[sudo-discuss] Fwd: [omni-consensus] Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status

Hi folks, sorry I've been a bad delegate and forgot to forward these proposals before now. I haven't made up my mind personally about whether this is a good idea. Back in 2013 BAPS and Sudoroom were the formative members of Omni. They are a very different group today. In some ways, we are too. I don't take this lightly at all, and I feel it may be one of the most consequential decisions we've made in years. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Laura Turiano <scylla(a)riseup.net> Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 6:08 PM Subject: [omni-consensus] Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status To: consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org <consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org> Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status Bay Area Public School was fiscally sponsored by OC to: ● enlarge movement and collective understanding of the structures we face; ● place our present activities in their relevant history; ● understand the forces of evolution acting on our actions and organizations; ● study the extant literature addressing political forms and structures, varieties of party and organization forms, the archive of movement politics and principles, and strategies of organizing; ● organize classes, seminars, workshops and educational events on the above topics; ● coordinate space for these activities in the Omni and elsewhere; ● develop syllabi, outlines, focus topics, lists of references, etc. Since January 2018, BAPS has only held the following 4 classes: Marx was Right Reading Group - 2-6/2018 Poets’ House - Intermittent events 2-11/2018 The East: Solo Performance Laboratory - 5-10/2018 Writing with World Stuff - 10/2018 to the present. BAPS has made little to no effort to recruit new classes, research what kind of classes would be of interest and benefit to OC or the neighborhood community, or otherwise use OC fiscal sponsorship to develop the activities for which it was sponsored. BAPS has made no effort to ask for donations from class participants or do any other fundraising and has made no material contributions to OC in over a year. BAPS has had only between 1-5 active members for at least 2 years. Only 2 people have consistently attended BAPS meetings. With usually only 2 members from similar backgrounds discussing and deciding upon any proposal or issue, they only hear a very limited range of opinions. Most collectives have to reach some level of agreement between many more people from more diverse perspectives. Currently, BAPS and its delegate are blocking the proposal to hire Jenny Ryan as bookkeeper on a temporary contract. This proposal is urgent and supported by everyone else in the organization. This block shows that BAPS does not take seriously the main duty of a Delegate to support sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management of Omni Commons as an organization. Given BAPS minimal activities at OC, it’s lack of any unified organizing effort, its lack of support by participating members, it’s failure to fulfill its responsibility to support the continued healthy functioning of the organization, and its lack of need for fiscal sponsorship (since they collect no donations), BAPS’ fiscal sponsorship agreement should be discontinued. Per the agreement: 8. The board retains the right to terminate collection of funds for the Project at any time upon giving written notice to the Committee. Taking into account the large workload of the Treasurer, bookkeeper, and Finance Working Group over the next several months, and the length of time the proposal to hire Jenny has been stalled, this decision should be made and enacted immediately. Since member collectives are required to be either fiscally sponsored projects of OC or tenants of OC, termination of the fiscal sponsorship contract also ends BAPS status as a member collective. Current or future classes that members of BAPS would like to hold can be scheduled at OC through event contracts via the Commons working group. Should an actual collective come together to undertake similar activities to BAPS in the future, it is welcome to apply to be a member collective or for fiscal sponsorship. _______________________________________________ consensus mailing list consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/consensus