Event:2020/06/04 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - 04 June 2020 7pm-9pm

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

Agenda

  • Introductions [15 minutes]
    • Meeting Roles
    • Delegates Count
    • Access Check-in
  • Check-ins, Updates & Report-Backs [30 minutes]
    • Brief Announcements
    • Working Groups
    • Member Collectives
    • Conflicts, Mediation & Safe Space
  • Proposals & Discussions
    • Omni Fundraising Letter
    • Proposal for a pandemic bridge grant funding possible hire of a strategic organizer
    • Bank Account Signatories

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†

  • 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
  • Mai - She/they - Sudo Mesh - actions, angry
  • Roberto - he/him - Chiapas - dang i was typing and didnt catch the title: Read Healing Resistance by Kazu Haga
  • Mary Ann - she/her - Chiapas - doing well, have a new great-granddaughter - granddaughter going out to demos, having interesting convos about now vs '68
  • John - off from day job for past days given "civil unrest" - facebook rabbit hole, following what's happening. angry/hopeful. secretary of defense said he did not support Trump's proposal to invoke 1808 Insurrection Act - invoked twice before to invite US troops onto streets to harm civilians.. getting sleep, enjoying engaging in the discourse
  • Robb - he/him - LibLens - been doing some stuff with FNB and phat beets - w/ Liberated Lens working on a video for Oakland Communities United, maybe one for Omni on what we're doing during SIP. also livestreaming actions
  • Michael - he/him - CCL - working w/ Open Insulin to put together a summer internship program for students. mentoring and organizing that - starting this Sunday, had 71 applicants but can only accept 20. Open Insulin applying to become its own 501c3. Working with a nat'l org to take swabs of human/city/transportation environments as part of a larger project to assess urban bacteria and viruses.
  • AB - crazy and exciting time to be alive.. injured at friday night protest, but last night was really wonderful, curfew was lifted today. event tmrw 12-6 at ampitheater to pay homage, lift spirits, bring community together. ish w/ treehouse will be there with community canvas, making pins and patches
  • Jane - she/her - computer is awful - working with Poor Peoples Campaigns, great action yesterday to put pressure on the SF mayor to open hotels.. gardening
  • Rachel - she/her - lots of international solidarity work.. doing a lot with Poor Peoples Campaign.. gearing up for national mobilization 20? buildup to next saturday, virtual town hall on Poor Peoples Campaign - the Right to Live - We Wont be silent anymore - tapping into 1968 participants with Poor Peoples Campaign - Saturday June 13 11am!
  • Jenny - she/her haven't slept, catching up on recent events, real change. B&B Youth leadership. Working two jobs. Covid testing stuff. In rabbit hole


Access Check In

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

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Robb
  • Explanation of hand signals: "deaf applause", "raised hand", "point of process", "direct response"(wildcard), etc.
  • Stacktaker: Mai!
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s: John, Jenny
  • Vibe Reader:
  • Who will out next meeting's agenda beforehand:
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • CCL: X
  • CSC: X
  • FNB:
  • FYE: X
  • GWS: X
  • LL: X
  • Phat Beets: inactive - correct?
  • Sudo Room: X
  • Sudo Mesh: X
  • Quorum: Y (7/8 active collectives)

Brief Announcements

BACKGROUND: Striking Worker talks:

Video of last weeks Strike Action:

Press from yesterday:

Working Group Report-Backs

Building & permits

Commons

Communications

  • Meetings: Email for now
  • Join! https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/comms
  • Roberto: Could use more participation, newsletter out, pls help with next one too! Internal communications vs external communications. Good to speak with one voice in present political moment.
  • Jenny: working on updating website, could use support if anyone can lend a hand (shift to wordpress, https://omnicommons.org/calendar/omni-commons )
  • Mai: interested in helping, most effective via coworking sesh

Finance

Fundraising

  • Meetings: next mtg sunday 11am
  • Join! https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/fundraising
  • Have a fundraising letter we want to send out to our list. waiting until monday setting up venmo account
  • Mary Ann: Really don't fit anywhere in terms of grant applications, need collectives to apply for grants and contribute, help get some of the piles of money available for groups working on essential services
  • Robb: 'free rent' not very persuasive - we have space, volunteers, should start a mutual aid bank(?) donate / distribute / inventory
    • AB: in it all together, ballroom already been a mutual aid bank for 2-3 months
    • jenny: who is the 'we' here? all of us in this together
    • roberto: need to avoid working in silos- better and stronger working together. encourage people to help us fundraise, join the working groups, do the work together. not use vocabulary that separates us.
    • jane: signatories on bank will help. likely to get up to $25K from San Francisco Foundation
    • mary ann: key issue is that it's very hard to get a grant for what we do - but if we have a specific project
    • robb: could be more specific, inventorying stuff
      • mary ann: yes, need to be more intentional to fundraise for the building
    • ab: implication that what's taking place in the basement is not an opportunity when what's happening (?? notetaker didn't understand)
    • robb: what's happening with NORJ feels fragmented - if we could put more concrete work into inventorying, collaborating with other groups. could be a hub for a number of groups to utilize as a massive mutual aid bank. ballroom will soon be getting booked
      • jenny: not anytime soon - alameda county peaking right now and cases will increase in two weeks after these protests
  • rachel: We don't want resentment to build, as Omni gets more in the red, we're in a critical time. We need to avoid situations like past conflicts, and to do so we need to be very clear what's going and don't let things drift. We need to be clear about where each of us are at.
    • mary ann: We need to finance $900K in a year and a half, this is not going to be easy. For us to not be able to pay our loan payments now will harm us in being able to do refinance. Every single collective should send the letter to everyone in their lists.
  • AB: I don't think everyone grasps how among the newer collectives, that the nature of who we are is important, FYE is young black and brown folks, the mission of the Omni has been drowned out by how the governance is not going well. I feel like I could contribute to every working group, but just have held back because of the tone. The way we deal with situations needs to improve. There's a dominant sense that FYE isn't doing anything positive or that anything that we do wrong gets amplified. I have been sitting with this for a while. Why this is so important is that FYE is the youngest in the building, they want to grow with the space. It has so much potential to grow, and we have potential to grow in helping to lead this, we need more trust. There are some structural aspects of the project that needs to be addressed.
    • john: thank you for being in this meeting and expressing all of this. been around for years in various forms of involvement and just getting involved in the internal organizing/governance here, apologize if my tone has contributed to this experience - still need to decide - pitch something and if people want to discuss further off list - to mary ann's point wrt how we'll be able to pay or refi $900K i a year and a half. hearing that we're currently breaking slightly even rn w/ 6 mo suspension of mortgage and interest payment. if we want to do this we do need to come together and figure out how we can get our income up and make this refi work
    • mary ann: my understanding of the agreement w/ lender is we have to start paying in 6 months, or sooner if we get grants/donation income that can cover it
  • john: floating proposal idea to seek a pandemic emergency grant / bridge grant and strategic planning grant request. have to figure out if this is something feasible and then find prospects. request for $300K principally for operations, but also to help us colletively vision where we want to be in 1yr, 5yrs and beyond. would free up the income we do get - $300K over 24 months. would allow us to use the collective rental income toward more capital expenses (eg kitchen, roof). if okay w/ delegates assembly i'll write something up and send it to collectives for input feedback. any questions?
    • next fundraising mtg is sunday at 11am on omni's
    • jenny will send out a google meet link (free)

Conflicts, Mediation & Safe Space

  • Updates for any ongoing issues
  • Has anybody been asked to leave? asked to leave
  • Woman problematic outside the building ongoing had cops called on her by AB
    • Jenny: we don't call the cops
      • Robb: my understanding is rule doesn't apply if outside the building
      • AB: Have never felt urge to call cops but have had many many terrible interactions with this woman. first time i saw her actively tagging the building, done many other things and provoked me into calling the cops. actively threatening multiple people for months. appreciate the principle of not calling the cops. have a written statement as well - striving to be as clear, transparent as possible
        • john: appreciate the thorough explanation, given the delicate nature of the situation and there is a qalitative difference between inside vs outside the building
        • ab: cops didn't actually show for up to 45 minutes. stayed out there given she is a black woman and that puts her at risk. but did stay out there to dialogue with police, no real constructive solution other than just not interacting with this woman. very violent, very aggressive. have already brought this up, feel am only person dealing with this person. do apologize for caving into being provoked
  • rachel: we should look into Cop Watch to learn about de-escalation
  • robb: NORJ has a contact for someone to help with de-escalation from a a restorative justice approach
  • john: hope it's fair to say we appreciate the detailed explanation from AB about what happened. feel bad he felt it was needed, but given our concern and critique about and of the police, ... know there were a number of ideas thrown out about how move forward. specifically heard there was desire to figure out a way to be helpful to this person who has repeatedly been causing issues around cleanup, tagging, being... anyone willing to take that set of tasks on
    • robb: just want to mention she hasn't been around the past week
  • interested in working on this, strategy for deescalating?
    • mai, roberto, jenny, robb(to contact NORJ if issue reappears)
  • michael: wrt ccl, will bring this topic up on wednesday meeting, will also be reviewing and discussing this meeting's agenda as i've been doing. will be getting back to you all at next mtg wrt more participation from ccl

Solution / Research Space

Jenny - Some ideas:

  • create a new Omni Phone Tree (Signal group most likely) for urgent situations. our capacity to effectively and with the most care handle such fragile situations is directly proportionate to our numbers in the moment.
(p. 12+13 address mental health crises)  //  https://justis-allen.squarespace.com/know-your-options-workshops  (how to request training)

Self-Education:

Proposals

Fundraising letter

Fundraising grant proposal

  • John sent via email to Consensus 6/4/2020
  • for a Pandemic Bridge and Strategic Planning two year $300K grant to Omni Commons presented for deliberation of all collectives and for decision at June 18 meeting. Prospect leads are welcome

Omni Commons bank account signatories

  • Omni Officers (John Torok, Maira Sutton, Robb Benson)

Resolution of the Board of Omni Commons:

  • Resolved, that the newly elected officers of the Board of Omni Commons (John Torok, Maira Sutton, and Robb Benson) be added to the corporate bank account as primary signatories for the purpose of allowing Omni Commons to seek grants and meet other fundraising needs.
    • Robb - spoke with Unify on the phone today, and they said a current signatory needs to call them and inform them there's going to be a change of signatories - after which they'll inform jenny of what documentation is done

Yay:

  • CCL (Michael Arent)
  • Chiapas Support Committee (Mary Ann Tenuto)
  • FYE (Asaad Bruno Benmiloud)
  • Sudo Room (Jennifer Ryan)
  • Sudo Mesh (Maira Sutton)
  • GWS (Jane Welford)

Consenso!

Action Items

  • Set up calendar event for next meeting w/ Google Meet link (Jenny)
  • call Unify tmrw am - send board resolution, deposit Village check (Jenny)
  • work on suggested edits to letter for Sat (Mai)
  • update crisis resources wiki page (jenny, you?)
  • reach out to NORJ [Julie] - Jenny

Last Meeting Notes

https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2020/05/21_Delegates

End of Meeting

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