Building Bloc

At the first Omni Delegates meeting we all decided to write up a "vision" to share for this new collective. This is a draft-in-progress representing Sudoroom's vision for the collective of collectives.

THE BUILDING BLOC

The Building Bloc is a new group committing to serve our wider communities by solving the legal, logistical and economic problems related to holding physical spaces for the greater good. We are a 'meta-collective' or a 'collective of collectives'. Each of us represents a larger collective group in need of physical space. We are welcoming and encouraging new groups to join us.

What kind of groups? Mainly:

• Non-profit
• Volunteer-led
• Donation-based
• Offer value to the public for free or sliding scale
• So far: a school, a hackerspace, activists, artists

What core values do groups share?

• social, economic & environmental justice
• solidarity with all oppressed people
• a culture of consent, against rape, violence & exploitation
• the survival & thrival of our communities and neighborhoods

What do we use our physical space for?

• To collaborate on projects
• To host classes and performances
• To network, meet each other, welcome newcomers
• To store resources for common use (or equitably restricted)

Meeting structure:

• We try to be as democratic and transparent as possible
• At the same time, we want to efficiently get real work done
• Meetings are open, but please respect that we have a lot of work to do and limited time! Please don't contribute to burnout by concern-trolling, flame-baiting, or talking a whole lot about nothing! :)

Things we haven't figured out yet:

• How to distribute resources? When/how are groups allowed to restrict access to outsiders? Should we set a minimum baseline of public accessibility, or of offering free/sliding-scale value to the public?
• Process for onboarding new groups: Accepting new groups could be overwhelming, or even an attack vector for people wanting to steal, subvert or derail our mission.
• How to distribute power? One group, one vote? Participatory budgeting? IMHO we should incorporate in such a way as to make it impossible to subvert the mission - create a legal firewall that protects the core mission and even the money from everybody including ourselves. Think: land trusts
• How to have an open, transparent process while also handling private, vulnerable, sensitive and personal information?
• Some compromise with capitalism is probably necessary, but how much? Selling drinks? Selling fridge magnets? Selling access to a spa? How do we decide this?
• Make sure "non-profit" can include worker-coops where people get paid for their labor, and where surplus can be reinvested in the business, without nitpicky dogmatic definitions of the word "profit"