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Last Month's Income & Expenses

by Omni Commons

3 years, 4 months

Contractor liaison needed

by David Keenan

Hi, In light of new members / groups having arrived 10 months on into intensive building improvements and infrastructure maintenance that myself, Sarah, and Safer DIY began last summer - and in the spirit of ‘step up, step back’ that I generally think is a healthy collective practice to horizontalize labor and responsibility - I thought this would be an opportune time to consciously transition these responsibilities to a new member(s). For those with interests in continuing any building improvements / effecting property maintenance - which was originally begun to pass omni’s fire inspection, then in a valiant effort to aid in Omni’s narrowing refi prospects - I would like to pass on the following contact information for Omni’s most recent carpenter, electrician, plumber, HVAC, Roofer, etc: Matt Costa, carpenter: +1 (718) 290-5758 Clif Walker, electrician: +1 (510) 435-0796 Tony Fazule, plumber: +1 (510) 534-5480 AAPH, HVAC: +1 (415) 254-782 DTC Lighting & Grip: +1 (510) 595-0770 Mike Tenuto, Roofer: +1 (510) 575-2800 * TL;DR: As some are aware, Mike currently owes omni a ~$8.9K refund and has also guaranteed the roof for 7y; and (because I have been asked more than once) fwiw he is not my referral, he was a referral from within omni and not someone I previously worked with. His payment on the refund to omni is pretty late; a claim with the surety company may need to be filed and I’m sure there are deadlines.. for more detail, please reach out to others on this list. Also - based on my experience working on omni with the help of other building professionals since 2014, I thought it might be helpful to reiterate what I have found to be the following best practices for omninoms in order to maintain healthy, positive working relationships with such outside entities: - Arrange in advance for a consistent, single point of contact at omni, with at most one backup contact. Whenever possible, avoid changing this up; ideally there should be at least a 4mo commitment from some omninom to being a designated point of contact. - Avoid adding these folks to any text groups or email lists (can quickly equate to overwhelm for non-omninoms). - While compensation terms can differ obviously, in general be prepared to pay the full balance on the last day / completion of work (don’t assume net-15/30 type terms), and it is best to clarify with each contractor before work starts as to whether whether a deposit is required for a given scope of work (for materials? Etc), and whether cash vs check vs PayPal/venmo etc is expected as the medium. - Particularly on-site, professional boundaries should be consciously maintained in that it may not be obvious to others using the building that these folks are not fellow volunteers. Contractors may not have an awareness of various activities or groups using the building at a given time as they focus on their work, nor be completely read into the full details of omnis politics / mission / structure etc etc so this should not be assumed. Seeking to strike up an extended convo or offering to help etc may distract more than aid, in spite of good intentions. Yelling at a contractor because you’re trying to work on your own stuff and it’s loud etc, or critiquing their work as they are doing it, is to be avoided. Unless there is an imminent hazard, omninoms should be instructed to have an inconvenienced human yell at the point of contact for the contractor, and not the contractor. - If it changes, be sure to inform contractors of the lockbox code / key / card so they can freely access the building. In general, a contractor waiting or working = same cost to omni. Most use the lockbox I installed - If things seem to go south with a contractor for whatever reason, remember that locating a talented, affordable, dependable, nice etc tradesperson for Omni’s not-insignificant task list of ‘small’ jobs for is not always easily achieved. It is worth keeping in mind for example, that the present electrician will have a relatively deep knowledge of Omni’s electrical to start with and therefore, be more likely to fix a problem in less time (cheaper) than a different electrician. Same with plumber, etc etc. So, imo it is best to over-budget any time needed to locate and establish a relationship with a suitable replacement should that ever be required. Finally, while I don’t expect this will realistically last within Omni’s institutional memory very long I would like to remind folks that I generally continue rely on those contractors I brought in to omni, in order to preserve affordable housing and myriad community spaces elsewhere.. so if things ever go south with any contractor I would really appreciate being notified as a courtesy. Best, David

3 years, 4 months

visited the SFMoma, pondering ways to weave more art into SudooRoom

by Romy Ilano

I just renewed my membership to the SF Moma museum - some photographs https://www.flickr.com/photos/miromi/albums/72177720298294735 I was really into the Neri Oxman projects. She weaves a lot of science, biology and etch into these really neat architectural pieces. https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/nature-x-humanity-oxman-architects/ We also were toying around with the new projector - and it was fun putting some kara walker into the spce during harware hack night. it was nice being in the sudoroom instead of in the ballroom, although the ballroom overall looks way cool https://flickr.com/photos/miromi/52015867232/in/dateposted/ So for the next hardware hack night I think I wanna focus on making some kind of art installation while people are hacking. and we can weave math lessons and math art into that somehow in a cycle. 😎 ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

3 years, 4 months

Introducing myself

by Lucas Gonze

Hello hello. The FAQ ( https://sudoroom.org/wiki/FAQ#How_do_I_become_a_member?) suggests I introduce myself, so, yeah, hello! More about me: https://github.com/lucasgonze/ I was going to put a few dollars in, but the instructions on how to do that rely on Gratipay, which is long gone. Is there an alternative method these days? -Lucas

3 years, 4 months

Please help with cataloging tools

by Eric O'Connor

I spent some time cataloging devices and tools in sudoroom here: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Work_Stations Mostly I was just curious what everything is for, so that I know what I could use sudoroom for. Could I have some help adding a description for each of these? Ideally we’d record at least 1) whether it works, and 2) a description that includes a concrete example of something you could do with it. For example, “the TAZ3 printer is used for fused filament fabrication. You could use this to create a plastic Spider-Man figurine from a computer 3D model”. The wiki formatting for a table looks like this: |- | Item name | YYYY-mm-dad | Item description Thank you! Eric

3 years, 4 months

Connecting SudoRoom to hackerspaces in cities that provide alternatives to cars

by Romy Ilano

I’ve made contact with hackerspaces in Barcelona and Paris - the premise is that outside two other places in the USA the auto and oil industry is so powerful there is simply no way to innovate on transportation The rest of the world is leaving us behind and we’re stuck with larger and larger SUVs and more and more sprawl - for most Americans the idea of walking transit and biking instead of car 🚘 use has become unimaginable even though the car environment is entirely government subsidized Sent from my iPhone

3 years, 4 months

Say no to things punch card

by Romy Ilano

This is an inspiration ! https://twitter.com/crystaljjlee/status/1517971238127349761?s=21&t=GdYHoB6k… Say no to things punch card. Thinking on how I want to make more cool print zines and cards to leave around SudoRoom 😸 Sent from my iPhone

3 years, 4 months

proposal: recover $9000 skylights money from contractor

by Jake

this is a proposal to the delegates of Omni Commons, to pursue recovery of our $9000 that we spent on skylights that turned out to be no good (and we had to remove at our own expense) specifically this proposal will require those with knowledge of the situation to cooperate to get our money back through any legal means available, including going after the contractor's bond money with the city/state. We should also figure out what the exact amount is, including costs to remove the Defective "skylights" that were installed for no good reason in the first place. -Jake

3 years, 4 months

Should we establish working groups?

by Andrew R Gross

*Should we establish working groups?* Currently, there appear to be no formal roles responsible for managing Sudoroom. I think this can lead to all critical functions falling onto a small number of people. At the same time, we've recently seen an increase in new members looking to contribute. If we were to define what functions need done and invite individuals to assume responsibility for these, we could share burdens more broadly by making it easier for willing volunteers to organize themselves and lend their support to the collective. I think a good starting set of working group would be for membership, operations, and finances, although I think establishing or disbanding a working group should be at the whim of any member, rather than something formal. I would propose that a working group consists of anyone (and everyone) who asks to participate in one. The groups would have no special formal power, they'd just be a way of identifying people who are offering to help manage a set of functions. If access to anything has to be limited to less than the entire working group (for instance banking access), the responsibility will be decided by consensus within the working group. Thoughts? What working groups would you suggest? Are there any functions for which you'd like to volunteer? *Andrew R Gross, (he/him)* 412.657.5332 - shrad.org <http://www.shrad.org>

3 years, 4 months

Does the sudoroom have a big windows 10 machine I could use to flash a big video card?

by jacques revera

Any chance there is a biggish windows box there I could use to try to flash a GPU with a different BIOS today tomorrow? This is a big GPU for my Mac Pro with the wrong BIOS that won't fit in my windows box. Thing went awry for me flashing the card on Linux command line. Back at computer by 7pm to respond. THAAANKS!!! Jacques

3 years, 4 months

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