FYI: per a previous thread, I got some information on the topic of
transitioning to employee ownership for those that are interested. The
plan is pretty thorough, but it is a draft, and it's not a cooperative
really.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahm Ahmadi <brahm(a)peoplescommunitymarket.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 9:26 AM
Subject: Re: Buy Shares page error
To: Julio Rios <julio.rios(a)gmail.com>
Hi Julio-
Our plan is to become an ESOP - Employee Stock Ownership Plan. We've been
working with the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) to develop a
multi-stage process for becoming an ESOP and engendering an employee
culture of training and engagement in running the business. The current
draft of our plan is attached.
An ESOP is not a cooperative. ESOPs typically have a management structure
and a board of directors that make a majority of operational decisions.
Cooperatives typically run on a one-member, one-vote structure in which
business decisions are made by everyone.
Most ESOPs are the result of a conversion, typically when the founder wants
to exit from the business. You can get more information about ESOPs at this
link on NCEO's website:
https://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-esop-united-states.
Full disclosure: NCEO is an investor in our business.
Thanks
Brahm
Brahm Ahmadi
CEO/President
People's Community Market
O: 510.995.7498brahm(a)peoplescommunitymarket.comwww.peoplescommunitymarket.com
Twitter: @PeoplesMrkt
Hello Hackers, Activists, Designers, Policy Folks, Neighbors!
Our metropolis is under going rapid transformation. From mass evictions in
the Mission, predatory real estate companies in West Oakland, targeted
campaigns to make whole neighborhoods safe for the ultra wealthy, massive
income inequality in the streets, and systemic race, gender and class gaps
in the tech community.
LOL is holding an open hack night for anti-displacement projects at 7pm
each Thursday this month.
There are a lot of ongoing projects that need mapping, visualization, and
backend development -- One of which is aiming to plug holes in the Ellis
Act that is being debated in Sacramento right now. In addition, we need
creative ideas in how data and information can translate to impact on the
streets. If you are good with stats, numbers,
js/flash/lamp/rails/whatever stack you like, making pretty pictures, or
knowing what on the ground need, come by! If you have expertise in housing
policy or community development policy also come by! If you or someone
you know is facing displacement, come on by as a concerned community member!
One of our main projects that needs love is the Anti Eviction Mapping
Project, which is now making the rounds in Sacramento in order to provide
policy changes to the Ellis Act, and data visualization people can be extra
helpful here.
Liberating Ourselves Locally (LOL) is a gender balanced, person of color
led hack/collab/DIO space in East Oakland. 1234 23rd Ave, Oakland CA.
http://oaklandmakerspace.wordpress.com/directions/
Look forward to seeing you!
If you have any questions, please contact myself or erinmcel at gmail dot
com
Are you looking for something you can do that is meaningful on this TheDayWeFightBack? Please donate to our Spy Center Litigation Fund.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spy-center-litigation
In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, the Oakland Privacy Working Group would be most grateful for your help in shutting down the Oakland Domain Awareness Center. We need a show of support - small ($3-10) donations - in order to proceed with our lawsuit against the City of Oakland to stop the National Surveillance State from building a Fusion Center in our own backyard (on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way!).
We have successfully pushed back on the City Council's awarding of the Department of Homeland Security grant contract for months. And while we've narrowed the time period in which the contractor would have to complete the job significantly (they have until the end of May), the City Council may very well vote to go with the proposed contractor at the Feb. 18 City Council meeting, despite the evidence we've brought that Schneider Electric is in violation of Oakland Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance. The latest word is that the City Council will waive this stop-gap feature of our city's laws despite knowing all that we know about the NSA, the OPD, and surveillance backdoors in our neighborhood. There may be nothing left to stop this runaway surveillance train other than suing our city government to cease and desist from building their PanOAKticon - the Nuclear option.
It is much more important that you give than how much - http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spy-center-litigation.
There are several other ways in which the Oakland Privacy Group is going all out to stop this thing before it's too late. You can find out more at http://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com/. Join the activist planning and discussion on our listserv at oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe(a)lists.riseup.net. Retweet a message from https://twitter.com/OaklandPrivacy to help #StopTheDAC. Come to the Feb. 18 City Council meeting to show our politicians that we're not joking around when we fight back. Sign the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/the-mayor-and-city-council-of-oakland-ca-do…. Encourage your friends and colleagues to write letters to the editor and blog posts about how mass surveillance will effect all of our overlapping communities.
Thanks for your attention. The text from the IndieGoGo page is below.
---
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/spy-center-litigation
“We are the last free people. We are the people that have the last chance to act.” – Julian Assange.
While we are immensely grateful for larger donations, IT IS JUST AS IMPORTANT that we have MANY small donations, $3, $5, $10 from thousands of grassroots activists, in order to show broad support.
The Impact
THIS AFFECTS ALL OF US. If you believe in freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of the right to be anonymous in speech, freedom of thought, if you believe that we should be free from warrantless searches and seizures, that all are entitled to due process, that we are innocent until proven guilty, that probable cause is needed, if you value the hard fought freedoms won in the American Revolution, the Civil Rights and Free Speech Movements, and all those who lost their lives defending these rights, please help us. This fight is not only about the residents of Oakland, California as it will directly impact all of us, allowing further spying on US citizens.
The proposed Oakland spy center at issue in this litigation will conduct massive full-time surveillance and share information broadly, linking to various NSA and FBI intelligence centers and even private contractors. Data sharing platforms are being incorporated and further developed per project documents. The Dept. of Homeland Security has funded 78 of these 'fusion centers' around the country.
We Are Fighting Back
The Oakland Privacy Working Group, a coalition of civil liberties minded individuals, in concert with other civil liberties groups, seeks through litigation to prevent the awarding of a contract for Phase 2 implementation of a Dept. of Homeland Security funded spy center within the city limits of Oakland known as the Domain Awareness Center. Because of the expiring nature of the federal grants funding the spy center, there is a strong likelihood that disqualification of the remaining bidders will halt the entire project due to loss of funding.
What We Need
We are asking you, the larger community, for $10,000 for the first phase of litigation, an injunction and lawsuit against the City of Oakland to prevent the award of the Phase 2 contract, and dismantling of the work completed under the Phase 1 contract.
We are anticipating a protracted battle not only on the Phase 2 contract itself, but the larger overall battle of civil liberties infringement inherent in this project. We have a real chance at turning back the military-industrial-intelligence complex from daily intrusion and spying into our lives. With just a $5 donation, it only takes 2,000 people to make a loud statement that spying on citizens will not be tolerated! The Snowden revelations make clear that unless the intelligence community is forced to comply with the law, it surely will not.
Other Ways You Can Help
Whether you donate or not, please sign this petition: http://tinyurl.com/kdod9wt
If your are part of a civil liberties group and interested in helping spread the word and participating, please contact us at oaklandprivacy(a)gmail.com
If you're an experienced litigator and licensed to practice in California, we can use your help on our trial team. Please contact us at oaklandprivacy(a)gmail.com.
For additional info:
http://tinyurl.com/p7wbrqkhttp://oaklandwiki.org/Domain_Awareness_Centerhttps://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com/https://twitter.com/OaklandPrivacyhttps://www.facebook.com/oakprivacy
Hello Sudoers!
Come Plerk (play + werk!) it out in the DIY Molecular Cloning Class tonight
at SudoRoom (6:30p-8p -at the latest).
Throughout the course of the entire class we will be isolating genes from
the banana genome, cloning them into expression vectors and purifying
protein our banana proteins. It's a multi-month process that is going to be
great!
Tonight (class 2) we will be covering the following:
(1) DNA discussion review
(2) performing DNA extractions from banana and discussing the chemical
processes happening at each step
(3) Digesting our DNA with DNAse enzyme (community sourced :-) ),
(4) Analyzing our samples on Agarose gel
(5) Visualizing our cut DNA.
For those of you who are interested in getting some wet lab experience,
come on out. It's going to be fun!
See you tonight.
Craig
I didn't see one on the calendar, but seem to recall seeing something
like that in the past.
A few months ago I laid out $180 to but something called a Ion
Blockrocker Bluetooth to have a portable amplifier/speaker/microphone
thingie for events. It was more or less adequate, but shortly after I
got it the 3.5mm IN jack became unseated and now it doesn't make an
adequate connection. I can still access the device by bluetooth, but
not every device has bluetooth and bluetooth can be a bit finicky during
an event, as we found out at the Anti-DAC event last Tuesday.. It looks
like it has screws so disassembling it would probably be easy, but I
have about as much dexterity in my fingers as most folks have in their
toes and am not sure I would be able to figure out how to re-seat the
little audio-in aperture. I guess I could RMA the thing, but it is big,
it would probably cost me $40 to send it back.
http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/blockrockerbluetooth
Anyway, if anyone feels like having a crack at it, I'd be happy to
schlep it to the room.
Ed
And...action-
[image: Inline image 1]
IMO this is the ideal loaner bike- it's simple, light, not too nice but not
a total piece of crap, and with a couple quick adjustments damn near anyone
can ride it safely and comfortably. Best of all, I can build something like
this out of junk with basic tools in a few hours so it's not a huge loss if
it doesn't come back.
Which brings me to my next point. I think loaning bikes out is a great
idea, as long as there's an understanding that the the word "loan" implies
that the item in question will be returned in the same condition (or close
to it) in a timely fashion. Sudoers are pretty good about this...but when
non-members walk out of here with bikes without leaving some kind of
contact info or a name or a clear idea of what the terms of the loan are,
it's even odds as to whether it will come back in working order. So as a
hedge against any future misunderstandings, we should at least write down a
name, how we can get a hold of them, and how long they need the bike for.
This can be on a discretionary basis but I can't think of a reason why we
shouldn't keep track of who has what.
Anyway...the old sudo bike has been slightly revised- longer seatpost, new
bars and stem so there's a shorter reach on the bars, new fender/front and
rear light, broken and/or unnecessary crap removed, brakes kind of work
now...to go beyond making it safe (safer?) and rideable would be like
polishing a turd, and I need less of that in my life right now. I took a
pic but my antique iPhone doesn't want to give it up. Selah.
So they're here if you want to try them out. Enjoy.
-chrisbee
Hi sudo!
We've been in the process of more clearly defining membership, which will
in turn help to clarify our monthly income as well as access issues.
*If you consider yourself to be a current member of Sudo Room, please email
me the following details:*
*Name (can be pseudonymous)
*Contact Email
*Monthly contribution [as per the new $10 minimum
amendment<https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association#Sub-Section_3.4.3_Dues>
]
*Form of payment [cash, check, Gittip, WePay]
*Optional: Core project(s) / group(s) you're working on / with.
I'm setting up a SeltzerCRM instance to track door access codes and
donations and remind members to pay if they're past due.
Once we have you as a registered, dues-paying member in the system, the
next step will be assigning access codes.
*Sudo Room remains, as always, open to anyone to drop in so long as a
member is present! Becoming a member means you get your own keycode and the
ability to vote on consensus items.*
For those unable to pay the $10 minimum, please propose a worktrade
alternative. We've recently added a New Members component to the weekly
meeting agenda, so we can acknowledge new members and work out the details
of their contributions then. I'm going to propose that once a month during
this section, we go through work/trade memberships and check that a given
project/task has been happening as proposed. Work/trade tasks might include:
* Holding a regular class or workshop (eg; 3D Tuesdays, Today We Learned)
* Maintaining infrastructure (such as the door rpi, the network, web
presence)
* Cleaning (especially the common space kitchen, floor and furniture)
* Organizing the Room of Stuff
* Writing blog posts (kudos to Romy, who's been super prolific this year
already!)
* Think of anything that would positively contribute to the space and/or
community!
Cheers,
/jnny
Due to continued spam, I've added some additional permissions on our wiki.
As of now, only registered users who confirm their email addresses can post
to the wiki.
Let me know if you run into any snags!
-Jenny