Event:2023/12/15 Delegates

notes archived here: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2023/12/07_Delegates

Omni Delegates' Meeting - 15 Dec 2023 7pm-9pm

Meeting Details

• Talk at https://https://omnicommons.org/meet or 515-428-1108 (PIN: 465814905)
• Type at https://omnicommons.org/notes
• Send proposals to consensus@lists.omnicommons.org prior to the meeting

Roles

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

Delegates

• BOGSS:
• CCL: patrik
• FNB: josh
• SB:
• LL:
• SB:
• SM:
• SR: paige
• 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 PROMPT people to share contact info in the chat, so we can stay in touch

• Silver - they/them
• Pallavi - she/her/they/them grantwriter, development consultant
• Philip - is 5013c omni exists, i expect grants can still be granted
• Pallavi - yes thats why im still looking for grants
• Tuan - he/him FNB delegate
• Joe - he/him access issue of hearing. not getting clear audio. i was on meeting hybrid, i thought more people came in person. its not a good way to make such an important decision. i think we need a decision made in person
• ruby - just sitting in for the first time, im here with the media lab collective
• phillip m - fnb and omni maintenance
• carlos - he/him, here on behalf of tanc
• cere- he/him just moved here, just happened upon space yesterday
• paige - they/them sudo room delegate
• yar - she/her free store
• jake - any pronouns member of sudo room, been a member of omni for a long time
• josh - he/him fnb alternate delegate
• phillip bell - events working group
• ? - she/her they, havent been in here for a long time. looking to get more involved this time
• troy - im the omni librarian. after few text messages, people stop talking to me. made a commitment to phil and juan? ian and myself that im not going to take more books in. been having issues with health but going to bring books out every day. want to help people do research. who, what, when where?
• elaine - just came to listen, member of sudo room
• patrik - delegate for counter culture labs
• G - nice to see you all, he/they, helping with marketing and communications

meeting for decision making

• silver - joe had idea to have larger meeting for decision making. can you expand joe?
• joe - im overwhelmed, so many things coming to a head. university has staked out the park, signs of construction coming about. this go round with getting the omni refinanced, i think it deserves a meeting where we could all see each other and read each other, and know the humanity of each other. this means extending decision to longer.
• silver - next week on the 21st?
• yar - next thursday at 7?
• joe - sounds reasonable. this meeting we should prepare for a meeting that would take full advantage
• phillip m - party on that date?
• joe - oh thats my anniversary. having people over at 4
• phillip b - i would suggest more officially setting a deadline for gathering proposal, options that are had. and putting them together into one google doc, with everything gathered at once, so everyone can make comments on it asynchronously. i know huge looming deadline.
• G - are there other proposals

LLC idea

• jake - this idea has been done before, many times, some of us have lived in coops. corp created to buy the omni commons. people join by putting in money. money buys off balloon payment of 876k. that 876k comes from the combined funds of people. that corporate structure written in a way that all of those people could be assured that (like mulberry trust was assure) of their money. if omni doesnt make the deadline, they get building liquidation to pay themselves back. something we would have the lawyer draw this up
• troy - what is validity of our community land trust if it doesnt give people time to pay back
• patrik - no community land trust currently
• troy - oh i was told...
• jake - already a few people expressed. no one has 867k but many with 5 digits. but i think a lot more people who do it with more assurance/structure set up by lawyer.
• patrik - to be clear, not donations, just a way to create a lender
• silver- my critique, we tried something like this before but it was when omni was way more put together. I dont think we have enough time for a land trust
• patrik - i dont think so, we have at least 3 months, hopefully 6 months. we should pursue all options
• silver - most formal proposal is PP, still lots of questions. we would lose ownership but still be able to use the building.
• jake - reminder to everyone PP has put up the boycott.
• silver - please stop
• pallavi - yes we discussed this last meeting
• patrik - still 110 days after foreclosed about
• phillip - i wouldnt be talking about 6 month. omni doesnt have expensive
• yar - starting to become an issue for our events. i,.e. sketchboard needs security to plan things in advance. sooner we can solve the uncertainty
• joe - any leeway with mulberry, if we raise some money with the LLC
• yar - might buy time but wouldnt count on that

peoples programs

• dv - she/her grocery
• nyallah - breakfast lead for pp
• abbas - cofounder pp
• delency - cofounder and cochair
• josh - fnb, delegate. a lot of fnb members are really excited about the idea of the proposal in the format that it was. few concerns raised. im not sure if now best time or to go with a list. one of the primary ones is in regards to - how likely is anonymous donor is to come through? seen some fall through. also more clarity on what the proposed governing structure is. understanding voting and democratic centralism. other concern is yalls relationship to CLP, but that is a broader conversation. our collective has not decided to block anything, we are just interested in getting more information, but if you are comfortable talking about this relationship. also concerns about pro-iran and pro-russia
• silver - last week they shared their relationship to CLP
• delency - we have no problem, i think its best we address everything you brought up. good to collectively ground yall on why we are here. we are here to address any matter that blocks our goal. which is our goal is to take over leadership of omni, as hub for anti-imperialist organizing. we hope you will pass a vote, to let us to. kwame use to say, we are going to keep on keeping on. seems like time is starting to be wasted. would you agree? i think also its imporatnat. but we also have our concerns. also some misrepresentation spread by omni. so lets come here today to show in practice how we address contradictions so you can all take that into account.
• abbas - goal of us in our proposal is to have conflict resolution. discuss in a way that roots our common humanity. question about me being pro iran and pro russia. i am muslim. big part of my life. if we talk about iran specifically. i was offered position to work with presstv to talk about black african plight in us. i think its important that we are grounded in facts. first thing has anyone watched the show power to the people where i discussed new afrikans, africans. presstv is only org that would let me say what i wanted to say without being censored. been on other channels for 45 seconds, few seconds. new african cause to new terrain. a lot of people dont know whats going on, they see famous ppl. we can reclaim a certain narrrative, we dont have infrastructure, we dont have land. black radical tradiionaly, willimas nhad a show in cuba. accusations about being a state agent, iran is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. malcom shabazz, grandson of X. he went to iran and did an interview on presstv. he was assassinated in mexico city. claims of iranian agent is not only disrespectful to my intelligence, but also language CIA to criminalize any type of free kind of speech for us to have. understanding assassination of malcom, then calling me an agent, these are things that cia. serious reprecussions for myself. could send me to guantameno, thats not an exaggeration as a muslim. everyone entitled to their own opinions on iran, but it becomes dangerous when accusations are made, and those accusations are backing us and israeli talking points. tends to patronize and weaponize muslims. using iran as a pawn to advotate has a pawn. complex understanding of hijab. this is me an hijab, this is part of a religiion, what i chooose to practice. need to understand history of how statements can be violent. irans relationship to african movements. iran kicked out SA apartheid gov. iran welcomed in palestinain a lib groups. if you listen to our brics episode, you can hear a different statement on russia. what is russia? capitalist. jalil muntaqim spent 49 years in penintentiries. my family. first time out to spend time with family. someone talking about banning me from omni, thinking that is very egregious, given plight of neighborhood. given plight of the black panther party, how they were systematically removed to allow tech people to come in. to say i cant come to omni.symbolic to what has happened to black people . idk what else to call that other than racist or islamophobic. even here have to affirm my humanity in a room where people dont look at me. we're open to having conversation. like yar said we talked about middle east conflict for hours. what we are trying to say we are open for conversation. in terms of being pro-russia, hey we are critical of the west, we are critical of nato.

* nyallah - as a muslim woman, for anyone to speak whether or not i should wear a hijab. that is not anyones place. i wear my hijab with pride. that is are own personal relationship with allah. very western, white, racist ideology for you to feel that it is your place to speak as a representation for other people rights when they have not asked you to be.
* seer - i really appreciate you sharing that. i guess i dont want to speak for anyone, maybe ive been exposed to things are inaccurate portrayals. i have seen muslim women talk about oppression
* nyallah i think that its a very thin line between trying to support people and trying to insert yourself in a conversation that you do not belong. you do not know intricacies of what it means to be a muslim women. evne as a muslim im still learning, we all are still learning. very thin line and i would be careful, personally
* seer - yea im talking about exploring more opinions, not explaining for them. context, i just moved here, ive been in the space 2 days. im not representing anyone other than myself. as a trans person i have questions, muslim beliefs. any intersectional with trans right
* delency - perfect segue, to our ideology. abbas laid the foundation. how that might play out on the international terrain. claims of us being marxist leninists, stalinists, followers of mao zedong. just need to scroll, new afrikans have a right to free the land. our goal is to free the land. state either reactionary or revolutionary, we want revolutionary that serves all people, no matter religion gender ... we do want to see a world where all people walk free. understand how this world is shaped by nation states, nato. to address that game, we want to see the republic of new afrika. ultimate goal is pan africanism. only by unification that is the only way to combat western imperialism. africa one of richest nations in world. if we organize socially economically, and most importantly militarily, we can combat. no where does marx address pan africanism, he dont even talk on imperialism. mao said they should forge their own path "combatting liberalism" now i want to know what omni
* phil - in fnb, have to belivee in the 911 conspiracy, cant kill the ants. i can see how that be unsettling. got to go to a certain number of protests.
* d - who ideology is that?
* phil - i dont call myself an anarchist, but i am around 
* d - we have worked with groups that dont work in anti-imperialsm. if your anti-imperialism comes through anarchy. revolutionary nationalism is our
* troy - now is what people taught are global capitalism. lenin forward, that got interprested by the new left, i dont read spanish, i cant most people dont want to do violence, do backwards things. i will dedicate 6 years of my life if we develop __ and 

• d - concerns addressed.
• josh - were satisfied with answer you got, or do you want to hear more about ideology.
• d - yall got a point where we have these problems and these contradictions so we can get to this vote.
• silver - one suggetstion to a larger group meeting for all collectives. given all these accusations and allegations. we can research anyone and find problems. weird to level we are doing to PP. when talkijng about systems of harm. and we need to look in at ourselves. esp with their. as person coming from 2018
• yar - i appreciate you coming here. i want this to work. the only thing that is still giving me pause, is iranian friends of mine, who are scared with people who have . if you can assure iranian dissidents are safe here. thats all i need
• d - weve spoken of this for. our community is boycotting you but we are breaking bread. we have said multiple times. we good we want to have a conversation. what from our writings has it made that iranian women are not safe. what episode or writing makes them feel unsafe. those that source rafiqs piece, nothing but women in that piece. he who cast the first stone. you are asking something that you are not giving us
• pallavi - as poc taking space, the pushback against pp proposal. pushback really reeks of islamophobia. i dont feel comfortable in this space if that is where you are coming from. i am close with people who have worked with PP. i trust those people with their life. no doubt in my mind that they have the financial . the options to save the building are unrealistic, given reality of lack of structure, and inability to raise funds, know donors backgrounds. a lot of this discussion is really short sited. those qs should be directed to people with experience, not those who are failing. even though you have created a beautiful space here, if you dont have a clear idea of how to go forward on a tight deadline, they i dont know how to help you
• yar - ill take that as a yes
• g - i saw some conversation about PP and things found online, there were deciscions made off of what was being found. i appreciate PP coming through. why are we making deciscions without having conversations first. reflection of a pattern of alleged statements made against omni
• pallavi - by people of color specifically
• g - dont want ppl to feel scared. well fuck it feel scared. this is bigger than any one of us specifically.
• josh - i want to echo safe space for iranians. i think theres a hyper emphasis on picking out specific things people program. drawing ideological jumps. remember that a lot of people dont feel safe. who are we to say pp need to commit to some specific thing. under auspice of protecting iranian dissidents. but there are so many people who dont feel safe here. this space is not safe now, so why demand that from PP. thats personal opinion. with fnb hat back on - appreciate PP being here. i dont think this should be a trial of abbas. conveyed things fnb had asked. i think we should move past that.
• G - one thing i noticed in this meeting and with prev groups, intellectual war of my thoughts vs your thoughts. reason why things are the way that they are. if we are going to be an inclusive space. how do we hold space without being harmful each other. true of demographic. why are their conflicts with other groups
• joe - this is very hard for me. the omni commons has a lot of problems. i was gung ho 2014. put in hours of hours rebuilding sound walls and things. always been clear that we lacked ability to have a modicum of trust that we could speak blunt. so a lot of factionalism. i know how i feel so thats all i can say. part of events working group. rented to PYM two summers ago. youth camp. to now hear they are boycotting us, all i can say is what happened. at least not on all levels. there were contentious meetings, all involved CLP stuff. beating the drum. hard to process that with interactions with PYM or black ppl in community. oscar grant committee works here. church for 6 months. FNB doesnt have overarching radical program. try to serve the marginalized. your program is so organized and powerful, and way you present yourself. i dont know if youll have much need for fnb. i dont if fnb can pass your test
• d - frustration right now. folks in leadership has conveyed what we have done to your. all we are doing is making them stronger.
• yar - big enough for both food?
• abbas - pp do people park, pp do northgate to 29. can be welcoming to black people. beacon of light for whole nation. change a lot of time started right in oakland.
• troy - right to eat food, capitalized
• yemi - if folks in the space understand how we move, currently right now in oakland 8000 unhoused people. majority black, genocide of our people. material numbers drive our org. factually fnb has an expansive group, why arent we working together. for folks to say we might be authoritarian. weve worked with non profits to women dv. we dont practice purity politics. ply and peeth, acupuncture protocol to do a detox clinic.
• pallavi - back channels here because people want to be called racist. back channels have to stop. pp providing so much transparency. do it here while you have people here. staying anonymous is not productive
• d - if that is how people acting, i have no desire to interact.
• paige - heat of boycott meeting
• d - reconciliation between silvers friend,
• yar - came in with one remaining concern. emphatic yes.
• tuan - what paige brought up, PP was first introduction to a lot of people at omni. people felt like it wasnt addressed to . good you responded that you are open to that.
• d - i think its important to know so of the stuff of racism is true. we just had to plead our humanity. now we have to get a full investigation to make a proper conclusion. presentation is yall came in did these things. but basis is true. for things that werent principled, will be addressed.
• troy - land trust keep going to monetize. need to focus on what will protect us as a community
• G - open up some transparency about what is going on with foreclosure and accountability. omni is exploring additional options. looking for other proposals. dont mean to say that peoples programs x'd out. currently seems like most fleshed out plan. also in late jan planning to do a 2 day meeting. foreclosure meeting with community, and anohter on accountability with groups who have left the building.
• josh - yall have conveyed some urgency. want clarity on when omni needs an answer for PP
• abbas - urgent situation in terms finances and donors. legal work to appease a foreclosure after speaking with an attorney. could be a long process or quick or expedited process. urgency omni should have because of foreclosure status. all these are different factors that we have to consider. we want to know as soon as possible because we dont want our time to be wasted. there are going to be developers who are waiting for this to happen.
• josh - really interested in what would be a comfortable timeline
• silver - foreclosure will start til jan, but still have 90 days
• paige -
• abbas - we also need time to learn about building, and liabilites. going to be a lot of work. no need
• yar - my understanding of next steps is one lawyer turn that proposal into a legally binding contract.
• abbas - be us to come to conclusions that we should make together rather than the lawyer
• yar - what your saying is we give soft yes, then hard yest to contract
• d - we need hard yes or no, then we can start working with a lawyer. for us to have a soft yes, not a scientific process
• patrik - i think proposal is lacking with specifics
• d - it has been updated.
• abbas - q?
• patrik - govenerance, and legalese. want lawyer to hash out details
• yemi - my understanding proposal from this delegate body to move things forward. now its sounds like you want lawyers to create bylaws that you would then vote on.
• abbas - question about governance
• yemi in legal language?
• patrik - not necessarily
• abbas - us taking over finances and full ownership of the building for 900k. delegates meets in similiar way. but making this a black hub. if no black delegates now thats a problem. our proposal, we would assume financial for mulberry trust and that debt, maintain delegates and tenants in the space, and move forward in a positive way, while also creating new leases.
• g - two interests that omni that exists now and omni of the future. also what does transition process. just want to voice that feels tense.
• yar - ownership i appreciate, that was not in the proposal you sent. that could happen in two ways. could body of omni commons replaced with new people from PP, or a real estate transaction. RE transaction costly. if omni commons org repurposed, then what is delegate structure. but the existing delegate structure is the board. i believe theres a way to satisfy these contradictions without a lwawyer but...
• abbas - for us to be able to raise that money. i think there needs to be a 2million investment in this building. we have a track record that omni doesnt have on paper. transfer of ownership would be best for creating black community center
• yemi - temperature check, what is ideal situation for folks that are currently tenamts. what ownership have you thought about, given we are providing all the funding
• yar - one scenario i asked lawyer about would be for omni maintain ownership but would give 35 year lease for PP with understanding that new groups would be added to that board, so both groups . lease as a corporation would be where all the details of relationship hashed out. i dont want property relationship but because real estate transaction costly, would trigger a 2million. potentially reapply for welfare exemption. we need details before we can get a hard yes. need to know what we are saying yes too.
• silver - as a person who does mostly of admin something we dont do very well. a lot of collectives want to keep organizing in their space. really hard to even get delegates to come here. wrangling cats. to me it felt clear but seems like we need to have more discussion.
• patrik - most of the groups in building dont want to own building, but we want to do what our orgs are set up to do, which are not owning the building
• seer - from that position, you all are coming in talking about experiencing a modern lynching, and coming to a space that is experiencing a lynching. with both orgs experiencing misinformation.. i think theres a lot in common about that and be very vulnerable. chinese perspective but coming to space where you may come and be in danger. saying "can you be more specific" before coming in seems like a power imbalance. makign up for omnis reputation, i think from limited . people havent watched the video you are being slandered for.
• josh - as FNB we are not married to any logistical structure of building. our primary motivation is to continue having space that we can cohabitate and continue doing food justice. only concern about ownership is will we get kicked out randomly. not a concern ive had, but i think people would be assuaged by what youve said
• toan - when groups come in to omni, to become member collective. process is usually longer. i think we are not trying to rush it, just trying to know details of who is coming in. i dont think this require a haste process. but also pressure of foreclosure. just a question to clarify - last week there was a statement that allegience to politics not to people. can you clarify
• d - scientific to the politic. i would not put relationship with abbas above politic of PP.
• patrik - how do you forsee working with people who dont share your politics
• d - we are doing it right now
• yemi - no one is specifically interested in owmership, but do want to maintain space. temp check around ownership
• joe - concern about deciscion making. once you take over financially and admin, theres a contradiction in maintaining any type of strict or quasi non hierarchiacal deciscion making. you say a leadership caucus., with our without those titles, ownership places you in a space where you are in a higher power because you have responsibility larger. knowing how much we will be able to participate in decision making
• yemi - helpful to understand, from what silver and yar have shared, administration is something people dont want to deal with. what decisions are you talking about making as a collective. what decisions are you concerned about with that hierarchy
• joe - space allocation. pretty quickly allocation of space
• abbas - in proposal we maintain tenant structure that already exists. we understand different levels for space. we are not kicking anyone else. weve said very clearly. my opinion ballroom and kitchen need upgrades. food bank that serves black brown, muslim communities. for us as financial and administrative, we are responsible for that. safe food handling according to alameda laws. sprinklers in ballroom. society ruled by capitalist. hierarchy in this room right now even if you say theres not. collective ideology to where delegates and tenants to advocate for certain things. i want you to come about issues. black movement center and movement incubator; deep obligation felt to our town and our people
• patrik - appreciate a little of time to talk amongst ourselves.

after meeting discussion

• josh - hung up on details of decision making. i think the reality is we will never get a fully legally binding structure that will say that we will have decision making in the building when admin is moved over to pp. will have to trust that they will work with us in good faith. working within a country where legal contracts not set up for communal structure. cooperatives and land trusts rely on some level of trust. we also dont have a true consensus process already. hierarchies in this room that are deeply present, we are entrusted those with institutional power through holding knowledge. not going
• patrik - community land trusts do this, hold groups occupying groups responsible via their bylaws. i think legally theres a way to
• seer -
• josh - if we really wanted a land trust, that shit shouldve happened a while ago. demanding so much from these black individuals to jump through these hoops for.
• troy - need a structure of accountability
• silver - difficult to be here, attending a delegate meeting where delegates dont know what the hell is happening in the building. expect volunteers to do it. to expect PP to come with a perfect proposal is unfair. i beg all delegates and volunteers to participate and they dont join. even with capacity building group its still been a shit show. decision making model doesnt work.
• patrik - all members collectives just want to do their own thing
• pallavi - ideology of lets do our own things in silos. disservice to sharing the space. frankly its selfish.
• silver - want to address that delegates are volunteers, all have their full time jobs
• yar - i want to say my vision when we started it was not that were rooms, not just transactional relationship. my vision was member collectives are here bc they serve a purpose. serve building blocks for what a community needs. sudo room - place where people can fix things. if somebody skill is to run a fixit clinic on tuesday - you are helpping the building by doing your work in sudoroom. takes some discipline to maintain that. not true of every group. try not to get too caught up in like "why arent you in a wg". FNB - if someone is serving food, i dont think they need to be doing something else
• pallavi - i think its more that delegates. if delegates is failure on their part. they dont have that much care for the spcae
• patrik - i didnt know PP were going to join us. i really would appreciate if we had time to talk amongst ourselves. CCL meeting, theres a lot of distrust of PP. few of core members said they would leave ccl if PP join the building. PP still has Rafiqs post up. their goal of bible belt into black nation, secession is goal. counter culture already on the radar of the FBI. and FNB, ppl with occupy. there was a lot of opposition, also partially due to lack of detail. i liked a lot of what i heard today. got some feedback from response in the Peoples Garden.

peoples garden

• pallavi - should be asked before next time
• paige - next meeting is our big meeting
• G - if its a huge group, we need a facilitator.

agreed

• patrik - also how are we going to vote on the proposal
• silver - facilitator to talk about harms in past. even if omni ceases to exist, will help when we are working with each other after. Friday/Saturday first weekend of January.
• --- - thing that stood out to me is speculator developers coming in
• -- deeds of what this place could be, disappearing. hope that its going to be okay. hope to help you fundraise some time,

• lawyer is 175/hr
• patrik - but worth it