Event:2014/12/18 Weekly Delegate's Meeting

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Delegates Meeting - December 18th 2014 The meeting will begin promptly at 7pm, and end at 9pm; unless consensed upon to go beyond 9pm.

  • Facilitator/s: Laura + diamond dave
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response", "time's up", etc.
  • Stacktaker: Kevin

+ Timekeeper:

Introductions

Name; Affiliation; Prefered Pronoun; If you are new, one thing that brought you here. in attendance: simona, alessandro (white art bus italian friends),joe l., joel, gaily (sparkspace), nora (material print machine), tom (first day),Kevin, mary, sean, lea (new), bill (baps), jenny r, david b, rayce (new, sudo), troy (library), diamond dave, laura t, nagel (radical kid education sparkspace gaily friend), (scott), jeff (new), amanda (like to clean bathrooms and pick up trash!)

Announcements

Any Omni-related announcements.

  • 1. Chris B's access to Omni Commons is revoked (we expect any keys to be returned). 2. Chris B's membership to the Sudo Room is revoked. 3. Chris B is not welcome in the Omni Commons at any time. 4. Negotiation to restore these privileges to access resources of the Omni Commons and Sudo Room communities can only begin (merely start) after Chris B has demonstrated he has solid, persistent, long-term housing outside of the Omni Commons, to ensure Chris B does not repeat current behavior. 5. The only way Chris B can restore these privileges is to re-apply for membership to the sudo room.
  • event to help finance italian bus friends email info@alessandroparente.com
  • joe wants to make sure changes made in space are done well and will offer class in jan on how to hang sheet rock
  • joe found soneone to pick up munchery food !
  • sparkspace - non-coercive school, interested in doing it here!
  • diamond dave and troy can use help in organizing library
  • learn to love; love to learn; this never ends
  • kevin sez 5pm xmas meetup hello
  • 2pm dec 28th meeting to organize a General Strike

Working Group Report-Backs (5 mins per WG, 40 mins max total)

Report-backs consist of answering 3 questions:

  • What did you accomplish this week?
  • what problems or action items do you need to bring to our attention?
  • When is your next meeting?

Commons

  • Come! Saturdays at 1!
  • Would like to add a keycode lock to the front door to give out temporary keycodes
  • omnicommons.org/occupy for booking events

How We Organize

  • tues @ 7 this coming tues YES!
  • need more people!

Finance

From Dec 11th - Please move to Wiki if not there already:

  • Rent and bills have been paid for the month. $16,950 in the bank today. Will be about $11k after loan repayments, last payment to Jesse, the $1,200 in back taxes for BID property tax, and other shared expenses are paid. Will hopefully be back up to $16 once Left Tilt grant comes in.
  • Omni must begin to repay a few loans starting Jan 1. These repayments amount to a $4,500 monthly new expense. For this reason, we need to increase the reserve amount of cash we keep in the bank to $20,000 and put a moratorium on all special project spending from the general fund. Folks should fundraise for special projects until circumstances change.
  • We're working on getting the books in order so Omni can apply for nonprofit status.
  • Invoicing early this month since folks are leaving town for the holidays--need to make sure we have enough cash in the bank before the first because we're sending John a postdated check early to make sure he gets it in time. Please pay invoices before the 1st.
  • Meets every tuesday at 7

Fundraising

Kitchen

Chores

  • Need another Berkeley recycling run to get throw away book pile out of basement: 669 Gilman Street (corner of 2nd Street)
  • Berkeley, Mon-Sun 8:30-4PM

Permits

Welcome

  • Welcoming Committee had their first meeting today!
  • Meeting every Thursday at 6pm starting January 8th
  • in first meetingtalked about:
    • 1. creating framework fro daily volunteer shifts
      • three 4 hour shits/day
      • -call going out for shifts in jan
    • 2. sunday night social 5pm every sunday to get a full intros strting 1st sunday in jan, ice cream themed

Building and Facilities

  • lock on 48th st door for after-hours access
  • roll it over til next meeting there is quarum

nascent anti-racist wg

  • mon 7:30 after Lynice's class :)

Proposals

Please provide the following information with your proposal:

  • The date the proposal was put on the pad;
  • The group or person making/bottom-lining the proposal;
  • Who will be speaking to the proposal at the meeting;
  • Where the full text or other information about the proposal can be found, if it's not all here.

12-18-14 Proposal to install lock on back door

Sean Logan proposes to install a lock on the building entrance on 48th street (the back door), so that people can access the building after hours with a key. This proposal was also made to the Sudo Room meeting on Dec. 17th. All present agreed. At that meeting, Matt Senate, on behalf of the Building and Facilities working group, stated that a budget for tasks such as this may be available.

  • Sean Logan -- fountain11235@gmail.com
  • Not enough delegates were present at the Dec. 18th OMNI meeting for quorum.

12-04-14 (added by Niki) Proposal to designate the bunker / cave room between La Commune and the ballroom as a lockable space for all groups to safetly store expensive equipment.

  • La Commune would like to propose that the bunker / cave room between La Commune and the ballroom be designated as a secure space for expensive equipment, sensitive documents, etc. to be stored by all Omni member groups and tenants. Access will be available to all member groups and tenants but not to the general public.
    • Potential friendly amendment: Specify small items
    • Potential friendly amendment: all personal storage space should be in the form of allocated and/or rented locker or storage cages of some form. Otherwise any available storage space will get filled up very quickly by a few pack rats...
    • scott-lotsa bikes getting stolen. security is important

12-10-14 Backspace Proposal For Membership 20 mins

Summary

  • Backspace proposes to move into the the small BDRM upstairs and to manage the adjacent upstairs DEN.
    • Pay $400/ mo with a review after 3 months (April 15, 2015) and a commitment to increase rent as we bring on practitioners and fill the space. Rent is for:
      • SM BDRM - practitioner room
      • DEN - classes, workshops, etc.
  • Begin paying rent January 15 (Pro-rated rent is $200 for January)
  • Regular low - to - no- cost clinic days take up more space in OMNI (aiming for once a month) -- fill up unused rooms with practitioners for a day of wellness oriented services.

FULL PROPOSAL HERE: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J1triXg0T4msJ3Ab4-OBtkpLAUG4sejD2vtv7CeIe9o/edit

  • no one here from backspace
  • concerns about the time:space ratio - too little $$ for lots of time using the commons
  • sudo room is not blocking, but requests that they explain why they are applying as a member collective. it is confusing that they call themselves a collective yet are charging fees for services and would they be amenable to language like "sliding-scale, no one turned away due to lack of funds"?
  • Kevin - member of Backspace needed to have a more useful discussion

Discussion

Meeting-wide discussion of issues, concerns, ideas, etc.

  • Discussion of garbage storage and management at the Omni.20 mins
  • Where should the bins be stored moving forward? The bike room? Another place in the building? Outside? Dumpsters vs. plastic bins, etc...
  • Current space taken up by garbage bins in exit corridor is ~24x3ft = 72 sqft. Need at least 100sqft if not in a corridor.

(Let's discuss bikes at a future meeting - Laura, facilitator) Likewise, where can we provide more indoor bike storage? Expect to see double the number of people at Omni, including bikes floating around the building, and double the amount of garbage generated by this time next year. Need to set aside some space NOW before all spaces are spoken for. Best locations would be closest to exits: ticket booth; close off part of ballroom; part of the Cafe near the entrance; rooms around the walk-in freezer. See https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Bike_Storage#Indoor_bike_storage

  • We should plan for space to store at least 20 bikes, at 8 sqft/bike = 160sqft.

How can we prevent and how should we deal with people who exhibit difficult or dangerous behavior? 30 mins

  • How should we interact with unwelcome (and potentially abusive/hostile/drunk/etc) guests who are attempting to squat the Omni - (Especially if you are alone!) How can we better communicate that squatting is not ok? How can we improve security? This is brought up by Korl's run-in with a weird guy squatting in the eyeball room at 4 AM. (relocate this agenda item as appropriate)
    • How We Organize WG suggests that this be the breakout conversation
    • Korl - I will be at the meeting on the 18th to help with discussion/questions about incident. I agree we should also have a breakout meeting on this topic expanded. There have been a handful of incidents between Omnians and rude/drunk/hostile/etc guests, and not everyone seems to know what to do/ is appropriate/ is necessary/ etc. Can we have someone from CDC, or who knows our new process well, to help with the discussion?

What are experiences you've had here at Omni?

• David B - proposal on the way re: welcome committee. More pressing than ever. Today Omni had to removed a non-cooperative, previously banned individual

  • Kevin - participated in an expulsion. The guy who spills coffee and mumbles a lot - Shawn
    • Joel: ^ He'd camped out at my house for many months on and off, tied his belongings to our trees
  • Joe: Came in one day and an elderly gentleman was sleeping in the ballroom
  • Amanda: Woman w/ some mental health issues, Amanda and Anthony walked her out of the building
  • Kevin - protocol regarding sleepers - wake them up and them no sleeping allowed
  • Kwik - regarding music room being locked: there was a miscommunication between family members

Emotional Reactions

  • JOE: unusually concentrated amount of theft. Community sees us as invading body? Could be seen as a gold mine. Possible resentment

- Rayc - leaving tools out invites theft.

  • Dave: Need to work together, all keep our eyes open and watch out for each others' back
  • Scott: Good faith has been critical to this project from the start. Theft compounds the fragility of it all.
  • Nora: Worries over use of the words "us" and "them" - that we are defining ourselves as the collective in opposition to the scary external "them"
  • DZ: Doesn't feel frightened, just grateful. The situation earlier today cemented that.
  • Rayc: Risk management prevents theft. If you see tools out, put them somewhere and let others know
  • Jenny: When I first had a conflict with Timon, I was alone in sudo and terrified. Today, I was initially terrified but was immediately surrounded by ten others in solidarity. That was good, more of that.
  • Galey: Worried about all of this wrt liability for a kids program, but the sense of community here is amazing and kids should be a part of that too

Ideas for What Works

  • Dave: Common sense prevailing, watch out for one another. We're all members of the peace army here
  • Kwic: Everyone is each other's surveillance; do all in a way that feels empathetic
  • Galey: Grassroots House dealing with similar situations; helps to offer people orange juice or tea before asking them to leave
  • Kevin: I've done it a lot and it never really worked that well. Clear that a small group of people does almost all of the work.
  • Rayc: Communicate and collaborate in the moment to figure out how to proceed. Being approached by a mob of people is destabilizing. Stall until the person gets tired and worn out,
  • DZ: Omni emergency phone tree or text tree - talk to Kevin

What are areas of concern?

  • Rayc: Property, personal safety
  • Joe: De-escalation, help for those in crisis
  • Kevin: psychic hygiene
  • Kwic: Communication
  • Scott: Cooperation
  • Matt: Personal items are being stored here in several areas of the building. Exclusive use and habitation/sleeping.
  • Rayc: How we present ourself to the community at large, making our policies very clear. "Any personal stuff stored here will be tossed out immediately"

What is the most dangerous aspect of this problem?

  • Kevin: Losing control of the identity of the space. Capitalism creates a massive need. Need to do somethings immediate. erosion for our vision of our space, in favor of identity of massive around us.
  • Diamond Dave: Let's not be too paranoid, let's walk that rightrope line, don't panic keep it organic.
  • Rayc: I recommend a tagging system, there's a human element to all of this, and if we had a system where anyone could tag stuff and give people an awareness that their stuff will be removed within 24 hours or so.
  • Troy: Physical hygiene of the space, people not cleaning up, even small things like pushing back a chair affects the feng shui of the space.
  • Matt: Ethic of leaving the space better than you found it; not losing control of the *culture* of the space and rather building and sustaining it. Concerned foremost about safety, safety of the individual volunteers who dedicate themselves to this space.
  • Kwic: We've been given a great opportunity to show harmony, and are doing well. Fear of favoritism, singling out, having the wrong idea, lack of communication - things we don't normally address.

What are the changes we need to make to reduce/prevent these problems?

  • Troy: Calling each other out with respect. Keep people accountability. Assertiveness training.
  • Rayc: More mindful of our stuff. Make sure there isn't favoritism or central autheority coming in.
  • Kevin: Lockable space. New ethic toward valuables. Better communication re: bans. If you see something, deal with it immediately.
  • Joe: Recognize when people are lost, in trouble, needing help - deal with them right away and directly, don't just walk into another room.
  • Galey: Definitely need the emergency texting tree
  • Joel: Proactivity in our culture. Accessibility of information on people who have been banned
  • DZ: Will bring a revised version of this open to the public proposal. Signage is a big thing.
  • Jenny: Join the Welcoming Committee
  • Kwic: Is physical security part of the Welcoming Committee? Cubbies are a good idea, checkin system for bags. Maybe eventually one day a hostel, here or elsewhere nearby.
  • Rayc: If you don't feel comfortable, don't confront the person.
  • Matt: Proposed creating an operating budget - including buying a key-cutting machine so we can re-key the building whenever we want. Once some folks started staying/crashing at the old space regularly, it created a slippery slope. What does security culture mean to you?

Action Items

  • Kevin to set up a phone tree / text tree
  • CDC: Better communication re: bans
  • Welcoming Committee: Recognize when people are lost, in trouble, needing help - deal with them right away and directly, don't just walk into another room.
  • DZ: ill bring a revised version of this open to the public proposal
  • DZ, Joel, Rayc: Signage and one-sheet
  • Kevin: Lockers/cubbies that can fit hippie bags
  • Rayc: Working on sudo infrastructure, volunteers for carpentry
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