Event:2019/07/18 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - 18 July 2019 7:15pm - 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]
  • Brief Announcements [5 minutes]
  • Working Group Report-Backs [15 minutes]
  • Member Collective Updates (10 minutes)
  • Ban Report (if any) [5 minutes]
  • Proposal X: [15 minutes]
  • Proposal Y: [15 minutes]
  • Discussion Z: [10 minutes]

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†KYcFHAP%oT0uaVEW2DMMQQkvC_.XqP

  • 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
  • Marcus - he/him, volunteer
  • Joe - FNB, please speak loudly and clearly
  • Helen - FNB, speak loudly and clearly
  • Asaad - FYE
  • Laura - Finance, Kitchen
  • Phil -FNB
  • MaryAnne - CSC, please speak loudly and clearly
  • Jane GWS - she/her, GWS, needs met
  • Rachel GWS - difficulty seeing, would like to have agenda printed out or on a large white board in the future
  • Yar - sudo, she/her, needs met
  • Dennis - LL
  • Robb - Sudo
  • Mylan - Phat Beets
  • Ian - CCL
  • Ken - CCL

Access Check In

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

- Yar is willing to print out agenda for next meeting

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Marcus
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response"(wildcard), etc.
  • Stacktaker: Phil
  • Timekeeper: Asaad
  • Notetaker/s: Marcus, yar, laura, joe
  • Vibe Reader: rachel
  • Yar will print out agenda next meeting
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s): Phil

Delegates

  • CCL: Ken
  • CSC: Mary Ann
  • FNB: Helen
  • FYE: Asaad
  • GWS: Rachel & Jane
  • LL: dennis
  • Sudo: yar
  • Quorum: Yes

Brief Announcements

  • Joe had put a not quite full, proposal on the consensus side of having a community circle. Decent response. Wants to do it outside of the Delegates meetings or Official machine. Because of what happened with Almaz, he would like to see this happen ASAP. A circle that uses a talking stick, compassionate listening, respect.
    • wants to see people talk about concerns about omni's functioning. more information
    • people committing: yar, joe, rachel, jane
    • maybes: asaad, dennis, Mary Ann,
    • sunday july 28 at 4pm - 6 in the ballroom?
    • can we keep these meeting in the disco room or basement if that Capoeira is going to continue Thurs nights in lobby.


Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

Meetings: Currently conjoined with Kitchen work parties on Saturdays at noon

  • Kitchen: Architect is working on plans. Weh ahve almost finalized and are moving toward finding contractor and engineer.
  • Yar: I have a lot of projects I need help on. We are goin to have to renew the wheelchair bathroom permit at the end of july, whcih I didn't want to do.

Commons

Meetings: 2nd & 4th Mondays at 5pm

Communications

Meetings: Not currently meeting

  • not really a thing atm

Finance

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

  • 2nd quarter report from Jenny:
    • I'm still in 2018 in terms of reconciliations, so there are some errors - namely, we won't be accounting for Safer DIY Spaces nor The Village (as they're grant-based fiscal sponsorships), so you can ignore those line items. Also need to balance a loan repayment inaccurately attributed to AL rather than ZM. Other than that these reports are pretty accurate.

We had a net revenue of $12,000 last quarter (discounting The Village's ~$10K grant), putting us in good shape toward building our capital reserve fund. Nevertheless, we are in need of substantial funds for the imminent kitchen buildout and should consider taking out a loan just for that project (which we'd then fold into the refinance).

    • We could potentially take out a mortgage loan, which is at a lower rate.
    • Joe: don't think we should take out a higher rate loan on account of FNB
    • Jenny continued: I would like to propose continuing my position as Omni's bookkeeper at a more sustainable rate of $30/hr for the rest of the year (currently $25/hr). I've been averaging between 15-20 hours/month over the past three months.
  • Follow up on County taxes: they just started looking at our exemption app, it's very long
    • Looking to get a property tax exemption, but we still owe a large past-due tax
  • Still need new officers & officer-elect positions
    • Laura, Marcus & Phil would be officers for old sleeping OOC 501c3
    • President Lynn resigned, secretary mostly absent, Jenny is treasurer but really shouldn't be
    • Joe nominates Marcus. Mary Anne seconds
    • all officers covered by liability
    • super existential important volunteer position!

Fundraising

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

  • nothing to add

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

  • Ken: everythng's going well. We're setting up a shared snack area with Sudo. On Sunday we're moving out/in new refrigerators.

CSC

  • MaryAnn:having our annual art festival on 8/17. everyone welcome. A little differetn this year. On 9/22, hosting indigenous women from Mexico. We will be facilitatin introductions to native women here. Organizing to defend indigenous land and sacraed spaces. We're coneptualizing how to do with keeping in mind all the splits.

FNB

  • Joe: Were waitng on our $10,000 grant from Stop Waste to buy a truck. We are appearing at many Mime Troupe performances. Mime Troupe cancelled their show on the plaza and Berkeley that has been designed to prevent presence of homeless folks.

FYE

  • Asaad: integrating well at omni, hosting basement workshop soon, planning on media lab mural
    • office space is activated, media lab lighting, still moving furniture, figuring out best place for mural, website online soon

GWS

  • Rachel: Poor Peoples Campaign went to DC congress, reportback next thursday Jul 25 6-8 @ taylor memorial church
  • Rachel: We were in DC for the Poor Peaoples Campaign Moral COngress, we lobbied in COngress on women's and CHildren's poverty iin support of the Rise Out of Poverty Act. There is also a proposal to pay all children a monthly amount of $300. IT was a breakthrough to see that in congress.

LL

  • Dennis: LL 6th of 7 film sunday @ 5, afrofuturism, short scifi films

Sudo

  • Yar: not much to report

Ban Report (if any)

  • Add to list of people asked to leave
  • Phil asks about status of mediation with DS. He has decided not to proceed
  • Yar: Sean F, who was banned a couple of years ago, has reached out to me for mediation.

Also there is a conflict between Robb and AB.

    • Joe: Is taking on helping mediate the Robb and AB. Yar also willing to help.

Proposals

Phat Beets membership

Phat Beets Proposal for Active Membership

Dear Omni Collective:

Phat Beets Produce would like to become an active community member instead of simply being a tenant. With that change of status we will come to the delegate meetings and desired working groups as well as general Omni upkeep. We ask that in exchange for this active membership our rent be decreased to $600. We did not previously have the capacity to participate in the Omni Collective fully as we were running at a staff and program deficiency. These past couple of months we have found new ways to improve our capacity and grow in spite of recent changes.

Phat Beets Produce has gone through many highs & lows in the last year. We joined the Self Help Hunger Group and the North Oakland Restorative Justice Council to form the non-profit Oakland Communities United for Equity and Justice. At the same we discovered our joint accountant with the Center for Popular Research, Education and Policy (C-Prep) had been skimming funds from our accounts totaling over $30,000 in 2018. This was a hard hit for us as we were already running at a deficit and close to shutting our doors. We had been with C-Prep for years so we are not sure of the total amount of funding lost. We do however know many of our programs took a hit due to the lack of funds. We are now on the rebound and restructuring our office, operational programs, internal affairs, and trying our best to raise replacement funds. This development has allowed us to really take a step back and look at our capacity and what we have to give and what is sustainable for Phat Beets. We do not have enough money for the rent budgeted in our programs as a considerable amount of our funds have disappeared. The rent decrease will help subsidize any extra hours we pay our staff to attend meetings, any Omni clean-ups, or help with events. We think the best move for us would be to become an active member of the Omni and get involved in making sure we can continue to be a resident in addition to being a contributing member of the collective. Many of our staff members have expressed interest in us an organization joining the collective, so there will be discussions and follow through on our back end with our staff in terms of different working groups and kitchen ideas.

Please consider this proposal in your next meeting and ask as many questions as you’d like to mylan@phatbeetsproduce.org. Thank you for your consideration.

Discussion

  • Mylan: we have more staff & capacity, so would like to be member collective now!
  • Phat Beets is a collection of 4 projects
    • 1 running CSA
    • 2 youth pickle
    • 3 fresh fellows
    • 4 green eats
  • Yar: what are they paying now? how much debt are they in to us?
    • Owe 2 months back rent for total of $1700. <-- so current rent is $850?
  • Ken: How many people are served by the programs, and staff
    • Mylan: about 200 CSA members; 60-80 families through food pharmacy program with CHildren's HOspital; about 23 in the youth programs; 8 staff
  • Ken: are you overstretched?
    • Mylan: We have reprganized to clarify the responsiblities of managers and program supervisors so they aren't doing all the jobs in the program
  • Rachel: is it volunteer run?
    • Mylan: no, but it feels like that [laughter]
  • previous fiscal sponsor stole 33k from them
  • JOe: what is Max's role
    • Mylan: mostly he does gardening, fundraising. Doesn't manage or document anything. I am a program director. We don't have an overall executive director at this point. Board is discussion. Hasn't talked with board about being OC MC.
  • Phil: OC requires groups be non-hierarchical.
    • Mylan: I discuss
  • Rachel: PArt of the proposal is reducing the rent> What so you pay now and what space do you use? $825/mo w/ $25 utilities. Two overdue months.
    • Mylan: we are trying to recoup funds from C-Prep to use to pay the back rent. I am also cleaning the downstairs storage area. We restructured the way we are doing fundraising and grant. We are now diversifying the programs we are fundraising for and charging all the programs for overhead. Also, the groups we have merged with will be paying a share of space rent.
  • Helen: what's your decisionmaking process?
    • Mylan: board was originally to help get nonprofit status. but internally in staff meetings we just talk about the decsion, how to do it and allocate the work. We just started monthly to bi-monthly meetings between staff and board which previously met apart.
  • Robb - do you have bylaws?
  • Mylan: I don't know about that. I should read them.
  • Joe: I like PB a lot and support everything I've seen you do.
  • Helen: what makes you a collective?
  • Ken: Is CPEP gonna counter sue omni? I would like to know what the extent of this conflict is and any "radioactivity" we need to knwo about
  • Sudoroom member is concerned about fire egress, wants to know how PB will address blocking exits

Letting people vouch for keycards

  • Yar: I propose that we enable more people to have access to Omni by letting active members vouch for other people. This way we can give people a key card even if they're not directly a member of a collective or working group.

Discussions

LAURS SUPPORTS THE PROPOSAL IF THE PERSON GIVEN A CARD HAS SOME ACTUAL CURRENT INTEREST OF PROJECT TAKING PLACE IN THE BUILDING. PERSON WOULD HAVE OT HAVE A REASON TO USE THE CARD. DO WE HAVE A PROCESS FOR CANCELING CARDS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT USED CARDS RECENTLY OR USED THEM CORRECTLY. YAR: IAM THO ONLY ONE WHO USES THE FORM FOR GETTING CARDS. ACCESS IS ONE COMPUTER FILE WITH ONE LINE OF DESCRIPTION TO ID THEM. If there is a ? about aperson the card group looks them up . Laura wants a more regular process of keycard holder review to make sure card holders are active and not people who have been banned, or who just got a card for an event.

  • Ken: Can a list be printed out and reviewed?
  • Yar: I can print out public info and we can review it, and contact people who have cards and inform them of what information we have on them and give them a chance to update it
  • Helen: is it the same list that we've had forever?
  • Yar: It is a list that has been edited since 2015. I go through it regularly as does Jake.
  • Ian: There is a benefit to having resistance to access. By keeping a little resistance it helps the sense of group identity. I've also heard other issues of security and expiry. On the other hand, we do want to welcome new people.
  • Asaad:
  • Yar: I want the members to codone a situation where a member can wouch for another member, which isn't a policy right now although it happens.
  • Ken: suggests setting up automatic deactivation after a certain time esp for a situation when card is given for a temp reason.
  • JOe: can you print out the list regualry and then I can cross off all my previous renters who were given cards for an ongoing event
  • Robb: Commons ould also get some activated cards to give to people and keep track of.

Example Discussion Item

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https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2019/MM/DD_Delegates_Meeting

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