Event:2021/10/21 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - October 21, 2021 7pm-9pm

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: Yar
  • Stacktaker:
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s: Yar, Marc, Sarah
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • ANV: Silver
  • CCL: Patrik
  • CSC: Roberto
  • FNB: Helen
  • FYE: inactive, nobody here
  • GWS: inactive, nobody here
  • LL: Anka
  • Sudo Room: juul
  • Sudo Mesh: Les
  • Quorum (2/3 of active groups):

Agenda

intros

  • We are front-loading most of the meeting into these intros! Now is the time to put forward any of the following things, many of which used to have their own meeting sections
    • introduce yourself: name, pronoun, affiliation, if you're a delegate
    • do you have any unmet access needs at this meeting?
    • what meeting roles you'd like to help with
    • discussion topics or proposals you'd like to put on tonight's agenda
    • report-backs from any of your working groups
    • updates from your collective
    • any brief announcements
    • updates on any conflict mediation
    • if you've asked anybody to leave the building due to safe space issues
  • please be BRIEF! Less than 4 minutes per person! Anything that might take longer must be put on the agenda as a discussion item
  • yar she/her; member but not delegate sudo room
  • patrik he/him; delegate CCL
  • Helen
  • sarah: she/her, bookkeeper, with finance working and building working group. we've done a lot of maintenance and repair in the last couple of weeks. we are scheduling a freestore / giveaway of various electronics items that were in storage and escavated from crows nest and adjacent rooms.
    • saturday oct 30th: giving stuff away and whatever is left over will go to e-waste or recycled (with donation jar etc)
  • marc: Sudo Room delegate: had hardware hack night; working with noisebridge to network with other hacker spaces ; decentralize chat areas; working on new lock system -- got a prototype working RFID tags in Sudo/CCL area -- working on setting it up on Tuesday (next wk); eventually link into any other door in Omni that needs locks; electronic access -- need standard deadbolt with twist knob on back of door (makes it easy to upgrade to electronic locks)
  • Silver: they/them, ANV delegate, Commons, Omni social media
  • Patricia: part of a groupt that's just forming who's interested in having a healing arts office at omni. agenda item proposed to pitch that: who we are and what we'd like to do at omni
  • Anka liberated lens, not dissolving collective but getting rid of the space (see agenda item)
  • Aaron: acta non verba, he/him, nothing really to repot back. nothing really to report back, been a while since i touched base, just wanted to get in the loop and see what's going on
  • Roberto:
  • Les: Les, she/they, gender agnostic, member of sudo room and sudo mesh, delegate for sudo mesh. no updates.

patricia new healing arts collective "The Refuge"

3-4 of us have been showing up to meeting to try to make this take shape. There is a wider sphere of people who don't have the energy for that but Basicall we think that the healing arts won't solve We're very aware of the wear and tear of stress... Create more space, more time, energy. Mitigating trigger responses that intefere with communication and dreams. Marketplace healing arts are incredibly cost prohibitive. Some of us have been experimenting with sliding scale. We envision having an office that would be available for people committed to working on a sliding scale. Whether that's a counceler, herbalist or massage therapist. Other tiers of accesss: Monthly Noone turned away for lack of funds event. Collaborative projects like cobb and wodd. Sliding scale to make this affordable but let practitioners support themselves. Cost prohibitive to find an office to operate out of. Makes it harder to work sliding scale. Office would be prioritized for 1 on 1 sessions but leave door unlocked when no sessions happening. Have zines, tea, rejuvinating space where people can go. We really want to be at omni for a couple of reasons: We don't want to give our money to a landlord. Give to an org that's working for mutual liberation. Want clients who aren't already in the omni to be exposed to omni, collective decisionmaking. We did have consulatation with lawyer who said the sliding scale would qualify us to be a non-profit. We'd really like to be umbrellaed by the omni. There's more I can share but I think that covers the broad sweep.

  • Sarah: what you're proposing sounds great. how important is wheelchair access?
    • they're debating that, also loud sounds are an issue
    • sarah: maybe the childcare room?
    • they like the omni office room
    • where would omni's office move to?
  • Patrik: how important to have a window? basement is quietest but no windows. liability insurance?
    • patricia: they can make sure practitioners carry insurance. i'm fully licensed & insured. the NOTAFLOF clinic had that requirement.
  • Marc: might be good reasons to have it as a separate nonprofit for liability reasons. not hard to do, we could help with that if that's the right way to go. let's talk to a lawyer. but i don't see that as a limiting factor to spin up a new nonprofit.
    • they're open to it, seems reasonable. i thought there was a 10k fee?
    • sarah: no, maybe 500? don't want to have paperwork get in the way.
    • marc: the 10k refers to a paperwork thing in case you plan on making that much in a year
    • 501c3 application fee is $250.. or maybe like 20 bucks more. could ask Jesse Palmer (Omni's lawyer) to cross-check, probably another $100-200. def should not be fiscally sponsored by omni - too many complexities when it comes to liability, paid employees, etc.
  • Anka: omni needs more projects like this! great continuation of mutual aid. you could have liblens' room.
    • patricia: what's the ventilation in basement? or noise when there's a ballroom event?
    • sarah: ventilation is on tonight's agenda
  • Silver: let's bring back to our collectives. i love the idea of a healing collective. we're all getting burned out!
  • Anka: how do you figure out building access?
  • below are our responses to the questions your wiki asks in process of applying
    • State your goals for becoming an Omni member collective
      • Our goals as a member collective are to eliminate the economic barriers that people often face with the healing arts, empowering our community through autonomy of care.
    • How would your presence in the Omni contribute to its purpose and statement of solidarity?
      • Our collective members stand in solidarity with marginalized and oppressed groups, and hope to work alongside Omni and its people under a common vision of equity and anti-colonialism. Our intent is not to just provide healing services to those who step through our doors, but stand with them against these oppressive forces through advocacy, resource-sharing, and community-based care
    • What dedicated space do you need? What will you do in it?
      • We are in need of an ADA accessible office space to see individuals for healing sessions. The room would need a door for privacy, space for table and chairs, and some storage space.
    • What do you do that makes a difference in the world?
      • We practice solidarity, where we each receive in accordance with our needs and give according to our capacity and continuously seek creative ways to operate alternative forms of economy that reflect these values.This wellness collective will provide a low cost space for practitioners who share our commitment to offer sliding scale services and notaflof opportunities for those who cannot pay. While a massage, medicine-making workshops, or free herbal remedies won't address the roots of economic inequity, we have witnessed first hand how access to the healing arts can expand a person’s capacity to advocate for themselves and others. We believe that we can only have meaningful dialogue about health and wellness if we acknowledge and try to break down economic barriers to it. Health and empowerment for all people is an act of resistance against capitalist forces. Like Audre Lorde once proclaimed, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political welfare”. When not in use by practitioners the space would be left open for anyone wanting to access a literature library pertaining to mind/body health, to use it for meditation, or even enjoy a cup of ready-made herbal tea. We want this healing space to be an open-door refuge.
      • A cooperative healing space would make all the difference in our lives as well as others. We hope to provide an opportunity to experience cooperative leadership and economic equity for new practitioners who all too often fall into the “spa trap” where they work long hours for little better than minimum wage while the spa owner might take up to 70% of the income these practitioners generate. Instead, we believe that people should have ownership over their own labor and see labor as a means of meeting our own and our communities needs.
    • Briefly recap your history as an organization.
      • We are a collection of folks working in the healing arts with a vision of starting a cooperatively run healing space. We formed shortly before the pandemic hit, and the uncertainty of life in quarantine put our healing space dreams on hold. However, individually we engaged in community support efforts of mutual aid throughout the Bay Area and abroad. As the vaccine rolled in, we started to talk again about our healing space plans. This time with even more inspiration than before.
    • How do you make decisions?
      • Our decisions are made collectively through thorough communication towards understanding and ideally consensus.
    • What shared space do you need? What will you do with it?
      • We would like to use a larger space, maybe the disco room or ballroom for once a month or possibly more frequent NOTOFLOF massage clinics.
    • Will you need to modify the building? (Include floor plans if that makes your proposal clearer.)
      • we don’t have a complete vision of remodel needs before knowing if/what space we would be able to use. We would likely want to paint the walls.
      • We would like space to lock some supplies to support having an open door policy for meditation, access to self care literature and tea when the office is not in use for specific clients. We need room for a tea table, a massage table and a shelf, ideally 2 shelves. One for oils and tea and one for literature
    • How much are you able to pay?
      • $300 or so a month

entrance hall exhaust fans

  • asking budget of $3k. might be more, needs assessment. ventilation important for having groups of people. ventilation in entrance hall could improve the whole building's air.
  • consented, no objections

fundraising wg

  • reconstituting and equipment for the fundraising working group. Currently just sarah, yar and John Torok
  • sarah: the only three remaining members are all in the finance group as well and we are all in multiple other wgs too. there should be people who are focused on fundraising and want that to be a thing currently. last thing they were working on was thinking about applying for grants. planning a reopening event that didn't end up happening because of delta. but that is still a thing: a fundraiser for omni. as well as potentially an end of the year individual donor campaign. or if anyone has exciting ideas how to raise funds for omni feel free to join the wg.
  • anka: yeah i'm not sure if it has any merit but we could do a video, like a simple video for fundraising if you think that would be feasible.
  • aaron: would like to check in with anv's team
  • Marc: different collectives in fundraising mode - CCL, Sudo. Could reframe as a place for multiple collectives to work on fundraising
  • Sarah: yeah finance wg didn't want to step on anyone's toes. pitch could be raising money for building improvements, reopening safely for events
  • patrik: like marc's idea. good to have groups working together. need critical mass?
  • sarah: one thing i was thinking of potentially doing was looking for and potentially writing grants for some building improvements for omni but it would kinda be something where it would also provide some funding for Safer DIY to kinda manage and steward some of the work
    • +1

Omni Finances

  • joe hopes there will be accounting of all the money we're spending - ?!
    • sarah: in past few months, omni's spent ~8k with another 7k subsidized by DIY. all towards accomplishing goals:
      • 1) get cheaper property insurance (FPE breakers this summer)
      • 2) public assembly fire certification, plus Covid safety (ventilation)
      • 3) help refi

new leases

  • proposal from mailing list https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2021-October/002947.html
    • project-based fiscally-sponsored collectives cannot have leases (omni cannot lease to itself) - sudoroom, liblens, fye, gws, NOMA - though we might consider improving the language of the fiscal sponsorship agreements still, bounce this off Jesse is #1 priority..
    • leases overdue to renew: CCL, FNB, CSC, ANV (next yr)
  • Sarah: I think we should table until next meeting
    • it clarifies obligations. how insurance works, what they need to have. fix typos.
      • projects have fiscal sponsorship agreements written up by Jesse that clarify space, monetary contribs, responsibilities, etc - also, typos?! (insurance another topic. to be clarified wrt projects.. esp wrt sudo and fye)

liblens

  • they're on hiatus - not resolving collective but giving up their space due to money
  • Liberated Lens Film Collective has had no revenue recently to cover our $300.00 monthly contribution to the Omni Commons because of pandemic restrictions on gatherings. We cannot now afford to pay for the basement room we have been using for our film editing suite. Consequently, we would like to relinquish that office and reduce to zero our monthly contribution for the time being. We do anticipate remaining active as a collective after a period of reflection. As such would like to remain as an Omni Commons member collective. We will however maintain at least one film editing computer station for common use in the media lab. We would like to settle our arrears with our remaining balance of $2,000. We anticipate vacating the room by year end.
  • anka: we've been an omni collective since 2014. lots of members moved out, we don't have enough people anymore. no game plan for now. not in the space right now to be paying rent and don't really need the space. would like to remain a collective but vacate space by end of december. possibly get a space in the future, but at the moment not in a position to do so. trying to find other spaces to maybe hold the equipment. thinking of keeping it at omni but rat issue. we have library of films and books from Dennis who passed away a year ago so maybe that we could store at omni but basically the proposal is to continue being a collective but stop having the space.
    • helen: is this temporary?
    • anka: we hope so! i'm pretty attached to the idea. want to keep it going. but need more members. right now it's me, john & sierk. can't do much with 3 people. doing the street screenings was fun but most of those folks moved away.
  • suggestion: just ask for rent reprieval due to pandemic, like fye did and sudoroom imminently will... reconstitute in due time..?

door access issues

  • computer will be down til next week maybe
  • we'll change the locks after all this
  • Marc: plan to install RFID, likely next 10 days. New system running in parallel

vaccines

  • discussion from mailing list https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2021-October/002972.html
  • Les: Individuals can verify vaccine status of other individuals through digital version found in SMART Card Verification app
  • Les: should be straightforward; don't need to store a database. Noisebridge is reopening, why can't we?
  • Marc: Sudo and CCL require vaccination, but not show proof. Honor system - don't want people to play cops
  • Anka: We've been doing shows weekly, and requiring vaccination. Can't limit to people who own a phone though. Card or proof of test is ok.
  • Sarah: even specific. Shouldn't have to ask for vaccination for ANV food pickup, or visit free store
  • Marc: Proposal for next time: <25ppl don't require proof. Above 25 require proof of vacc or recent test.
  • Yar: lots of edge cases; need to write down proposed policy
  • Helen: policy also needs to be listed explicitly for events

sudo rent forgiveness

  • proposal coming in the next week
  • currently owe: $20K (10 months) - ideally holding onto some amount of savings for upcoming space improvements

ongoing safe space bans

  • Jenny: What's the status?
    • Yar: been trying to reach Asaad - hard to get a hold of. Need to talk and get clarification. Have some questions to be answered (see below).
      • Marc: do we need a deadline of some sort? It's been months.
      • Anka can try to contact Asaad as well. Yar just needs a 10min phonecall
      • Sarah: propose to vote next delegates meeting if we haven't heard back from Asaad

juul: Yar has the following questions for AB. If there is no response (and a clear "yes and here's how" to the "has jenny violated our safe space policy") at the next delegates meeting then the ban should just go away by the next meeting.

Helen: We should decide at the next meeting if he has not responded

    • Questions for AB:
      • do you feel like we've been acting with unfair bias towards jenny as compared to robb
      • did you see yar's conditions to robb? do you think they're reasonable?
      • has jenny harassed anyone
      • has jenny violated our safe space policy
      • what conditions would jenny need to meet to come back to omni and have everyone feel safe
  • Robb: What's the status?
    • Toan (mediator for Jenny&Robb) has been meeting with both Jenny and Robb regularly. Tee'ing up a collective meeting in coming weeks.
    • Others..?


End of Meeting

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