Event:2024/05/09 Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 9 May 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: Toan
• Stacktaker: 
• Timekeeper: 
• Notetaker/s: Paige
• Next meeting's facilitator(s): 

=== Delegates === 

• CCL: Patrik - 
• FNB: Toan
• LL: Inactive?
• SMAC: Pallavi - needs to leave at 730 / Ruby ?
• SM: Daniel
• SR: William
• DG:
• 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

• Yar - agenda item 1, look at the LOI and get back to them. Think we could get a reply by 9 and that seems like most urgent thing
• Phil - Omni volunteer; do a little bit with the kitchen, want to bring up incident with [] last weekend
• William - have safety thing to bring up
• Tye - safety concern
• Paige - no more agenda items
• Patrik - CCL delegate. Likely to get some hand trucks for Omni. Saw mail cubbies access free
• June - request if safety agenda item towards beginning of meeting
  • Yar - if at beginning should limit the time.
• Toan - FNB volunteer, agenda item. Glad Azadeh is present, because you had mural idea, wanted to talk about that
• Daniel - SM delegate
• Ruby - hi im here, listed as "sacred maker"

Check for mail for Omni

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

Safety issues

discussion of SR safe space ban

• Yar - maybe those who need to leave can say their peace, then we can save discussion to the end of the meeting. Goal to get LOI signed by 9pm
• June - would like to hear what William has to say first. I assume he's calling for a safe space ban, would like some clarity.
• William - was thinking of recalling, i think i made mistakes taking out that email. i know there are issues, trying to be on top of things and would like to push this to those who have community and contact with him.
• June - i appreciate you take it back. a lot of words [in email William forwarded] harmful and racist and problematic on multiple levels. i dont think it has to be at this delegates meeting, but harmful and hurts people. i appreciate you saying to talking to people connected to him. people bringing up issues without offering support. open to having discussion. i want to acknowledge how harmful it was.
• William - i looked at a complaint and sent it out, trying to react quickly. i didnt put time into reading complaint. problematic and i agree
• Tye - i would put my name to it to facilitate that process. we just talked about harmfulness of these reactions. now i dont feel trust. that harm is there. to read the words that were said, shocking. im still shaking with emotions. i want everyone to feel safe in the area.
• Phil - smoking needs to go out to sidewalk. i have asthma problem, but even outside of that should be something not done here
• Yar - im glad you are taking it back, really harmful language.
• Paige - William didnt write it
• Yar – oh, in that case lets table the conversation for end of meeting.
• Tye - anyone willing to step up to join this group.
• William - i am working on tech side of doing a safety mailbox. response realtime if possible.   i think we could have other people work on how process should go. im happy to help, i assume you dont want me to help. documentation on how to respond when you see certain things
• Patrik - Phil ip bell also has done a call for volunteers. mainly we need people to staff that team
• Yar - i wont take leadership roles but will support. i worked on original failure of a safe space policy
• Tye - not anywhere near the truth to say we dont want to work with you William . I dont have trust in you right now but would like to have multiple people in, so that we can get good network of people in that technology. Ensure that concerns wont fall on deaf ears.

separate incident, report

• Phil - [] forced his way into the door. I had to let go, didnt want to hurt his hand. really tweaky all day saturday. long argument with guy from palestine meeting. screaming at me, loudly talking to himself. worst ive ever seen him. maybe i should do something else then tell him he cant come in
• Toan - did [] make contact with you?
• Yar - was he forcing himself into argument with person at the event.
• Toan - to clarify, tweaky, your saying behavior?
• Yar - yea i think tweaking implies drugs
• Phil – I just mean behavior
• Phil – one discussion before about that he doesnt have to be in building unless its a public event like free store
• Toan gives background on [] memory loss
• Paige – I talked to [] about Phil ’s concerns but denied acting out. As Phil brought up, rather than banning could just let him come in during Free Store/food distro times, as guest.
• Yar – idea is not banned but should be supervised, someone there is holding space for you. as long as person volunteers to chaperone for. im willing to do some times, but most of the time no
• Toan – idea is he is a guest of a volunteer.
• Phil - i just wanted to clear up what happened saturday.
• Azadeh - do we have any process? some people dont know who [] is. with our omni statement of being uplifting and support, but we have resources, when something beyond our capacity, to have links or phone numbers?
• Patrik - looking forward to CAST, if onsite building manager, that would be someone to talk to them. probably lean towards you cant be here
• Azadeh - safety came up last meeting. seems like based off no door or safety person
• Patrik – CAST’s perspective is to change things day 1, like locks changed and building manager asap
• Azadeh - in the meantime, these things still happen. regularly put safety at risk.
• Paige – I go off of what Marc Juul has said, and wiki https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Conflict_Resolution_Policy. So for conflicts (not safe space bans) that are brought to Omni level, a conflict steward and mediator are assigned. So for this conflict we are discussing, Marc is volunteered to be the steward, I volunteered as the mediator. Steward keeps track of communication and progress, mediator talks to conflicting parties. In cases where someone thinks there is a safe space concern, they are encouraged to call a safe space ban. Safe space ban happens immediately, no “approval” needed. Then at next delegates meeting, can determine whether or not that ban should be upheld. Even if unfairly banned, should not be too bad for them to take a short break from the space until delegates can undo.
• Yar - we need to come to agreements together about what we want safety to mean hear, independent of CAST as well.
• Toan – Phil do you feel safe around []?
• Phil - i just make it a policy to avoid [].
• Azadeh - are there ways omni can support you feeling safe?
• Phil - i wanted to bring it up, if not getting safe space ban, then at least wanting you aware its a problem. Dane made an email to get a safe space ban. i wasnt comfortable with the email. Dane wouldnt show up to the in person meetings.

CAST

• Pallavi - CAST will take entirety of debt but also all equity goes to new newco. After some number of years, whatever time it takes us to "stabilize" without their help, they would relinquish equity back. Different from working with a partner that would take equity and keep it. CAST advised us solely seek the funding for the principle on the loan from CAST and not seek additional financing or funding from community partners for the time being. After CAST is able to find a lender, then we can start exploring options of going with a community partner. Where do those partners see themselves in the scope of what the new omni commons will be? Will have to do that re-imagining together, but separate from financing or paying for building. much more imaginative conversation
• Patrik – we should remind them that the updated property tax bill will also come up within that 90 day window
  • Pallavi - ok I will update them on that. Also question of whether we will fight for higher percentage than 43% .
  • Paige - Sarah L estimated $45k
  • Yar - I think we should appeal, though Im less privy to info now given mailing lists becoming private. Also theres $30k we owe SaferDIY ($24,500)
  • Patrik - do we have a final language?
  • William - Ive had requests to get language and share that with my collective. I know its supposed to go out 9. I don’t think there will be back and forth, and I don’t want to delay this at all, but would like some time to get buy in from collective.
  • Toan - I think thats a better idea.
• Yar - I think its fair to share a summary. We are selling the building. people shouldnt hold on to any illusions

Given CAST nondisclosure req, decided to share doc with Paige , Patrik , and Jesse/lawyer. Delegates and officers read doc in the room

• • William - how about noon tomorrow for signing, and if we feel great we will send it tonight?
  • Azadeh - also, can we have a backup, if no response by 12, let Pallavi sign.
  • Tye - that makes a lot of sense, if its important, you'll get back on time.
• Agreed, will decide by 12 tomorrow at latest, or tonight

• Questions to be brought up with CAST:
  • Include prop tax and closing fees?
  • Buyer definition more specific?
  • Returning building after loan is paid off?
  • who would be responsible for doing tax filings and paperwork?

[chat discussion]

• SL: Basically any "newco" would need to be a 501c3 org (not sure whether if it were a single member LLC with one org as sole member whether that would be feasible, but this doesn't sound like a single member LLC, but some sort of partnership, so I struggle with whether this would be eligible for a welfare exemption at all) and then ... with a change in ownership,the question would be whether the property would be reassessed ...
• Paige : newco was said to be a new nonprofit
• SL: [nonprofit formation?] would have to be done quickly in order to meet deadline for assessor for the next year, just fyi. It would need to apply for an Org Clearance Certificate with the state. That is fairly easy, but I don't know what the timing is like for processing those.
• SL: I wouldn't be surprised if it went from LLC --> nonprofit after doing legal research. As nonprofit however ... it would mean that "we/they" (would they be doing this paperwork now?) would need to do a first-time application for welfare exemption filing ... just as, after 7 years, Omni would have been finally approved to do the more streamlined filing

Officer voting

Yar volunteered for Secretary

• William - some people in Sudo Room would oppose so I would need to go back to my collective to get a yes or no
• Paige - I would prefer being the secretary over president.
• Patrik – wouldn’t be able to vote today for Yar as president, but could as secretary
• Yar - no preference between roles

Vote: Yar as Omni secretary

• Yes - Patrik /CCL, Pallavi /SMAC, Toan /FNB, Daniel/SM
• No - 
• Abstain - William /SR

Silver volunteers for Treasurer

• Silver - would volunteer but feel better if given some training
• Silver - will be gone for a trip for a month. will still be on the internet. now doing all this offboarding work for events, have been committed to passing on information and doing the work
• Patrik - you are one of the people that has most insight into finances at Omni
• Azadeh - 3 meetings in have discussed we have no finance working group. no one has stepped up
• Silver - i tried before to activate a finance wg, myan was really into the idea
• Ruby - and Dom
• Toan - are you up to the responsibility?
• Silver – Yes. Would feel better if able to do ABC nonprofit bookkeeping training. Want to do the role well. Treasurer can be held responsible if fraud in the building. Got scary for me, there is that bit.
• Patrik - i dont think we currently are on directors and officers insurance. if theres another one i havent seen it.

SL: there is D&O insurance-// Great American is the carrier...

• Silver as Treasurer
• Yes - SMAC/Pallavi , Patrik /CCL. Toan / FNB, Daniel/ SM
• Abstain - William /SR
• No -

Mural painting

• Ruby - painting over graffiti, not a good look for our messaging out to community
• want to paint mural

Reporting safe space concerns

William has been working on setting up phone number you can call, that will then send out emails to some set of people.

• Yar - who is controlling this? I feel like i need to know who i am sending this information to. people dont want to send something to the void
• William - dial pad. transcribes it and emails it to you
• Azadeh - are you proposing this to be sent to?
• William - not decided yet. but just so we have reports all in one place. people said "complaints over 7 times" but me as delegate didnt know about.
• Silver - i brought up incident to people. you can create the system, if you dont have someone responding in caring way. people are sending event requests, stuck in event mailing list. think no one is responding. important things come up, and dont respond, assumption "someone else will respond".
• William - if we all can say, if someone posts, we can reply that
• Yar - we cant exist until agreement on shared principles and values. then a "we" can do things. we are figuring out who are who wants to do this, figure out if we are aligned, then do it
• Azadeh - program seems better than what already exists...voicemail that sends and email
• daniel - delegates are reps of each collectives. why dont you have all delegates receive message? delegate should know
• Patrik - i would prefer separate list
• Silver - delegates already holding a lot
• Azadeh - same issue could've slipped through cracks. if you have safety team, everyone wouldnt have that awareness.if delegates rep it gives every collective insight
• Silver - i dont want people to end getting banned, so i start talking to people who could talk to that person, thats why some things dont get to delegates
• Azadeh - advantage to all the delegates.
• Ruby - want to remind that Tye volunteered, and June partially, to envision how safety should work. implementing something this second
• Silver - if someone calls and theres harm  , are you prepared to answer that
• Yar - my complicity in that into escalate... i knew there were problems. it wasnt lack of channels, i could've escalate. i didn't because i didn't think i would be supported. i didnt have that trust in community that they would respond with care. thats why it starts with relationships of trust. if people aren't communicating their values of safety all the time, if "no one else has spoken up, must be tacitly agreed its ok". problem with omni, is critical mass of situations like that all along. one enables the other. we are still there. delegates decided to ban j. and never enforced it. he would be back now. wasnt even my idea, fact that we did it and didnt do it, made the whole thing illegitimate. we actually have to do work to be aligned.
• daniel - i still believe that we need, as omni, needs to be linked to another agency to help folks with problems. its never going to stop, Yar . people will come into the building, and we will need to branch out.
• Yar - im not talking about people off the street, talking about people who are actively in collectives. what i was hoping VoL could help with. idea originally to hire social workers to have drop in hours over week
• Silver - great if professionally trained person. i dont think its a volunteer role, in the same way as for events. but thank you William . phone call thing could be used for something else too.

End of Meeting

• please archive these meeting notes by copying the entire pad contents onto the omni wiki at https://omnicommons.org/wiki
• then please erase the contents of this pad
• then please cut & paste a blank template from here: https://omnicommons.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Delegates_Meeting_Notes_Template&action=edit
• previous notes are archived here: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Meetings