Event:2020/03/19 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - March 19, 2020 7pm-9pm

for instructions on preparing and archiving these notes, please see the bottom

Agenda

  • Introductions [15 minutes]
    • Meeting Roles
    • Delegates Count
  • Check-ins, Updates & Report-Backs [30 minutes]
  • Proposals & Discussions

Introductions

Introduce yourself: Name; Preferred Pronoun; Affiliation; any brief announcements; say whether you're a delegate; let us know about any access needs you have†

  • WHY DO WE ASK PRONOUNS? To make space for people who are trans, nonbinary, gender noncomforming or otherwise vulnerable to being misgendered. It's not an invitation to make jokes or trivialize the idea of pronouns. If you are fine with the gender and pronouns society generally assigns to you, please just say what they are without fanfare or embellishment. Conversely, please don't pressure anybody to give their pronouns, as that can harm trans people who are closeted or questioning. The point is to prompt and normalize asking, but not to mandate or enforce. Thank you! <3 Yar
  • jenny, she/her, no needs but offering tech support, setting things up / troubleshooting
  • AB, delegate of FYE, he/him, our collective has kinda been on standby due to this situation. didn't know until called out in email our rent is unpaid, internal miscommunication. should be handled by end of the month
  • Patrik, calling ono behalf of CCL, personally doing good, reasonable, working from home, we just had our leadership elections for CCL last night and had up to 27 people on zoom, so old officers are the same as last year, no one else stepped up to be a candidate, some new directors. lab 99% shut down, a couple of people still wrapping things up that were urgent. organizing virtual meetings to keep people engaged and around coronavirus.
  • Roya, she/her, phat beets, went to LA, had to shut down the fresh fellows and green eats programs. we might have to stop our CSA pending if the farmers are able to actually deliver to use and if the farmers markets stay open. looks like we'll be able to do next saturday, but we also have employees transition out of oregon. it's good downtime to work on things we're not usually able to work on.
  • Mary Anne, chiapas support committe, i've been sheltered in my house for 8 days and just trying to use that time to sorta catch up on all the stuff I'm behind in. we're not going to the office as far as i know. we haven't had a meeting since last event in the ballroom. we need to set one up. don't know what's happened since then except that we're all working from home.
  • Katrina, they/them, I worked with commons a while back but have been working a little bit on finances mainly for the village and with jenny, very interested to work on mutual aid. also multitasking on a nother call. these are exciting times for change. really hoping this can be the end of capitalism, and i know that will come with a lot of suffering. hoping to leverage that suffering into...
  • Roberto Martinez, he/him, been stuck at home. haven't been outside. my partner is one of those pools of high risk. reading History of Future by Nick Astes(sp?) talking about the histiory of the people at the North Dakota access pipeline. Part of the Chiapas Support Committee we had an event a week and a half ago. A lot of people and a lot of hugging so people are nervous.
  • John, Global Womens' Strike. Participant in the vestage of Occupy Oakland, we haven't been meeting. he/him, access needs met. The global Womens' strike has a webinar happening this Friday March 20th called Valuing Caregiving. There is a facebook event, please RSVP.
  • Niki and David here. We have been sheltering in place. Rilke has been out of school which is challenging. She might not go back this year, we don't know. Just sorta trying to figure out multiple sort of streams of support and mutual aid on our end. Coordinating a sale of pottery in the area to donate to folks in need. David: I would just say as everyone would imagine there's a lot of conversations happening, national and international about mutual aid. There was one today on Milan that i was on: All i really ahve to report back on that is everyone seems to be in a similar place. Lots of ideas, no onre really sure what are next steps. Lots of ideas. Huge rent strike in planning. Discussions around ending rent, ending capitalism. Be really interested to hear what CCL is working on in light of the epedemic. If there's anything omni can do, even in the most micro-sense, provide aid that's needed most.
    • jenny: did recently buy oaklandmutualaid.org and bayareamutualaid.org and starting conversations witht people who are organizing - and also, with regards to CCL members, i guess patrik can speak to it, but also Craig Rouskey who was one of the CCL co-founders originally has been doing coronavirus testing in SF. If you're concerned you can schedule a test on renegadex.com we'll go more in depth after we finish check-ins.
  • Daniel, I've been away from the Omni over a year, and but I never forgot the Omni. Trying to be useful in whatever meaningful way. I'm pretty busy working from home and also helping sort information for folks in Guatamala, sort through the misinformation. I came to this meeting just to start learning what's going on at the Omni.
  • Marc/Juul, he/him, sudo and ccl, not much to add other than
  • Robb, liberated lens, taking everything in stride, lots changed. Not sure what we're doing as a collective. We had a small meeting on Monday. Thikning about maybe streaming, some events perhaps but we gotta see how things pan out.
  • Ken, I'm here and I'm doing fine. I guess I'm the delegate even though ? and Patrik is here. Everything is going as well as can be expected is all I can say considering th situation
  • sierk (remote, post-facto): fnb - FYI, at the moment FNB is doing about the same shifts as usual. There have been a lot of new young volunteers, covering for older volunteers like helen, joe, judith, ron, diane who are staying away from crowded places. All servings and distributions are still happening. FNB is definitely using Omni on a daily basis. Things might change, but for now this are more or less 100% operational.

Meeting Roles

Delegates Count

  • CCL: patrik
  • CSC: mary anne
  • FNB:
  • FYE: AB
  • GWS: john
  • LL: robb
  • Phat Beets: Roya
  • Sudo: jenny
  • Quorum: 7/8 yes

Member Collective Finances

  • sudo: not much in the reserves, maybe 2 months - but could do a fundraising push
  • ccl: Doing reasonably well. Hoping we won't see too many members drop. Should be able to weather it out for several months. If Omni is in need for mortgage payments we'd just keep our rent going I'd say.
  • chiapas support committe: in terms of being solvent: we are. we def have enough money in the bank to pay our rent. the zapatistas have closed all of their public spaces to everyone except their own internal members. the coronavirus is in chiapas. if we have a virtual meeting, and i assume we will fairly soon, i'm gonna talk to people about whether we'll do a fundraiser to send them medical supplies. as far as our own group we're ok.
  • liblens: have probably 4 months rent in our bank account have no other expenses.
  • FNB/robb: the FnB kitchens are figuring out who are gonna keep going and who will stop. a lot of what was happening here isn't happening here.
  • phat beets/roya: we might not be shutting down CSA. it just depends whether we have access to food to put in the CSA boxes.

proposal: request mortgage payment reprieve

  • jenny: should we ask for (not having to pay our mortgage)
    • either that or try to get a small business loan or maybe both and see what happens. i don't think we can make both utility payments or loan payments on the bill. if we don't have income from outside rentals.
  • jenny: omni has operating reserve cushion of $30k. and the kitchen fund has approx $14k in it.
  • robb: i really think we should ask our lender for at least a 6 month reprieve and see how far that gets us.
  • patrik: yeah i figure we can always ask right.
  • juul: should we turn off all power usage except for CCL fridges/freezers and wifi
  • jenny: i think we should reduce our trash bins. that costs us $915 a month. i might check in with Phil. additional $150 on top of that for recycling. i wish someone from FnB was here right now cause i'd like to hear how they're doing and if they're continuing to do meals almost every day.
  • jenny: my takeaway from this convo is we're gonna ask our lender for a reprieve and reduce our power usage in the building.
  • AB: What does reducing power usage mean. What will be reduced. We're actively operating out of the building. I don't know that that's condoned or implicitly limited.

proposal/discussion: omni as emergency distro point

  • jenny: We could make Omni a distro point. Disinfect when coming in and going out. Laura said we should have a list of things that we accept. We would have to have specific drop off times.
  • Mary anne: it would have to be super organized and supervised by someone who knows what they're doing
  • david: I agree
  • jenny: A couple of folks who joined the Omni slack channel offered to be core point people in this regard. The question becomes what does "supervised by omni" means. Can we expand our definition to incorporate trusted people in our community.
  • Patrik: We would need handwashing and disenfecting stations
  • AB - all dropoffs happen outside, only 1 or 2 people bringing things indoors
  • david: if no-one from FnB nor Phat Beets are willing to manage this I'd be less inclinced to believe it would be managed in a safe space. There are already drop off points. Is there a reason to believe they're insufficient if we're talking about food.
  • roya: I don't think we have any procedures about food that you wouldn't already know.
  • katrin: My understanding is that food distribution is gonna happen and it's gonna happen probably over years. Many distribution centers will be needed. The ones I know of are operating out of warehouses where people are already staying in, or people's garages. Glad to hear about bigger ones. They're really looking for space and electricity and sinks. They're not looking for volunteers or instructors. That would be up to the orgs who would hold it down on a specific day. My impression is that something is happening at Omni on Sunday. Those folks sound like they know what they're doing. I would hope that people organizing that would know what they're doing and bring in handwashing stations.
  • robb: We've had a couple back and forths around the Sunday event. Nothing's been approved so if someone is posting that it's happening then they're overstepping. At least that how I'm understanding.
  • Roberto: The request that came in was different from the Sunday event.
  • Jenny: The sunday event is Max from Phat beets for supply drop off and distro on Sunday.
  • AB: Organized without commons being part of it.
  • Roberto: Part of the reason it has to be submitted is so we can go through a discussion.
  • AB: We need to be able to communicate with Max and be on the same page.
  • Roya: I can pass info on to him and I'm sure he'd be willing to reach out and discuss.
  • AB: I think it's more important
  • Roya: In the facebook event I don't see Phat Beets even anywhere.
  • AB: That's worse I think
  • Roya: Max is not as involved in Phat Beets but he's more involved in some of the other orgs that are putting this even on
  • jenny: diana responded: "drop off is outside only. thanks for clarifying - it's not actually an event" - . i asked diana to change the location of the fb event from 'Omni Commons' to '4799 Shattuck' and she already has - also mentioned no ins/outs for bathroom use and she's going to confer with the team (probably establish volunteer protocol)

discussion: building security/cleaning

Discussion happened of who should be in the building: Conclusion is that people providing essential services or are unhoused. Not many folks have been coming at all.

  • Lesley: Should we lock up more valuable items?
  • Robb: Most probably would be audio equipment. People don't know what to do with stuff in CCL. It's kinda bulky, hard to move.
  • David: The sound equipment we might want to just cable lock or chain that so we don't have to worry about it. That's not really ours.
  • Robb: I think we should get rid of all upholstered things too. Even going into the future we'd want everything to be cleanable.
  • AB: Maybe not a thing to do right now.
  • Robb: Just thinking about chairs and stuff in the mezzanine.
  • David: I wanted to float something that might be a bit random. If we were to get something like a UVC light we could do proper sanitizing. Not sure if it's
  • Patrik: UV lights are not something I'd recommend. Can easily burn eyes. Don't disenfect everywhere.
  • Bleach on everything but metal, on metal, 70% ethanol solution
  • roberto - move to working groups to deal w/ particular issues
  • ken: smartscan? for disinfecting, used by trader joe's
  • patrik: ccl ordered 6 gallon of isopropyl - 4g of 70% and 2g of 91%. ordered also two or four hand saniziter dispensors (touch-less)
    • if you see any ethanol in the stores, plz buy it - higher &age is better
  • david: if we shut anything off at the breaker level, would kick on the emergency lights and drain their batteries
  • key and keycard access
  • protocol on any gatherings

david:

  • liability concerns - sign on the door "at your own risk"
  • county health would want omni to have a health clearance to hand out bottled water, even _before_ the edict was put in place
  • spaces of assembly >250 are shut down by order of the governor
  • essential services are allowed - so legality is conflicting
  • life time for virus:
    • much longer in fridge, on porous surfaces

discussion: fundraising

  • david: in convo with lots of orgs; doesn't look like much assistance will come to nonprofits. need to come up w/ creative fundraising ideas
  • juul: 1 or multi-year prepaid memberships
  • online classes - liblens on video setup, for instance
    • ken: could have 1 or 2 people film classes in building
  • jenny: online store, eg woocommerce
  • juul: virtual temescal street fair

proposal: weekly delegates meetings

  • straw poll: consensus
    • liblens, sudo, ccl, fye, chiapas
  • passed - inform everyone, and if an objection is raised we will discuss revoking

point people

  • cleaning - AB/ken
  • power - robb/AB/juul
  • security - ?juul?

action items

  • order bleach, check on isopropyl delivery - jenny
  • sign for the door - jenny
  • reboot comms wg - jenny
  • request mortgage payment reprieve - jenny
  • lower trash bin pickup - jenny
  • turn off unused electrical - robb/AB/juul
  • sanitize building - AB/robb/ken

Last Meeting Notes

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2020/03/05_Delegates_meeting

End of Meeting

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