Event:2020/04/02 Delegates

From Omni Commons
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 2 April 2020 7pm-9pm

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

Agenda

  • Introductions [15 minutes]
    • Meeting Roles
    • Delegates Count
    • Access Check-in
  • Check-ins, Updates & Report-Backs [30 minutes]
    • Brief Announcements
    • Working Groups
    • Member Collectives
    • Conflicts, Mediation & Safe Space
  • Proposals & Discussions

Action Items

  • Email collectives to send names of who will access building because locks will be changed soon.
    • Robb


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
  • lesley: Sudo Mesh and Sudo Room member; It's odd getting used to not seeing people; Access needs are met.
  • Rachel: Delegate of GWS; Not trying to look at the screen too much due to eye issues; Access needs are met.
  • Mai: Sudomesh; submitted application for membership. things are ok; she/they
  • Mary Anne: Delegate for Chiapas Support Committee
  • Helen: Delegate for FNB; Access needs are met
  • Robb: Delegate for LL; Access needs are met; he/him
  • Patrik: Delegate for CCL; Things are okay. he/him
  • Jane: having sound problems; she/her
  • Joe: Delegate for FNB;
  • Silver: New to this; Helping with food distribution at Omni; she/her


Access Check In

Is everybody able to participate fully in this meeting? Do people have unmet needs or concerns?

Meeting Roles

Delegates

  • CCL: Patrik* Next meeting's facilitator(s):
  • CSC: Mary Annw
  • FNB: Helen
  • FYE:
  • GWS: Rachel
  • LL: robb
  • Phat Beets:
  • Sudo:
  • Quorum:

Brief Announcements

  • Elections: Many people nominated, with additional nominees since; Mary Anne has sent all nominees an email to confirm whether they would like to be up for election. Deadline to respond is April 5, this Sunday
  • Patrik: Sent an email to consensus list re: shelter in place; As an essential business we need to post a social distancing protocol at every entrance; We need to fill it on a Google doc that Patrik sent and put it up - google doc version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EnSj5ucJBHsJ-d1rgcIlXPmiztsVPWlPCBu0mJM26YE/edit#
    • Robb can get to it tomorrow
    • Patrik: Thinks it has to be inside the building; It's internal;
    • Rachel: Is Omni an essential business because of food distribution?
    • Patrik: Is there a big resource distribution on Sunday? Ramy said April 5 & 12?
    • Helen: I thought it was on the 12th.
    • Robb: It's either Sat or Sun

Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

Commons

  • Meetings: 2nd & 4th Mondays at 5:30pm
  • https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/booking
  • Joe: Working on the Mutual Aid protocol with North Oakland Restorative Justice and some other groups; Arranged collection and distribution; defining parameters on how many people etc. Collection on this Sunday April 5 and distribution on Sunday April 12.
  • Robb: Max wants to know if we can be a partner on food outreach program of North Oakland Restorative Justice and Critical Resistance. They're collecting food and distributing it.
    • Patrik: They want to know if we want to get credit on their website?
  • Robb: We're already partners on it. They are accepting donations (drop off), sanitize and quarantine them. Them package them and distriute a hot meal and groceries including toiletries.

Finance

Fundraising

  • Mary Ann: We haven't had a meeting for a couple weeks

Temporary Working Group: Security/Cleanliness

  • Roberto: I cannot make it to todays delegates assembly, but if I may I would like to make a proposal.I want to propose a name change for this committee to something that is less punitive-sounding or exclusive, to something more caring and constructive. I would think that the spirit of this committee is to help the omni stay safe, healthy, and supportive rather than closed off and defensive. A change in name, I think, can align to these efforts. Also, not sure how many people have signed up to be in this committee after the last meeting, but I would like to propose that we make an effort to have more representation of women and non-binary folks in this committee.
  • Robb: This was sort of a name we came up with because we had to address these issues
  • Silver: Noisebridge calls this group "Space Guardians"
  • Helen: People who are in this group need to decide the name
  • Silver: I'm interested in joining
  • Robb: Explaining what the WG does, to keep the space clean and secure. Will send more info over.
  • Silver: In other spaces I'm part of we're doing regular cleanings
  • Patrik: Part of being on the WG is to help come up with the protocols
  • Robb: There's a lot to do.
  • Silver: I'd like to be an active contributor at Omni now, and wants to talk more about this.
  • Robb: Things are slow but we're organizing with mailinglist since the locks will be changed soon.
  • Joe: Hope that protocols will work with FNB; Let them know if there are other protocols put in place.
  • Patrik: We still need to get the list of people who are able to be at the space from each collective; State regs still recommends everyone needs to work from home
  • Deadline? A week should be plenty of time.
  • Robb: Someone should send out an email

Member Collective Updates

What is going on with your collective? What are you working on? What have you accomplished? Any events coming up? Any difficulties you are encountering that you need help with?

CCL

  • Patrik: A few names of people who will be going to the building. If you see anyone other than Ken or Eddy in CCL, please let me know: patrikd@gmail.com
    • Robb: Building list should be repurposed for thiswww.gofundme.com/f/help-east-bay-food-not-bombs or bit.ly/ebfnb

FYE

GWS

  • Rachel: We've been doing a lot of organizing out of our homes. We're on zoom with each other. Since we're national and international we're meeting with other members. Since our campaign is to value women's work, it's relevant now with everyone home with Coronavirus. There's a lot of unwaged work that is happening — A campaign demanding that caregiving be paid. 200 people involved in an international call about being paid for care work. Another webinar tomorrow. Including all those who were not in the stimuls package, such as sex workers, people left out in the cold. Writing a resolution to the board of supervisors to address these issues.

LL

  • R

CSC

  • Mary Ann: Our office is closed. We're meeting electronically.

FNB

  • Joe: Everything is pretty much on our usual schedule. Everyone who is high risk has backed off. Great to see how many people have stepped up. We're doing more work in the camps. Getting great support from those sending us what we need. Food has been packed up before we're there so we can keep people distanced. Trying to be serious with our protocol as much as we can. Will update space with new safety protocols. Went on GoFundMe and raise $140 and also donated hand sanitizer. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-east-bay-food-not-bombs or bit.ly/ebfnb

FYE

GWS

  • Rachel: We've been doing a lot of organizing out of our homes. We're on zoom with each other. Since we're national and international we're meeting with other members. Since our campaign is to value women's work, it's relevant now with everyone home with Coronavirus. There's a lot of unwaged work that is happening — A campaign demanding that caregiving be paid. 200 people involved in an international call about being paid for care work. Another webinar tomorrow. Including all those who were not in the stimuls package, such as sex workers, people left out in the cold. Writing a resolution to the board of supervisors to address these issues.

LL

  • Robb: Not doing anything in the building. We're going to make some online tutorials, with different editors. Trying to take it online and having online classes through Jitsi

Phat Beets

  • Robb: North Oakland Critical Resistance, w some Phat Beets people, is doing a donation drive. Asking if we want to be listed on their website as a partner organisation (more notes in the Commons WG section)

Sudo

Conflicts, Mediation & Safe Space

  • Updates for any ongoing issues
  • Has anybody been asked to leave? asked to leave

Proposals

Proposal: Sign onto Support for Bill to Fund Community-Based, Non-Police Emergency Response

Deadline for support letters extended until next Thursday, April 2. From: John Lindsay-Poland <JLindsay-Poland@afsc.org> Date: Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 4:01 PM Subject: [Stop Urban Shield organizers] Requesting Support for Bill to Fund Community-Based, Non-Police Emergency Response To: Susorganizers <susorganizers@googlegroups.com> Cc: Peyton Michelle Provenzano BA <peytonprov@berkeley.edu>

Dear Stop Urban Shield organizers ,

I hope this message finds you in good spirits. My name is Peyton and I am reaching out as a representative of Oakland Power Projects to request the support of Stop Urban Shield organization members on a current assembly bill that aims to fund grassroots organizations that provide community-driven, non-police alternatives to 911. Oakland Power Projects is one of 12 co-sponsors of this legislation – AB 2054 (Kamlager), theCommunity Response Initiative to Support Emergency Services (CRISES) Act – along with: Justice Teams Network, Anti Police-Terror Project, ACLU Center for Advocacy & Policy, Public Health Advocates, Berkeley Free Clinic, UDW/AFSCME - Local 3930, PolicyLink, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, East Bay Community Law Center, STOP Coalition, Youth Justice Coalition. There is a factsheet attached, andhere is a link to the text of the bill on the CA legislature website.

We are in the process of gathering letters of support for this bill, and it would be awesome if your organization could participate. There is a template letter of support (attached) that can be filled out with your organizations name and letterhead or logo. Signed letters of support need to be submitted to the online portal athttps://calegislation.lc.ca.gov/Advocates/faces/index.xhtml and a copy should also be emailed to Howard.Quan@asm.ca.gov and Kalyn@policylink.org

Please let me know if you have questions. Importantly, the turn-around time on this is short (even with disruption of legislative activities from COVID-19) –

In solidarity, Peyton Provenzano Jurisprudence and Social Policy, Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley Huichin Ohlone Land

New Member Application: Sudo Mesh

  • Rachel: How is Sudo Room different from Sudo Mesh?
    • Robb: Sudo Mesh used to be a project of Sudo Room, but then Sudo Room gave its 501c3 status to Omni. Sudo Room is now fiscally sponsored by Omni. Sudo Mesh
    • Robb: FYE, LL, Sudo Room are projects of Omni, the rest are their own non-profits.
  • Mary Ann: It's not just a legal technicality.
  • Joe: I can't think of any other collectives that have members of other collectives in them. Matt, Jenny, Marc are members of Sudo Room. Does this violate the one-person-one-vote? Something about it doesn't sit right with me
  • Helen: There are members of FNB that are members of other collectives
  • Lesley: First Tuesdays in the month is a meet and greet. This coming Tuesday is the first one.
  • Robb: Should Sudo Room become a member of Sudo Mesh?
  • Silver: I think this is good. Sudo Mesh is great. If there are more groups that are aligned with our mission. Many of us are involved in many different collectives.
    • Robb: LL was once a project of Sudo Room
  • Mai: We have about 10 consistently involved members, 3-4 are also Sudo Room members
  • Lesley: We are working on our in-group/out-group discrimination process right now.
  • Silver: One of my biggest concerns with collectives at Omni is inclusivity. I think Sudo Mesh seems like an inclusive group.
    • lesley: +1
  • Rachel: Are we looking for more space?
    • No not at the moment
  • Patrik: What's your income model?
    • Mai: Mostly grants, some individual donations
  • Silver: Many people are interested in this project and eager to help with this. Great that they're trying to become an Omni members
  • Lesley: You can go to peoplesopen.net/monitor. Will share the Jit.si link for our meet and greet on Tuesday with consensus list.
    • Mai: I will send it out
  • Robb: There should be more details about what the logistics
  • Mai: Do we need to re-send the proposal with idea of how we want to contribute to Omni?
    • Yes
  • Mary Ann: Good idea to add to the proposal the rent we can pay; Access consideration.
  • Mai: We will discuss with other Sudo Mesh members about what we can pay for our space.
  • Robb: They're asking for a legal arrangement and a delegate member
  • Patrik: Sudo Mesh wouldn't pay rent at the same level as Sudo Room/CCL since the amount of space used is minimal
  • Robb: How would you feel about Sudo Mesh paying rent to Sudo Room but not have a delegate?
    • If CCL split into smaller groups and they all wanted to be a collective what would happen?
  • Rachel: We had to pay rent as soon as we became a member. $600/month. If you're your own entity you contribute to Omni
  • Patrik: Sudo Mesh has been contributing.
  • Mary Ann: It would help with monthly budgeting to at least know what to expect, especially now.
  • Patrik: Sudo Mesh is also supplying network maintenance for Omni.
  • Sudo Mesh/Mai. April 1, 2020

OMNI MEMBER APPLICATION - SUDO MESH What do you do that makes a difference in the world? Sudo Mesh develops software and assembles hardware systems to build open community networks. We are building open technology that helps connect our neighbors, support local businesses, and enable community collaboration and cultural production. In the event of a natural disaster or state censorship, community mesh networks can be a resilient means of communication and sharing of information.

Our projects include People's Open Network, a community-owned and -operated non-profit digital network in Oakland and disaster.radio, an off-grid, solar-powered, long-range mesh network built on free, open source software and affordable, open hardware. Briefly recap your history as an organization. Meetings to build the People’s Open Network began in January of 2013 at Sudo Room. Several founding members of the project, including Marc Juul, Jenny Ryan, Daniel Arauz, Lesley Bell, Jehan Tremback, Jake Sternberg, and Matthew Senate, continue to be involved to this day.

We have continued to build off of the contributions and experiments of people who have been involved over the years. Our accomplishments over the last seven years include:

Development of our own version of mesh routing firmware, SudoWRT, which was built off of existing open source operating system OpenWRT in addition to open source mesh routing protocol Babel. Organized six Build Your Own Internet (BYOI) events where we’ve hosted hands-on activities and presentations about how the internet works and our digital network commons initiatives. Installed 30+ antennas and routers in homes and businesses to become wireless nodes in People’s Open Network. One includes a node at the Internet Archive building in Richmond, CA, which we placed there in order to distribute gigabits of donated, free bandwidth. Raised over $180,000 in grants and individual donations to support our work, including a $30,000 donation to Omni Commons and a $10,000 donation to Sudo Room (where we have hosted our meetings and storage for years). Laptops for All (another Sudo Mesh project) has given out dozens of laptops to high-need individuals.

Our most active projects are the People's Open Network and Disaster Radio.

People’s Open Network empowers communities to build and operate their own wireless networks without relying on last-mile ISPs. Using our design built on open source software, off-the-shelf hardware, and open educational materials, small groups of people can utilize existing bandwidth to share their internet connections and cover public and underserved areas. Those who connect to the network are not customers, but community members, encouraged to learn, participate, host a node or contribute to code.

Disaster Radio is an off-grid, solar-powered, long-range mesh network built on free, open source software and affordable, open hardware. It is being designed to be rapidly implemented in disaster areas by anyone who can follow written instructions, acquire the necessary components, and mount a nominal number of nodes. The nodes will be small, entirely self-contained units running low-bandwidth web apps that anyone can access with a WiFi-enabled device. We are designing them to be solar-powered. What is your incorporation status? (501c3? Unincorporated Association? etc.) We are an incorporated 501c3 organization as Sudo Mesh, with EIN 46-4226376. We have our own bank account with UNIFY Credit Union, including sub-accounts for each of our projects. How do you make decisions? We are currently undergoing a transition in our decision-making process, which has been slowly evolving over the last two years. Until 2018, major decisions were made by in-person votes at weekly Tuesday night meetings by those actively involved in Sudo Mesh projects. Otherwise, decisions were made on an ad hoc, individual basis by those who had the capacity to work on different aspects of a project. For the last two years, we have been experimenting with the decision-making platform, Loomio. We collectively selected active members as “Stewards” who are empowered to vote on any major decisions, particularly those involving financial expenditures. We are also using Loomio to discuss ideas and proposals before they go up for a vote. Currently, proposals must be approved by consensus of approved Stewards. Stewards are not able to block if they are the sole person opposed to the decision — they must work with the proposer to come to a proposal that works for them. This has largely worked for us, but we still lack many protocols that could ensure a stable governance process. For example, we do not have minimum involvement requirements for those to remain as Stewards. We hope to address such issues in the coming months. State your goals for becoming an Omni member collective. How would your presence in the Omni contribute to its purpose and Statement of Solidarity? We believe in the power and potential of the commons as an alternative to capitalism, which justifies the extractive, violent, and depraved treatment of humans, animals, and the Earth. Networked communication has not only become critical for people to access and share information, it’s a necessity for community connection, social justice organizing, and to inspire and disseminate stories and art.

Sudo Mesh is a small project out of many thousands of digital commons organizations that are fighting for a more just and equitable internet. Our goal is to build network infrastructure that is truly owned by and for the public, with a more specific aim to create technology that addresses the information and communication needs of Bay Area neighborhoods.

Sudo Mesh has also long been a pillar organization of Omni Commons. Several of its members have and continue to contribute their time and expertise to maintain the wireless network in the space. Our members have helped with building maintenance and we have also used the space for our BYOI events. Our donation of $30,000 to the Omni Commons in 2018 is also a testament to our commitment to support Omni as a critical community resource in Oakland.

Explain how you will finance your Omni membership dues/rent. We currently have some savings that would allow us to pay our membership dues for the near future. However, we will continue to apply for grants, seek individual donations and other recurring sources of funding to fund our work and all our expenses, including our rent and Omni membership dues. Describe what dedicated physical space (if any) you need. What will you do in the dedicated space? What can you do in shared space? Will you need to make any modifications of the building? Include floor plans if that makes your proposal clearer. We already use some space in Sudo Room: a walk-in storage space in the southeast corner mezzanine. We have considered using more space at the Omni as a regular workspace, but we currently do not have plans to expand our use beyond that space.


Discussions

Mutual Aid Efforts

From last meeting: Shift Participation and Discussion to the general discuss list

  • Jenny: I'd like to ask for more participation on the general discuss list, and less focus on these delegates meetings rn other than to make critical decisions. we need to be pivoting quickly and consensually, and audio-based conference setups where the same 2-4 men (who have all managed to get away with basically living @ omni) dominate the conversation are not, for me at least, conducive to hearing many perspectives from our amazing community (who represent many voices themselves) and coming up with radical & compassionate solutions.

Last Meeting Notes

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2020/03/26_Delegates

End of Meeting

Retrieved from "https://omnicommons.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Event:2020/04/02_Delegates&oldid=6039"