Event:2024/04/11 Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 04/11 2024 7pm-9pm

Meeting Details

• Talk at https://omnicommons.org/meet or 515-428-1108 (PIN: 465814905)
• Type at https://omnicommons.org/notes
• Send proposals to consensus@lists.omnicommons.org prior to the meeting
• Someone should go check incoming mail RIGHT NOW.

Roles

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

Delegates

• CCL: Patrik
• FNB: Toan
• LL: inactive
• SMAC: Pallavi
• SM: Marc
• SR: William
• DG: Dom
• Quorum (2/3 of active groups):

intros

BRIEF INTROS MAY INCLUDE: name, pronouns, groups you're in, land you're on, if you're a delegate, unmet access needs, meeting roles you'd like to help with, discussion topics or proposals to add to agenda, announcements/updates/report-backs from your groups, safe space issues or updates PROMPT people to share contact info in the chat, so we can stay in touch

• Phil - he/him. concern about tobacco in building, complaints from dance group and i noticed it also
• Toan - FNB delegate
• William - SR delegate
• Paige - they/them. Property Tax next steps, and making sure everyone available for CAST meetings
• Patrik - he/him CCL, access to mail cubbies problematic.
  • need someone sorting mail but also being able to get to, now especially with important mail coming in.
  • talk with Philip Bell about loan to arrange property taxes. did offer to accelerate CoM of proposal if that is of use if CAST deliberations longer than necessary for tax deadlines
  • talk about conflict resolution
• Pallavi - she/her they/them, Sacred Maker Arts Collective
  • who will be rep for signing CAST MOU
  • preparation for CAST meeting
  • concerns from SMAC about recent incidents and handling of them surrounding safe space bans
• Ruby - SMAC, here to support and follow along whats going on at Omni. Have concerns about safety ban situation
• Tye - SMAC member. she/they. also here to talk about the bans that happened and formulation of bans in the building and how that process goes
• Marc - or Juul, he/him Sudo Mesh delegate. Dont have anything else for the agenda
• Azadeh - SMAC steward, here to listen and support
• Philip - events group

Property tax / Governance / etc

• Patrik - counties usually schedule one tax auction per year.
• Paige - I think we should have some orgs on backup who are interested in buying building if foreclosure announced. worst case scenario is foreclosure, bought by highest bidder. Better if another community org buys in case it gets to that point.
• Philip - there are two interested parties, and 2 people who had offered to be ED
• Patrik - chicken and egg issue, no funding for ED
• Pallavi - ED role, proposed to role in with grant proposals. Donation who volunteered to pay for contactors. Could set some of that money aside, but that could also be a conflict of interest. If we can get W-2 set up, I think we should prioritize that at least for the time being. On paper would show that someone getting paid, that we are going off volunteers only
  • Philip - events WG also needs W-2 going forwards.
  • Dom - what was grand total for omnis debts?
    • Property tax + Mortgage - 300k + 870k
    • Philip - debts plus repairs plus safety, my ballpark is $2mill
• Pallavi - Need to reimagine who we are bringing in the building. Im bringing friends and family, not just artists. Expanding our outreach to not just being in our immediate area
• Patrik - Is there any way we could help with grant proposal for your ED role?
  • Pallavi - I put out a call to collectives for language, and I didnt directly receive anything. Helpful if you could all provide that. Email is in the consensus list. Also a spreadsheet that people can drop things into.

CAST meetings

Who can sign MOU?

• Pallavi - CAST asking to sign before meeting we have. We had voted that I would be signing representative for MOU or community agreements, or obviously grants. Are we still okay with that?
  • Patrik - I remember this in context of ED discussion.. but I have no problem with you signing it
  • Pallavi - one person needs to be the point person for CAST, because that's what they requested. Should decide before meeting, and I volunteer to be that person + sign the MOU
  • Marc - lets talk about what it means for point person. One I would say - any communication between point person and CAST should be communicated between all delegates.
  • Pallavi - I also suggest the point person be a BIPOC person so they can attend all meetings with CAST, can speak on behalf of marginalized folks, that was a lot of what was emphasized in the CAST document.
  • Patrik - any one volunteer? As far as I know it is just Pallavi
  • Toan - I'm in support. Request just to communicate with us
    • Pallavi - I have a feeling we will all be very involved in communications, keep in mind decision we make on this will be decision going forward. Someone with long term vision to Omni, willing to take on a large role of responsibility. Long term discussions. I don't know anyone else who fits those descriptions who is also a BIPOC member. Want to make that clear to anyone else who wants to volunteer.
    • Patrik - in terms of how to keep delegates involved, is forwarding communication to omni delegates mailing list fine to you Marc?
    • Pallavi - I could just CC on all correspondence. If theres lots and lots of communication, not sure if inboxes flooded.
    • William - I think this is now technical communication issue. There is an issue where people siloed off. Would be nice to keep an eye on whats going on so everyone informed. We should all have access to that information, and technical solution we can decide on that later, not needed for vote
• Marc - I suggest we do MOU vote now, but wait for representative til later
• Toan - does signatory need to be on board?
  • Pallavi - can be anyone on board.
  • Patrik - [reading from we] authorized signer "filing state forms generally, the formal officer title (such as President or Secretary)". Reminder we should do those elections.
• Marc - we should also have a backup person.
  • Paige volunteer

• Vote to have Pallavi sign MOU:
  • Yes [FNB/Toan, SR/William, CCL/Patrik, SM/yes, SMAC/Pallavi]
  • Abstain []
  • No []

BIQTPOC meeting

• Pallavi - for non BIQTPOC delegates, could elect someone from your group to attend that meeting? Can speak to the concerns of their populations within their collectives
  • MOU refers to "BIQTPOC delegates" and "BIQTPOC collective members" in different locations of doc, for the 2nd meeting." We should clarify who they are meaning to be there.
• Pallavi - can put together spreadsheet of who we think should attend, then with a When2Meet

Community Activators

What does this mean?

• Events WG, leadership roles outside of delegates
• Paige - include people who do maintenance
  • Patrik - I think this should be the "big umbrella" meeting - anyone involved in organizing anything at Omni.

• How do we schedule these meetings with CAST?
  • Set up a When2Meet?

Governance

• Pallavi - governance, how we make decisions, and how we follow through on decision making, and hold each other accountable to certain decisions, and how that will exist in our framework and how we are redefining framework for dealing with conflict. something we need to address in our ecosystem, before we even start talking to CAST or outside groups willing to help us, what are our policies around navigating conflict, safe space bans? If we can speak to policies that actually protect people from being harmed, I can see CAST absolutely being concerned with a lot of things, like liability, lawsuits, certain things they would want us to have some sort of understanding of how to address serious issue. A serious issue happened last month, really upset I wasnt active in meetings to speak my own concerns, but I definitely want to have the floor to dig into these concerns. At least would like to devote 30 minutes to this topic. Me, Tye, Ruby, Azadeh have items to share. An extremely serious topic for us, make or break topic. If we can't come to an agreement or resolution, we are seriously concerning pulling our membership from the building, and all of our individual contributions. Want to name this is a serious issue.

Bans

• Paige - how do we do notetaking for this?
  • Pallavi - ok with having those who have concerns to be listed, but details to be vague.

Initials to who are involved

• • Pallavi - some things need to be shared to the public. If someone wants their statement be public, that should be allowed, only deleting thing that are threat to safety of individuals
  • William - I suggest typing privately, and separately if we are going to make a statement, we do that later rather than keeping it all here
    • Pallavi - general rule is that we write down all of the things said in meetings. We have only taken things out if concern to safety of somebody. Dont want bad faith actors to take advantage of.
    • William - hasnt that been happening though?
  • Tye - you can use my name, and I am an advocate for transparency. Do not need to censor
  • Patrik - personally I think we are shooting ourselves in foot, also legal liability.
  • Pallavi - in talking about actual incident, can be more vague, but how we can deal with it, I think we can be transparent. This acts as a way for community to interface with Omni leadership. If discussion not shared with public, people dont think their concerns are being heard.
  • Marc - In the past, we've allowed that anyone request that their comments be removed. Has been suggestions to make our notes non public, and meetings non public, as well as meetings delegates only. Definitely an unusual thing to be doing
• Philip B - I dont think this incident is isolated or unique. I think we can discuss peoples concerns and what they need changed.
• Pallavi - there are some things about this incident that are deeply concerning, that to my understanding have not happened before. Main person who was banned, from CCL, has had multiple histories of issues with people in the building. Deeply concerning to me as a community member that it had to get to the point that it actually got for the person to be banned. Extremely concerning to me, the comments they made in threatening to S A someone. Problematic individual with documented history, someone has made cries for help, and took this long. This magnitude and severity, cops called into anti-cop building. The fact that it got to that point is upsetting, SMAC members extremely disgusted. We will fight to make sure that the culture that has created the environment for which this was allowed to happen. If S. wanted to sue Omni, they would have a full support to be able to do that. Not only did it have to get to this severity, its about enforcement, holding other accountable, its about allyship. BIPOCQT dont feel safe in this building, one reason I dont like to come at night to Omni. Discourages me from doing work that actually needs to be done in the building. We have another community member, who in our interactions, have only had positive, warm and loving interactions. We had a discussion about how that person may be banned for ____, whereas other person has been doing this for years. Why is young black man being banned so swiftly when we couldnt ban an older white man for years. Make that make sense. And how can I bring a young black man into the building, and feel safe. We haven't banned other people who been doing this in building. They will look and ask what is going on here. I would pull out all my support for this building if I dont feel confident in the way we are addressing conflict moving forward.
• Patrik - want to go over timeline. I got text from S. right after this happened, Sunday night. Then email equally(?) problematic from I. that night. At that point Yar had already safe space banned. CCL voted unilaterally to ban I. This is a communication problem. Pallavi, documented history, I have not seen that. S. mentioned situation with Tye, not something communicated. Some folks at Sudo have said that I had been kicked out of Sudo. Nobody told me behaivior of this nature, otherwise we would have never let him in CCL. Im not sure what more we could have done.
  • Marc - SR ban of I. in the past. No sleeping rule, but then we have people who live in vehicles, do everything but sleep there. Set up station where they sit all day. I. had been doing that in SR, and at some point one SR member moved stuff and told him to leave
• Phil - I find that I. was (not?) cooperative with me, like he was the boss, I did have a lot of problems with it
• Patrik - in terms of sleeping, Omni has been strict about not sleeping, have kicked out before. If someone told me I. was sleeping
  • Pallavi - yea usually they are sleeping at desk, not on floor
  • Patrik - sleeping in building can shut building down for cohabitation. sleeping at desk less of risk that setting up nest
• Philip B - requirement for CoM would for Omni to establish accountability. lack of open communication between collectives. if trust that accountability not there, people will not make reports. Ive seen reports fall apart because no neutral party. I.e. conflict resolution group before all from one party. I know there is something on wiki, but need standard way to report issues, and immediate actions, Id suggest separate from delegates meeting. As Pallavi said, it shouldnt have taken this long, any incident of discomfort should be accounted for, no matter how minor
• Patrik - issue about there only being one level of governance here, that being the delegates.
• Marc - wanted to check in about existing process. Had a safe space committee at some point. Safe space policy, one of problems is I dont know if collectives are actually onboarding their members and teaching them the rules. We have a safe space ban process, anyone can safe space ban someone. Can be on omni mailing list or another member who can report it for them. Not great that this didnt happen with previous incidents, the whole process is that its easy to ban someone. Temporary ban can be resolved, not the biggest. Easy to ban, follow up with mediation. If people felt like they couldnt do that or anonymously, then onboarding issue
  • Pallavi - not always an onboarding cause not everyone in building is part of the collective. Ban going just to a collective, problematic. How are we sure thats enforced for whole group.
  • Marc - if people report to their collective, duty to report that to whole Omni. SR never safe space banned I. Not saying processes are perfect, just explaining what they are. Problematic that people dont know about that. Onboarding shouldnt just only be for members. At Noisebridge, they do onboarding for everyone coming into the space
  • Philip - community space here, so ideally thousands of people in here who will be coming in. I suggest a central form, QR codes and safe space policy posted around building, At least 3 people who take responsibility. just have it on wiki -- if no one responsible, nothing gets done
  • Tye - I agree, that holds people accountable. I agree that process needs to be changed. I thought about joining other collectives, but if your part of one collective, and theres a ban, needs to be . I didn't know there was a document about all the incidents with I. I thought he was approaching me aggressively. Didnt come around me after that incident. I dont feel safe at Omni and it sucks to feel that way. Processes that have been done without checks and balances, and not even coming to all of collectives before a ban happens. Needs conversation before decisions happen, because some people may disagree. I feel like voices werent heard. I. was definitely in building in night all the time. Being in the space is sometimes different from being part of said collectives
  • Patrik - hope that S. And Tye couldve called a safe space ban immediately
    • Pallavi - I think there was some discussion of that. But might have been compartmentalized
    • Tye - what I was told after that incident happened, I forgot who it got sent to. Ian wasnt allowed to be in the basement. That's what I was told. Compartmentalized in that sort of way.
    • Paige - yes I was one who made that ask, but as individual, not spoken broadly, Looking back, I regret that
    • Philip - good for collectives to be involved in that, but need neutral party.
    • Dom - I suggest conflict hotline, immediate, could go to a delegate or committee. If there isn't one we should make one. If emergency can call 911, or hotline, if anonymous they can be. OR, hire a security guard. That would resolve a lot of issues
    • Patrik - way back set up a phone tree. I.e event too loud, or fight outside building
    • Philip - definitely need to implement if we have resources.
      • Marc - great suggestion from Dominic. Curious to hear from SMAC if they have other ideas
    • Tye - safety committee sounds good. TJ/RJ workshops going on in disco room. Would recommend taking that, and to build a foundation of trust to overhead safety of building.

• Paige proposal for new collectives:

   Require each collective: Elects a conflict steward to support an OC-wide conflict resolution board made up of 1 steward from each collective

   This steward must have nearly unanimous support from its collective, a collective too torn by conflict to put forward a steward no longer meets the bar for being a decision-maker at OC

   During the 3 month transition, each currently existing collective must provide no fewer than 2 elected members to represent them in the formation of the Omni-Commons Conflict Resolution Board [CRB; better name pending…]. They will work together to decide governance, steward expectations, and standard procedures and operations. If a collective can’t provide 2 members then they do not participate in the transition process for the CRB

   Once the transition is over each collective must be ready to provide a steward for the CRB; they can be one of the representatives who helped organize it

• William - want to know facts, was their bad behaviors ignored, was racial double standard. How did I. get in building
  • Patrik - I. was CCL member so had card key
  • Philip - safety team, lean on those with experience. Glad RJ/TJ workshop going on at Omni. Not things we have to figure out, already figured out by therapists and psychatrists, professionals
  • Dom - i disagree, if anyone comes to omni and fights break out, somebody needs sign posted. No doctors involved
  • Philip - not saying we need to bring them in, Im saying we dont need to reinvent the wheel
  • Pallavi - more about the people power to follow through on these, and something CAST can ideate on with us.

• William - we haven't talked about how issue resolved. We cannot solution if we dont know what happened.
  • Paige shows notes of timeline

Recap of events.

cornering of S. when no one there [correction T. in there too in conference]. I. said S. deserved S.A.

Yar safe space banned both of them, and took back ban on T. Toan asked T. to stay away for 1 week

• Azadeh - I heard it mentioned, that we need to have some community, community mural or activities related around working and creating together, rather than just these essential decisions. Good to hear everyone brainstorming. Seriosness of realizing of what happened, Im someone who is in there late at night, usually just people who stay there all the time, often Im only female or POC. So I can definitely understand people feeling uncomfortable, but having a safety thats immediate. This and last week, realizing that the person who was marginalzied went to other marginalized person, and cops called on them. Opposite how that played out.
• Marc - horrible that that happened. I. actually called on the cops and nobody there to help prevent that from happening. Reason I had my hand up, on sleeping, the people sleeping there is a big deal. Also "everything but sleeping."
• William - we were talking about fist fights and threatening sexual assualts
  • Marc - i want to say, its not same level of problem, but they play into each other. People who end up relying on Omni for their life, spend a lot of time, people who do everything but sleep or sleep there, if you allow that, then allow peoples home to be omni. makes every conflict bigger. no longer, losing space to place where they do stuff, its losing home. Risk exaggerated when people use the space like that
• Toan - Im also one of the people who didnt do anything. Was apparent I. was yelling at someone during food giveaway. I approached I. and he admitted to his wrongdoings. I didnt reach out to anybody because didnt feel we have that system. Good to have that system, when something happening serious, we have a someone to reach to. So things dont escalate.

Toan - I. banned from all FNB events, food pickup and kitchens. I wanted to get story from T., ban wasnt clear, no context, so I felt I had to speak to people themselves. I. didnt respond to my request, T. was open and we chatted. Before that I spoke to several volunteers about their thoughts. Wanted to speak with T. before making decisiion to ask him to leave. I thought something in the middle, I asked him for a time, he volunteered 1 week, saturday to saturday. Told him to take time. My safe space ban, modified, not doing any enforcement. Didnt walk him out the building or do key card, wanted to trust him

• • Pallavi - why did you feel need to? Do you feel threatened
  • Toan - volunteers felt threatened, no context
  • Pallavi - after context?
  • Toan - T, agreed that he did something wrong, and agreed to stay away to process and reflect on assault of I. I think both were wrong. Slapping, even if deserved, not a good demonstration, if we say we tolerate someone hitting someone. Currently no good process.
  • Tye - in my situation, I had not prior understanding of I., I was close to not slapping him, I was confused, that's why the process and communication really matters. Should have been communicated before that this person not safe in space. Processes, important to state, both committee and hotline, somebody needs to take accountability of safety in the building, there can be incidences. I agree not best methodology, thank got Ive been through TJ.
• Toan - not on behalf of FNB, my own. I thought it was a balance for me. I considered requested longer ban, and week with no enforcement... I wanted to let him know that I trust him to stay away from Omni. It was a mutual conversation, good conversation
  • Tye - problem with single conversation, can have another conversation with someone and they disagree. Emails sent to certain people. Everything moves so fast, decisions made on a fly, needs to be more checks and balances of accountability
  • Philip - multiple failures, several people tried to do best they could, but short answer lack of accountability. Specifics of what happen should go to safety committee. I dont think delegates have time to do this.
  • Patrik - want decision on T. CCL had voiced wanting ban of T. From hearing you, I see reason. My concern is not going with agreement from Toan, and sleeping here.
• Pallavi - SMAC has come up with a solution building, been talking about resources needed. Help with getting a job so doesnt need to sleep at Omni. Those are more useful, addressing root cause of the problem.
  • Patrik - so meanwhile do we let him sleep at Omni
    • Dom - no from me. Policy nobody sleeps in Omni, period
    • Tye - agree, building can get in trouble, want to say that but dont agree with banning, and we have also been talking about working.

• Tye volunteers to have that conversation

• Toan - not comfortable with my ban being rescinded. After Saturday Im fine with. If we are discussing allowing him during period we agreed on. Not proposing for long term ban, or some sort of accountability because i dont know what that is here. But I think he should abide by our agreement.
  • Marc - I dont have strong feelings on this. Historically with safe space bans, you shouldnt take it too seriously if temporary banned. good approach, that until all details have surfaced, to ask all parties to take a break. I dont think people should be too upset if they need to take a break for a few weeks. Wanted to make sure that we follow up on employment thing. I really like that idea that SR and SM could help.
• Ruby - dont think he is a safety threat here. glad we are not talking about any longer term ban.

Finances

• Dominic - reception desk. most buildings, cant talk to anyone without talking to person at front
  • Patrik - free store somewhat acting like that
• Pallavi - y'all up to date on finances
• Dominic - last meeting, heard now its only bookkeeper
• Philip - I dont think bookkeeper has a full grasp of whats going on because lot of information to parse
• Pallavi - no money for anything to my understanding from Silver. So all money going straight to bills. If paying for a position, need to be able to employ someone for a whole year. Have to have that money to support long term, and infrastructure to hire people. For me, in terms of fundraising, my whole idealogy is to first enter agreement with CAST, do long term visioning and large scale partnership. May have told a couple people this, alpha patrol security, has a nonprofit. Hoping to build workplace development program, and in exchange can provide security services. That takes a lot of time to build, not something we can expect. Those conversations are being had, I will update you on those conversations. Now with all the conflict stuff, is urgent enough for us to put more momentum behind.
• Paige - need new point person for Myan
• William- need updated numbers for everything, expenditures, conversations that have been going on in term of property tax exemption. In terms of committee, should take that to collectives.
• Paige - its there, in drives and emails, but issue is finding it

Omni mail

• Who volunteers to go check if there's mail for Omni right now? This agenda item is part of the meeting notes template.
  • Paige volunteers
• Access to mail cubbies is problematic

Smoke in ballroom

• Phil - really affected to me. Mezzanine used for smoking. I dont know what event, but it was this weekend.
• Toan - serious concern, some people are sensitive. Phil M. has asthma. Vaping I think should be same policy. Dont know much about it.

Eco exchange market April 27 12-5p

• Azadeh - Sudo Room or CCL interest in doing a workshop?
• Pallavi - event is zero waste event for earth day, would love if we could partner to collaborate. April 27 from 12 to 5pm. Big clothing swap in ballroom, free store, basement mending. nice to fold fixit clinic into it. Will send out email soon, doing outreach. If physically in building you should go check out flyers.
• Patrik - CCL has lots of plastic waste of pipette tip boxes. Usually give to Creative Reuse
• Pallavi - yes thats good. pvc pipe, anything that can turn into a frame for a loom, Tye is doing glasswork
• Toan - FNB will be trying to coordinate food giveaway.
• Pallavi - have friends in muslim community who would be good to pass info to on FNB for meal prepping
• Azadeh - if people have QR codes, to put around the building, opportunities. About no waste, and lots of our collectives revolve around that. Exciting to collaborate and share in the community.

End of Meeting

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