Hi, I want to make a new thread to talk about this.
I was first introduced to the idea of the role of ED at Omni along with a discussion about formalizing the Omni
President/Treasurer/Secretary roles in September. This has been
something discussed a lot by the fundraising working group, who has
struggled in the past to talk to funders due to Omni's lack of point
people and structure.
I
am in strong support of Jamal as interim ED along with other delegates,
Patrik from CCL, Natalie from Sketchboard, John from Liberated Lens,
and partial support (at least in contract writing) from Toan from FNB.
However Jamal has not been officially approved yet. To answer some
questions
- Who is Jamal? Jamal
was originally hired on to facilitate conversation between People's
Programs and Omni. After that meeting, there was informal consensus that
he would be a good fit for hiring to facilitate our internal Omni
accountability retreat. All of these funds are coming from the $4000
approved from the Hellman grant for DEI in November. Jamal has a lot of
organizational and professional experience, and connections to city
officials and orgs who may help. His primary immediate strategy is to
try and get our lender to give us another extension. They have not yet
filed for foreclosure. Jamal is hopeful with a clear, credible roadmap
to better organization, along with tidying up the space/getting rid of
clutter, and press involvement, that we will have a good chance at
securing this extension. In parallel, we are working on all other
proposals on the table. I have had uneasiness with the thought of
professionalizing, having been part of an organized nonprofit before,
and all the fakeness that marketing and fundraising requires, but have
had to reflect on how our past ways of organizing have led to burnout,
exclusion, and disempowerment and feel like this is a good answer
(though I welcome discussion). Past meeting notes give some indication
of how Jamal leads, but I encourage you all to come in person or
remotely to meet him first and foremost.
- What is the timeline?
goal is to have paperwork written by Jesse, our lawyer, outlining job
description and payment ready by Thursday, to be voted on by delegates.
Given the formal paperwork might not be ready before Wednesday, SR
should decide what they are okay with seeing or how much they are
willing to trust the delegate with the decision.
- Isn't this not-horizontal? Please read meeting notes above which have
very thoughtful discussion of this. Also please understand we are
facing foreclosure and have had extreme issues with unity and organizing
ourselves. We need someone responsible for coordinating all the many
threads of work going on right now.
- Is this a permanent decision? No - Jamal has offered to work as ED for 2-3 months, given that is when he is available/in-state
- How can we pay for it?
Jamal has offered to fund the position himself for the most part
(current proposal, some small monthly fee ~$250, with the rest of the
money coming from a percentage of what he raises). This is a big deal
for Omni, which has almost no funds right now!
- How do we build trust?
Jamal agreed to come to our Wednesday Sudo Room meeting remotely. He
has been very insistent about leaving the room when decisions were made
about him (he left the room when delegates decided to pursue writing a
contract), so we can expect he will give time for Sudo Room to discuss
privately. He has done a lot of difficult labor for us, and the job he's
been tasked with is extremely difficult, something we have failed at.
The main points of distrust I've heard are that (1) he favors People's
Programs and (2) is working with Silver to unjustly remove Jake. The
first claim I think can be assuaged by meeting Jamal, and reading the meeting notes from the accountability meeting. The "Current proposals, next steps" https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2024/01/05_06_Delegates
section was actually a couple hours of work, in which point people were
assigned to every proposal, with Jamal stressing that priority go to
pursuing extension from our current lender. As for (2), Silver and Jake
have been in many conflicts, and while Jamal was informed of these, he
did not bring up these conflicts to the delegates, nor encourage Jake's
removal. Responsibility goes to the delegates, including me. I can speak
to that in a different thread.
- How do we not build trust?
We don't build trust by discrediting people who have strong feelings
about anti-racism (i.e. Pallavi last meeting). Even if you have
disagreement or discomfort, as a predominately white space in Oakland
that is critically underutilized, these discussions of equity, racism,
and rules of engagement need to be on the table and must be given space,
respect, and reflection.
Paige