Event:2018/06/07 Delegates Meeting

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - 7 June 2018 7pm-9pm

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

Agenda

  • Introductions, Meeting Roles, and Delegates Count [10 minutes]
  • Access Check-in [5 minutes]
  • Announcements [5 minutes]
  • Bans [5 minutes]
  • Working Group Report-Backs [15 minutes]
  • Member Collective Updates (10 minutes)
  • Proposal: Omni Media Lab [15 minutes]
  • Proposal: Delegates Decision-Making Process [15 minutes]
  • Discussion Z:
  • Outsiders using Omni Bathrooms (15 minutes)
  • Omni Clean up and responsiblities
  • Discuss the idea of starting a neighborhood council against gentrification at the Omni (which may or may not connect to the work a new group that meets at the Omni has been doing—baytanc.com/)
  • Fiscal Sponsorship for North American Anarchist

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†

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

  • Mary Ann
  • Lynn
  • Julian
  • Phil FNB
  • Clive Poets House
  • Sierk - Sudo room - may need to step out for tail bone discomfort, if there is something important please take into consideration that
  • Ken - CCL
  • Rachel - GWS
  • Florence - with the Poets House
  • Almaz - GCEA
  • Liz - LL

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Lynn + Julian
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response"(wildcard), etc.
  • Stacktaker: Phi;
  • Timekeeper: Rachel
  • Notetaker/s: Julian
  • Vibe Reader: Lynn
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s): perhaps Almaz


Delegates

  • ABDC:
  • BAPS: Julian
  • CCL: Ken
  • CSC: Mary Ann
  • FNB: Phil
  • GWS: Rachel
  • LL: Liz
  • Sudo: Sierk
  • TIL: inactive
  • GCEA: Almaz
  • Quorum: 8/9

Announcments

  • CSC is sponsorhing a Palestine update & concert and Arnaldo is doing an conversation - Saturday at the balroom - 6:30-10:30pm - there will be food
  • OneFam Block Party BBQ 2-6pm this Saturday, Julian will send email
  • Poets House - Beat Aesthetic - this Saturday 1-4pm - in the basement
  • DJ group will be doing a cleaning tomorrow afternoon as their event - apparently there was a mess on Sunday in the ballroom that got put onto them
  • GWS - mobilization next Monday with the Poor People's Campaign to let the Sacramento capitol building know that the 5 pillars of the national group (targeting 30 states, 1000 people been arrested) - to change the moral narrative in the country;
    • there is an organized effort for rides - if anyone wants to go can email or call 415-640-4250
    • Sierk - could someone send information to the Omni discuss list?
      • Rachel - Jenny is ging

New Bans

  • Phil - Cheyenne was banned from the Omni for sexual harassment. at a FNB meeting at the longhaul came and was disruptive again.
    • Sierk - there was more sexual harassment by this person a couple weeks ago. a person asked for a safe space ban, but then retracted it?
      • Julian - do we want to support this person, if so could we be more proactive?
        • Clive - when I was in school I was part of offering short 12 step programs
          • about 8% successrate. those people who are committed have a high recovery rate
      • Almaz - last time I made this point again
      • Rachel - it seems like the drinking is the problem, and as an alcoholic - there is little you can do
        • Almaz - if we at least invite this person to a CSC meeting, maybe they can show that this person cares about him
        • Rachel - these sorts of persistent problems
    • Sierk - I only know him as a community member here, but I do know this he volunteers at a homeless center, and he's been at the longhaul. people who frequent that see him re
      • a lot of bans here have to do with mental health and people alienated by community. perhaps being able to offer resources for mental health, addication, homelessness resources could be one way to support folks.
      • personally, my thought is that we shouldn't ban people, we should ban behavior. having ways back for people to be able to come back and participate in this community
  • Julian - we should
    • Almaz - yes, CDC should take this up and in
  • Rachel - is this person is upset?
  • Lynn - if there is a committee
  • Rachel - this needs to be a really frank discussion. we love you when you're sober, but when you're drunk your offensive.
    • Clive - I'm more than happy to offer myself as a resource in this way.
  • Florence - was he informed of his options and our feelings about him before banning - be able to raise the options amid the process?
  • Julian - there is distinction a temporary ban versus a permanent ban
  • Add to list of people asked to leave

Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

Meetings: 1st & 3rd Mondays @ 6pm

  • Sierk - I'm on the committe, but there haven't been emails or meetings in the past two weeks
    • people are working on a lot of things right now, but no direct communication in
    • Ken - there's no meeting minutes but things happen
      • we were just painting the basement this afternoon
  • This group needs help; https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/building

Commons

Meetings: First and Third Thursdays at 6pm

  • Lynn - Capoeira is having three nights a week in the entrance hall to see how it works for everyone. tomorrow night there will be instruments. about 10 people in their classes Weds and Mon
    • Ken - it was no issue for us
      • there are fridges out there, they belong to Sudo and are being used for harvesting compressors
        • does freon leak, is the question Marc is researching
      • Lynn - they did ask about making more room
      • Ken - we could stack the friges

Communications

Meetings: Second and Fourth Wednesdays at 6pm

  • Julian - honestly we haven't been meeting

Finance

Meetings: Currently conjoined with Fundraising, 2nd & 4th Mondays at 6pm

Fundraising

Meetings: Currently conjoined with Finance,, 2nd & 4th Mondays at 6pm

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?

ABDC

BAPS

  • Poets House is doing a class - the Beat Aesthetic and why we need it today, Saturday 1-4pm and continuing on second Saturdays monthly
  • other BAPS classes are running as they have been

CCL

  • classes running
  • 5 year anniversary coming

CSC

  • the Palestine event!

FNB

  • the FNB freezer can be fixed through
  • bicycle fundraiser has been a good fundraiser
  • demonstration - Livermore - Hiroshima anniversary

GCEA

  • on July 29th - an Immigrant Rights forum. this year it will be bigger even than last year
  • Women's Healing Circle Cohort some
  • a childrens event soon
  • weekday classes

GWS

  • the Moral Monday action
  • co-sponosored an reportback from what's happening in Haiti at La Peña the other day. it was a fundraiser for alternative media. the power elite runs the dominant media. the state is killing people that organize. the people are very well organized. $3.5k was raised for a youth radio group. a great crowd of about 100 people, mixed.
    • Almaz - anything on video for this? it would be great
    • Rachel - the panel was excellent but no video

LL

  • next film night is June 24th, the last Sunday of the month. Screening some films by Submedia - a well established anarchist media collective. organizing for the next Films for the People short Film Festival November 10th

Sudo

  • our regular weekly events continue. hardware hack nights continue
  • some new events in the works
    • monthly blender meet up (modeling and video), will hopefully come up soon - could be a collab with LL
    • starting the 17th, cryptoparties again - some people that organized in the past
      • Sudoroom and Sudomesh
  • Sudomesh is a non-profit now, while Sudo is no longer
  • a proposal in coming weeks
  • a reminder - when there is an event and people leave the door open
    • a few Saturdays in a row the door was open 3-4 hours
      • apparently people have walked into SudoRoom and things have been taken - fridge, things from the table, phone, chargers
    • Almaz - for those events there are point people
    • Sierk - I have asked people to bring
    • Almaz - write down the date and time of this occurence so we can figure out who is leaving the door open
      • Sierk - PB, sometimes elaves the door open. i have reminded some people
        • I have no one to point fingers at
  • Lynn - if you see the door open, you can close it. you can just tell people you're closing it because it is unattended or that if it should be open it should be attended

TIL

Proposal: Omni Media Lab

  • via Laura and Jenny on May 17th
  • Full proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ebaHkaSeCWHKKEjbg6u-VvDzifF-eFuBX_b_HmdDv0E/edit#
  • notes from last meeting: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2018/05/17_Delegates_Meeting#Proposal:_Omni_Media_Lab
  • We propose to build a community media laboratory for the production of propaganda and educational materials for campaigns and projects. Our mission is to transform the most neglected space in Omni Commons into a place for creative production available to Omni members, and, eventually, local artists, activists, organizers, and members of the general public (either supervised or trained), sustained through sliding-scale donations, grants, mutual aid, and creative reuse. A new working group will steward supplies, tools, and resources, as well as host educational hands-on workshops. Approval of this proposal means the formation of an official committee of the Board to manage a Media Lab, and acceptance of the following general plan.


Discussion

  • Ken - there was an additional thing. this working group would follow the format of the commons working group.
  • Julian - we should enoucage the working group to prioritize brining in new
  • Almaz - why do we not move this on to the next assembly for this reason?
    • someone - it was discussed last meeting
      • correction: it was discussed at the May 3rd Delegates meeting and officially proposed via both the consensus list and at the Delegates meeting on May 21st. The following groups (beyond discuss and consensus) were CC'd n all emails relevant to meeting, planning, collaborating on the proposal: GWS, LibLens, ABDC, Comms working group and several individuals who added their names to the medialab mailing list
  • Ken - I wasn't aware of this protocl of not being on more than 2 working groups
    • Julian - I think we don't discuss this because we habitually don't follow it because of involvement burnout
  • Sierk - we were done this way - people were considering to make a collective of this. the goal is that this be used to bring more people into the OMni
    • it needs to be a communal resources, so for it to be that it needs to be a working
    • the idea
  • Ken -right now there are at least 3 people new
    • Rachel - today there was a bunch of new people involved in painting
  • Liz - I wanted to clarify what needs to be voted on
    • if there is a budget we need to approve the budget - 615-770 dollars. mostly for spiffing up the basement
    • budget, floor plan,
    • is there a blocking concern that we need to adddress?
  • Almaz - have collectives seen this?
    • Sierk - its been on the emailing list, it was raised at the last meeting
    • as Sudoroom delegate, I can't vote bc Sudoroom has discussed
  • Liz - the people proposing this ahve offered a spreadsheet
    • the plan is that this could actually generate income for the Omni, so it should hypothetically be self-sustain
  • Julian - the proposal includes not only the budget, floor plan, but also the formation of the working group
  • Voting
  • Almaz - who is proposing this?
    • Sierk - when ABDC's proposalw as to move things downstairs, Jenny added a proposal to invite people to come discuss this, there was a meeting. there were two meetings with lots of people. people planned and discusseed the details from plan, to budget, to new involvement.
      • Almaz - ABDC proposal was passed and voted on.
      • Sierk - there is no entity proposing this. its just an informal group
      • Almaz - I'm unclear on what how this relates to the ABDC proposal
        • Sierk - it's a point of reference, that was the same meeting.
      • Almaz - so this was put forward by Jenny?
        • Sierk - present by Jenny but worked on by a group of people.
  • a number of the collectives ahve not had chance to discuss this
  • the work on this continues and we're happy with that
  • we delay the vote - must take a vote NEXT MEETING

Proposal: Delegates Decision-Making Process

  • via Helen on May __

Background:

  • Note that this proposal is not about consensus procedure.
  • Our OMNI decision process is supposed to work like this: delegates take proposals to their collectives, the collectives discuss them and voice any concerns. Then the delegates bring the concerns, if any, to the delegates' meeting, the proposal is perhaps modified, and if the concerns are met, the delegates agree to it. Otherwise it must go back to the collectives for more discussion, etc.
  • Hasty decisions: The delegates are obligated to discuss all proposals with their collectives. But sometimes a proposal seems so banal that the delegates approve it without consulting their collectives - they assume that no one will have concerns.
  • Overly hasty decisions: It has happened that a hasty decision has been made by mistake, and someone does have a serious concern. That is the rare situation that this proposal is intended to deal with.

Proposal:

  • Before a proposal is approved by the delegates assembly, the delegates are supposed to discuss it with their collectives and solicit any concerns. Sometimes the consultation process is not carried out, and delegates agree to a proposal without discussion in their collectives.
  • In that case a collective member may have concerns that have not been addressed.
  • Any OMNI member in good standing, who is in this situation, can explain their concern and ask that the full process be carried out from the beginning. Ordinarily that will mean that the original agreement of the delegates is void. Note that this is only an option when the proposal has not been discussed in the collectives.

Discussion

  • Ken - it sounds to me that this particular proposal doesn't address the issue we were just dealing with. the issue for Sudo sees to be that
    • if the proposal is made on an email that goes to all the collectives
    • if no particular objections are made. if everyone is checking their emails
    • if a serious proposal has been made, people can be
  • Rachel - I feel like we need a stronger proposal that actually has some deadline. this issue that collectives haven't met. if something has passed just because a collective agrees too late
    • it would be good to have a time limit included in the proposal so that
  • Liz - i'm not clear on what's proposed here except that we affirm the process
    • our liberated lens process is that we don't get to block things just because we didn't discuss them when we had enough time to do so
    • you don't get to hold up progress for everyone just because you have been lackadaisical.
  • Mary Ann - sometimes CSC changes our meetings and then it happens that 2 delegates meetings happen before a CSC meeting can happen
    • Lynn - when that happens, perhaps you could let the delegates know that this is the problem at this time
  • Almaz - for us, if we aren't meeting we just send it to email. you can send the proposal as an email to everyone
  • Sudoroom - we miss meetings sometimes but then people don't like how something happened and then they change things. the sudoroom as they are now, someitmes there is a meeting with no quorum so then a delegate can't make a decision. Sierk has identified
    • Liz - a lot of these conversations can be had online, especially with a hackerspace. there are platforms for nline collective decisions. maybe there would be a way to supplment those
    • Sierk - Sudomesh has been using loomio for some months. my proposal to Sudo will be to do this
  • Liz - I'm still unclear on if this is a proposal that needs to be voted on
    • Julian - I think it's helpful to formalize protocols
  • Mary Ann - the Cafe proposal was long delayed.
    • the proposal we need is to assure
  • Ken - if we're going to have a proposal about this, we need to have a high priority in collectives affirming the value of making timely Omni decisions. there is a direct responsibility
  • Julian - I think the Cafe proposal for some time wasn't sheparded so partly it wasn't just assured that there was conversation
  • Sierk - that's incorrect. there was a breakdown in consideration for the cafe proposal and sudoroom wasn't in favor.
  • Rachel - if there is really a proposal, for overturning
  • Julian - this has been a useful conversation anyway.
  • Sierk - if proposals could be sent to all the collectives discussion lists
  • Liz - an Omni loomio? then there would be onoging conversations and voting

Example Discussion Item

Last Meeting Notes

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2017/MM/DD_Delegates_Meeting

End of Meeting