Meeting Notes 2015-02-18

sudoroom mtg - 18 Feb, 2015

Introductions

• Ian (teleportation)
• Rayc (dog into kitten)
• Mary (CCL,throwing fireballs)
• Noemie (cross creature consciousness)
• Liz (speak and understand every language)
• Null would be able to make the most delicious food materialize out of thin air)
• Ira: live as long as I would want.

Nico is strange and likes hanging out with other strange people and when it happens doesn't get much done.

• Matt's super power is giving other people powers
• Ryan - to manipulate time
• Nick - to teleport anyone anywhere in the blink of an eye
• Doc - Telekinesis
• Yar - Nausicaa's power of empathizing with giant post-apocalyptic bugs
• juul - have infinite number of hours in a day
• Darin - lightening something?
• Luis - shooting ice from hands
• Jake - code well enough to make computers sentient
• Einstein - not be scared of firecrackers
• Ed - to destroy capitalism
• DK - the power of the problem of the problem of power being a problem
• brendan - shows up 45 minutes punctually late - superpower is punctuality

<spills popcorn everywhere>

Announcements

• matt: editing the Omni wiki; design principles for the commons; Renovating Ourselves: An Omni Commons Organizing Series - come share your knowledge! contact matt for more at mattsenate [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Join the How We Organize mailing list to follow-up with on-going planning and visioning-related activities for Omni Commons
    • https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/how-we-organize
  • https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Design_principles
  • https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Reading_list
  • https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Dismantling_patriarchy
  • Renovating Ourselves: An Omni Commons Organizing Series
    • https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Renovating_Ourselves
• ira - life extension comedian - Some day, people will be able to live as long as they want. Including famous people. Google is into it. I'm putting up a website to coalesce all the groups working on this. The main idea is to accelerate the process and start a movement and raise consciousness. Hoping someone in sudo would help putting up a website. Email ira900@yahoo.com to help him out with this website!
  • Make sure those most in need benefite from these technologies
• ryan - The card reader's cord is shit, intermittently working - don't come late at night - don't rely on it - but work is being done to repair it
• Raqyc - installed a workbench and moved stuff around - now wheelchair-accessible, and tools are now visible that weren't prior
• Food Not Bombs could use a cook tomorrow on St. Johns Church on College Ave, starting at 11am
• There's a switch on the ground floor of sudo room - you can connect from the ground floor!
• 13 users on this pad. epic love.

Discussion items

vacuum

• We need a decent vacuum cleaner with a decent filter and attachments (juul)
  • Jake brought a very nice large shop-vac awhile ago, which uses very standard filters, we can get a fancy filter for it
  • Often on freecycle if someone can go get it
  • DK brought two nice vacuums to the space and they disappeared
  • Rayc: Will look for vacuums that were found, different ratings for different filters
  • Matt: Bikeshedding warning, present a budget
  • ryan will watch freecycle & craigslist
  • Doc: Used to work for a company, will look around
  • Jake: Filter on a vacuum we already have, use duct tape to afix it
  • Darin: Sawdust-collecting shopvac

lighting

• We need to fix the lighting situation (juul (and jake has looked into this a bit))
• jAKE: the bulbs burned out, some were replaced. 4 out of 6 were replaced.
• The actual ballast is burned out in the middle. They came from downstairs;
• But one is not lighting up - let's replace with something better
• Jake thinks we should move to LED - minimum dollars for maximum wattage - let's go to China! AliExpress
• We don't actually have to go to Home Depot - can get warm and cold, see what we like
• Put them onto the fixture that is currently burned out
• DK: used ballast for these existing flourescents is $30/ea @ empire electric. fyi. A Plan B?
• Rayc: If not UL-rated may be a problem for inspections
  • Ryan: Trust Jake, let's not bikeshed, give money to China
• KeenanL $30/each used at Empire Electric
• there is already a pile of cash magically accruing on the table. $52 Jake will use it to buy some of the below:
• buy some of these: make sure to choose "16-21 watt" and get SOME WARM and SOME COLD
• Darin: 200Watt soft bulb full spectrum light
• Jake: the present flourescent fixtures (2 bulbs) are 150W each
• the LEDs we just got for $55.60 will be between 128-168 watts of light according to seller

lightning

• Woo tesla coil! Adam has taken care of the lightning situation.
• https://twitter.com/CountrCultrLabs/status/567902407230775296
• https://twitter.com/CountrCultrLabs/status/567911631490953216

stewards instead of members

• Juul: Officially we have to have members, not stewards. But we can call them stewards when not doing anything official. E.g. our insurance applies to our s/vote/consesmembers and members of an organization has legal meaning.
• Ryan: Great neurohack to foster care and responsibility. Membership implies privilege over responsibility; conversely with stewardshuip.
• DK I kinda like this (Ryan's proposal)
• Matt: Would it make sense to call members stewards?
  • Yar: Naw.
• Doc: Steward sounds like an employee, member more professional, someone who lives there. member sounds like responsibility in a sense of pride. steward is like a new face that's just coming in.
• Alternates: Gang member, Fellow Cultist, Flower petal, responsibillibuddy (matts), I second responsibilibuddy. It will help us all take this very seriously. (Ian), sudohuman, sudo admin, root user, Doesn't sudoer already imply this? Technically, a sudoer can apply to taking on any other user role, but yea it does.. how about su-su-sulio? We should seriously just call people who come in the space "users" and the rest of us "admins" +1 , citizen's and dropouts (dropouts are members)
• juul: I would consense to all of these.
• Communitarian
• Eyelash monsters and water bears.. defines roles quite clearly I believe. Water bears!
• Jenny: This is a lot more about being a member - this is about having 24/7 access to the space, locking up the building at the end of the night, dealing with shit as it arises, and protecting the community. Stewardship is appropriate
• Matt: The steward thing in a project i was working on caught on, for many resons, implies more responsibility
• Yar: Didn't mean to start a bikeshed, okay with tabling.
  • Bikeshed's can be fun. It's important to stay silly.
• Nic: Retainer?
• Ed: Steward Igondor? Lord of the rings? Trustee?
• Noemie: Fifth Sacred Thing - villains that take over the water

"when the Stewards canceled the elections and declared martial law. .. While the Stewards’ troops were massing down on the peninsula, commandeering all stockpiles of food, and the rest of us were debating what to do and trying to work up courage to do it, Maria gathered together with her neighbors, Alice Black, Lily Fong, and Greta Jeanne Margolis, four old women with nothing to lose. On the morning of the first of August, they marched out in the dawn with pickaxes over their shoulders, straight out into the middle of Army Street, and all the traffic stopped, such cars as a few people could still afford to drive. Then we joined them, tearing up the streets as the cars backed away from us, piling up barricades on the freeways, smashing the doors of the locked warehouses. And those who supported the Stewards fled south with all the good they could steal. And we who remained planted seeds, and we guarded the sources of our water in the valleys and the mountains, and the Stewards withdrew to starve us out."

Proposals

• consensus proposal
  • Improving Membership (as of last week):
    • https://sudoroom.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Articles_of_Association%2FImproving_membership&diff=9236&oldid=9216

omni delegates

• keeps being the same few people
• brendan was feeling tired of what was happening in the meetings
• DK: Brendan is an awesome delegate btw
• yar: need to go to sudo & omni meetings (weds & thu nights), be on both mailing lists, forward important mails, keep both communities informed and know how to represent both communities
• I'm really willing to do this, I would just like to work with others to figure out how to a) get acclimated to doing it, b) do a good job given that I'm randomly traveling out of state all the time. -Ian
• Brendan: there should be a wiki page for what delegates do
• yar: i made that 6 months ago https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Omni_Delegate
• Ian: have read it, can confirm.

this a cery comprehensive wiki. excellent work, yar

david's proposals

these are two a very quick preliminary proposals - less than 5min ea to discuss

Omni/Sudo nascent proposal 1 (DK) - 3-phase power opportunity + need electrically-inclined recruits

• Jake: 3-phase is not desirable for the omni. only robot needs it. would need big loud expensive complicated box. they might switch out the power meter with less desirable billing system - commercial vs residential. also it's irrelevant in our grand solar-powered future.
• DK: theater electrician asked for 3-phase, said it'd be better for monetizing ballroom rentals.
• DK: And it would save us many many thousands of dollars to do it now while the condo across the street is putting in new transformers in the ground anyway. Also, residential billing is going away for us regardless. The presence of 3-phase would allow us to proffesionalize and far better monitize the ballroom which will allow us to buy the building and so on and so forth Q.E.D.

Omni nascent proposal 2 (DK) - to acquire moveable walls for the ballroom

• Can be wired with power and daisy-chained together
• Can be moved around to minimize ballroom area

banning heavy scents

• emergency?
• someone already had a reaction to sage
• didn't we already? no, just incense (for fire prevention)
• straw poll - most would be comfortable with the ban, but 4 people wouldn't.
• ira: it's all poison
• ryan: currently it's not against the rules to spray perfume into a crowd.
• matt: funnel this to working group. "how can we make reasonable accomodation?"
• marc: CCL & sudoroom already do things that generate scents. ABS printing, etc. we don't have good insulation & ventilation but maybe we will later
• ryan: i feel like you're saying my rights to not go to the ER is less important than other peoples' rights to do stuff
• brendan: so we'd have to move the laser cutter outside?
• yar: does operating the laser cutter, ABS printing and acetone count? ryan: no
• lots of meta facilitation issues
• No strong scents in the Omni - This is provisional. Will expire in t
• "The use of unnecessarily heavy scents - ranging from incense to candles to perfumes to heavy-scented cleansers - is not allowed in the Omni due to sensitivity to the health concerns of all. This is provisional until we get something better."
  • this passes: 11 yes, 1 abstains.

Oakland next

1. What is Oakland Next, what do we do, and what happens for the world because of our existence? Oakland NeXt is a progressive grassroots organization geared towards the technological and intellectual development of the people. In successfully executing our vision we plan to create leadership in the Oakland community and surrounding cities. 2. Whats the origin and history of this group? Oakland Next started as an arts collective based in Oakland CA made up of community organizers for youth, community outreach and economic development. 3. Why is Oakland NeXt interested in becoming a member of the Omni? To broaden the scope of influence to better serve the community and make it availible to all the people. How do we intend on using the space? what are the needs of Oakland NeXt?

We will use the space for meetings, music, art, organizing events, and training Cyber security & guard card assistance Merchandise production Marketing training Talent scouting Music production Event planning and promotion paid cleaning crews & construction crews cook offs and nutrition training Public announcements & media projects Photography, Video and live stream projects Radio Fund Raising Classroom organizing Outdoor tripps/hiking/educational field tripps 4. How does Oakland NeXt support itself financially? what is your best plan for potential contribution to rent in the Omni? fund raising merchandising classes and events... Using events, fund raisers, Classes, Merchandising, Training, and studio time, we will be more than able to contribute to the over all rent for the Omni. 5. What would be dedicated space for Oakland NeXt in the Omni and how much sqr footage is needed?

The basement study room for meetings. 6. Other contributions.

The collectives of Omni want to eventually buy this location long term.  the plan is for every group of the Omni is paying a share of rent, and  the potenial plan includes groups sharing profit from activities and  events. 
 What is the best case scenario for using the Omni space to futher support Oakland NeXt? 

Donations, musical events, fund raising and community outreach. 7. Additional info we think would be useful. Oakland NeXt is about improving the very quality of people’s lives rather than a job or an obligation. Oakland NeXt gives a big thanks to the collecives of the Omni for considering us to be apart of this great opportunity to improve the lives of The People!

discussion

• yar: would really like to see answers to ryan's questions. omni hasn't added a new member group in almost a year. we're still figuring out what that even means. we have some very active groups using omni every day, who've not applied for membership. so i'm hesitant about a group that has barely formed.
• Marc: if they started doing what they say they want to do, it would be a good way to start doing what they do.
• They did choose a capitalist language.
• They seem to not have figured out who they are.
• They seem to say "we want to do good in the world". It's unclear.
• Matt: I talked with Shake a little. One movement moving forward is talking to brandon about fundraising. I got the impression that they are doing something clever; Shake ran for mayor they have contacts and plan to raise money using their social capital. My understanding is they're most interested in music production. I'm cool with that kind of stuff. They're just starting; stuff is way too big. I plan to talk to them. I'm curious to see if there is any other feedback besides having a more focused goal, which would be great too.
• NiKo: Would they be interested in youth outreach?
• Yeah. two things that are not well filled here is for local youth to have access to the building. There are already established in the community because one thing that is a danger is the space is for them to be a self contained bubble.
• Yar: there has been requests for local youth activities and right now there has been legal issues.
• nicolas: 2 months provisional membership thing?
• Marc is worried that there is mistrust with Shake. I may be pessimistic but it's likely that someone is going to block Shake.
• matt: what does member collective mean? it's not just access, it's shared responsiblity. name on lease? insurance policy? utilities?
• mary: we should let them have events and stuff starting now
• yar: everything we do around here is to make it easy to have events here. i mean come on, we call it occupy!
• noemie: i think we'd be really valuable to each other. i'd love to see them as stakeholders long term.
• Nico: I'd be in favor for provisional membership. It would be nice if they spent some social time at the omni.
• MAtt, we don't have provisional membership. We'd be making up a new category onthe fly, which is cool but it's new. We can do it but we should address the point: we ask them to tak on responsibilityn longer term financial commitment. That is not a nice thing to give to somebody. I want to genuinely engage. What Omni Musi Project was straight forward and very much what they want to do: we want to be tenants and contribute to the community. Build your culture and once you're a collective come back. it might be in everyone's interest to do it this ay.
• Jenny: no block from me for being part of this community. Just like with people immediately applying for membership to sudoroom, we should train people to take more time. it's more responsibility than it is a privilege.
• nicolas: just to repeat, i think they should be given provisional membership (for the record)
• yar: hesitant about provisional membership as it means lots of power to make decisions about new collectives, removing collectives, etc; Would like to remove the expectation that anyone can become a collective quickly. Expect weeks, months even. This is a long-term thing.
• Nico: Reverts vote for provisional membership as it doesn't exist. Come out, hang by, say hi to people.
• Ryan: Move to block until answers given.
• Nicolas: Feels they want to be part of the community, Omni is about empowering people to do what they want to do here regardless of our political? community?
• Ryan: Disagree. We have no idea they fit our values. They don't sound anti-capitalist. That could cause severe issues - being a part of our community involves embracing our values
• Noemie: Needs to be time until collectives become members, but it's important that their experience is one of feeling positive support to their project, an open-mindedness.
• Matt: Shake and Brendan should be commended about the way they've gone about it. Others have taken less commendable ;) roles. Actually we're not here to just say 'yes' to every idea that comes across our path. Folks deserve to be taken serious and that they take their word and responsibilities seriously. Speaks to our onboarding process - Oakland NeXt may serve as an example to nurture projects while not requiring the same degree of responsibility as membe collectives.

email problem

• ira: sudo-discuss emails go to my yahoo spam folder
• ian: yahoo sucks. if you're using it, live with it.
• ira: is there some way to alert people to this?
• yar: i will personally notify every person on the list with a yahoo address

New Members

Mary

• what do? using a cell as a computational unit - meshing hacker and biology terms. Start a book club, talk about kinetics transferred to biology.l Joint project between sudo and ccl. email
• not an undercover cop/cat/robot
• values?

Doc

• why be a member? wants to learn lots of other things. only ever felt accepted among the military and i'm sick of the military
• can relate to people who were in the military. want to be doc, the kid who likes electronics, not a soldier.
• what hack? mostly want to build portable power. rechargable battery to power your laptop. i'm homeless and the main problem is power.
• what share? large collection of computer parts, audrey kitty.
• values? simple basics of don't be a snitch or talk to cops about that shit. treat others how they want, pick up after themselves.
• was not banned from another hackerspace, although noisebridge made him feel funny due to stares and being yelled at
• history? good at staying low key
• could you come here without your cat? what if someone's allergic? he'd understand and leave her at home (context: doc is holding a cat on a leash)
• ever used a catapult? lol
• ryan: are you friends with pirate mike? was introduced by somebody because i'm a tattoo artist. didn't like him. considered them deserters.
• "we've been protecting native american land with running wolf. i left and came back and nobody was there. they ditched for san diego and left me a mess to clean up."
• what do you think about horizontal leadership? with nobody in charge? legitimate democracy, not bullshit. i like that a lot better than the military. it was all politics. wasn't fair.
• how long were you here before you asked to be a member? about a week and a half
• what have you done at sudoroom? completely destroyed my original laptop. made portable flashlight. donated parts via backpack. cleaned dishes, messes and whatnot.
• are you aware what membership means? it means 24 hour access, responsibility, trust.
• ryan: there's a $10/month membership but we have worktrade options: financial need & refusal to participate in monetary system.
• doc: i could collect $10 flying a sign
• ian: no, we're not about to take your food money
• discussion of other stuff doc can do around sudoroom

RAYC

jake wants to require RAYC to not be present at sudoroom unless supervised by a member, who takes responsibility for his actions.

Are we having this discussion now? I will come to the meeting when you have this discussion. -- marc/juul

Consensus on Rayc:

- To address serious safety concerns, your access as a guest of sudoroom is revoked for at least 2 weeks to end through a process of

- Conflict resolution held by Ryan as mediator & Sam as conflict steward, where at least 4 other members are willing to participate.

- At the conclusion of the mediation, if appropriate, your access to sudo room can only be restored such that you must be explicitly invited by a sudo room member who must act as your host in the space & is willing to take responsebility for your actions.

what happened with this?

</spills popcorn everywhere>

Bumped to Next Week

PROPOSAL : EXTERIOR STENCIL SIGNAGE

brought by La Commune, 2/17/2015

La Commune would like to paint stenciled signage on the exterior of the Omni, visible to passersby on Telegraph Avenue, indicating the presence of our cafe and bookstore.

The signage would read "LA COMMUNE CAFE + BOOKSTORE", or something very similar, and will be tidy and attractive.

This signage would either be located between the Shattuck side window & the front door, or above the second floor window (TIL offices).

Effective communication to the public that we are open for business is essential for La Commune's survival. As the front door of the Omni, good advertising for La Commune will bring in many people who otherwise would not know about our project. We look forward to the support of the delegate's council in publicizing our collective to the neighborhood.

• • Proposal: CDC to advocate for temporary safer space bans pending conflict mediation

brough by CDC, 2/17/2015

The goal of this proposal is to allow the CDC to call for temporary bans of individuals from both virtual and physical spaces of the Omni pending conflict mediation WHEN no one already-recognized member group or unaffiliated member of the Omni community is able to do so OR, when an affiliated or unaffiliated member or group of the Omni community feels that publicly calling for such a ban on their own behalf may put their personal safety at risk.

We feel that it is important for individuals suffering abuse across multiple collectives, as well as unaffiliated members of the community should be able to request that an individual or individuals engaging in abusive behaviors either in virtual or physical Omni space be asked to leave the space pending conflict mediation. We recognize that there may be occasions when making such a request on one's own behalf can cause an individual or individuals to fear for their personal safety.

The CDC would not be tasked with the formalization of any bans or the adjudication or mediation of conflicts but rather, would provide a place for those who either do not feel they can call on their member collective, are unaffiliated with a member collective or who fear retaliation that may jeopardize their safety have a group to appeal to who could advocate on their behalf and who could provide both parties with a list of resources for conflict mediation.

Any requests for the permanent safer space ban of an individual or individuals would be brought to the delegates meeting for a vote.

• Just a note, this did not get posted the 4 days in advance needed to make it to the delegates agenda proposals area technically, that sort of thing, so probably the above will not come up at the meeting in a voting sense tomorrow.

Action Items

• Check that 1-month extended pondering is now in the bylaws
• Proposal: Minimum 2 members to keep the building open between midnight and 8am