Event:2016/07/21 Delegates Meeting

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Weekly Omni Delegates' Meeting - 21 July 2016

Introductions

Introduce yourself: Name; Preferred Pronoun; Affiliation, What are you grateful for?

  • Julio; he/him; sudoroom, commons wg, AORTA facilitation training
  • Jose: he/him; csc, finance, fundraiser, camping this weekend
  • Lori: she/her; gws; warm weather
  • Mary Ann: Chiapas Support Committee, she/her, grateful that she got rid of her old T-bird
  • Marcus: he/him; ABDC; fundraising/finance tbd
  • Joel: he/him; TIL; instagram
  • Laura: she/her, Commons, finance, fundraising, grateful for housing
  • Matt: he/him, Sudo, finance, fundraising, grateful for bike donations for kids in neighborhood
  • Alex: she/her/they/them, Birdhouse, moving to LA and found a place to live
  • Steve: BAPS delegate, commons, no pronoun pref, hasn't lost sense of humor
  • Dane: he/him/they/them, Food Not Bombs and Sudo Room, Beckys with the good hair (random Beyonce reference--that didn't go over well)
  • Joe: FNB on chat, Eros: Grateful for the spark of life
  • Ken: me, CCL, grateful for dinner
  • Liz: LL (remote), grateful for growing up in the forest
  • Gwen: she, Sudo


Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Julio
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "point of process", "point of information", "raise hand"
  • Stacktaker: Alex
  • Timekeeper: Joel
  • Notetaker/s: Alex, Laura, Matt
  • Vibe Reader: Marcus
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s): Helen

Delegates

  • ABDC: Marcus
  • BAPS: Steve
  • BH: Alex
  • CCL: Ken
  • CSC: Mary Ann
  • FNB: Remote - Joe
  • GWS: Lori
  • LL: Liz remote
  • Sudo: Matt
  • TIL: inactive, Joel
  • YES:
  • Quorum: YES


Announcements

  • Lori - on August 1st -- sex workers in the network are having a protest outside of State Sen. Hancock's Office. "Law-Enforcement-Assisted Diversion Program" -- if you would like to endorse this, please sign on with Lori. "Essentially 'sex work' is a disease that needs to be rehabilitated". Give Lori your email address. Asking Hancock to remove all references to sex workers in the bill.
    • Omni Common endorses the protest of Sen Hancock concerning the "Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program" -- demanding that sex worker clauses be removed from Bill SB1110.
  • Matt: there is a subcommittee of fundrasing wg. We need to purge junk, some of which peole might pay for. 2 new volunteers to the wg + Matt, Marcus, and a few other are going through stuff and pricing for a rummage sale the 1st weekend of August. Only things already in the Omni will be sold. DO NOT BRING ANYTHING TO THE OMNI TO SELL. IF your collective has things already to sell/get rid of see Matt. Can set up %age or consignment. Will
  • Laura: Asbestos in Disco Room will be abateted Tuesday- company will do an air test at the end to show there is no asbestos floating in the air. once we get the results back and they are negative we will reopen.

Bans

  • Johnny from sudo room has been asked to leave for safe space reasons.
    • Update: There has been a conflict mediation process initiated. -- Going to ask Julio right now about mediating the conflict using a restorative justice process. Johnny is willing to participate. The person who initiated the ban agrees to Julio as a mediator. Julio reluctant. Max hasn't been asked yet. Will talk more later. Steve may be interested in helping.

Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

Meetings: Mondays at 8pm

  • This group needs help; https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/building
  • Laura: passed inspection for nailing of the drywall. Now have electrical and final building inspection on the same day upcoming.
  • Matt: Joe is finishing up teh drywall and then we will do electrical and the inspector will come and rubber stamp it. That is the only open and current structural building permit. All others are cosmetic or on pause. Shawn and I reorganized the secure storage closet. All the toos work and are in place. Please keep it organized and clean when you access the space. If anyone has any Ryobi tools or batteries, we can use them.
  • Joe: I am taping the dry wall. It is going to look a whole lot better. I would like some help getting the printers etc in the corner moved away from that corner for he weeekend. I will be in Fri after 11 to work again. Having fun!

Commons

Meetings: Second and Fourth Thursdays at 7pm

  • Laura: At the last delegates meeting which I was not at folks came to talk about an event. In the future immediately send ppl coming to the delegates meeting away towards the Commons WG. Commons knows whats up with the events and scehduling and handling things at the delegates level confuses things and makes work less efficient.
  • Julio: if you want to help its every other Thursday. We had an AORTA workshop on facilitation. I went and it was great. No one besides me took advantage of free slots in the workshop. I would recommend that more Omni people take future workshops they will do here.
    • Also a Catalyst training in September. If they are charging we should be able to get a few people in for free.
  • Julio: 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 7pm at 4799 Shattuck. We are happy to train you and give you power.

Communications

How can we reactivate the Communications WG?

  • ? ??? ?//???? ?/? ??? ? ? ??
  • Julio: 5-10 min?
  • Steve: I'm interested in it because I think we need a working group that communicates with other groups and the world about the Omni and what it is doing. Maybe we could play a role in talking to the people who were part of it and see if we can see about starting it agsin.
  • Matt: There are a few ppl from the old communications WG. Joel and I. Way back. Steve, do you have any specific questions?
  • Steve: Yeah, why did it fall apart? What can we do to start it again?
  • Julio: Jenny is doing a good job of putting out a monthly newsletter. Were you thnking about something different or in addition?
  • Alex: After becoming Omni we started an outreach group but it fell apart becasue we are all already doing a lot. We have a lot of notes and ideas form those meetings. It's time to invovle new poeple in it becasue ther peole who have been invovled are already really busy doing stuff. Alex will send notes to Steve
  • Matt: whenever communication breaks down between people (even at an interpersonal level) within the omni, then too I believe the communications working group has suffered and ebbed. Also, because of a shortage of labor and money, what labor we have has been directed to things that seem to directly bring in funds. However, communications is essential to bringing in more income!
  • Omni Outreach Working List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3QGBDbFQQAFlEtyP9saLv0O_qY4S4L3py53MDrPTJQ/edit?usp=sharing
  • Omni Outreach Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/125apwEjtnYDJ2GHFR6_ksC44eUla0DulQRMqUqPT4pQ/edit?usp=sharing
  • Becoming Omni Strategic Plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SLQ3sWJVeuZpd526u7JZ-VO7j1ZBJijtJ5AYzGwaiu8/edit?usp=sharing

Finance

Meetings: Every other Thursday at 7pm Matt: please pay your invoices ASAP. Talk to the finance wg if there is any question about being able to pay any or all of your invoice.

Fundraising/Buy the Building

Meetings: Mondays at 6:00pm

  • Rummage sale -- first weekend in august (see notes above in announcements)

Proposal for Coworking Space in the Basement: 10 minutes

Proposed by Marcus Zamani 07/07/2016 Proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G-orldFG2uPDJfhupOm5dY0JpfcpG0wP7Ki5S1nx2_A First time discussed at Delegates meeting.

  • Marcus: Im proposing that the back portion of the basement space (former MPM space) become a dedicated zone for paying coworking space members; and the area near the stairs be a shared zone that I would steward.
    • 2 membership levels: $75 float members pay for general access to space. $150 members get a specific desk space. I am proposing myself as the site manager of the coworking space, incharge of all of therevenue colection and maintaining the space. In return I am asking for $500 a month as an independant contractor. WOUld like to launch by Sept 1-15.
    • For the 1st 6 months this would be a fiscally-sponsored project of the Omni as a trial run to assess its viability. At that time we would assess and see if it would turn in to a collective member and its corproate structure would be determined at that time.
  • Steve: I have to review bc I'm not sure I have all of the details. There are those two large roomsin the basement and what's not in the images you drew up is the library. Is this related to any collective?
  • Marcus: No.
  • Steve: Why would you be offering to coordinate that space for a fee when it is already commons space at the Omni?
  • Marcus: Omni has had difficulty keeping up with all of the inquiries that come in about working space rentals, has had challenges coordinating. Commons is overtapped. As we were discussing earlier they are trying to get more ppl involved. In this case I would be there 5 days a week full time trying to get more tenants.
  • Steve: This is something that teh public school is doing. When ppl need space we coordinate with them and try to set-up space for them. AT this time there are only three. My intuition is taht if you are going to get a stipend for doing this then is this going to amount to some sort of privitization of the space in the basement. If so I think we need to talk about this quite a bit.
  • Laura: CLarifies for STeve the location and purpose of this proposal
  • Julio: Great idea, under untilized space, you have teh energy. I think the questions is if and how we pay you. You will raise funds from this membership- and that goes directly to the Omni?
  • Marcus: I have a breakdown about where the money goes linked in the proposal. Money to Omni, insurance, gratuity for members (snacks, coffee, etc.), then there should be a $500 surplus. The space would be rented from the Omni for $900/month and $250 for utilities. All funds except the stipend is directly related to the functioning of the space and apying the Omni. I am asking for a stipend becasue I cant devote time to this without more income. See the proposal for more information about why I need the money. Total potential income is gross $4080 /month, all for the OMni except for the stipend
  • Joe: What do you expect the gross income of the project to be during the trial period?
  • Marcus: I have caluctaled the potential revenue to be $4,080 before rent and costs based on how I plan to allocate space.
  • Matt: I think we are getting hung up because we are having fundamental misunderstanding about what stipend etc. means in this context... Omni Commons has changed its structure, and the vocabulary about who pays and who gets paid
  • Marcus: That's a good point. Mostly I'm thinking about askling whether you think this would be a
  • Alex: I think that this is a cool idea, it has the potential to be really wonderful for the building. My concern is that there is going to be a period between starting and operating at maximum profit (revenue). You gave us an explanation of the $500 stipdend, that is helpful. If you are not bringing in that revenue -- what is that going to do to you, and to the project?
  • Marcus: By launching in early sept that will give me 3-4 months to increase the use and income of the space until I really need the money. And I have about 8 people who have expressed interest verbally.
  • MaryAnn: if I understand this correctly, this would generate 950 + 250 income for the Omni.
  • Marcus: Goes through expenses on his spreadsheet in the proposal. Income for Omni is actually more.
  • Steve: I think Matt brings up the critical question. In a cetain way Im hearing that you are setting up a busines inside the OMni. Im using stark terms so there is a certain hard ede to it. That raises the question to theOmni. YOu'll be bringing poeple in to work at the Omni. But ehrer is a political dimansion to the Omni. The question arises, to what extent are there going to political askpects to what work they are doing in the space. And to what extent or not does that imapct the Omni. In terms of your inventiveness to sue the space, that's different.
  • Marcus: I have given that quite a bit of thought. There are different kinds of members. The float members are the greatedt challenge to the Omni's views. They will be limited in their access to the OMni in terms of hours and space. Must agree to work within our policies. Everyone will start out as floats for a 3 month period so we can get to know them in case they want to become dedicated members. The dedicated members will be Omni members.
  • Joe: So you and the dedicated members will constitute a new Omni collective? That would be decided after 6 month trial period.
  • Matt: Frustrated because this discussion is only happening because people didn't read the proposal. Will make a proposal that delegates can't discuss the proposal until they have read it.
  • Julio: since not enough people have read this we aren't able to consent on this.
  • Joe: I did not say I hadn't read it nor that I wasn't ready to vote.
  • Lori: I don't think that good projects should be delayed becasue poeple haven't read the proposal.
  • Matt: I agree so Im saying that if delegates haven't read the proposal we just pause the meeting until all have read through the entire proposal.

Proposal: Timeless, Infinite Light to use the Haunted Closet in the Basement for Book Storage: 10 minutes

Hi Omni. We recently invited Chiapas Support Committee and Global Womens Strike into our shared space, which we are very excited about! This is great because they didn’t have a dedicated space to meet to work and store their stuff for quite awhile. One of the outcomes of this development, however, is that we offered up half of our storage space for their use. As we continue to produce more and more books, our need for book storage is increasing. We are now beyond capacity in our space.

We would like to use the Haunted Closet on the Eastern wall of the basement under the stairs. The one that has a spray-painted ghost and an “office” sign on the door and was previously used by squatters. We believe that it is currently not being utilized, and it has the space to accommodate our storage needs for quite awhile. We would need this space to remain locked to prevent damage or theft to our books.

In the spirit of helping keeping Omni afloat, we could contribute $30/mo for the use of this space.

  • Joel: We will need lock. It is small and there is nothing in it.
  • Matt: We will talk about it more next week.
  • Joel: I will add it to the concensus list.

Proposal: Amend Safer Space Policy to clarify temporary ban policy

juul from sudo room proposes to change this. The proposed change was sent out the ot Omni Consensus list on the evening of July 19th.

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Safer_Space_Policy#4..E2.80.8E_.E2.80.8FConsequences.E2.80.AD_.E2.80.ACof.E2.80.AD_.E2.80.ACUnacceptable.E2.80.AD_.E2.80.ACBehavior

to change: "In cases where someone's safety is at risk, a temporary ban may be put in place until the Omni's conflict resolution process can be followed to resolution."

to: "In cases where someone judges that someone's safety is at risk, a temporary ban may be put in place until the Omni's conflict resolution process can be followed to resolution. Any member in good standing of any current Omni collective can instantly invoke such a temporary ban which will remain in place until either the conflict is successfully resolved or a decision is made to lift or keep the ban either by one of the collectives via that collective's decision-making processes or at the Omni Delegates meeting."

This is how we've been operating but it doesn't seem to be written down anywhere so it remains ambiguous how the temporary ban may be put in place and by whom.

Discussion: Liberated Lens' budget plan, as requested last month

We brainstormed lots of ideas, then crunched some numbers to see what would be most profitable. Here is the speadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XJsXLxm7AxsLZ-DemzjxXXwnCXxwKwRxP19TR4GDgWo/edit?usp=sharing

Please see the note at the top about our conclusions.

I also want to mention that we applied for a grant for Seeds of Struggle from the Berkeley Film Foundation, and it appears we have made it past a preliminary round of eliminations (some of our friends who applied have received rejection notices, but we haven't heard from them yet). Fingers crossed! Also, we were very close to getting a $1,000 grant from the Awesome Foundation to put on the FTP short film festival, we're applying again next round. There are two other grants we're looking into.

We are adding a video recording service for Omni events, for a fee, on top of the usual audio/video operation. In order to process A/V requests, we created this form: [can't save the original link on wiki, just type this out] goo dot gl/forms/maADslIsgryr617J2 I hope folks on the commons wg will direct people to it.

To summarize what Tugg is: it's an online platform where people can request movies that they want to see to be screened at local theaters. A promoter then has to sell a certain minimum number of tickets, and if that quota is reached, the film gets shown. The profits are split between the theater, the promoter, Tugg, and the rightsholder. In our case, Omni would be the theater and we would be the promoters. Through this platform we can gain access to fairly big-budget films that would draw a regular crowd. Check out some of the films they have to distribute on https://www.tugg.com/

We are in the process of streamlining film night protocols, with the intention of making it simple and efficient enough to handle 4 screenings a month.

But we are also still in the midst of moving our editing suite to the basement; we've done a lot of cleaning so far and there had to be some discussion about how to design the space. So we have a lot on our plates for now and we hope you will be patient with us. We can't afford $300 next month, maybe the month after, but we'll have to see.

(We also need help accessing our new bank account. Jenny, please email me back! -liz)

Proposal: Read Proposals Before Discussing

At every delegate's meeting, any proposal's discussion will be paused until all delegates have read through the entire proposal before beginning the discussion. Ideally, reading proposals will happen before the meeting begins.

  • (also brainstorming) What about a group decision-making platform like Loomio?
  • Lori also suggested making it more robust to the cost of delaying a proposal needlessly.

End of Meeting

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