Agreed! Thank you, Yar!
I also want to assure everyone involved that my bringing up issues around
money is meant only to make the material realities of this project visible,
so that there are no surprises and to encourage member groups to be
explicit about what they can and cannot contribute. It's important that we
reconfigure our expenses to reflect changes in member groups contributions
in order to accurately project our needs.
That said, I had a conversation with Margaretha some time ago in which I
said that having Backspace involved in the Omni was way more important to
me than their financial contribution.
I know it's very hard for us to talk about money. I am hopeful that we can
be clear and open so that we may begin to
replace feelings of shame, anxiety and anger around money with feelings of
compassion and support.
I LOVE BACKSPACE and really want to help support it in coming into being
in whatever way I can.
<3 <3
N
On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 11:25 AM, Sara Larsen <saralarsenyoga(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
I want to thank you Yar for this incredible
letter. Needless to say, I
support the views you expressed 100%!
On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 8:40 AM, Scott Nanos <scott.nanos(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
I agree 200% w/ yar and hope we can come to a
conclusion that works for
all of us (particularly for backspace). I can't come to this thurs meeting
but my fingers are crossed double crossed triple crossed. Hoping Baps and
backspace can team up to become champions of the commons <3
Xo
Scott
On Oct 20, 2014, at 8:28 AM, yar
<yardenack(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 12:58 PM, yar <yardenack(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> It's not your fault, it's not anybody else's fault either. I really
> hope the confusion isn't interpreted as bad faith or a lack of
> support. We all need to get better at that, of course, but also get
> better at forgiving each others' mistakes, in the spirit of jubilee.
I want to just reiterate this in light of the past few days of
conversation. I have heard a lot of different narratives about what
happened with Backspace over the past few months. I don't claim to
know exactly what happened anymore, but it seems to boil down to a
huge string of communication failures that resulted in Backspace
paying for space to operate, yet having no space until now.
At Thursday's meeting, the subject of past-due utility bills came up,
but it seems apropos to mention that lots of Omni groups have not paid
utility bills, or even rent, and one of the amazing potential things
about Omni is our capacity to be a non-evil landlord - each according
to their ability and their need.
It's clear that most backspace folks are WORKERS whose primary concern
is being able to see their clients and students and make a living
wage. It's also clear to me that the primary benefit of having
Backspace at Omni is NOT the money they'd bring in, but the new
people, energy and perspectives. It would REALLY SUCK if we lost all
that by fighting with them over money.
Other than money, the only other concern I'm hearing about this
proposal is about space. While I have expressed concerns about
"enclosure" in the past, Backspace's plans for the den or "storage
room" are NOT enclosures. They're stewardship of commons. This is
exactly the model I always dreamed of for our building!
Finally, there's BAPS. I think it might help to separate BAPS'
pragmatic need to host many evening classes from BAPS' position as a
roving "nomadic" group without dedicated space, and both from the
concept of "enclosure". Because it seems to me like Backspace's
pragmatic needs are similar to BAPS - to assemble in spaces and occupy
them for a finite period, for classes and 1-on-1 sessions. So what are
the ways we can frame this as a collaboration rather than a
competition?
I think these problems would get solved a lot faster if we were all
able to trust each other, the best path to building trust is for
Backspace to begin operating at the Omni ASAP, and the best way for
that to happen is to show support and forgiveness all around. Thanks.
--
Let us be together,
Let us eat together,
Let us be vital together,
Let us be radiating truth,
radiating the light of life,
Never shall we denounce anyone,
never entertain negativity. --
The Upanishads
_______________________________________________
consensus mailing list
consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org