21 Nov
2022
21 Nov
'22
5:33 p.m.
Hi Sudoroom,
in two weeks we will have another Delegate's meeting and I will be asked to represent
Sudoroom's position on hiring this person (on a contract basis) to be a Financial
Coordinator for Omni.
Emily has been coming through sudoroom occasionally for years, including bringing catering
food when it was left over after big events. I trust she'll do a good job in this
position, and provide Omni with a lot of guidance toward finding a new lender, as well as
other related financial tasks we have to keep working on.
Please discuss! Ideally we will have a meeting and discuss it, but don't hesitate to
talk about it here.
-jake
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2022 16:39:53 -0800
From: Emily B <accurate1707(a)gmail.com>
To: consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org
Subject: [omni-consensus] Proposal: Hire Emily as Omni Financial Coordinator
(CFO)
Hi Consensus,
It has been discussed through finance and the delegates meeting to hire
someone who can coordinate exciting financial tasks that keep the building
going. Discussion at the recent meeting can be found here:
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2022/11/17_Delegates
Delegates requested I send a proposal for bringing me on as the Financial
Coordinator, including a description of what that role is. In another
organization this might be called Chief Financial Officer or Head of
Finance, but given the horizontal structure we went with "Omni Financial
Coordinator" to illustrate it is a point person or coordination role. The
title and description is following a two hour interview done in the
delegates meeting and time spent outside with the Finance working group. A
description of qualifications is located in the consensus archive listed
here: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2022-November/003720.html
*Proposal*: Hire Emily as Omni Financial Coordinator (CFO) using the
description and outline below
*Description*
Financial Coordination - budgeting, analysis, forecasting, and reporting to
delegates the financial status of Omni accounts in the past, present, and
future
Fiscal Sponsorship and Funds Support - financial operations and
transactional support to internal teams
Financial Operations - coordination of accounts payable, accounts
receivable, treasury, general ledger accounting, and statutory filings for
the Omni and associated entities
Grants and Impact Investments - grants and impact investment priorities,
policies, and strategies
Real Estate - coordination of financial aspects of property in East Bay
"What does this mean?" The focus is on understanding what the Omni needs to
keep the building going, maintaining and improving those processes (with
input when people have interest as this is an often overlooked role).
*Examples of focus projects in financial coordination*
- Omni mortgage loan coordination (keeping the building collectively owned,
and open)
- Organizing finance data to bank standards for a mortgage team
- Coordination of tax exemption status with orgs and city
- Creation of workflows and training for finance roles
- Review of grants list for non-loan income
These are things everyone does a bit of, with a person who has expertise in
the field making sure they are happening and that there are people
available and trained for the tasks to happen.
*Prior discussions*
- It was at first proposed to have one position for all things. Then to
break that into Finance Coordinator and Building Operations Coordinator
because there is enough work for those to be individual roles. My
qualifications were for either and I am focusing on Finance for this period
- The amount of time per week was suggested to be 10-15 hours per week
to start, and full time at some later point. Time per week can be changed
with agreement from both parties as needed
- It has been debated whether to use W2 employee or 1099 contractor
- - Omni's advice was that if the person is already doing work in the field
a 1099 is acceptable under CA rules
- A question was asked what if the contract needs to end early. The answer
is to include a termination provision. This releases legal liability of
contract length. An accessible language explanation can be found here:
https://www.insperity.com/blog/how-to-smoothly-end-an-independent-contracto…
- The Omni has historically hired finance contractors
As such the proposal is for Emily to be hired as a Financial Coordinator in
a contract role at 10-15 hours a week for six months, at a rate discussed
by finance, with time to be adjusted if agreed by both parties.
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you all.
Warmly,
Emily B
27 Nov
27 Nov
6:56 p.m.
Hi Sudoroom,
Just bumping this important proposal. It's OK if you don't have anything to say
about it (I will use my best judgement to represent Sudoroom's interests) but it's
important that everyone see this proposal and weigh in if they want.
-jake
Sudoroom Delegate
On Mon, 21 Nov 2022, Jake wrote:
29 Nov
29 Nov
1:33 p.m.
I propose that the current proposal to hire Emily be split into 2 separate
proposals. 1) to draft a job description for an Omni coordinator in the
spirit of what has already been initiated. Develop this job description
further, as needed, with the input from a variety of knowledgeable people.
2) to use said job description to consider Emily (last name?) as a possible
candidate for consideration. For this proposal, Emily should not be
present to vote or weigh in due to (duh) obvious conflicts of interest.
Some additional questions/concerns/thoughts that I think ppl at Sudo should
have in mind as of when I last saw the proposal:
1) How much will be budgeted for this position vs. how much money is
currently in our coffers?
2) All people that are being considered for this position should submit a
resume with references based on their actual name. Is "Toast" their last
name?
3) If prior experience and knowledge of Omni's financial/legal operation is
an important factor in deciding who to hire, it would be good to know more
specifically what a candidate's activities with Omni were in the past.
On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 5:34 PM Jake via sudo-discuss <
sudo-discuss(a)sudoroom.org> wrote:
2:41 p.m.
On Tue, 29 Nov 2022, Cere Misc wrote:
I worry that this is a needless expansion of the task at
hand, This isn't a glorious position that people are clamoring to get, this is a mess
that we need cleaned up. There has already been an extensive effort by the financing
committee to find qualified people to hire, and it hasn't worked out sufficiently
well. A proposal was made for the delegates to take on the task of hiring someone to sort
things out, and we've found someone whose participation in the community has motivated
her to offer to help. At the last delegate's meeting it seemed like there was
universal openness to moving forward with a more concrete proposal, rather than expand the
search.
1) How much will be budgeted for this position vs. how
much money is currently in our coffers?
The amount of money we expect to pay for
this contract is small compared to our other expenses, and the tasks we're trying to
achieve are essential to our continued existence. The finance committee has been paying
people all this time without oversight, including over $2000 to someone for reading emails
and learning quickbooks. If you are concerned about spending, this is the last thing you
should worry about.
2) All people that are being considered for this
position should submit a resume with references based on their actual name. Is
"Toast" their last name?
There are plenty of people doing good work for
Omni (including on the finance team) who don't publicize their legal last name except
in documents where it's necessary. Is your last name "Misc"?
We can ask Emily more about her activities in the past, but I think what's most
important is a person's knowledge of our existing situation (as well as their
qualifications) and she has been in the finance chat and in meetings, and in talks with
Sarah, so I think she knows quite a bit about our situation.
The above was me as a fellow Sudoroom member. As our delegate, I ask specifically what
you want me to put forward to the delegate's meeting on our behalf.
-jake
4:55 p.m.
I recall Joe Lisner voicing a similar concern as I have in the last
delegates meeting I was a part of a couple weeks ago. At the very minimum,
I think we should split the proposal into two parts, as I have suggested,
to allow for discussion without the blindingly obvious conflict of
interest. I also think a real name should be required for any position
that comes with this much financial power. Can't even believe I have to
say that.
This does not answer my question or address my concerns. Patronizing
people who put forward the effort of reply to your request for comments and
dismissing their concerns does not encourage people to participate.
This is a false equivalence. I am also not applying to be a paid member of
a team who will be entrusted to manage the finances of Omni. I am not
asking that they "publicize" their name on "unnecessary" documents.
A
person entrusted with such a position can act in ways that can affect the
legal and financial reputation of any other member of the Omni board.
Asking for a real name, a written list of past work experience and
references based on a real name is not an unreasonable thing to ask.
This is encouraging. From my time sitting in on the delegate meetings and
reading the slack channel she does seem to understand "our situation".
What I am asking is about her experience in helping to remedy the said
situation. Given that we have already hired people in the past to help dig
us out of our current situation based on informal connections (and it has
not worked out well), I think it's a good idea for us to keep concerns
about prior experience in mind.
As a delegate who has been untrusted to represent the concerns of Sudo
members, please put forward what I have already proposed, and will now
restate:
That the current proposal to hire Emily be split into 2 separate proposals.
1) to draft a job description for an Omni coordinator in the spirit of what
has already been initiated. Develop this job description further, as
needed, with the input from a variety of knowledgeable people.
2) to use said job description to consider Emily (with their legal last
name) as a possible candidate for consideration.
For the 2nd proposal, Emily should not be present to vote or weigh in due
to concerns about conflicts of interest.
This question has still not been answered; merely, dismissed as unimportant.
1) How much will be budgeted for this position vs. how much money is
currently in our coffers?
-jake
1 Dec
1 Dec
5:11 p.m.
Iirc in meeting notes from the past month, a job description had been
drafted and multiple (3?) people familiar with the Omni situation had been
interviewed. The others were decided against due to not being sufficiently
qualified and/or not being able to perform other aspects of the role.
On Tue, Nov 29, 2022 at 4:56 PM Cere Misc via sudo-discuss <
sudo-discuss(a)sudoroom.org> wrote:
--
Lesley Bell
432-266-0397
zvezdalune(a)gmail.com
<http://lesleybell.com>
833
days inactive
843
days old
5 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Cere Misc -
Jake -
Lesley Bell