New subject: [BAPS-Organizing] Proposal for temporary tenant in one basement office

21 Sep 2014

Dear fam, please take a moment to consider this proposal, I really think it
will be great for everyone! I'm going to add the top portion to the riseup
pad later tonight.
Love,
Scott
_____________________________________________
Proposal:
To provisionally rent out the small office (closest to shattuck) located
inside the basement reading room to the forthcoming music/recording
collective (temporarily titled "Omni Music Project", or "OMP"), for
400$/month, which, once the collective has finished soundproofing the
space, will be a common room again.
During the first *3* months of tenancy (this proposal is only for a
tenancy, and specific # of months can be decided before approval,) the OMP
will be working, solely, on soundproofing the ballroom at no cost to the
OOC, provided that the OOC pay for the materials (for the ballroom only),
and that the OOC allows the OMP, at no cost, to throw a large fund-raiser
concert in the ballroom upon completion, in order to help get the
collective off the ground. This particular labor will be organized as the
"ballroom soundproofing wg" or something similar, and will be open to
any/all OOC members.
The OMP also requests, as a condition to this provis. proposal for tenancy,
that the OOC not rent out the rest of the office spaces, since the OMP
eventually plans to use one as a control room (that can still be used for
small meetings etc. by OOC members), and keep the rest as completely free
common spaces (ex: classrooms for BAPS, meeting rooms, quiet rooms). It
should be noted that, while keeping these spaces common, the two other
offices could still generate revenue for the omni (ex: a physical therapist
or acupuncturist could rent out one of the office spaces for 5 hours, one
day a week. Once soundproofed, these rooms will be really conducive for
prospective tenants like those mentioned above.)
[end of proposal]
________________________________________________
More Information about the OMP:
During these first *3* months, the OMP will have a weekly meeting devoted
to figuring out the details of our internal organization, and begin
planning for acoustically treating and soundproofing the basement reading
room.
Some things are already set in stone (to the extent that any open
collective can set anything in stone):
Organization:
1. this collective will be completely open. Anyone can join by *paying*
monthly dues of $100 and coming to the weekly organizing meeting. In order
to accommodate as many folks as possible, dues can be paid not only in
cash, but in labor hours.
 a sliding scale of monthly dues would look something like this:
(the exact numbers are TBD)
1. $100/mo and weekly meeting attendance
2. $50/mo "                " + 2 hrs labor/week
3. $25/mo "                " + 4 hrs labor/week
4. $0/mo "                " + 8 hours labor/week
labor hours that will go towards monthly dues must be evenly distributed
between work for the music collective and work for the OOC at large (ex: a
tier 2 member would contribute 1 hr work/week for omni and 1 hr work/week
for music collective).
furthermore, the OMP will have a financial aid process, so as to make the
collective conducive to anyone who wants to be a part of it. Ex: if someone
wanted to be part of OMP who works 40 hrs a week at a low-paying job, takes
care of a child, and couldn't afford to pay any money, we would not ask
them to work 8 hours a week in order to be a part of the collective.
2. In addition to paying dues, members will need to take free (and/or
donation based,) classes (or test out,) in order to have access to
instruments, live sound equip, and recording equip. This access structure
will be split up into two groups, and members are free to be part of both
groups.
The first *access group* will be really easy and accessible, requiring
perhaps only one free/donation class on how to wrap mic cables, properly
handle amps, etc. Upon completion, members of this group will have
unrestricted access to the Omni's communal instruments as well as the OMP's
live sound cables, amplifiers, live mics, and can use the basement reading
room as a rehearsal space (provided there are no BAPS classes, etc. that
need to use room). The basement reading room will also be hardwired with
two room mics, connected to an easy to use 2- or 4-track recorder, which
will allow any member of the collective to make live demo recordings,
on-the-fly, inside the basement reading room. This small-scale recording
system will also be public access, allowing for OOC members (who aren't
part of OMP) to make recordings of classes, reading groups, important
meetings etc.
The second group would involve access to the above but also include
unrestricted access to the control room soundboard and the higher end
recording equipment. This would require *5* more free/donation classes (or
test outs), that would train members on recording software, hardware, and
proper care of control room equipment. While anyone in the OOC who needs it
(ex: for a small meeting) can have access to the control room, only people
who have gone through this training will have unrestricted access to the
control room equipment. The need for this differentiation in access is to
ensure that expensive equipment doesn't get unnecesarrily damaged, and to
allow folks who aren't interested in recording to quickly utilize
everything else the OMP will offer.
3. The OMP, through BAPS, will provide *1-2* free classes that will support
the development of the OMP but also be fun for everyone. One example of
this will be "instrument and music/sound equipment repair" class, in which
folks attending can bring in their own broken equipment to repair, or help
repair lots of broken donated equipment that the OMP will need to fix in
order to become fully operational.
4. The OMP plans to share all work tasks/roles between all collective
members on a consistent, rotating basis. Ex: a member of OMP would be
responsible for cleaning and organizing the space, then switch to
bookkeeping a *week* later, then be assigned to scheduling after that. This
will help to avoid organizational hierarchies and promote transparency
inside the collective.
5. All profits will be shared equally amongst every active member of OMP.
In addition to fundraising, the OMP will generate capital by providing
recording (and possibly mastering, production,) services to bands,
musicians, etc. OMP will employ a "three thirds" model for dispersing money
generated from the sales of each recording:
1/3 to recording artist(s)
1/3 to a specific community service, advocacy group, non-profit, etc.
1/3 to OMP
Use of Space:
The OMP plans on soundproofing and beautifying the entire basement reading
room and all three office spaces, which will all be common spaces, and none
of these modifications will change the current functions. However, one
office space, which will serve as the studio's control room, will
undoubtedly be less useful to the OOC at large, due to the size of the
soundboard, speakers, computers and other equipment etc, but it will have a
comfy couch and be really great for small meetings, phone meetings, quiet
reading, etc.
The work that will be done by OMP to the basement reading room will
actually improve the current functions of the space, allowing for multiple
BAPS classes to occur at once (ex: one in an office, one in the reading
room,) and provide more quiet and intimacy for folks wanting to use the
space for meetings, reading, and working.
The OMP will also build two modular bookshelves on wheels that will live
inside the basement reading room. This will benefit everyone! The basement
reading room will house more books, the room will be even quiter, and the
OMP can use these bookshelves as go-bos (go-betweens) to use for live
recording during available hours. Plus they will look super cool. A few
additional bookshelves along the walls may also be added or built into the
reading room, at no cost to the OOC.
As far as scheduling, the OMP is confident that there will be some limited
daytime hours available for recording, but, even if this can't be achieved,
the basement reading room will be so thoroughly soundproofed that all
recording and live music could easilly take place between the hours of
10pm-10am.
The OMP will also provide the OOC with another upright piano, which will be
accessible to anyone and live somewhere in the basement reading room. This
will help greatly in ensuring space for OOC members to have meetings and
work in the ballroom, since anyone playing unscheduled music in the
ballroom can easilly relocate to the basement.
In order to ensure modularity and common space in the basement reading
room, the OMP will very likely need to secure a small, lockable closet in
the basement. If space permits, this closet could also be used for other
items, non-OMP related.
Ballroom Recordings:
The OMP also plans to hardwire the Ballroom for live recording at no cost
to the OOC. This will be used for:
1. recording live events and concerts in the ballroom
2. renting the ballroom out for live recording purposes (non-event related)
since this will be provided by both the OOC and the OMP (ballroom space and
recording equip.), the OMP would like to split the money earned from these
services with the OOC, at a percentage to be determined at a later date.
These services will help to provide additional money for both the OOC and
OMP, since, once completed, the OOC can offer to provide a HQ recording of
every ballroom event, at a reasonable cost to the renter determined on a
case-by-case basis (ex: cheap/free for sponsored events, more expensive for
high-profile lectures and concerts). The OMP would also like to store
copies of all recordings in order to start a public "Omni Sound Archive",
or to provide copies of all recordings to someone(s) in the OOC interested
in undertaking such a project.
What the OOC gets:
-Free Soundproofing of the Ballroom and Basement Reading Rooms (+ offices)
[OOC pays for cost of materials for ballroom only]
-additional cash-flow for OOC by offering to make HQ recordings of rental
events in the ballroom
-beautification and improvement of functionality of the basement reading
room
-2 modular bookshelves for the basement reading room
-another piano for the basement reading room
-free classes thru BAPS
-an omni sound archive
-a sheet music, music theory, and music lit. library
-possibility for a radio/podcast set-up (which could still be a sudo
project but take place in OMP control room)
-a ready-to-use, public access recording setup in basement reading room for
meetings, reading groups, classes
-a new music/recording collective that ANYONE can join, complete with a
fully functional professional recording studio/rehearsal space,
-$400 a month starting ASAP, which will increase when the OMP eventually
proposes to become a voting member of the OOC