exist. Niki said there is a job that needs to be filled. Because I filled a role I saw a place for me. I'm a good example of a person floating but that also self-selects. A process which may be only set for people who are going to take on too much? Keep thinking about something fun but that again is about hosting. It should be fun but like something about hostessing, I'm a little resistant to that. It manifests something we're not trying to manifest.
• Sarah: CDC shouldn't be the one always hosting.
• Julio: I think we are all a bit self-selecting, like we all believe in this thing and konw that it takes work. It's also social, not obvious that people need some things off loaded until I went to meetings and got involved.
• Niki: A real problem of how to make the work transparent that is not off-putting. A way that feels exciting for people who want to plug in and get involved. Some of us are overwhelmed and we don't have a good way to communicate to others that we need help. For me that's the queston, how to make the work transparent in a way that is inviting and exciting for people.
• Sarah: Also about re-calibrating our expectations about the speed and caliber of how we work. There is a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves and the early sense of urgency ocne we got in the building hasn't dissipated. We need to have more honest conversations about....do we need to do that this week or can we put it off?
• Group: right on
• Niki: In La Commune we talk about that, do you want to have a job thats like every other job you have? Imagining what the world would you like to see, that you'd want to live in, what would that look like? Like just going, what would we want...and being playful about it. Existing domninant modes, the imparative, sneaks it's way in. A lot of people who come in, like if they know it's horizontal ], have all of these suggestions for everything. Part of the work for CDC is to push back when those things come up in meetings and such. Like, this is a dominant mode of thinking and we need to push back against that. Like with Black Whole, we had a meeting with SUDO where peope thought that this was like an old technology and ....like a totally capitalist way of thinking, like who cares what they do, because it's not marketable???
• sarah: As someone who identifies as an artist, an interesting interpretation of Marxism that like art is just for rich white people so we shouldn't do it.
• Niki: If we had more opportunities for art our space would be much more diverse.
• Amgo: Not to mention, in terms of means of production, that like if the internet goes down what do you do? Print some stuff!
• Niki: Challenging the notion that practice needs to be productive in the capitalist sense...I want to push back on that, I was really disturbed.
• Sarah: Had this idea to start writing poetry on the discuss list.
• Niki: It would be fun to be making something for fun, you know.
• Amgo: Since I've come in with this do energy I've really lost some of that
• Julio: What is the endpoint, like what is the world we want to live in. In the end I think that everything we should do, we should want to do it. Two problems, don't know which things we w...
• Amgo: When like one or two people of core folks are gone, it works out but when all the folks are gone than I really don't know what would happen. I'm enjoying learning the things I'm learning. The fear is getting to the point is what I've seen poeple get to..that it's too much that.
• Sarah: two things, there have been various attempts at trying to express more gratitude in general here. Part of the reason for the hard feeling is that there is a very strong culture of critique and not one of like, Good Job, thank you! CDC could do this. Also articulating all of the generative things that come out of our work here. There are so many ways my life is richer now than it was last year because of the Omni, you're not just signing up for another job.
• Niki: talking somebody the other day about contacting somebody with mobility issues who really wants to participate. Hard for her to get here. Could connect her to collectives to really document all of the great work happening here.
• Amgo: Talking about getting people plugged in who are already here... a lot of people are not meetings people and such. Also getting the public to know what they're walking into and how you could possibly get involved. Thinking about stickers or something to summarize horizontality, that show that how if you're here you're now a brick in the building. There is something daunting about it and magical too. If people could hear about it in the right magical way, this could not be underestimated.
• Niki: What if we had a thing, an event, which says that you are not in this space doing anything else during these hours on this day other than the event, something fun and like a potluck or something.
• Sarah: We used to have like cleaning work parties and stuff and we could re-visit that type of thing.
• Niki: There could be one day a month, where if you're here and personal project day. Omni Community Day.
• Dusty: We have to be careful about it being some sort of working day
• Sarah: We have so much talent and creativity among us..
• Amgo: I keep imagining have thanksgiving dinner over and over again. Everyone eats together and has some wine.
• Julio: Like the idea of having a big thing. I would also like to see something with SUDO because it seems that people go in there and disapear...maybe like a makerfair or something. Like where vairous collectives are displaying things or something like that. So that people do default to go escape. I was definitely in SUDO during Gather and plenty of people doing their stuff.
• Amgo: A social aspect about this, too, I do that...just sort of hide.
• Niki: Maybe we should plan a party or potluck. Don't want to put all these prohibitions and rules and stuff. I'd be happy to make a flyer which says that if you're in the building your participation is expected. And just the day of going around the building and chatting with people.
• Amgo: This could be super playful, too.
• Dusty: are we now planning a party, won't this add to "burnout"
• Sarah: But if this is the work than let's do it
• Julio: Don't want to lose sight of the goal
• Niki: We could make an intention and well, this is the honey trap you know
• Julio: Want to also talk about how we prioritize our work
• Sarah: and yeah this is somethign that we can all take to our people
• Amgo: REally interested in finding some real pithy stuff, to make some stickers or something short and sweet that people can take away, to make the process visible and we need a little mantra or something.
• Niki: Basically a brainwashing session! We need to have things which make people tell us what they want to see in the world.
• DUsty: I would love to try and come up with a way to capture the process, of how it is that people do this.
• Sarah: All different modalities to get people thingking, like some kind of embodied thing too. We are very self-selecting who like to talk and process but we could come up with all sorts of stuff.
• Niki: Speaking to what you (amgo) were saying, like the idea of like one-liners of how to get folks motivated to get involved. I'm thinking about having them all over the space you know, pasted everywhere.
• Amgo: Keep thinking about the cartoon in the bathroom about a transwoman. Keep on trying to find the message in it, like I'm not finding it beyond like...this is ....it doesn't get me thinking, but maybe that's the point. Don't mean to rag on the cartooon or anything. I thin kthere is maybe a better way of finding out how to have a better impact. And to create an expectation that we can take things down and put things up.
• Niki: What I want is, too, to push back on the buraucracy....like there doesn't have to be a huge process about everything.
• Amgo: Yeah, I've just like read two posts
• Niki: really excited about making a board game like, you're collective applies to the Omni loose three turns!
• Dusty: And wait six months!

• Recap:
• dusty: We discussed a lot, like the throwing of an event, the changing of meetings from weekly to bi-weekly, and next steps.

• Amgo: There are going to be new people interested in the CDC, these are topics that are popular. Is it like, please join our group or is it like, please come and listen for a while.
• Niki: Doesn't have to be a demand but I think that there should be an expectation to listen and see what's going on.
• Amgo: right, like you guys (julio and dusty) came in when there were specific conflicts and I'm surprised that you stayed on board.
• Julio: That if people come in to this and sometimes it's hard. Perhaps there should be some sort of political education to get people on board
• Niki: Like people should go through an orientation first
• Amgo: A problem we keep coming across, that some people come in dont' have the knowledge of certain aspects of radical culture and some people have willingness to learn and some don't. Maybe it's welcoming committeee, where we can create a smooth situation where people are learning and don't feel like the...
• DUsty: It does seem like this is necessary.
• Sarah: this is what the welcoming committee should be. If this is a once a month commitment it would be a really great way to avoid some of the misunderstandings.
• Julio: This is what I'm going through with Critical Resistance. It is a very slow process. In order to become a member you go through two 2 hour political education sessions.
• Niki: People become invested in the project you know. A question to me. Poepl I see every day all day, that just sit in the corner and do their own thing and don't participate, or even seem to give a shit. Just like a free resource. My question, every day, is when I see like 10 people with whom I never communicate,l...I feel like it would be okay to approach these people and tell them that, if they would want to be here that they have to participate in the project. It's okay to approach people and have the expectation that people should participate.
• Sarah: I feel that this should be communicated to SUDO, in that it seems like they have a bunch of people coming and going.
• Niki: I'm a member and they're recognizing this through a lot of means. They're aware, hard for them to have a super open ethic and having to be minful about putting in place barriers to entry and such.
• Amgo: What about a simple question you know, like, when was the las....
• Julio: One of the questions I see is like...what do you have to bring to the community.
• Dusty: I think this is good and I think it's an inherently political question
• Niki: This is in the roots, we started by discussing it as a public space and we've been reframing it as a common space, that people have to participate in this place. I saw a person cleaning the fridge and well, what if everybody did something like that you know?
• Julio: We have to focus, too, on how we can let certain things go and try to really figure out what needs to be done and what isn't so important.
• Niki: We've tried to do everything on paralell tracks and well, for instance I feel like I don't care about most of the other stuff, I mean I'm passionate about everything, and I think the building stuff is the most important. I don't like it but it feels most important to me.
• Amgo: I have never known what our priorities are, That is a personal flaw of mine but I think that there is a lot of confusio nabout that. Even when folks agree, like buildings, then, how does that happen, how the best way to do that.

• Party planning:

   * Dates: May 3rd, 
   * Come up with language to send out that's playful and fun. 
   * We can each come up with some ideas and such
   * Amgo: there is this thing, that we want to build a new culture and there are a lot of people in the Omni who are interested in it being here and are able to do some odd jobs. Thinking even of me here. I want this thing to exist, but don't know how much personal energy I have. THere is this element, like, make this your thing. We should have some sort of offer, where, like it doesn't have to be your life but here's somethign that you can do, that we need. 
   * Julio: Should we target people, like those who are deep and not?
   * Niki: Should be both, retroactively getting people involved and also inviting new people in. 
   * Sarah: We should have a schedule of events, like an orientation from 12-1 thing that not everyone has to be at. 
   * Amgo: Also we can have fun visionary things that are happening. 
   * Niki: I view this as more of getting poeple oriented into the project than visioning per se. 
   * Julio: Calling it a community building party.