Meeting Notes 2014-10-15

sudoroom meeting october 15, 2014

Attendees

say one word

• ben robot
• liz kimchee
• yar launchpad
• april arbitrary
• matt doorjam
• timothy meatspace
• brian tesseract
• Caitlin, student at Berkeley, interested in hackerspaces and makerspaces
• Korl muntin [a way to tell an old building from a new one by looking at the windows]

New Members

• https://sudoroom.org/wiki/New_Member_Script
• ben and jonathan have been pondered

brian

• been here a lot, feels awkward not being a member
• interested in working on open source library management systems
• what share? anything! accessibility, screen readers, knowledge
• totally in line with values. believes in free software, openness, reforming economic system, mutual aid, cooperation over profit
• history: suitcases? old place on broadway
• never banned, not a cop, 23
• knows how to sort trash
• likes movies
• visited HackDC

caitlin

• filled out the form in advance. +10
• berkeley anthropology student
• interested in makerspace movements, wants to know what it means to be a hacker
• what share? conversation, ideas, community
• likes romy's comic. positive social change.
• knows no history
• wants to help build pulleys
• mac

april

• moved here recently, started spaces in the past, likes collective community space, loves technology & communities forming around it, been all over the world, feels comfy here, "probably my favorite, except for the weirdo spot we started in philly"
• wants to hack radio stuff, transmitters, start a radio station, build shelving, hack politics & community engagement, being more inclusive, kids, communities that would benefit, activism, already doing that stuff but needs a place to do it
• "i also run linux and can play with things and stuff"
• understand and fundamentally disrespects the law.
• also really good at writing, does journalism. also circuits.
• what do you know about sudoroom's values? "I'm sure they're great"
• history goes way back
• surely being tracked by the NSA
• Used to be part of a group called the Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study (pifas.net), taught classes there
• Started & worked on & closed community radio stations in urbana, D.C. (dealt with legal politics of starting these)
• basically has done everything ever

Newbie Night

• timothy did it today. ben will do it next wednesday at 6
• Whoever hosts is responsible for: 1) adding event to the calendar, 2) posting to sudo-discuss and otherwise promoting, 3) showing up! and 4) answering the door, giving tours, and otherwise being friendly and answering questions. 5) have a planned activity ready to avoid awkwardness
• https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss

Money

• Internet Credit Union account: $4,173.07
• Community Bank of the Bay Account: probably ~1k (last time we checked)
• $500.85/wk on Gratipay
• Great. Now we need MOOOOOOOAR
• At this rate it will still be a very long time before we've replenished our standing funds

Taxes

Sudo Room received a letter from the State of California Franchise Tax Board. The state wants to collect taxes, we need to convince them we're actually a nonprofit. Ben and Matt will handle.

Whitney was supposed to do 501c3 this year. He asked for information in July. Yar replied but accidentally sent to the board list and not discuss, so he never saw it. Just re-sent it this week. Oops. He's been doing electrification stuff lately.

Insurance

We have our policy now. We should definitely review it and be aware of what is covered by our individual policy. We may want to augment it.

ban

• Pidgeon asked Jay to leave for allegedly being a rapist. Stan "vouched for him", whatever that means. Jay was invited to this meeting but isn't here.
• Did he rape somebody? Pidgeon: "Yes"
• Some doubt apparently because of Stan vouching?
• Pidgeon: there's a reason he's not here.
• Liz will talk to people and find out more. In the meantime he's provisionally banned.

Omni

• https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
• Tomorrow's delegates: Ben, Brendan?, ?

Event

november 1 event

• livestream between Ai Wei Wei, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange
• sort of mission aligned, also ways to bring in money
• FMRL
• person doing it is Alex, from Berkeley, works for Verso Books, friends with Niki
• they asked sudo for tech support for the livestream, we were like "wut"
• talk to Matt / Scott / Mia / Jenny
• might need a second internet uplink
• 2 weeks away, not much time
• they're not getting paid, doing it as "charity to the omni"
• Alex is taking half the money, "to seed future events" i.e. he wants to bring more people to omni
• money he takes will also pay licensing fees for other FMRL movies

rise above moving into the utility room

sudoroom consents unenthusiastically. 2 yes, 6 abstain.

backspace

• matt wants a change on the financial portion's language to make that section accurate

commons wg proposal

8/8 sudo members say yes

ben will report to omni tomorrow

• about exit signs, emergency lights, door hardware, etc.

trash

• sort your trash better. chris spent 4 hours sorting yesterday. sat with it until it was picked up.
• somebody put a bin full of recyclables inside a garbage bag of contractor waste.
• looks bad for us, neighbors don't like trash accumulation

print studio - answers to matt's questions

• matt "had a great conversation with them". all his concerns were heard, got lots of reassurance from emji. had not seen these formalized responses until today.
• "Sudoroom consents to the print studio proposal as supplemented by the answers to these questions here, as long as they refrain from running the offset press until noise and ventilation solutions are implemented."

8/8 yes

pigin

• we've been notified of concerns at other hackerspaces like noisebridge
• there is direct evidence of pigin modifying noisebridges "asked to leave" page
• pigin is only welcome if they are a guest of a member

How does this project serve the community? What will it contribute to the commons?

Our intention in establishing this printshop is to enable greater social access to printing equipment that is often prohibitively expensive to acquire. We strive to open up these machines, and the skills to use them, to the community at large. Besides greater access, our printshop will bring a number of benefits to the Omni and to the community at large. Free training on this equipment and access to the shop will support Omni collectives by creating printed matter that they might need (pamphlets, posters, etc.) We are also willing to help create things for the OMNI as a whole, or collaborating with individual collectives on more complicated projects. This could look like:

• a great looking pamphlet that would describe the Omni mission, for curious visitors, potential collectives and the world at large
• small or large runs of perfect-bound books of readings for a conference
• readers for a reading group or class
• letter-pressed menus for a banquet of collectives
• playbills for shows
• anything!

What is your decision making structure? Who would be your delegate?

Our group makes decisions through a combination of do-ocracy and consensus. We rely on formal consensus decision-making for more permanent or important decisions. Ian will be the delegate initially, and we plan on rotating delegates monthly.

What is the project's email address?

It is tentatively printstudio@lists.omnicommons.org.

What are your solutions to Noise? Smell/Ventilation?

The noise is pretty minimal, to be honest, more like a subtle background drone, like a fan or something. Ventillation is only needed during cleanup (for 10-30 minutes at the end of a print run) , and we are planning on using a solvent-free, eco-friendly, cleaning system (alcohol, simple green, and diluted dish soap as opposed to harsh printing solvents, this is maybe meaningless to non-printers). This should minimize the immediate smell and ventilation issue.

The loudest piece of equipment is also the one that will probably be used the least often, the Offset press. This press will take the longest to get ready to use, and as it is the most complicated press to run, will require more training than the other presses. Therefore will get less use than the other presses (probably no more than one or two times per month, eventually). The other presses are very accessible, and anyone should be able to use them after 1-3 trainings. As a collective, we have discussed possible solutions for how to balance the Offset press’ sound with the needs of the basement commons, one solution being that time on the Offset press would be scheduled, similar to a Public School class or Ballroom event.

Additionally, Emji has been working on figuring out the ventilation situation with HVAC people. Although we want to have as green a studio as possible, we still need to have a working ventilation fan. Emji has a floorplan for the whole building and they’re in the process of mapping out where the vents are and what needs to be done, both for the print studio and the Omni as a whole. This is something that needs to happen in the building for a number of reasons, and will benefit other collectives as well.

Open Days - Will the print studio was open to anyone who has been trained on the equipment as long as a collective member is present? (not just during the "open hours")

We will set up a system where people who have been trained on the various pieces of equipment will be able to use those machines, even outside of open hours, as long as a collective member is present (which will be frequently!). Ian runs the shop access program at The Crucible, an industrial arts warehouse, and can help model the community print shop access off this.

Conflict Resolution

• Korl was confronted by a drunken, belligerant, rude man who was trying to pick the lock to the front door of the omni with a knife. He used a derrogatory term at Korl and if he is identified or seen again, he should be addressed for this issue and asked to leave.
• Pidgeon needs to be informed that (a) sleeping is not allowed in sudo room / omni (b) sudo room is not for domestic or habitation purposes.