Event:2024/09/12 Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 12 September 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:
• Stacktaker:
• Timekeeper:
• Notetaker/s: Paige/Patrik
• Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

• CCL: Patrik
• FNB: Toan
• LL:
• SMAC: Ruby
• SM: Daniel
• SR: William
• 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

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.

Thanking people involved with Omni over the years

• Daniel - a lot of people have been involved, over many years. Could we write some letter to appreciate them?
• Toan - good to acknowledge those who did good work, help us to get to where we are today. Can you initiate, write some text, then we can all contribute?
• Paige - how should we share it?
• Daniel - I was thinking on the website. In the beginning I didn't think we'd last a year. Now past 10 years. A lot of people have contributed along the way.

Restructuring Omni nonprofit

• until restructured, our responsibility to keep it functioning. Still will do weekly meetings until then.
• Suggestions for new structure:
  • (preferred) Offer each sponsored org a position on the board
  • Elect one or more board position at yearly meeting, open to anyone who has access to the building
• William- I would like to establish a calendar. Non-tax deadlines and rent payments for all the collectives that are fiscally sponsored, and can share that for future planning.
• Paige - Agreed that SR sponsors CeeCee once SR becomes a nonprofit? Is there an interim plan?
  • CC - Yes, in the meantime we can be fiscally sponsored by Swaporamarama
• Paige - a first step can be getting a list of names of fiscally sponsored reps and introducing them the idea/asking them to join meeting
  • William - I would like there to be some language to make it impossible for Omni to block SR leaving the org.
  • Patrik - fiscal sponsorship agreement should list how the agreement can be cancelled on both sides.
• Patrik - Omni could keep current structure, with 1 board member per fiscally sponsored. I would suggest a change that they have right to appoint a member, but do not have to (as is required now).
  • Philip Bell - I would recommend figuring out the purpose of the group going forwards
  • Patrik - main purpose will be fiscally sponsoring... in that case, having each fiscally sponsored group have a seat on the board makes sense. Other idea is having one or more board positions voted on during a public meeting. Could be by all those who have access of the building. That seems easier than what CCL does... CCL is a nonprofit with voting members. So our members are written in our bylaws as having ability to vote. Requires a lot of tracking of membership
  • Paige - Sounds good for now, but based off Jesse's advice, it doesn't make sense long term for the nonprofit to keep fiscally sponsoring groups. It's more paperwork and bookkeeping, already hard to manage, would be nice to make it simpler. I think it makes sense to eventually transfer it to just be Free Store's, and ask LL/Oakland Privacy/SMAC to find other sponsors. But if SMAC came back to rent at Omni (or LL), then maybe sharing the nonprofit between those two groups would make sense.

Wrapping up Omni finances

• Have all monies been transferred to CALLI?
  • Security deposits?
  • pro-rated rent?

bookkeeping

• Paige - in terms of paying Philip Bell, the only holdup is technicality. I haven't paid out before, and Silver is not here, and Sarah will only do work if we approve. There was money moved from SMAC but it was more complicated and should not have been moved. So that caused some tension.
• Philip - you can be specific of what you ask bookkeeper to do. Not sure if any bookkeeping has been done since Sarah left. As with any other building this large, accepting donations, it's going to be complicated. And it's being done after months of putting out fires, I'm not surprised of how things went down. Ideally a proper celebration once all the dust settles. I'll just send the invoice to accounts.
• Philip - There should be some clean up all the 2 factor auth. Paypal can do authentication code with 1password. I have done this work for other nonprofits, set up accounts in a secure way. Could do this here but would want to be paid.
• Paige - I'm uneasy about going forwards without a bookkeeper.
• Philip - needs to be a discussion, maybe not now, but what do you see for Omni Commons going forwards
• William - could pull in another accountant, give a 3 month contract to coalesce all of current books
  • Patrik - I would leave that for whoever are the new board members. In meantime we should work with Sarah. No reason to switch now and then leave the board anyway
  • Philip - I have an accountant in mind too, I will reach out.
• Ruby - want someone neutral looking over the accounts, to make sure whats in our account is the right amount, not missing money. Feb and march we have to show receipts for.
• Paige - The pay what you can to Safer DIY request from CALLI is confusing... Does that mean completely emptying our bank account? Still will need startup money for Omni to continue fiscally sponsoring orgs.
• Patrik - still regular costs for Omni, i.e. bookkeeper for fiscally sponsored groups
• William - can invoice groups involved. No more random costs for the building, much simpler
  • Patrik - each sponsor projects should have a percentage they pay sponsor, typically 8% of income. All of this should go towards paying taxes and filing insurance. But we shouldn't be in the situation where we hand off every last penny to them.
  • Ruby - SMAC and SR should have been paying a percentage?
  • Patrik - usually how it works. 5-10%.
  • Ruby - wonder if it was different because we were paying rent?
  • Patrik - shouldnt, they take on burden of running the nonprofit for you.
  • Paige - yea rent mightve been the reason it was not required. I also see asking for that % from tenants being tricky, because collective members have historically done some of that work.
  • William - theoretically we could do it different going forwards. Could just base it off of what your costs are instead of a %.
  • Patrik - right, Im just saying what Attorney General / law is familiar with. If you dont do it that way, you may have to get a lawyer spell that out.
  • William - Im just trying to ensure that groups can continue to operate
• Paige - should figure out who we need to be in this conversation
• Patrik - should ensure there is not constant turnover. Should have names on file, people who want to remain anonymous shouldnt be on the board, that info is shared on state taxes
• CC - on nonprofit boards, boards must consist of 50% who have no financial stake
  • Patrik - ok for us, we are all nonprofits, no stake
• Ruby - The accounts still need to be worked out. I understand Sarah is working on the closing out and taxes. Maybe what SMAC needs to do is hire our own 3rd party. It doesnt seem like anyone else is in the position that we are in, in terms of questioning how much is in our ban account
• Paige - Sarah refunded most of money transferred from SMACs account, and then I refunded a small amount. So the recent changes made by Sarah to SMACs account are completely reverted atm. So whats at stake is the 2 months of rent. If you have something to propose about those months, that could be presented to delegates.
• Ruby - if it just didnt get transferred from SMAC to Omni, that could be reason.
  • Paige - should check SR too. Confusing to me why SMACs wouldnt be transferred and SRs would. Because I wasn't transferring it, and sounds like no one else was. SMAC's recent history has more complicated financials than SR. I do understand that SR got rent forgiveness over COVID but otherwise more straightforward income and payments.
• Ruby - maybe its a process of doing the work together. SMAC is only one questioning Sarah doing the work. If its a situation, Silver is requesting a 3rd party audit. We did email Ojan over this, but they said they had no authority to do anything with our accounts
  • Patrik - but CALLI could recommend someone to do an audit. Could try in house, but i dont know if thats sufficient. Hiring someone to do an audit would be quite expensive. I think SMAC would have to pay that
  • Ruby - that's what I'll bring to our meeting tomorrow.
• Paige - when do our accounts need to be stabilized for CALLI? (need to be stabilized so we can tell them how much we are paying Safer DIY)

• • finishing of transition for rest of Omni
  • amount we pay to safer diy should be decided by the delegates. At the end of the day after transfers have been made, after philip and phil have been paid back.
• William - I recommend we upgrade quickbooks account to get view only access. change in price is $65
• Ruby - I would feel good about that.
• William - I think we should waive the SMAC rent.
  • Patrik - I think we need to figure out if they paid it. If they havent, there is money in there account to pay it. Should belong to Omni. Given not able to close Beneficial right now, not clear if there's enough to pay all debts back.
  • William - if not convinced it was paid, should give benefit of the doubt
  • Ruby - lets table discussion til SMAC checks over the books

• Patrik - we should vote to approve Sarah to do bookkeeping as long as it doesn't touch SMAC accounts
  • yes: CCL/Patrik SMAC/Ruby SR/William FNB/Toan
  • no objections

Phil M and Philip B. payments

• Approve Phil Macdonald and Philip Bell invoices
  • Phil McDonald had invoices in old email from March 26 to Silver and Sarah, covering 111 hours of Omni maintenance between 11/18 and 2/29. Need to check whether this has already been paid.
  • Toan - I believe that was a one time thing
  • Patrik - Most recent dates in here are in February. Not clear if he sent in an invoice. Invoice sent at the end of March, maybe right after Sarah stepped down? So Silver would've been only one to know if it was paid.
  • Paige - I think we need Silver to weigh in.
  • Ruby - I feel like I remember hearing Silver talk about this... talking about it being a short term thing.
  • Paige/Patrik - maybe a Hellman grant agreement.

Beneficial

• Paige - I went there in person but they said they needed account holders to transfer or clear documentation those account holders stepped down and were replaced. Two accounts, one had Jenny, so I think that won't be hard to open up. Other one had NOMA members on it. I was told NOMA funds agreed to go to Omni to pay some of their rent when they were here.
• Patrik - Im not convinced we have enough to pay debts if we dont get beneficial funds out

roof

• Philip - bricks and old bolts exposed
• CC - building 90 years old as of Dec 7th
• Patrik - can last one more rainy season if professional tarping
  • Philip - new rubberized paint on coating. That was my plan. More effective than tarps
  • Patrik - some parts of the roof have rotted out under the membrame. Makes sense to rip the whole thing off, and put it on after. Should pay extra to make sure installation points for solar are built in, so we dont have to drill in holes for our new solar. I've heard it could be done in a week with a good team. Real rain only starts at the end of November. Could be lucky and have no rain
  • Patrik sent email to Ojan & Co asking about timing for roof repair

building hours

• Toan - right now, is there issue with us being here past 9PM? Bringing this up because we should bring this back to our collectives. If we can make the transition smooth, we should.

EB PREC

• Yar - I was at the EB PREC meeting. Announced a grand opening for Omni in the spring of 2025. New property manager hired named Valerie.
• Patrik - EB PREC has membership info on website - https://ebprec.org/membership. Investor owners pay $1k per share, gives certain voting rights. Community owners pay weekly/monthly/annual fees, grant other types of voting rights. Both of those are owners in the EB PREC collective. Also resident ownership for people who live in buildings, or any group that has a lease in that building. If we were under EB PREC, we would be resident owners.. But we aren't, we are under CALLI.
• Events are on a pause
  • Philip - $10-20k in events that want to book, from now until January. I shared my financial estimates, rental potential, kinds of bookings we could do, and in reference after what renovations would be done.
  • Patrik - current rate?
  • Philip - 200/hr. I wouldve switched to change between weekday and weekend. Projections assumed 20-30% reserving for those who couldn't pay. Sounds like EB PREC is making their plans, not sure that they are interested in hearing out current event working group stuff. I'm sharing with those who wanted to book with me that EB PREC will be a good steward, but no clarity right now of what the plan will be.

Omni party

• Check with Ojan on timing! Presumably after fire inspection, but before roof repairs?

Preserving Omni resources

• Ojan (over email): I am reaching out to say that we would really like to ensure that certain digital resources don't get lost - Omni's wiki page and google drive in particular have lots of valuable information and history that we don't want to lose! My fear is that these might be lost because of simple oversight with a subscription not being renewed, or something like that. If we can be of service to preserve these assets please let me know."
  • Yar responded. Also delegates staying as is for now so more time to discuss.

fire inspection

• On the 25th at noon. Everyone should communicate with their collectives.

door access

• Patrik - I prefer replacing it with a commercial system. Hardware needs to be more rugged.
• William - or existing open source system. Long term we should have a third party control over access, not hard to find some person or platform. Short term trimming the list makes sense.
• Patrik - ideally allowed access rights for their own door, so CCL and SR can manage access on inside door, but not outside
• William - different access rights for certain groups. Don't know if this is the conversation we should be writing
• CC - Ace have their own fobs. Not sure if its a third party.
• William - How do you validate that someone is a member of a collective?
• Paige - Don't do that right now, but could solve problem by taking down key website, going through designated individuals.

interpersonal conflict

recent ban

• names redacted
• Toan - I think I should bring it up to CALLI. I initiated the ban on Monday morning. Did they own the building at that time, or earlier?
• Patrik - building wide ban decision is theres to make. Collective ban is the collective's decision.
• Toan - after a lengthy time, EB FNB has been trying to work with the person. Things got worse, and it spilled to Omni. One is a hard ban from EBFNB. Second is a soft ban from Omni Commons. Soft ban from Omni because they are still a member of another member collective. Good to get input from other organizers, Omni and CALLI.
• William - they have been hands off right now, think its up to SR
• Toan - good for some people to talk to this person to hear thier side of the story.
• William - I think SR could talk about it next week. Is that too long? Next Wednesday ok? I would want to meet with my collective in person, to be more logical and fair.
• Paige - do they stay in meantime?
  • William - we dont have the ability to have a say. SR can decide but SR cant decide until 6 days til now
  • Patrik - and in meantime, building owners can say something.

person coming to SR frequently

• William - I want to be proactive, but I'm wondering where info about this person is coming from.
• Toan - In the past, we could have prevented harm by taking steps earlier. Sometimes there's only a few people in omni. If theres violence that they are accused of, we should act.
  • William - I totally agree, just wonder if we can get feedback. Can we handle this here, without a ban, just make it clear we do not want them here
  • Toan - not a ban, they are not part of any collective.
• Paige - Just need to be clear to EB PREC - He is not in any collective, so shouldnt be here unattended. I'd expect they'd want more evidence if doing a building ban.
• CC - He comes in during open community events.
• Paige - how did you escort him out before, Toan?
  • Toan - I asked if he was part of any collectives, he said SR is welcoming him, and SM. Yesterday, he said he is a member of SM. I kindly asked him to leave, gave my reason that I dont believe hes part of any group. And then he walked out. Even though not proof shown yet, we should take it seriously.

End of Meeting

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