I also want to add that usually when discussing new collectives/tenants, they are not on the listserv, so that everyone feels they can speak freely.. So, I'm not sure everyone here is speaking freely.

We took Matt off but someone forwarded him every email, so I'm not sure it really does any good..

David

On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 3:48 AM, David Keenan <dkeenan44@gmail.com> wrote:

Here are my thoughts,

TIL always said it wanted a printing resource center for the community. It was pitched consistently as a cross between the IPRC in portland and Occucopy, that would provide affordable print and art-making tools to the community - essentially a service bureau on steroids, for everyone, which sounded awesome. I realize this printing collective is still in a state of becoming, but $100/pp/mo is e.g. a lot more than the $55/pp/year the IPRC charges, and seems like a pretty high bar to any kind of community involvement. 

One worry I have about this project in its current state is, from the description it sounds like six(?) independent, unnamed 'presses' (businesses?) like TIL who it seems banded together to have a place to print their own stuff, and perhaps less so really to provide resources to the larger community. That's not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but I would like some clarity on this point, since I have no idea who these other 5 businesses besides TIL even are, or how big these businesses are, how many people are involved with them, etc. And then I have a hard time understanding how offering one day a week of being open for actual community use and the rest for private business use, enough to qualify the project as fundamentally community-oriented. 

I had also hoped accompanying the amazing machines, that there would be a companion area of more pedestrian equipment like a couple pre-press workstations, tabloid printers, letter laser printers and copy machines could be made available to those who simply need to make flyers for social justice events etc quickly and cheaply that would maybe, not cost them $100/mo? You know, kind of like Occucopy provided.. But maybe that's coming - I'm not saying they're not moving fast enough. I just wonder where the space and planning is for those machines, that will probably get a lot more use from the community at large than a C&P? It seems like that's not part of the plan anymores.. is that true? 

Basically there are several still-unanswered aspects about the structure and application of this print collective that have little to do with how awesome printing machines are, how awesome the idea is, how awesome the people involved are, and everything to do with simply being fair to other collectives, with respect to distribution of space, rent and expenses that all of the collectives in the building must negotiate. IE this application must be looked at in context of what other collectives are paying and how they are using shared space too, not just on the merits of the printing collective alone and what it offers in isolation. 

I also think there is a lot of pressure built into this proposal, possibly unintended but still there, to agree to everything it says and STFU, because this brand-new collective has already moved all their machines down there prior to making themselves known, so it doesn't feel like the Omni collective has much room to have a say about it. It is certainly not the normal procedure of like, actually deciding on whether a group should move in and what they should contribute BEFORE they move in. Not after, as if its just some kind of formality.. 

If any of these 5 other businesses that have collectivized together to use their machines in the basement are incorporated, they may have to have individual legal agreements (leases of some sort) with OOC directly. I'm not sure actually, but I suspect that may be in order for OOC decisions made at meetings to trump innate tenant rights laws, and in order that insurance liability be binding, etc.

With respect to TIL subletting its upstairs office that was mentioned at the meeting, that could totally break our collective structure and is not OK in my view. 

Subletting is so ripe with problems that undermine collectivity I can't even begin to count them all. Rather the expectation should be, if TIL needs less space in that office, then they can rent a desk or 2 in there from the OOC, and those other individuals / businesses they share that office with will be their full equals in there, also as tenants, with the same rights and responsibilities, subject to the same acceptance process and legally binding agreements as every other tenant in the OOC. In the OOC, there is equality amongst tenants, that seems fundamental to me. New tenants, groups or businesses in the OOC should be a group decision, not one person's or a single group's. Right? 

Also with respect to TIL curating shared spaces in the omni, i would say, please, be sure to let everyone in the omni co-curate all the shared spaces with you, if that is cool.

Friendly amendments:

I propose this proposal be split into two proposals - 

one with regards to TIL and its rent reduction, including its desire to sublet its upstairs office

one with regards to the print collective & its space, rent, structure, etc. 

I see no reason why one proposal should depend on the other. 

Questions:

0. Would the collective be willing to turn on the machines and use them during the Thursday delegates meeting so we can hear how loud (or not) they are?

1. What are the intended operating hours of this collective? 

2. What is the collective structure of this group. How are decisions made? 

3. Does this group have open membership - can anyone join and use all the machines, provided they are adequately trained? 

4. Aside from TIL, what are the names of the six other presses/businesses that appear to largely comprise this group, and who is involved in them? 

5. What business or person legally owns which machines in the basement? 

6. Is this collective intended to be run as a business (be it a nonprofit or for-profit), or is this a collective that seeks to make access to their machines as affordable and available as possible to our community? 

IE, if your membership grows and gross revenue rises: 

- will your member dues go down from $100/pp/mo? 

- or will you simply buy more machines and continue to expand into the basement? 

- will someone profit? If so, who? 

- Do you have any thoughts about paying more rent to Omni if your membership increases? Going with the sliding-scale rental formula of the omni, based on affordability and ability to pay.

6. Given you can only afford $600 and you apparently have over ten members paying $100/ea, how did you come up with the $600 figure? 

7. It was mentioned at the meeting that running a print studio was 'incredibly expensive'. Given that the print collective will not be paying more in utilities than say BAPS, who has, increasingly worryingly, no dedicated space (and no huge power-slurping machines), I am wondering what these incredible expenses are. 

Are you putting consumables like paper and ink that will get made into things that will be presumably sold, in the same category as e.g. power or water as an operating expense, when consumables might also be called the raw materials for a commodity? 

Are you counting the purchase of the machines, or the one-time moving costs of the machines into the basement, as an ongoing expense? 

What are these ongoing, super high expenses, ie how much exactly do they cost? What's the actual budget?  

8. Would the collective and its component participating businesses be willing to disclose financial statements on a regular basis to assess rent affordability? 

9. Excepting TIL & Laura D., who from the printing collective has done any work on the Omni, or participates in any working groups or work on the omni, aside from organizing and moving their own printing gear? (I do realize that was a hell of a lot of work, but I'd like to know, since generally I never see any of em in the building nor the machines used.)

10. Does the printing collective know how much rent we are collecting, vs what we will owe in total, come Oct 1? IE does the collective have any sense at all of the Omni's total financial responsibility? 

11. If the machines are too loud for a class to take place simultaneously, does the collective intend to ask BAPS and other collectives not to use the basement during their work time? 

12. Does it seem a fair distribution of the rent burden that for example a collective we just met last week who has done no work on the Omni, receive 1/3 of the basement for a little more than half the rent BAPS pays, who comparatively has no dedicated space? Is it fair that Rise Above, with more expenses per person, pay $1000 for less space? 

13. Does the printing collective believe in a financial model in which member rosters soar and more people use the omni, but rental income stays exactly the same, in a period in which we are not actually making rent? 

Sorry if I come off as a hardass about this but I am mostly repeating things I heard all week

David

On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 9:15 PM, yar <yardenack@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 8:52 PM, ▽ ∞ ✳︎
<forever@timelessinfinitelight.com> wrote:
> *We will bring forth a revised Community Print Studio proposal to Omni
> soon, which we would like to make a decision on during the October 2nd
> delegate meeting*. This proposal will address concerns regarding space,
> noise, and communality that were brought up during the last meeting.

I just want to say that I'm at the CPS meeting right now and they've
all been really generous and helpful and I believe that we will figure
out something. It's really just a tough space logistics problem about
how to orient the machines in the least intrusive way and maximize
common/shared space. The machines need to somehow be ventilated,
eventually soundproofed, and have a radius of empty space to work
around. We will need more time just to solve this geometry problem,
and that's mainly what's holding up the proposal right now.

In the meantime Kate & I started a wiki page to document all the
existing and forthcoming machines, their dimensions, what their needs
are: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Print_Studio