Event:2024/05/30 Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 30 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: Philip
• Stacktaker:
• Timekeeper:
• Notetaker/s: Paige
• Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

• CCL: Patrik
• FNB: Toan
• LL: Inactive
• SMAC: Azadeh
• 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

• Azadeh - not my first meeting but first time I am officially delegate. Action item, not on email list and would like to be added. Agenda item - discussing a mural with Toan. Checked in with Pallavi and my understanding is what we are discussing, whats on table, what takes highest precedent between now and Aug 8, if not between now and Aug 8 we don't need to be spending our time. Also - do our meetings still need to be weekly.
  • Patrik - okay, I'll add email
• Toan - FNB delegate
• Paige - SR member, free store, omni president, conflict resolution agenda items.
• Phillip B - events and buiding WG
• Patrik - CCL delegate
• William - delegate for SR. more updates from CAST.
• Ruby - here supporting from SMAC. Agenda item around the stuff that happened with T and S.'s account.
• Daniel - emergency delegate from SM. No items

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.

CAST

• Pallavi OK with Paige being secondary contact person. Need to focus on immediate short-term decisions, not longer term issues that may change once CAST is in the loop.
• Need info on collective memberships for CAST funding applications. Community meetings are stalled until couple weeks from now
• William: do we have action items? Is there anything blocking right now?

• • SOP partially done, still some loose ends
  • Philip B - we can supply list of event data and building improvements from time period after Sarah left
  • Paige - also collectives need to begin dreaming spaces discussions focus, not specific future planning, and handling day to day. which itself is hard enough for us to keep on top of

• Discussion about newcorp.
  • Azadeh - with Omni's insecurity, what can collectives do for CAST, and what does that mean for your own collective? Under the reality of, if everything is on the table is new, if we are going to reset, what does that mean for your collectives, in terms of what you need, in terms of that dreaming question? That comes to refining, what do you need and what do you imagine. Beyond what we need for CAST, for each collective to have that process for themselves. How are you going to move forwards past this transition
  • Patrik - there's a commitment from collectives to social justice, while less of a commitment to the name "Omni Commons" or its organization.
  • Paige - yes, and attachment to this being community space.
  • William - if want leases observed, we should write the rationale for that, and if not put down accommodations to move.
  • Paige - in dreaming spaces discussion, we are saying what are goals are and what we plan to do. If those are good for community, we would expect CAST would be in support too.

mural

• Azadeh - very real reality of whatever art we put forward, everyone involved should have understanding that it could be lasting a short amount of time. Thought based of if its in that time frame. Past meetings about graffiti, painting over rejected without mural. My thoughts are, all we have is now, lots of grief and uncertainty in our lives today and the next day. That's a thought stream and energy now. My thought is, if people want to, have the energy and desire to do what that takes, i.e. looking at paint, pdfs to do wheat-pasting, I'm very in belief we can. Very much goes to, is there buy in, cant do alone.
  • William - I think we dont operate as prescriptive governing body here, so if people want to do something, wont be stopped unless opposed to messaging. I wouldn't be involved, but all for it
  • Patrik - even though some of folks at CCL first to suggest, I think we should put brakes on mural. Oakland has funds for murals, application, steps to get approval and funding. Makes sense to do this discussion with CAST on board. Only going to be a couple of weeks. Doesn't hurt doing the research now, what is process of applying for those grants.
  • Toan - good that when and if we spend efforts on mural, good not to be attached to it. To respond to William, I think we can contribute however we can. Can suggest ideas, don't be discouraged from taking part.
  • Ruby - I think that I was part of that conversation about graffiti, mural idea. I also agree with Patrik that it just feels like not the best time to start. We can start the process but doing the mural right now, would wait for CAST on board. Should we bring up idea of painting over the graffiti if waiting on mural?
  • Phillip B - I think we should paint over all of graffiti as good neighbors.
  • Toan - to respond on halt on mural, if volunteers have capacity to simultaneously work on saving Omni and also do mural, they should go forward with it. I dont think its necessary to let Oakland know, its volunteer labor. This was decided before CAST, I think this is our decision.
  • Phillip - but if we can get money to pay someone to do mural that's better
  • Paige - sure, but can still have an interim mural.
  • Azadeh - question about buy in, within collectives. One of opportunities in that, could be cross collective. There's actual community murals where its interactive. Imagine one with blank faces, where people can draw in their own. Community art can be made accessible to all ages. I think of Buddha statement, is best time to plant tree is years ago, second best time is today. Been in so many situations where things are moving, so its easy to just wait. But also really resonate with rogue initiative, of if you have the energy, you can make things happen
  • Ruby - yes, I'm not trying to stop anything
  • William - I would support going over graffiti because we already have Free Palestine on the building
  • Phillip B - aren't we obliged to paint over graffiti?
  • Toan - I think Azadeh's plan to do a mural would be good to bring together. Something like a mural would be good for us.
  • Azadeh - my background in education, we have all the data and we know that if we are spending time doing activities together, that's more time to be weaving. the doing is the weaving, and brings more empathy with each other. I think even a Palestinian flag, its how many colors and technical knowledge. Between wheat pasting and paint we have, its not about funding, its if we have people to do it. Do you think you have members in your collective willing to take part.
  • William - is there no legal issue?
  • Patrik - I think there only is one if its advertising
  • William - I don't like messaging on side of building, I will not suggest what we do that with our energy, but happy if someone does it.
  • Phillip B - if people have energy to do a giant watermelon, sounds good to me
  • William - yes. I think we can put free Palestine on the side ourselves
  • Azadeh - thinking we could do a meeting where you could do a call out to your collectives. Thinking meeting on Monday or Tuesday. I think I'm going to check in, Pallavi suggested to wait a few weeks, don't want it needs to just be me
  • Toan - I emailed delegates about this. Good question, any concerns before proceeding?
  • Azadeh - I think there are certain things that are super political that can make people feel uneasy, that's my only thought of backlash.

Generally everyone okay with mural painting.

delegates meeting weekly?

• Azadeh - was talking about this with Pallavi. Wonder if we can do this?
• William - I really would like to not do it, but still so many things falling through the cracks.

Conflict resolution

bans

• paige - no cops at door policy, why did this happen again? can we remove attachments from the public SR list now?
• patrik - have had history of using ban wiki page.
  • paige - also would like to re discuss that, if this was private it'd be much different
  • Patrik - yes, we followed noisebridge example. Bicurious is CCL's sister lab, we have couple people we have mutually banned, but we don't put them on a wiki page with full name
• Toan - im open to photo being removed.
• William - are you able to delete hosting for the emails that were sent out? Or just list online accessible on the website?
• Yar - it was really irresponsible to dox with picture and full name on mailing list. if you don't see reason not to dox, I don't know how to reason with you. Been critical in past, even those doxxed i don't agree with. I knew inevitably it'd be most marginalized who would have info splayed. absolutely inviting police violence. anyone who broadcasts whats going on here complicit in police violence, which is root cause of issue. not defending options, people who've been harmed have right to be safe. doxxing on public list is adding harm upon harm. I'm really upset about it
• Toan - i felt my decision was appropriate, stand by what i did given the behavior that affects volunteers. i foresaw that acts were escalating.
• William - we don't have policy for what to do, and that's where, obviously this is not good situation to be in
• Patrik - we have had a policy that was very public. It was intentional from the beginning.
• William - could change to first name, image only inside the building. better policy, but in the situation, i know its hard to know what to do.
• Toan - currently don't have a system in dealing with things like this as they arise. Deal with it as it comes. I think there should be discouragement from coming to building. No acknowledgment of wrongdoing
• Paige - the question is about aiding the police
• Patrik - I don't think we can claw back fact that pictures are out there. Not sure if its technically possible
  • William - yes I think its possible
  • Yar - the list uses hyper kitty. archiving part of mailman 3 that's hosting it. I think if you just log in as admin of that list, then you can probably delete it from there.
  • William - ok that's helpful
• Daniel - I have same idea a few days ago. Sucks to have pictures there, but having these issues happening, it serves as point of reference for future. Noisebridge has 86 page, reason for ban can be useful. If someone unfairly put there, but i hope that doesn't happen.
  • Yar - but that doesn't require picture or full name.
  • William - I wasn't impressed with noisebridge page, don't consider example to follow. Like one person listed as banned for talking negatively about landlords. I saw plenty of people, I don't see huge deal with putting those pictures online, but when its legally actionable, its a different story. Punishment same across the board. In favor of making private to members.
  • Yar - I appreciate you bringing up how unaligned some of NB bans can be. Like saying milk toast stuff about landlords. Request reciprocal safe space bans. Queerious labs and Sequoia fabrica took issue with NB bans too.
• Daniel - glad we are talking about this.
  • William - lets put up pictures in the building. Not post to public channels immediately.
• Patrik - are we going to enforce mutual bans with other spaces? bicurious, noisebridge, hacker dojo. If information not public, where do we share that?
• Daniel - I wanted to follow up on Williams idea. Maybe we have photo album by door. The person who are banned, we have photo, reason, and date. Not on website, but in the building. We are talking about it now, but 3 months from now, who will know?
  • Paige - hesitation about physical copies, anything that can be evidence. But also CAST is bringing in building manager. And then this could be less important to have easy access for all members.
  • Azadeh - previous meeting about number, never set up. There's this immediate need before CAST. Concern about the cops, especially for QTBIPOC. Only involved since January and there's been two incidents. Sounds like we really do need something ASAP.
  • William - yea that's my fault, I got busy these last two weeks. Sorry about that, no guarantee that this would've stopped that.
• Yar - Im honestly concerned cops were called outside, even if not allowed inside Omni
  • Toan - just for clarification, the person who called is not an Omni member. They are someone who hangs out out front, they are someone who comes to the free food and helps maintain the fridge. So were not in this discussion. I agree should not have been called

• Will we have mutual ban agreements? if so how do we communicate that?
• Yar - My understanding is Omni and Noisebridge never had mutual ban, it was SR and NB. And SR had agreement with Omni of mutual ban lists. To prevent someone just stepping over the line. Not a safe space if someone still in building just given how the building is. Point being that mutual agreements among groups at Omni is still important, dont think way to coexist practically without that within building, but with NB less crucial.
• William - we could work on future action item, people we perceive as dangerous, we continue to receive from hackerspaces.
• Patrik - might be other groups we would want to inform, like don't think PLACE was involved them.
• Azadeh - alternative proposed, is having private email list or private doc, as opposed to wiki,

Vote - remove public ban list. Share reciprocal ban data privately with other spaces going forwards. Approve: William/SR, Patrik/CCL, Azadeh/SMAC, Daniel/SM Opposed: Abstain: Toan/FNB

safety on-call volunteers

• Request for volunteers to be on safety on-call
  • William - we should have our shared understanding of what to do in scenarios. De-escalation training. Signing up for account, it will probably send you an email if someone calls it. Wouldn't necessarily need an app, but app would let you respond to call. Currently set to put everything
  • Toan - numbers to call would be really good to have in Omni.
  • Patrik - yes along with other policies we want public to know, like no cops policy.
    • Volunteers - Paige, Yar, Toan thinking about it, Ruby thinking about it, Daniel okay just to be email.
  • Paige - should delegates mailing list be on this?
    • Patrik - should be a separate group
    • Paige - just in spirit of acting ASAP. but agreed ideally would be a separate group because delegates overextended.
  • Patrik - EMT and fire dept direct lines should be added.
  • Ruby - mental health first number
  • Toan - notice signs of hard drug use during open hours, so numbers to support there.
  • William - not going to solve all these issues now, want to get this done today, version 2 of the sign. And policy document of what should be done
  • Toan - I can volunteer to supply numbers

Sierk's hacked accounts

• Ruby - don't condone what was done to Sierk's accounts. Someone said they are willing to help get the accounts back if they are paid. I am conveying that here.
• Patrik - sounds like a ransom to me.
• Toan - I suggested Sierk to delete all accounts, but he said he cant. Probably a way if he is persistent
• Ruby - wondering if SR or SM could help?
• Azadeh - can we get a new phone for Sierk?
• Toan - maybe something good can come out of this? Like a security workshop. Info about how to keep devices secure. Phillip brought this up last week,
• Daniel - has Sierk's email been dropped from the mailing list?

SWANA night

• Azadeh - tomorrow 630-830 black tea with cardamom, henna, no professionals, and backgammon. Y'all are welcome. Right here at Omni in the basement. There will be some music playlists. Wishing there is more food but can't take that all on.
• Azadeh - how could i get it put on the Omni calendar?
• Paige - events wg email or slack?

rats

• Patrik - request for each collective to do traps, 3x a week.
  • Azadeh - cats
  • Patrik - one request to contain out of CCL to not get on the lab tables.
  • Azadeh - can close off
  • Patrik - not sure that's completely possible
• Yar - quote of 15k to seal off all those areas,

action items

• report sum of members to Paige
• follow up with Sarah on CAST SOP. Provide additional info
• mural meeting on Tuesday at 7PM. will be online option
• ask collectives for rat stewards
• starbuck from CCL wanting to volunteer to give Omni tours. Should make known online
• wood street commons block party and resource fair this Sunday 1-5PM. Please come to table or send Paige flyers to share
• Conflict resolution action items
  • SR will remove email from public list
  • Omni will make the ban list private
  • William adding people to safety on-call number. Ask your collectives for volunteers to join group
  • Sierk's hacked account to be blocked from mailing lists

End of Meeting

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