Event:2015/10/18 Becoming Omni Session 3

Becoming Omni Session 3: Sunday October 18, 2015

Last week: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/10/11_Becoming_Omni_Session_2

intros

• laura, involved in lots of things
• julio,
• ben, commons wg
• andrew
• david k
• maggie, birdhouse
• maryanne, chiapas support committee
• gabby
• lori, gws
• yar, sudo
• alex, baps/birdhouse
• darin

review

• we talked about where we want to be in 3 years
• we went over underlying contradictions, root of problems facing our org

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schedule for today

• Intro, 10-10:20
• Review of process, agenda and work from last week, 10:20-10:40
• Integrates/Autonomy, 10:40-12:10
• lunch, 12:10-12:40
• 12:40-12:55, energizing activity
• 12:55-3:00, strategic directions
• 3:00-3:15, Break
• 3:15-3:30, implementation workshop context
• 3:30-5, first year plan
• 5 - ?, first year timeline and assignments

we probably won't finish today so let's start thinking about how to solve that

contradictions

• laura: *reads contradictions from last week*
• laura: which did you expect to see here?
  • gabby: money / anticaptilism
  • maggie: ??
• laura: which is a surprise to you?
  • gabby: resistance to ... critical reflection
• laura: which shows insight or understanding we reached?
  • alex: limited capacity to build participation. we assumed it'd be so awesome that people would come to us but we have to do outreach work
• laura: do any of these contradictions give a window to the future?
  • dk: they close windows
  • laura: in a dialectical sense
  • maggie: contradictions within the contradictions need to be worked on first
  • yar: incorporating the people who aren't here
  • lori: problem with every piece of organizing we've ever tried to do is on that list. would be useful to have available as identified problems. have to think about all the time, day to day
  • laura: themes that every subgroup can apply, and action plans
  • gabby would like to help make a thing for this
• dk: "why we are here" statement has a contradiction. hosting events, having classes, providing resources aren't on the list, but what we do. circling back to moral values. means vs ends. what we're doing vs how we're doing it.
  • yar: speak for yourself
  • laura: it's a why, but that's a how
  • dk: to fight capitalism takes many forms, like right now we're doing this. maybe purest form is enforcing safe space policy and not doing this.
  • laura: you're not here just to put on events. my reason for being here jibes with overall purpose
  • andrew: we want a statement to the community about what we mean to them? organizers and oppressed people of oakland
  • gabby: i agree purposes gets obscured sometimes
• dk: i wanted to host radical classes. if that's not in the why, that's a contradiction
  • yar: if you'd said that, you'd have been asked to find common ground with other people around you and that would have ended up under "nurture alternatives to white supremist capitalist patriarchy"
  • laura: if it was a how, i would have crossed it off. today we're doing the hows. i'm stressed because we're running out of time. i can't commit a whole lot more time. let's please move on
• alex senses tension. asks people to stretch.

tensions

• alex: where is the tension between our desire to standardize and the request for more customization or autonomy?
• laura: relationship between omni overall and collectives. tension between collectives' needs to do things same way vs their own way. between individuals' desire to think & be their own way, vs reasons we need to think the same about things. autonomous doocracy vs integrated, standardized delegates meeting. reasons we're not clear on things. how can we be more integrated and autonomous at the same time?

long breakout session, then lunch, then reportback:

• maggie: we talked about membership contribution. extreme vs loose sides. [picture]
• alex: hard to become a member. general omni body? individual collectives? transparency! [picture]
• yar: see paper

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Actions

laura: what creative + substantial actions will deal with the underlying contradictions?

• sun
  • see& stop burnout-lashout
  • inform each other of our actions and need- regularly
  • create online forum for analysis
  • track your hours
• foot
  • create reg updated list on omni priority projects
  • prioritize and access frequently
  • create work buddy system
• happy face
  • hold frequent open community circles to resolve issues
  • form alliance with omni groups for stronger coalition solidarity
  • see & stop burnout-lash out
  • party time
  • for every work party/ project session-hold an opening and closing ritual
  • get together more often
  • produce public events that further our goals
• triangle
  • write general assessments of omni
  • hold ourselves accountable to our collective agreements and values
  • hold workshops and post info about benefits of self critisism and group healing
  • suggest communication practices that are in line with our value
  • put up posters around the omni that in ways oppressive structures effect groups
• spiral
  • convene building bloc
  • facilitate workshops on how to create a collectives
  • encourage formation of new collective that work on occ mission goals
• star
  • train each-other to represent & do outreach for the omni
  • get in conversation and listen to preople needs and opinions
  • do outreach at events outside 4799
  • community msg board outside
  • build diversity outreach
• tree
  • establish principles like sliding scale or funders with similar principles
  • adopt cooperative business practices
  • apply for grants
  • Trade: provide our resources for things we need
  • increase donations
  • buy buildings
  • use cost & money savings options instead of rely on market goals and service
  • have collectives pay rent
• square
  • fix website
  • be the photon not the glass
  • suggest modes of communication use of different tools
  • clarify

herbal workshop?

now what?

• laura: not enough time. what do we do next? thinking we reconvene at beginning of december
• matt: i'd like sooner. i'm sick to my stomach literally of the thought of leaving this task unfinished at this point.
• laura: but i need a break. and we need more time to get more people
• robb: maybe we should ...
• andrew: need to synthesize soon so people can work
• daniel: need to disseminate for people who aren't here. maybe end of november?
• talk about scheduling
• ben: we should start working on this stuff on the board now
• matt: attrition - group in 2 months will be different. need some way of implementing something now. doocracy. learn from doing. maybe knocking on peoples' doors pisses them off but leaving a note is cool
• yar: laura can you explain implementation workshop you wanted to do?
  • laura: think about 3 years from now. what are the specific we're going to take in the next 90 days to move us towards those things we want to see. that gets put on a timeline. people take responsibility for each thing along the timeline. coordination between groups in different areas. then you come together every 90 days, do what matt described. what worked, what didn't, what'd we learn, what's the plan for the next 90 days? one of the issues was not having an iterative reflective process, and this is one of those processes. but totally willing to say have at it, doocracy on whatever timeline you want. if you want more planning we can do that. if you think just doing is awesome that's ok too.
• alex: maybe for now, divide up working groups for each arrow? then check in every 90 days
• laura: like starting in december
  • yar: then march?
  • laura: whatever we decide then
• andrew: want internet forum not just email
  • yar: why not email?
  • andrew: not sure. forum-y
  • yar: there's an email list, becoming@lists.omnicommons.org
  • matt: blog with threaded comments? let's talk about this as a working group later.
• laura: each subgroup should decide how they'll communicate with each other
• maggie: need to keep in touch with what people are doing. so meetings are more constructive, less review more moving forward
• robb: trivial to set up forum. listservs suck. forum has groups, threads, etc. easier to look at.
  • laura: meet later and figure that out?
  • robb: i don't have access. do sysadmins meet?
  • yar: we have an email list - sysadmins@lists.omnicommons.org
  • andrew: i have interest but not skills
• joe: i want a working group. lots of overlap
• libbie: if we break into all of these i worry not enough energy. maybe if everyone says the 2 they care about most
• ben: what do people think are the most important things?
  • laura: that was the last step of the workshop
• voting on top-2s ...
  • expanding: 9 think it's a priority, 9 personally interested (same people)
  • agreeing: 6 think it's a priority, 4 personally interested
  • resources: 6 think it's a priority, 2 will work on it
  • partying: 2 think it's a priority, 4 personally interested
• ben: most urgent is paying rent...
  • matt: finance people came to delegates meeting. had 18 ideas!
  • robb: we'll run out of money in february
  • matt: that's if we default on all debt and fuck everyone over. sooner if we're good.
• laura: has anyone's opinion changed?
  • matt: confused. labor constraint. i want to work on 3 tasks for me. just divvy it up?
  • laura: at least one would be too small
  • matt: i don't have that concern
  • ben does
  • daniel: group already did a lot of work on this
• yar: i just want to work on building bloc & fixing website. don't know about the rest. is that bad?
  • matt: as long as you're working with others and inviting participation
• breaking up into groups

Making "Us"

Joe Darren Lori Mary-Ann Maggie Alex Ben Matt Libbie

Becoming Omni

• Help Yar with starting Building Bloc - Joe & Libbie & Darin
• Facilitate a workshop on how to create a collective - Matt &
• Make a list of places that small groups of Omni volunteers will go to talk to people - Alex, Maggie, Libbie, Ben (kinda), Maryanne
  • Discuss how to represent and do outreach for Omni
  • Make propaganda - Daron & Maggie (will seek collaboration with MPM)
  • Go out in person to follow up on list
  • Go to others' events, table, and let people know about Omni Commons
• Add everyone to omnicommons.org/cloud
• Hold an ice cream social within 30 days - Ben & Maggie
• Make internal propaganda too! Posters, self-care suggestions, etc. - Maggie & Alex & Libbie
• Follow-up with Arnoldo about doing RJ workshop - Maryann
• Follow-up with North Oakland Restorative Justice Council - Matt
• Follow-up with UC Berkeley Center for Restorative Justice - Libbie & Julio & Ben (kinda)
• Attend workshop in RJ practice - Everyone!
• Spread the word about the omni commons phone number & contact info - Matt