Event:2023/02/16 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - Feb 16, 2023 7pm-9pm

Meeting Details

Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Silver
  • Stacktaker:
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s:
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • inactive groups: ANV, CSC, GWS, SM
  • BOGSS: active, Geraldo
  • CCL: active, Patrik
  • CLP: active, Silvia
  • FNB: active, joe
  • LL: active, John
  • MOP: active, nobody here
  • SR: active, Jake
  • Quorum (2/3 of active groups):

intros

BRIEF INTROS MAY INCLUDE: name, pronouns, groups you're in, land you're on, if you're a delegate, unmet access needs, meeting roles you'd like to help with, discussion topics or proposals to add to agenda, announcements/updates/report-backs from your groups, safe space issues or updates

  • silver, today I met with YBP and other youth programs to create youth space in Den area of omni commons, they are expected to show up
  • patrik
  • helen
  • Silvia, delegate for CLP, no topics to add
  • Geraldo (he/they) BOGSS,
  • John (he/him) delegate for LL
  • Jake (any) sudoroom delegate
  • Yar (she/her). too frustrated and burnt out to remember any topics i was supposed to add.
  • emily
    • i invited someone from queer expression. they're interested in potentially becoming a fiscal sponsor. [don't correct the text, it's what she said -yar]

Relocate Free Store Back to 48th St Facing Wall of Entrance Hall

  • tabled from last meeting: The current location of the Free Store is regularly not only blocking one of Omni's electrical panels, but it makes it super awkward and sometimes impossible for people to access their mail in the mail cubbies. (per Slack message from MA from CCL). The issue raised at the last meeting was "fixing the floor" but it doesn't seem like there is active effort to fixing the floor, so I (Sarah L) propose that if the floor is not fixed by the end of February, or in the process of being fixed by then, that we move the Free Store to its former location in the Entrance Hall starting the First Monday in March
    • Yar: end of february is terribly soon. i'm also leaving town in a few weeeks. i hate that this is an ultimatum rather than an offer to help. the idea of further entrenching the floor in its terrible state is profoundly exhausting to me. i had been trying to fix it for like a year and was not supported in my efforts by anybody else, including all the times i asked for help. please yall.
    • Yar: floor is a cleaning and concrete pour away from being done.
  • Joe: what is the urgency with the floor?
    • Tripping hazard
  • Silver has contractor who needs hours of comunity service.
    • Yar and Joe will meet with them first
  • Budget? Joe feels we shouldn't do it at all - have bigger priorities
  • Are mailboxes accessible yet?
    • yes mailbox pathway is clear now -jake
  • Sarah L will help with floor as she made the proposal and doesn't want to be a complaining jerk

Proposal to ban Deonte from the Omni

in favor: Patrik/CCL FNB/Joe, Jake/Sudo, CLP, BUGSS. Nobody opposed, no Abstains

New Groups in Den

  • 3 orgs to share the room, 3 mo trial period: Youth V. Apocalypse (YVA) can offer $500 for non-exclusive use. United Us can only afford $200, want 3mo trial, then consider becoming collective. Unschooling have been putting a lot of sweat equity in the space, $500/mo
    • John: strong support for YVA; major energy for environmental movement in Bay Area.
  • Patrik: Need to carefully check insurance and zoning issues if we're going to have lots of kids in the building. Having one parent who takes responsibility helps. But I believe there are also zoning limitations for 15+ kids? Need to ask someone who knows about this. Start with Jesse?
  • Joe: YVA and Unschooling are not really collectives - adults make hiring and finance decisions. Would be very different model if they want to become official Omni member collective.
    • John: adult supervision may be mainly for legal reasons; youth is empowered to make the decisions

Queer Expressions as a fiscal sponsoree

  • This group is looking for a 501c3 to manage their donations (in a separate sub bank account). The relationship would give them the ability to have tax deductable donations.
  • Sam McG here to represent, has been talking with Emily, Sarah about fiscal sponsorship
  • Yar: in favor of Queer Expression dance. What kind of budget?
    • Sam: interested in civic grants - $5-10K each; haven't been able to access so far
  • general support is expressed for this relationship. no objections. finance group will follow up to implement.
  • Unite group follow up

accountability and future security around abuse of omni commons

  • addressing the all-night stripper party that was thrown under the guise of someone's daughter's birthday party, and funds were either never offered or were stolen by an Omni regular who is still around
  • Halloween show - follow up on group
  • silver: event on jan 26/7 someone named deonte wanted to rent ballroom. i said no because it wasn't appropriate for omni. they went around me, asked chicago to host. chicago requested it for his daughter's bday. joe was pp. it wasn't a bday party, it was a strip club. a lot of money was made, omni didn't get a dime. deonte said he gave chicago 1k. chicago said he didn't. i'm stressed and don't want to be involved in disciplining anybody. but an accountability structure would be good - written policy that says deonte can't enter the building until they pay, and chicago can't throw events. meanwhile gloria is reporting a lot of off-books events happening with no accountability. want to put a tv screen in entrance hall so people can double check the calendar and make sure events are supposed to be happening. another reason to fill the building with active groups like the youth groups - more eyes on things.
  • patrik: omni collectives can use some rooms. nobody said individual members can use rooms without paying.
  • silver: chicago's been enacting a guardian/steward for years, so we made an exception. but that was taken advantage of.
  • joe: they applied through dane, but chicago admitted right away that he was gonna sell alcohol. i said it'd need to be private. he shined me on, lied over and over, said it'd be private. when i asked for the list night of, he never had it. he never even had control of the event. it was pretty clear he was drunk, deonte was in control, and he was getting drunker - every time i asked, it put more stress on him, so he drank more. sorry silver for putting burden on you, i didn't realize that. i will follow up with chicago and tell him he can't have events.
  • jake: this group asked to have this event, and were told no. then they went to chicago and said "hey get us the room". chicago fabricated this daughter story and went around everybody to facilitate this event happening. it went all night long, very wild, surely made a lot of money. now they're asking to have the event again. they said they gave chicago 1k, presumably to give to omni, presumably they made more than that. chicago told joe & silver that there wasn't any money, he hadn't gotten any. that doesn't make sense - he put his neck on his line to help an event that was already rejected - why would they do it? presumably they're asking again because they think he enjoyed the 1k. also, chicago is an employee of an omni member collective (anv) and for us to say there's no accountability and we should allow this to happen, to me, i don't see how we're gonna be able to continue having the space if people who we allow to participate in our ... our everything ... allow them to do things like this and lie to our faces and still we do nothing about it
  • yar: we are doing something, we're revoking our trust in him and it won't happen again. i doubt he still has the money, i'm sure it's been spent. not sure what else we could do to him other than ruin his life out if revenge or something.
  • Patrik: in favor of banned Deonte and anyone else who was organizing this event. Also in favor of banning Chicago, unless someone wants to start mediation effort with him.
  • silver: these are the people that got caught. i think there's more going on under our noses.
  • jake: tech like the calendar won't fix this problem. door is always propped open, anyone inside can let others in. we can't control a wild party. chicago stole 1k from us. i don't want to ruin his life, i resent any implication that that's what i wanted. we need systems in place to prevent things from happening. i don't think anybody wants to call the police. turning off electricity is ugly.
  • silver: chicago has done way more than 1k worth of free labor for omni
  • joe: i heard deonte asked gloria first, who then directed him to chicago saying "he's a member, he can let you in". i like and appreciate gloria, and it bothers me to hear that.
  • silver: we need more people in the building, can't depend on any one person
  • patrik: if we see an event happening that's not on the calendar, what do we do?
    • ask #events in slack, ask them who's in charge and who their contact person is, can also call events people like joe or silver
  • more speculation on consequences for chicago
  • joe: let's wait until yar and i talk to him
  • proposal to ban DEONTE JONES-MIMS AKA https://www.instagram.com/djtaybottlez1515/ from omni indefinitely, or until significant resolution happens in the future
  • CONSENSUS: YES (ccl/patrik, joe/fnb, jake/sudo, silvia/clp, geraldo/bogss), ABSTAIN (none), BLOCK (none)

renting (sharing) the Omni Office upstairs

  • Unite Inc. is interested in renting the Omni Office upstairs, but two omni finance people are requesting that we don't give up the office entirely but rather share it.
  • emily: Checkbook is often in office, checks for rent sometimes make it up there as well.

Emily CFO update

  • going over updates from our Finance Coordinator and our whole financial situation according to them
  • General: books have been loosely organized for five years, with partial data last three years and no data last 6 months of 2022. To apply for a loan, you need correct data. Ongoing project to bring all accounts up to date has included a map of ~20 bank accounts, reconciliation of 2022 income (events, rent, donations) and expenses. Prior calendar was to start applications in March, for determinations in June
  • Omni hasn't had to update their methods for the outside world in 5 years. There have not been audits for grants in the past or applications where a budget would be reviewed. So this is a period of exponential change, where we are getting organized for data presentation to outside groups (such as banks, the county, and grant boards) which will need a higher level of detail than normally involved
  • The property tax pay plan suggested 12/15/22 via consensus email would need to be in place by April. Might want to discuss here, finance has talked about it. Details: Omni owes five years of backtax, and 5 years is a significant number - the county can place the building for sale if unpaid after the 5th year. This pay plan protects the building from tax sale should the county move on that, and improves our loan outcome chances because it reduces unpaid debt on the mortgage loan application
  • Multiorigin income: Rent and Events have been main income 2017-2022. Keeping up with these and expanding by looking at city and public grants, employer matched donations (double donor amount), fundraisers and presense on donor verification websites. Upcoming loan types: Bank, CDFI, and private loans
  • Rents are in a good place, 1-2 still outstanding from 2022
    • Organizing finance data to bank standards for a mortgage team In the home stretch
    • How much progress have we made towards loan refinance? Books are ready, see "General" above
    • Progress on tax exemption status? Finance email 2/10
  • emily: when you do a loan application, they need to look at all your previous data, at least a year, usually 2 years. need to make that organized. when i first got in the books, they'd been loosely organized for the last 5 years, nothing at the level of high detail you'd need for a loan. there's an ongoing project cleaning all that up, both in actual quickbooks and also the actual bank accounts. my experience with omni bank accounts is there's not a lot of documentation and i've been working to track down those different accounts and see how much we actually have, where we have it and potentially be able to consolidate it so it looks like something a normal bank would be able to review and say yes to. i'm working to reconcile 2022 income. the prior calendar was to start applications in march, and get determinations (bank saying yes or no) by june. originally the idea was to request all of it from a bank, then we started talking about smaller amounts. that's probably gonna be the best way to do it - a few small loans. that'll depend.
  • emily: omni hasn't had audits for grants in the past or budgets needing review. this is exponential change - getting ready to show books in detail. this project was something that needed to be done. it's good timing for the loan but will also help you get income with grants. we're at 2 weeks from where we thought this would be wrapped up. it's getting there. there's been a lot of revisions. we went and reconciled the rents recently and those are looking good too for 2022. the big update i'd said in the past, but wanna flag for this meeting, is the tax pay plan. this was suggested from our real estate lawyer christina back in december.
    • patrik: this is property tax specifically?
    • emily: yes, a pay plan to address back taxes. finances has talked about it, will touch on it briefly. omni has existed for 5 years and in that time no property taxes have been paid because we've been doing the applications. county can sell building after 5th year. that's on the horizon. this pay plan protects the building from being auctioned. it improves loan chances because it reduces the unpaid debt. we know the exemption package is not gonna erase all the backtaxes. we will have to pay some amount. we can enter into this pay plan, we're paying down that amount, we only have to pay 1/5 of it.
    • yar: $100k in total - 40 in April, 60 later this year
      • Currently $59,575 in GoFundMe
    • emily: i'm flagging it again for this larger group in hopes that we can make some kind of plan for that and/or discuss it if it needs to be discussed.
    • emily: we're expanding multi-origin income. in the past events were the main source. we're keeping up with those, adding more people/events, looking at city/public grants, employee match donations (which is doubled), presence donor verification websites (when people want to donate to a random nonprofit).
    • there's 2 kinds of loans - bank loans, cdfi, private loans. we're looking at all of them to hopefully get multiple sources.
    • in summary: finances are pretty well on its way. we're talking about getting applications together for march. kinda on that trail. tax exemption status (see my 2/10 email). gofundme would be a good source for that, it's the bulk of what's liquid right now. focus was on the current year, that deadline for 2023/2024 just passed. we finally have resolution on a 6 year process and will have legally reviewed process for future year applications. those packets have mostly been sent at this point and we're waiting on alameda county to respond. it won't be 100% but hoping it'll be about 70%. we had our real estate lawyer representing us, occasionally sending alameda reminders to talk to us. alameda has told us it'll take a year, but we'll see what they say on the next round.
  • joe: what's the total liquid asset excluding gofundme?
    • emily: i saw 85k recently, so 85-60 = 25k?
  • yar: not all 60k has made it into the gofundme account
  • silver: are you working with others?
    • emily: met extensively with sarah, with both lawyers, finance wg was mostly disbanded because people needed a break in december. got back together early february.
  • [much convo missed]
  • emily: my work is to identify speedbumps and figure out what is going on with them. one early example is tracking down all the bank accounts. it's almost a venn diagram of what sarah does and what i do.
  • [more missed]
  • sarah: i dn't want to say you're not capable of doing work, but i asked you to do simple rf1 forms and you said you didn't know how to do it, you'd have to watch a webinar. through all our discusisons around property tax issues you've repeatedly demonstrated that you don't grasp the issues around it. you don't ask questions that someone who's competent and capable would ask. you assumed the kitchen account was a FNB account.
  • emily: i'd just come from a meeting where he called it the FNB account. i thought he knew something i didn't. sorry, that was pretty easy to work out. idk that that says what you're implying it says. with the rrf1, idk your taxes, you're the person who's done your taxes, so it seemed reasonable. that was the first time i'd approached [...] i thought that'd be a good fit, you had experience with taxes, so you'd be the best person to ask for that. my role is coordination, so i could do it, but it seemed like you could do it faster and knew more about it. it was a time crunch, due 12/15 and i was just hired in december
    • sarah: this is a form that takes someone like 15 minutes to fill out. seriously, it just shows that idk, it's just...
  • proposal to terminate emily's contract and make a task-oriented contract. you can help lead.
  • patrik: needs 7 days written notice. the proposal would be to give emily notice of termination of her current contract, and commit to renegotiate a new contract.
  • jake: idk what it means to commit to renegotiate.
    • we'll remove that language but individual people will commit. sarah is willing to help.
  • jake: i feel everybody's stress. i don't like the stress either. i feel everybody yelling at me. i don't understand finance stuff and i don't want to.
  • Willing to help work on renegotiating a new contract: Sarah, Patrik, Yar
    • Should include who to report out to, who should have visibility of invoices, specific tasks,
  • sarah: i haven't noticed that omni has actually paid emily. emily showed one contract from early december. before we can renegotiate we can settle up with what she's owed so far and actually pay her for what she's done. otherwise it feels not good.
    • patrik: she sent to me a spreadsheet with work up until last week. i don't think i had access to that before. the way it should work is weekly invoices.
    • sarah: i personally feel bad for omni and for emily that she's done this work and hasn't gotten paid yet
    • emily: there's been a lot of people ahead of me who haven't been paid, so
    • sarah: well if there's conversations about what we can afford to do and what we cna spend, that helps the reality sink in, as opposed to anxiety over we might owe you more than we think, or ignoring that we owe you money and then spending money we don't have
  • PROPOSAL: Give Emily 7 day notice of termination of her current contract
    • CONSENSUS: YES (Patrik/CCL joe/fnb clp/silvia geraldo/bogss jake/sudo); ABSTAIN (none); BLOCK (none)
  • yar: i'm willing to help but only to the extent that emily wants to deal with me, since that's clearly not copacetic
    • patrik: we can make sure she's not reporting to you
    • sarah is fine doing it. i'm just concerned we're talking about rehiring somebody who has clearly demonstrated to me that [redacted]. i guess the issue is whether omni is so desperate.
    • joe: you can represent that to the other folks
    • silver: sarah should get paid more. they're getting half the amount that emily is.
  • sarah: i don't want to inflate my rates just because someone else needs money. [personal details] my concern is i don't trust her judgement.

RVC

  • Real Vegan Cheese has been a project of Omni Commons (Omni was in need of the right category of money at the time, and RVC had just done a big crowdfunding campaign and could help out). Would it make more sense to move it over to CCL, or would it be beneficial for refinance to keep it under Omni for now. Bank account is currently with Bank of the West. Not sure how much is left on it - possibly around $10K.
  • emily: it would not affect the books because it has not been counted in the books
  • there is a plan for more info to be gathered and to have this bank account incorporated in our books
  • RVC has no immediate plans to spend it but would probalby like to soon
  • Patrik will get info on how much is there, and check whether it would even count on Omni's books - contact finance group with info

End of Meeting

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