Event:2015/09/20 Becoming Omni Planning Meeting

Becoming Omni Planning Meeting Sunday September 20

Who's Here?

• laura, facilitation
• libbie, outreach & invitations
• araya, becoming omni
• matt, outreach/networking/invitations/etc
• yar, inreach / "working within the system"
• rachel, interested in learning where omni's at, finding directoin, getting people on board with same vision
• alex, facilitation. here to get things done. don't worry if you've had hiccups
• gabby, something magical, art & fun, physical stuff like heat, covering skylights
• troy, art & fun, something magical, developing processes, coordinating & scheduling people. getting to creating what we want
• maryanne, outreach & invitation, figure out what we're gonna do next

fun

• opening up with "a fun little art project"
• blind contour drawing - look at subject, draw their face without looking down at the paper or lifting your pen

community agreements

• we forgot to take the paper we wrote last time
• similar to the white caucus agreements
• rachel wants to know if omni as a whole has something like this
• safer space policy is more about harassment in the building
• important to know how it reflects in the culture of the space, not just what's written down

agenda

• laura: this will be less structured than before due to feedback
• hearing back from working groups. what do others need to know? what do we need to coordinate with other groups?
• each group gets a color? we don't need that
• up to 45 minutes for groups to check in with each other

Report-Backs

outreach

• created pamphlet to give people when meeting with them (thanks to gabby's fantastic sense of design & magicalness)
• libbie spent many hours to fix a printer which always breaks. might give up on printer
• create flyer to post around
• google excel sheet of organizations and other radical spaces to reach out to
• invite people to sign up to talk with them, but nobody did it yet
• maryanne signed up for eastside arts alliance
• libbie visited oakland impact hub. for-profit, full-time employees. not as into "changing desire" but lots to offer & learn from.
• please do outreach yourself, invite people to omni.
• "if i could do anything with that space at the omni, i would do X"
• elephant people came to play music here. folks from laney can help.
• met with jesse palmer for non-billed 3 hour conversation about history of radical anarchist spaces in the bay - long haul, slighshot, qilombo, etc.
  • invite people from different spaces?
  • laura concerned about inviting people who won't be involved in implementing

inreach

• yar went to sudoroom & opal (now liberated lens)
• alex went to CCL & BAPS. phat beets not meeting until october
• yar still needs to reach out to Global Women Strike
• yar emailed joel, who was supposed to talk to TIL & MPM
• what does writing a proposal to delegates mean?
• laura & yar meeting at 5:30, alex will join later
• need more specific details about the meeting agendas and conversation topics to prompt people early on

proposal to delegates...

• yar: to me there are 3 ways we could do this.
  • get delegates to consent to an open-ended legitimacy ahead of time, so whatever gets decided becomes "the law of the land"
  • use the becoming process to write a proposal together which is then taken to delegates
  • the best, ideal option: everyone COMES to becoming, including delegates, and can make decisions there together
• rachel: if you consent to an open-ended decision ahead of time, then there's extra weight on peoples' mind. woudl be limiting, not how consensus works, which is continual
• laura: on the other hand you don't want to spend all this time and have people say "this is bullshit, no"
• matt: it's moot. delegates can do or not. they can change their mind anyway. also, this is flamebait. let's not have in mind exactly what we do before we agree to it. we can't avoid the work of building consensus. we have to build consensus.

facilitation

• we've been planning the 30 hours. made an agenda. time for fun art activities, tension relief, bonding time
• working with yar about inreach
• need to make proposal for delegates meeting (with inreach group)
  • discussion ...
• need to know how outreach is publicizing
• need to know about research needs
• check-in about childcare & food

lots of talk about the structure

• days 1, 2, 3
• rachel: first two days will be easy, accept you did a day's work. third will be hardest, could peter out in confusion
• matt: 50% rule - double hte time you think you need
• alex: talked a lot about how to change organizations. requires people building trust
• matt really wants detailed agenda
• libbie: do we expect people to participate in all 3 days if possible? don't avoid inviting people, just make clear the expectations that people participate
• laura: this is a meeting for people who actually want to implement decisions being made. if people want to be involved, this could be a way how, but might be a lot
• gaby: that's why i'm here. it's going good. wasn't sure how to participate before.
• matt: you invented a whole new space in the omni (the creative corner)! it's on the map!
• this outreach task is an experiment for the future, help us learn about how we want to do this in the future

magic

• set up the creative space station in the basement
• stuck figuring out what to make - content? what will posters say? any ideas?
  • libbie would like a Becoming Omni flyer with the agenda
  • yar: that would also help with inreach...
• Came up with list of fun/energizing activities
• Goal is to loosen up tense meetings with fun activities. more magical vibe. might help with creativity & burnout
• troy reminds us the groups were formed with colored cards
• gaby: preparing space? what's the venue?
• it'll get too hot, so rob is covering the skylights
• Robb making giant flag
• might start an open mic just to get visibility before the event
  • troy wanted to have one on the basement red stage, but now it's for bike parking
  • matt: it was hard to get rent party together yesterday but made $600
  • visitor from catalonia said we should turn it into a movie night. rummage sale, music sale, live performances

needs from other working groups?

• input re: visual aids
• still not sure what these 30 hours are gonna look like. hard to say
• how will they be different from existing meetings?
• missing coordination with facilitation group

Final Check-in

• final check-in - issues to address as a group
  • remote participation?

Focus Question

• finishing up from august
• review what it is so far, and why it's useful
• matt: it's like a research question. helps probe a complex open-ended prompt.
• laura: let's say i ask gaby, "i want you to design a poster. i'll pay you $10,000"
• gaby: that's hard for me. i started graphic design because i don't want to be a studio art major. need form & function. expect clients to tell me what they want
• laura: what about "i want you to paint a picture for my living room to fit in with my decor"
• it's a few hooks to make sure in general everybody is looking in the right direction
• troy: i use 3 questions in a row. 1 general topic, 2 specifics. opens up topic more
• How can we modify our internal structure and processes over the next 3 years so that the Omni Commons can
  • sustain + strengthen our/its well being,
  • actualize our/its Statement of Solidarity and become a resource for marginalized communities and organizing,
  • meet the diverse interests of member collectives?

Attempts to Shorten

1. By Oct 2018, how will Omni Commons:
   1. Meet the diverse interests of our member collectives?
   2. Sustain and strengthen our well-being?
   3. Put our Statement of Solidarity into action?