Event:2022/11/03 Delegates

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Omni Delegates' Meeting - November 3, 2022 7pm-9pm

Meeting Roles

  • Facilitator/s: john
  • Stacktaker:
  • Timekeeper:
  • Notetaker/s: yar
  • Next meeting's facilitator(s):

Delegates

  • inactive groups: CSC, GWS
  • ANV: active, silver
  • BOGSS: active, geraldo
  • CCL: active, Patrik
  • CLP: active, billy
  • FNB: active, joe
  • LL: active, John
  • MOP: active, jacqi
  • SM: depends, nobody here
  • SR: active, Jake
  • Quorum (2/3 of active groups): YES

intros

BRIEF INTROS MAY INCLUDE: name, pronouns, groups you're in, land you're on, if you're a delegate, unmet access needs, meeting roles you'd like to help with, discussion topics or proposals to add to agenda, announcements/updates/report-backs from your groups, safe space issues or updates

  • yar
    • bogss committee has been formed with 5 members: geraldo, kiri, danielle, jessica, sahib
    • loan extension
    • cease & desist. need to schedule fire inspection!!
    • DSA is a c4, so might threaten property taxes, boohoo
    • kids group meeting some weekdays
    • restructuring finance team - please join new committee
  • john LL he/him
  • billy CLP
    • been doing interviews for events position. thinking of expanding to facilities manager.
    • locked sound booth in ballroom. thinking of assigning specific keyholders for rooms.
    • too short requested an event, we said no because we're not ready
    • want clarity from delegates on how to proceed with events
  • patrik
    • wants to hear more about finances & saturday's event
  • jacqi
    • want to revisit liquor license conversation. asking for any historical knowledge folks have about it.
    • yar: my understanding is a liquor license isn't applied to the building per se, it goes to an organization, and our organization has never had any beyond the temporary one-day / one-event licenses
  • jake
  • geraldo he/they, technically i'm the bogss chair rn
  • joe

ED

  • yar proposes hire executive director
    • john waxes philosophical and is ultimately not opposed to it
    • Yar: we can't do this right now; will take some time to find someone and figure out how to pay them. Yar needs to take a break from Omni end of Jan.
  • billy: i support. someone's always doing this work, just sometimes it's invisibilized. often it becomes contentious because of lack of boundaries. but if we can't afford a full time ED, will anybody want the job part-time? maybe we can fundraise to pay someone a full salary. concerned it wouldn't be appealing. that ED would have to come in and do really hard work. serious damage control. might even damage someone's reputation if omni fails on their watch. it's a huge ask to be the bottomliner expected to come in and fix deep problems.
  • joe: there's more happening, more people in omni doing their thing (sewing, massaging, free store, hackers, food justice), most alive it's ever been. sadly a lot of the people don't talk to each other, but there's enough communication and cooperation, i don't see unless something terrible happens, us losing this momentum if we get an ED. i think it's a happy moment. i'd like to ask yar, write down your major responsibilities? the things you and you alone have the operating knowledge of and are doing, both so we know what we're looking for and we may be able to know if we can divide it up or do some other kind of problem solving around the issue of the part timeness, lack of full salary, and all that. that's my request.
  • patrik needs more time to consider the proposal
  • jacqi: makes sense to have somebody in a role that's able to delegate all these things
  • geraldo: interested in seeing how this goes. so much work. agreed we should have someone paid, with clear boundaries so they know where they stand
  • jake: support in general hiring ED
  • john: this isn't a formal vote, just a temperature check. but i'm hearing no objection to the concept. concerns about how possible it is. consensus is that we can go ahead with the process of thinking about it. does that sound fair?
  • yar: yeah wasn't expecting full approval this meeting
  • who's interested in bottom lining the next steps?

events status

  • What actually happened On Saturday?
    • yar: a fight broke out at the event. organizers shut the event down, and the fight continued on the street, and escalated into severe violence. folks went to hospital, cops were called.
  • cease and desist was mailed on october 13th and is extremely vague, it just says "don't have any events until you're compliant with the following boilerplate list of city departments"
  • Copies of the C&D letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17yDuQhmS8XEeS5jNP98EYCeBDplzslPC/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/19oSwMige4KfzAcdS8tsOIDu1DhIjHKmT/view
    • Dated Oct 13 - /before/ Saturday's trouble. C&D is from City of Oakland "Your tenant must cease & desist all events scheduled until you have applied and been granted the permits described below" (ABC license, Alameda County Environmental Health Dept, Business Tax Certificate, Fire Dept Public Assembly Permits, Planning and Building Dept zoning permit, Special Events permits)
  • Have we ever gotten a health permit from the Alameda County Environmental Health Dept?
    • billy: checked with health dept; only need that if we're selling food we made. a caterer selling food cooked somewhere else is responsible for their own health permitting.
  • billy: any events with more than 1 food vendor, need a sponsor license from dept of environmental health. doesn't happen very often tho.
    • event with 50+ people and entertainment needs a "special event permit", even without alcohol. otherwise you need a cabaret license.
  • yar: i would also tack this onto the list of things to ask david about. there's some nuances here in which the cops' interpretation of the law is wrong and can be pushed back on.
  • john proposes that event committee proceed with caution so as not to risk violating the C&D
  • jake: david might say no. we'll see.
  • yar also suggests asking sarah if david can't do it
  • Patrik: for any upcoming events: avoid anything publicly advertised, >50 people, or serves alcohol.
    • But we have events that we already have contracts for!
  • yar: i think the most important thing is that we don't actually have any major violations, we need to make sure that we are de facto safe from fire hazards. i doubt they'd shut us down on a technicality, they would prioritize enforcement for cases where there's an actually egregious problem that needed to be fixed.
  • Joe: let's go over list of currently contracted events
    • Nov 11 Omni fundraiser! Get Special Events permit?
    • Queer Arts Market Nov, Dec (daytime)
    • AA events - may be over 50, and is public
    • Nov 26 - 90's art collective party, ends 11:30
  • jacqi has been trying to schedule fire inspection, is still bugging them with emails. doing our best. at this point, we're waiting on them. we should operate as if it's going to happen soon.

event manager

  • proposal from last week?
  • lost quorum before getting to this
  • billy is also considering adding "facilities manager" to the job. lots of overlap between the two. it's an identified role that'd be familiar to people. cleanliness committee isn't getting traction from volunteers. maybe that could be part of the job. maybe lock up rentable rooms between events so they can't get fucked up. https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/edit/jBkIwfPfmgtz+wbJnvQdOITw/

finances

  • John: $95K in bank, much of it restricted (Oakland Privacy, kitchen, GoFundme)
  • Yar: P&L's still being generated. Need to grow income more. Enclosing more spaces, adding new groups, doing more events. Omni office, ticket booth room, potentially more basement rooms.
  • DSA's 501c(4) status may prevent us from hosting them, according to lawyer working on property tax status
  • Billy: have we talked w EBPREC about loan extension?
    • Yar: their lawyer nixed a loan from EBPREC to Omni. Willing to be our "Plan B" to buy the building (did Mulberry require a nonprofit though?)
  • Yar: trying to restructure Finance committee: paid staff vs collective representatives (need more people!)
  • Billy: what about grant writing?
    • Yar: a grant writer could do wonders. Should be feasible to pay an ED out of grant money.
    • Billy: Resiliency Hub seems good opportunity

hiring david

  • jake wants to ask David Keenan if he can be hired to do a pre-inspection
    • possibly also to accompany inspection
  • jacqi suggests david can also help with liquor license. but tabling that discussion.
  • yar: very much agreed for hiring david. will also need an omni bottomliner, his suggestions may take a lot of labor/coordination to act on. also may need to do serious cleanup in some areas, possibly dismantle free store temporarily.

End of Meeting