Event:2015/06/18 Delegates Meeting

Weekly Omni Delegates' Meeting - 18 June 2015

The meeting begins promptly at 7pm, every Thursday, and ends promptly at 9pm, unless delegates agree to continuation. Contents:

• Introductions
• Announcements
• Working Group Report-Backs
• Proposals
• Discussions
• Action Items
• Tabled
• Optional Breakout Session

• = Attendees =

• Emji (Facilitator)
• Rachel (CCL)
• Ian (MPM)
• Chloe
• Sade (public school)
• Joel (TIL)
• Pam (La Commune)
• Dusty
• Helen (FNB)
• David Keanen
• Matt Senate (SUDO)
• Yar (SUDO)

• Facilitator/s:
  • Emji

• Introduction to the Omni Commons & our values:

• Explanation of hand signals:
  • "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response", "time's up", "stop and reflect", "kermit" (wildcard), etc.

• Stacktaker:
  • Explanation of progressive stack: Raise your hand and make eye contact with the stack taker. Please wait your turn, and try not to interupt or speak over others. Direct responses are allowed only as Points Of Information/ Clarifications, etc (use hand signal). For everything else, please raise your hand and wait your turn.

• Timekeeper:
  • Reminder to keep comments brief.

• Notetaker/s:
  • URL of this pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
• Important Note for the Pad:
  • Please do not move or delete meeting notes from the pad, unless you have archived them properly. Always leave the most recent meeting's notes, and the template at the bottom. !! Thank you.

• Vibe Reader:
  • Reminder to stay calm, be respectful, and think before speaking.

• Next weeks facilitator(s):
  • Encourage someone who hasn't facilitated before. If they'd like support, someone who has facilitated before can join them to facilitate together! If they'd like to know how the agenda works, here's a page outlining the different parts of our agenda: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Facilitating_General_Meetings_Tips_and_Info

• == Delegates ==

• BAPS:
• Black Hole:
• CCL:
• FNB:
• La Commune:
• MPM:
• Sudo Room:
• TIL:
• Phat Beets:
• OptikAllusions:

• Quorum:

• == Introductions ==

Please be brief! Introduce yourself: Name; Prefered Pronoun; Affiliation; If you are new, what is one thing that brought you here?

• Optional Ice-breaker:

• = Announcements =

Any Omni-related announcements. Please be brief! Maximum 1 (one) minute per announcement. Reminder: Working Groups reports are after this, please save W.G. announcements for later.

• TIL having a book release party onSaturday 1628 Wolsey st apt. C Berkeley 7pm.

• Dusty reports back about some buildingwork, discusses the importance of having some other folks getinvolved and some general discussion.

• David shares plans and informationregarding the way in which regulations work with the process. Davidsaved $1,000 today...yay! David describes code issues, and his workwith these people. All is going good and we should be happy about thework that's being done with the building.

• Matt: Fundraising group isre-ignighting so that we can discus things with Jesse Palmer, thelawyer we've used in the past. Folks can discuss with Laura and weneed to have some people organize our proposal/approach to purchasingthe building. We're making some progress and we are not havingregular meetings yet...just discussing with Jesse how it is that wecan get into the ownership of the property (land trust/non-profitownership). We will start meeting after we meet and anyone cancontact Laura to get involved.

Bans

Announcement of recent bans.

• No other ban material to speak of.

• Egon - 06/09/15
  • Violating safe space policy
  • Initiated by sudo room
  • Not being offered mediation at this point.

• = Working Group Report-Backs =0

Please be breif! Maximum 5 (five) minutes per W.G. WGRBs are Alphabetical; All W.G.s are equally important. Report-backs consist of answering 3 (three) questions:

• What did you accomplish this week?
• What problems or action items are you currently working on?
• What do you need to bring to our attention and/or need help with?

Building, permits, and Facilities

This group needs help; https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/building Ballroom-readiness needs and plans: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Ballroom-readiness

Challenging Domniant Culture (CDC)

Meetings:Sundays at 3pm

Commons

Meetings: Saturdays at 1pm

Communications / SysAdmins

Meetings: nope :)

Finance

Meetings: Every other Thursday at 7pm

Fundraising

Meetings: N/A currently

Kitchen

Meetings:

Welcoming

Meetings: Thursdays at 6pm

Proposals

Please provide the following information with your proposal:

• The date the proposal was put on the pad;
• The group or person making/bottom-lining the proposal;
• Who will be speaking to the proposal at the meeting;
• Where the full text or other information about the proposal can be found, if it's not all here.

Revisit TIL Proposal to share space with other literary groups (Originally proposed 6/4, to be decided on 6/18)

In light of our current precarious financial situation, Timeless, Infinite Light would like to open our studio space to a few other literary organizations to help offset the cost of rent and utilities.

When we signed on to be part of Omni, we committed to being able to pay $400 per month in rent, plus utilities. For the last year, we have been paying closer to $850 per month. As we have been paying double what we expected to be paying, the amount we budgeted for the entirety of 2015 has run out in six months.

In response to this situation, members of the Financial WG have suggested that we re-propose our financial commitment based on what we are currently able to pay. Right now, we are able to pay a monthly total of $200 for rent, and $100 for shared costs (utilities, insurance, etc). We would like to begin paying this amount in July, and that we would re-evaluate our financial commitment in six months. Hopefully by that time, we would be able to increase our contribution.

We realize that reducing our financial commitment creates a $550 gap in the Omni budget. Our suggestion for this is that we will bring in other literary collectives/organizations with similar needs to share our office space, and that those groups will pay their portion of the rent/utilities directly to the Omni. We will also share our collective membership responsibilities with these organizations. So far three literary organizations have expressed interest in sharing space with TIL, and have committed to beginning monthly payments for July: Publication Studio, Durga Press, and Vouched Books. See below for more info about these groups. We see this transition as a positive change as it opens the space to more organizations and would enable us to continue being a member collective of Omni.

We need to know if this proposal is acceptable before June 30th. We don’t want to leave Omni, however, if we cannot figure something out by this time, we will be forced to move out. We've been a part of this project since it’s inception, and care deeply about this project and all of you.

In Solidarity, Timeless, Infinite Light

The literary groups that have expressed interest and have committed to monthly contributions starting in July include:

Timeless Infinite LIght Who? Emji Spero, Joel Gregory, Zoe Tuck, Paolo Yumol, Ted Rees, Judy Bals, Jennifer Willams, Justin Carder When? MTW 11-6p, and other scheduled times as needed How Much? $200/mo rent, $100/mo utilities

Publication Studio(founded in 2009 in Portland, Oregon) prints and binds books one at a time on-demand, creating original work with artists and writers we admire. We use any means possible to help writers and artists reach a public: physical books; a digital commons (where anyone can read and annotate our books for free); eBooks; and unique social events with our writers and artists in many cities. We attend to the social life of the book. Publication Studio is a laboratory for publication in its fullest sense—not just the production of books, but the production of a public. This public, which is more than a market, is created through physical production, digital circulation, and social gathering. Together these construct a space of conversation which beckons a public into being. Currently there are thirteen Publication Studio sibling studios. The Oakland studio is curated by Ian Dolton-Thornton. http://www.publicationstudio.biz/ Who? Ian Dolton-Thornton, Chloe (Last name?) How Much? $100/mo

Durga Press: The main qualification for publication by Durga is that there be a monstrous subject matter and that the person, the writer, feels like or has felt like a monster at some point too. Perhaps the slogan of the press might be: Shame may be fatal. Who? Mg Roberts, Bhanu Kapil How much? $75/mo

Vouched Books Whether we’re reviewing work on our website, hosting a reading, or selling small press books at one of our guerrilla bookstores, the heart of Vouched Books is this: we love small press literature. Vouched Advocates… VouchedBooks.com is where we rally to support the small press authors, publishers, and journals that we believe in. Read Single Sentence Reviews of titles we’ve read and loved. Discover new or up & coming authors with our New Love series. Read about the literature we believe will stand the test of time with Indie Lit Classics. Get to know the authors behind the work in one of our Awful Interviews. Vouched Distributes… if you see a Vouched guerrilla bookstore at a local festival, literary, or craft event in your city you will discover a curated collection of small press books that we have read and can vouch for. Visit us in Atlanta. San Francisco (coming in July, 2013!). or Austin (coming soon). Think you have what it takes to launch your own table? Contact us! Vouched Presents...what better way to advocate for small press literature than giving our cities the opportunity to fall in love with it firsthand? At our reading series we host both published and up-and- coming writers to share their work. Past readers include Michael Nye, Heather Christle, Matt Bell, Roxane Gay, Amber Sparks, Bruce Covey, Amy McDaniel, Gina Myers and more! Who? Lauren Traetto How much? TBA

Total committed so far: $475/mo Previous Commitment: $400 rent + util (usually totals approx. $850) Current Goal: $550-600 ($400 rent, $150-200 util) *We are still $75-125 short of our goal, and are still waiting to hear back re Vouched Books' commitment.

• Originally proposed during the lastdelegates meeting, did people get to read? Reading the proposal.Groups are publication studio, vouched *books, and ?(in proposal). Weare at $475 per month from these groups, and Vouched can contributemore. There have been other groups expressing *informal interest.

• Sade: Would these groups have amonth-month commitment? If one group left, who would be resonsible tofill once they left?
• Joel: That's something that we would beresponsible to figure out, to find a compatible group to fill thespace.

• Emji: We still haven't had anopportunity to meet all together, so much of that can be addressedwhen we do.

• Helen: There were questions about howthis fits into the Omni structure and I feel that those questionshaven't been answered. That there are *two layers ofapproval/commitment, in that we have collectives and tenants and thisseems to be a bit in between and I would need some *clarification .

• Emji: I somewhat agree.

• Matt: We touched on this at SUDO.Explains this as a process of two elements, and what this seems tomean...and Matt talks very fast. Maybe *there will be a differentcollective emerging or maybe new groups get involved individually.

• Emji: I would be fine with all ofthese. The immediate is to stay involved with Omni.

• Helen: So in the short term, the othergroups would be Omni tenants?

• Emji: We can decide that right now, thepart that is firm for us is to lower our monthly payment.

• David: I was at meeting where youmentioned this. I totally support keeping TIL, we are a sliding scaleproject and they have done so much *work...in terms of new people oneconcern, however it works. It will take some time, and I would wantto meet those people because I just don't *know them. I don't know howit would work in there, maybe a trial period on each group. Nottrying to complicate it, we would just like to *maybe try to meetthem. Not at all a block.

• Emji: Two of the people in one of thegroups are in this meeting now, Ian and Chloe. Other folks have beeninvolved in Omni, so 2 of the 3 *collectives are already a part of theproject in a number of ways.

• David: So even if you get thesecollectives you're still at...well, not to put this as a “deficit”…

• Emji: Our goal is to commit 600, but850 doesn't seem so possible now. We committed to contribute 400 plusrent and utilites but it puts us all *the way to 850. Reads the amountof money folks are going to put it, all on the pad.

• Matt: Anyone know ballpark of utilites?

• David: about $2,000 I think.

• Matt: Right, I feel that we need tocome to an understanding of how it is that each group uses utilitiesand that we need to become more clear *about this as a group. I feel,too that there is more friction with tenants sometimes, but notalways.

• Emji: One of the questions we askedpotential groups was around participation in larger Omni work. We dida little pre-screening on that and I *envision having regular andon-going meetings of the larger group and a list-serve to be able tocheck in with each other. Ideally not having a *tenant structure.

• Dusty: I don't see a problem with thisin the sense that we can have TIL be able to try this, and have folkscheck-in in some period of time, *to re-evaluate the decision.

• David: I'm interested in hearing how itis that these groups feel about participating with the Omni, learningabout what they have to say about *joining in.

• Ian: Feel that a six-month check-intime would be a good thing.

• Matt: Feel that we are floating arounda friendly amendment with the six-month re-evaluation piece, and thatwe can work out the financial *piece as we go. If we pick the 6 monthnumber I think that we are sitting pretty.

• Ian: I think that so many projects, orthat these projects will be here so intermittedly that 3 months wouldbe a very short time. Some of them *will only be here once a week.

• Matt: Okay, could we have a 3 monthevaluation period, or do you think that the number ….

• Ian: that makes sense.

• Emji: I think ideally a 3-month checkin would work.

• David:...I think that's good. I thinkthat any groups who haven't come to a meeting (not Emji, Ian, andpeople who show up) but that they come *by, introduce themselves andreally invite them into the work here.

• Joel: Anymore questions?

• Delegates: 6 in favor and no against,Sudo abstains.

Friendly Amendments

• Omni Commons will re-evaluate and must actively re-approve or change TIL's financial commitment in 6 months of July 1
• The tenants in this proposal will be tentative for 3 months.
• Omni Commons will expect a proposal from TIL and their office-sharing tenants in 3 months of July 1. Otherwise, in lieu of a proposal, Omni Commons must re-evaluate and must actively re-approve or change the tenancy of the TIL-office-sharing tenants.

Proposal to Clear Out Ticket Booth Room for BAPS and Other Use

• 6/7/15 - Stephen Novotny from BAPS

Currently the Ticket Booth room is full of construction materials and I'd like to propose that BAPS remove this material, and store it with the other building materials in the Ballroom, behind the white mobile walls. BAPS then can improve and steward this room as a classroom and meeting space for other groups.

Months ago it was consensed upon that BAPS would steward this room and be able to use it as a classroom. Currently it can't be used as a classroom and now BAPS is beginning to start more classes and needs more space. We've been running into problems the last few weeks, scrambling to find space.

I'm bringing this to consensus because I've spoken to several people about it and received different opinions and answers about clearing the room so I feel that it should be a larger discussion and hopefully consensed upon at the next General Meeting.

• David:Yeah...that's just a room with stuff in it that needs to be clearedout. Anyone can go into that room and clean it out. This is a *goodexample of something that doesn't need to be proposed. There'snothing of value in there.

• Emji: Is thisproposal just about cleaning the room or having BAPS use itexclusively?

• David: No, Idon't think so, it's just another room that will be used by baps andothers.

• Matt: I want tosay, anyone, at anytime, could be working to keep our space organizedand clean. Don't assume that people...

• David: I had aproposal to use the under the stage space, with full plans, a budget,and such to get things out of rooms where people can meet. *Perhapsnext week I'll bring that back to life.

• Joel: Should wejust consense on this?

• Matt: I want toamend...this is not something that we need to approve. We are justagreeing that it's a good idea.
• Delegates: 5approved, one Sudo/matt abstains.

• Dusty: Have weclarified how the stuff should be moved? That we are not moving it...

• David: Ask himif he wants to go to the dump!

• Ian: I'll sendhim an email, letting him know that we've decided it's a good ideaand that he can organize where it will go.

Discussion

Meeting-wide discussion of issues, concerns, ideas, etc.

For Next Week

Any Proposals or Discussions which were tabled for lack of time, etc.

End of Meeting

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