Letter sent to Laurie, one of our Landlords - sudo-discuss

4 Sep 2013

Hey all,

As a result of our meeting tonight and a discussion the on-going issue with
sudo-kids, we drafted and sent this letter to Laurie. We wrote it in
collaboration with folks at the space after the meeting, and sent it in
do-ocratic fashion. We provide a copy below in transparency and
accountability:

Hi Laurie,

 This week George addressed a group of folks in the common area outside of
Sudo Room and the Public School regarding the presence of minors in the
building. His behavior was confrontational, hostile, loud, and very
upsetting to many of those who were present, including some
parentally-accompanied minors. There has unfortunately been a series of
miscommunications about this issue, and we are dedicated foremost to
resolving it amicably.

 First, thank you for communicating the building's policies on minors via
email. Unfortunately, due to a lapse in our own internal communication, the
contents of your email were not conveyed sufficiently to the relevant sudo
room members before Wednesday of this week. Please understand this was a
lapse in communication that has been rectified.

 Secondly, since early June, every Tuesday evening parent-supervised minors
have attended sudo room. We provide no supervision services for minors. In
fact, we provide no services to customers (we don't have customers) as we
are a membership association. It was unclear that this event was
specifically of any concern since it followed the requirement of
supervision by parents. We are willing to meet the necessary requirements
to ensure that you and George are provided with the appropriate advanced
notification of any planned future sudo room events involving supervised
minors and their parents. It is relevant to note that in the past we have
allowed accompanied minors to be in the "Art Room" and not use common
space, but in recent instances the common room has been used as well.
Further, since we are interested in being as accessible as possible to
different communities and demographics, we would like to clarify what
opportunities there might be (through city services, insurance, waivers,
etc.) for minors to be in the building in ways other than those outlined in
your email.

 Thirdly, regarding the damage to the bathroom you discuss in your email,
we understand your concerns and are sorry that it happened. We have raised
awareness in hopes of preventing instances like this from happening in the
future. While we are happy to take shared responsibility for ensuring the
bathrooms are clean and usable, we want to communicate that we are not
aware of any evidence that the minors who have been at sudo room were
responsible for the damage. We fully support your desire to keep all parts
of the space (including the bathrooms) vandalism-free, clean, and usable,
so we have made all sudo room members aware of this incident, reinforced
the expectations surrounding bathroom cleanliness, and reiterated the
policy that children should not use bathrooms unaccompanied. Please let us
know if you encounter any problems with the bathrooms in the future so that
we can take appropriate action. However, we also ask for understanding that
if there are problems with a shared space in the building, that absent
specific evidence, sudo room may not have been the source of a particular
problem.

 Finally, we would like to share with you a few of our expectations as
lessees that we hope will help us continue to stay in this building that we
have been very happy to rent for the last 9 months:

 Our Expectations:

That issues with our use of common space or our use of our rented "Art
Room" be conveyed in writing, with disrespectful confrontations being
completely unacceptable, in any circumstances.

Consistent with Sudo Room standards, that minors continue to be able to
participate at Sudo Room, provided they are accompanied by parents or a
legal guardian.

To work together with you as we grow, which requires we be accessible to
more communities and demographics.

To consider options for mitigating liability through additional insurance,
waivers, etc.

// Matt