3 Aug
2023
3 Aug
'23
8:11 p.m.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2023 15:28:32 -0700
From: Z Silver Zahn <natashazahn27(a)gmail.com>
To: consensus <consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org>
Subject: [omni-consensus] Updates
Update CSC will formally move out of the current room and is pending their
decision on moving to the current omni office or sticking to their other space
by the end of the month.
Also ANV gave their 30 day notice and is moving out of Omni , (they recently
got city slicker farm as their new csa location whoo)!
However if CSC moves on then we will earn $200 a month less in rent + ANV
office space which is $675. Losing total of $875 monthly rent income.
Reminder that collectives pay monthly rent of :
Sudo room : $2,000
Counter Culture Labs : $2,000
Sudo Mesh : $200
Global Women Strike : $200
Food Not Bombs : $500
Village of Love : $1,800 (months behind on rent)
Myriad Outreach Program : $100
Safer DIY : $300
Monthly rent will be around , $6,100
Events have been averaging $5k for the year of 2023.
I don’t have the number for donations but it’s definitely not a lot and
averages $1k.
So our income is roughly 12k (Sarah please correct me if I’m way off, this
is just my newbie research) Huge thanks to Sarah for book keeping and
making sure events and tenants know where they are at with their invoices!
And so much more in the finance realm that i'm still trying to grapple!
I report monthly how much we make from events , (the cost of the event that
occured that month and not invoices previous or future events)
and can try to report monthly expenses on our contractors.
Example : Event Coordinator Budget Tracker
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14-JhFQ8GUHyDI4IRe0inoVg6KUe0NMw-k-8VG0fhoFs/edit?usp=sharing>
* Curious if any financial experts can support monthly reports of our expenses?
feel inclined to join a finance working group to help understand our accounts more!
*Collective financial transparency is liberating!*
Our expenses in July was around 17k+ which is our average utility/insurance
etc costs plus contractors costs that began from Hellman grant, for Billy
and myself at $30 an hour for events. Sarah was already contracted as our
book bookkeeper and Susan as our grant writer.
Meaning if we keep things exactly the same we will be losing $5k a month
which is how much we give our mortgage lender.
*Things are financially unwell and I think we need to focus on bringing in
a new collective vision aligned with who can pay monthly consistent rent.*
We were dependent on events to help raise revenue but we hardly get
requests. I think it’s a combination of decay neglected entrance hall that
easily turns people away. The building WG for the last few months has been
meeting weekly on Sunday tending to the common spaces and the next big
action item is a dump run day! This would be greatly done collectively ,
does Sunday afternoon anytime noon to 6pm work for folks?
+ We approved a budget for building cleanliness. I suggest paying part of
that budget to Phil who has been cleaning Omni for years as a volunteer.
Deep cleaning all the bathrooms taking out all the trash mopping commons
areas, etc.
Secondly our outreach and website needs to be ramped up. I have been doing
a lot of the work and think it’ll only be successful in a collective manner!
*We approved $2k for a website contractor and outlined the scope of the
work. I suggest we empower the website working group to hire the best
candidate!*
Also with rooms opening up to collectively decide what we want to rent out
and for how much. I’ve proposed moving the Omni Office to VOL smaller room
(that room was Joey's suggestion) to ease their monthly rent so we can rent
out the current office to so man interested collectives! Or even moving the
Omni office to the current mail room?
The Den and ANV office is available for future tenants as well~
Lastly I would suggest renting out the ticket booth room for a collective.
It hasn’t been functional since I volunteered back in 2018. Now it has some
scaffolding but it hasn’t been used for years as well.
Also as Sarah mentioned a committee to actively invite possible new
tenants.
I'm losing a little hope as delegates meetings have been feeling like
containers of blockages. Especially since most delegate representatives
don’t participate in any working groups that need support rather than
blocks. I encourage delegates to participate at least in one working group~
That being said I’ve posted marketing and outreach coordinator (approved
from Hellman grant) for more capacity building and for my slow transition
out of Omni Commons.
Sorry for the long rant , these are just concerning thoughts. I believe we
can pull through this financial deficit with some collective creativity!!
Last year our private loan investor extended our balloon payment by a year
due to the incredible fundraising efforts with people power.
This year we’re losing collectives, money, general activation &
participation. Thats not encouraging our lender to continue their
investment by the end of this year of our due date of 890k .We are not a
viable candidate for refi with loss of revenue .
Maybe we should start talking about plan B if refinance isn't feasible?