Re: [sudo-discuss] [BAPS-Organizing] Re: [omni-consensus] Proposal: Repurpose 'Omni1' 501c3 into a Land Trust

Hey David! I like the way you're thinking, and the direction things are moving. Creating the land trust out of the former c3 seems prudent in terms of effort, money, and time. Also, making the building a community land trust feels like a ray of sunshine in the darkness of the next 4 years. We could be very useful in helping other spaces resist the rampant privatization that will likely follow in the near future. I'm out of the country for the next week so won't be able to comment more, but appreciate the creative thinking and resourcefulness of this plan. Thanks for all that you do, Kazoo Kazoo Studios www.KazooStudios.net <http://www.kazoostudios.net> On Dec 1, 2016, at 4:37 PM, David Keenan &lt;dkeenan44(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: Hi all, With the 'Omni1' > 'Omni2' switcheroo required by the building purchase arrangement currently in escrow, Omni's current 501c3 and EIN will no longer be used. *(More explicitly: In order to intake tax-free the large donation that makes the building purchase possible, Sudo Room's 501c3 corporation will be intaking that donation and renaming itself Omni Commons -- and subsequently, Sudo Room will become will become a fiscally-sponsored project of Omni. This in turn leaves us with Omni Oakland Commons' 501c3 corporation basically no longer in use.)* Rather than let this incredibly-hard-earned 501c3 corporation lapse into disuse, my proposal is to repurpose our c3 corp into a Land Trust focusing on being a resource and trust for non-residential collective / radical spaces and commons's like Omni. Per our lawyer Jesse, doing so would also largely already be in line with the c3's existing stated charitable activities, and I believe, would require only minor changes to the existing corporate structure, bylaws etc. From the inception of Omni, a major goal was to partner with an existing Land Trust in order to provide a check/balance on Omni into the future, i.e. to ensure that Omni generally follows its bylaws and mission statement (founding document), and essentially *ensure that the building remain off the market and used as a community resource forever into the future* (prevent the building from being sold later on, for example) -- even after all of us volunteers have passed on to greener pastures. My initial thought is that this new Trust could potentially function in that role for Omni, as well as for any other non-residential collective work spaces that desired it, in one of the traditional land trust arrangements (land/improvements split, 99yr lease etc.) However, in terms of this proposal, the potential terms or complications of any Land Trust functioning as such for Omni *not* in the scope of this proposal. This proposal is simply to advocate repurposing this c3 to this end -- a Land Trust for collective / commoned / radical spaces focused on community organizing and related resources like Omni and in line with Omni's values. Another reason for the trust is that existing land trusts and foundations we met with (those with which we had a shared politics), focused primarily on co-housing -- not on 'commercial' spaces for working or organizing, let alone anything as novel as Omni's multi-tenant, inter-collective structure. It became clear that there is not a good local trust that had solid experience with radical spaces for community & collective work, who had principles and politics in line with our own. (This contrasts to the housing front, where there are a number of active land trusts and foundations that are already doing a great job with lots of experience to boot.) In any case, this trust would also function to centralize and disseminate as a resource what I feel is a bounty of experience, information, best practices, and connections built up under the course of Omni to aid in the development and support of other radical spaces centered on similar community organizing. What do people think? Best, David _______________________________________________ consensus mailing list consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/consensus