Event:2021/06/17 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - June 10th 2021 7pm-9pm

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s:
  • Stacktaker:
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s:
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • ANV: nobody here
  • CCL: Patrik
  • CSC: roberto
  • FNB: Helen
  • FYE: Asaad
  • GWS: Rachel
  • LL: nobody here
  • Sudo Room: yar
  • Sudo Mesh: nobody here
  • Quorum (2/3 of active groups):

Agenda

intros

  • We are front-loading most of the meeting into these intros! Now is the time to put forward any of the following things, many of which used to have their own meeting sections
    • introduce yourself: name, pronoun, affiliation, 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
    • report-backs from any of your working groups
    • updates from your collective
    • any brief announcements
    • updates on any conflict mediation
    • if you've asked anybody to leave the building due to safe space issues
  • please be BRIEF! Less than 4 minutes per person! Anything that might take longer must be put on the agenda as a discussion item

discussion

  • elon FNB, interested in covid safety discussion
  • maryann; report to mulberry
  • jane she/her fundraising gws
  • john fin/fun he/him/they/them
  • asaad he/him fye
  • teslim we/us
  • rachel gws she/her fundraising
  • roberto csc commons
  • helen fnb
  • patrik he/him ccl
  • sarah finfun diy she/her
    • we're 15k covid relief grant from the state
    • finance was supposed to meet this week but didn't?
  • robb he/him building/commons/fin
    • finance did actually meet today, just robb & john
    • paid 8k for insurance
      • yar wants to add this to agenda
    • building: need to finish shattuck doors and knox box

mulberry report

  • maryann: don't like it but we are required (by Mulberry) to develop a "plan b" for selling the building - need someone to follow through on this. Identify large non-profits that might be willing to buy the building
    • sarah volunteers, helen volunteers
  • sarah: current plan A is get a mortgage. we have until december 2022 balloon payment. other options: find 1 rich person or a group. safer diy works w/a building that bought with a primary + a pooled secondary loan
  • rachel: report that's due june 30th, what do we need to say?
    • maryann: that we identify the children's hospital, and have formed a committee to identify others
    • Yar: Internet Archive may be a good candidate as well; interested in coming at least to 1st meeting of the "plan B" WG
    • AB: willing to participate; should involve Safer DIY to avoid having to sell the building
    • Yar: when talking to potential lenders, don't forget to make the "big ask": outright donation to cover cost of the loan
  • sarah: [yar missed it]
  • asaad: [yar missed it]
  • john:
  • committee will be helen, sarah, yar
  • last week the delegates approved money for sarah to review 2017 & 2018 books to send to self-help
  • Maryann: i don't think self-help's response is that negative. they just told us what we need to do. so far all the reports we've sent have been fine. i just sent them our 3-month update

fundraising stuff

  • john: summer volunteer fundraising team came up with a list of prospects, which was sent out and which i urge people to look over. 13-14 prospects.
    • also they sent a survey to help draft proposals
  • asaad: i tried attending fundraising today, thought it was thursdays at noon, but nobody was there. what's the schedule?
    • robb: it's been confusing. last one was 6pm before delegates meetings
    • no, that's finance
    • maryann: fundraising was changed at the last meeting
    • last week asaad was at fundraising meeting
    • finance wasn't dissolved, it's active but disorganized
    • sarah: finance changed the time to 6pm to accomodate jenny. this would have been our 2nd meeting
  • once and for all: fundraising is 2nd tuesdays & 4th thursday at noon
    • next fundraising meeting is thursday june 24th noon, followed by tuesday july 13th noon
  • patrik: let's put it on the calendar

reopening

  • patrik summarizes tuesday's CA changes:
    • State of California has now lifted almost all Covid restrictions:
    • no social distancing requirement
    • no reduced occupancy requirement
    • Unvaccinated still required to wear mask indoor
  • CCL just voted on the following:
    • Require vaccination on the honor system, with valid exemptions
    • Require mask usage
    • Lift social distancing requirement
  • patrik: i believe that's in line with what sudoroom said as well
  • elon: that's the baseline, but private businesses (or whatever omni is) can make our own rules as long as we follow baseline. i'm one of the state's experts in masks & ventilation. no right answers here. can help with ventilation assessment, getting fresh air into building during events. measuring airflow, co2.
  • robb: will we still require masks?
  • asaad: ballroom has big windows
    • most skylights don't open up much
  • ballroom is 244, which is already sparse / reduced occupancy
    • elon: i use cfm/minute/person. trying to get a specific amount of air to each person to dilute aerosols
  • fire inspection requested, they haven't scheduled a date yet, will be in contact
    • only allowed to have 49 in ballroom until then
    • maybe dk can nudge them
    • robb: dk wants to bottom line the fire inspection
  • jane: glad we're talking about airflow. la pena community chorus is looking for a place to do weekly singing practice on tuesday evenings.
    • sarah: weekly singing sounds awesome!!!
    • Patrik: how many people, and are they willing to wear masks while singing? probably
entrance hall
    • also maybe start asking whether participants will be vaccinated
  • robb: we need concrete rules. people ask me and don't like the answers
  • maryann: maybe a committee? 3 or 4 people who have info & knowledge could come up with practical guidelines; diferent rules for different rooms; guidelines for member collectives reopening vs public events. levels of reopening: first member collectives, then <50, then >50.
    • robb: need more immediate category - groups that are already using building. ANV, FNB. some of those groups don't want to wear masks anymore. are we enforcing that?
  • patrik: so far that's the rule for omni and it's all our collective responsibility for enforcing it
    • elon: emergency temporary standard passed today. in "businesses" anyone vaccinated doesn't need a mask. unvaccinated do.
  • rachel: i don't like singling out people who aren't vaccinated. i think it should be the same policy for everybody. there's different views on that. the government's view and then other views. not everybody agrees
  • yar: should we just get rid of the mask rule?
    • no consensus
  • asaad: taking a stance on vaccination conflicts with our values. i support the rule of "masks required for unvaccinated" but that being honor system
    • yar offered that as a compromise. was trying to get the lay of the land
  • patrik: IMO mask wearing is the last thing we should remove
  • elon: a lot of it is about background community rates. virus mostly spreads through close contact inhalation routes. ventilation doesn't do much - it just stops virus from concentrating enough to infect people under very specific circumstances. but mostly it transmits by face to face conversations, and masks are the best way to prevent that. how likely is it that someone in the community is going to be infections, or that there's enough unvaccinated people to have a mini omni outbreak?
  • rachel: unvaccinated people are most vulnerable, vaccinated ones are not but can pass it to the unvaccinated ones. i think masks are a good idea until we have more knowledge.
  • robb: is there evidence that the vaccine reduces your symptoms to be less transmissable? YES
  • asaad: i propose we "reopen omni" as of today with a mask enforced rule for everybody. blanket policy we maintain until we figure something else out. but we reopen so collectives can get their keys and access their spaces.
  • robb: delay it until juneteenth?
  • patrik: masks + 50% occupancy
  • 50% doesn't affect ANV much these days
  • proposal to reactivate keycards and allow full access to building for members at 50% capacity with masks: YES (ccl, chiapas, fnb, fye, gws); abstain (sudo); block (no)
  • elon: i'm against enfocing mask policy, but make expectations clear
    • asaad agrees. i heard robb express so many times how hard enforcement is. if it's pasted on the wall & visible, that makes interactions easy. you'll be perceived less as a cop.
  • asaad will make sign for front door, with link to key card instructions https://omnicommons.org/keys/
    • maybe also signs for each room
  • patrik: this policy is for members. what about public events?
    • yar: that's for next meeting i think
    • robb: we're clearing out ballroom etc so they're ready, aiming to have events in july; hoping to have spaces cleaned out by June 30
  • sarah: coordinate fire inspection with electrical work?
  • tes: reopening on juneteenth - was that a joke? or did you have some other reason for that?
    • robb: i was just equating that with freedom. it wasn't a joke. i thought it was a day of liberation
    • tes: i think that's a comparison that you can determine whether that's fair for everyone on this body, in terms of how you communciate amongst yourselves. idk if that's a fair comparison but i'm a first-time participant in this group.
    • asaad: my phone died. it left me with much thoughts too. i didn't think it was the most tasteful thing to say. i appreciate tes bringing that up
    • robb apologizes, should have thought about it more
  • maryann: just wanted to point out it's possible to rent out the ballroom before the fire inspection if there's just a limitation on the number of people we could accomodate. i think cleaning out the ballroom is important because there could be groups that want to use it like rehearsal or performance that's <50.
    • robb: today we had a group w/10k budget who looked at ballroom, wanna have breakout groups, were encouraged at having it in 2 weeks.
    • maryann: thank you. we need it cleaned and ready to rent asap. only limitation is number of people we can accomodate prior to fire inspection
  • asaad wanted to talk about fundraising event but we didn't get to it
  • yar proposes we continue convo in 2 weeks

officers

  • maryann: 1 person nominated for president, 1 for treasurer, nobody for secretary. timeline is that we send to consensus list either tomorrow or over the weekend or by monday, the people who've been nominated with their statements as to why they're running for those positions, and then it's up to the delegates to talk it over with their collectives and we come back and at the next DA people get voted on. it's basically approval or not approval, if we do it the same way we did it last time.
  • yar: so it wasn't my fault
  • sarah's interested in secretary
  • maryann: generally officers have signatures on bank accounts
    • robb: they don't have to. secretary doesn't have to be signer
  • elon: 2nded that we need more black + POC voices in positions of "leadership" within omni
    • patrik: thirded
  • maybe we should delay the election until there's more choices
  • asaad: maybe consider alternatives like posting on craigslist
  • sarah: are current people ok with terms being extended? i could be temporary
  • asaad: wana was interested in officer position. it'd take her another meeting or 2 to be familiarized
  • helen: we need more diversity, but we don't have it right now. it'd be wonderful to have a contested election but we don't right now. i think this is a very special time where people are working at a disadvantage. we need a transition of officers and to do it with what we've got. next time there's ways to do it, but i don't see us postponing it. we're calling it an election but really at omni all this work is done by volunteers. unless someone objects to having one of them, why not go on with this? thigns have been really tough for everybody.
  • robb: i think since we're on the cusp of reopening, part of the problem is we're talking into a vacuum. not people involved / around / in our ecosphere. maybe after we reopen and people start coming back, maybe we'll have more candidates, more people will be willing to consider it then. i don't think we have anybody pleading to not be. jane expressed she doesn't want to be secretary again, but haven't heard her say she wants to quit now. we have time, nothing really pressing us.
  • patrik: i'm in favor of casting a wider net. we shouldn't rely on email anymore these days, so many people don't check it. let's reach out to other orgs we know and social media. even people that aren't directly involved we probably know a dozen other nonprofits we're familiar with. if someone there says "oh i've been a director before i know how to do that". there's folks out there we're familiar with, that might be good candidates
    • robb: we sent it to facebook
  • maryann: we need to vote on delaying. i'm leaving monday. there's a policy that's been followed ever since i've been here, that eligibility for officers has requirements. if we're gonna change that, make a proposal that collectives will discuss. that's what was given to me by laura, she passed it to me when i did the one last year. i need to leave this call, it's too late.
    • patrik: Bylaws says "Any person may serve as officer of this corporation." Can someone dig up what policy MaryAnn was referring to? The email MaryAnn sent out does say "Only members of Omni collectives and community members actively participating in Omni working groups are eligible to be nominated." - not sure when that decision was made (if it was)
  • tes: governance is important. bylaws are a good place to start for figuring out what legally omni is required to do in terms of positions & stuff. beyond that i wanted to speak to the ability to reach out to your network at this time, to get an idea of people who've been participating in omni in different ways. ideally who'd this person be? perfect candidate? i'm sure people in your network come to mind. as i think about it, people i'm gonna reach out to knowing that there's a need. i think it's an opportunity - it plugs into many other aspects. people have multiple skills & expertise. opportunity to inject omni with skills it needs.
  • asaad: i hear what's been said. i think we can try a bit harder, all individually, everybody in this meeting. we can try to cast a wider net. it's a special time. we should make the most of this time to really shift the culture, like i said earlier, and be specific in terms of who we want to see at omni. racial diversity is key. that could be a driving factor, people knowing there's a need for change. we don't just need new officers but new people. we can make a beautiful craigslist ad, cool posts. immediate networks. we can do a lot by just putting something out there. a year from now is a long time to wait. "next time" is ... we can try harder this time.
  • sarah: aren't we already late? wasn't this supposed to happen months ago? maybe a compromise would be to have sort of either the continuing officers continuing to serve (or a temporary one) and set a sooner deadline for the actual election with outreach and bring in new people. isn't the 2 people robb & john?
    • yar: we're still pretending we don't know that
  • sarah: if Jane is fine staying on, then I will withdraw from nomination for Secretary, as I was just volunteering for temporary status if no one else wanted to do it. I think the position should be someone new. agreed on casting a wider net and bringing in new people!!!
  • yar: jane can send resignation letter anytime. problem isn't knowing qualified people, it's that THEY DON'T WANT TO.

End of Meeting

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