Meeting Notes 2016-04-06

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sudoroom meeting Wednesday 2016-April-06

intros

  • iiicebreaker: what's your favorite climate?
  • jenny - she/her - humid and tropical
  • jacob - ? - temperate
  • robb - he - changing
  • matt - he/him - periodic ice-age
  • MORGAN - ? - this is real nice
  • sigma - they/them - 10 degrees less than it is right now
  • jason - he/him - here when it's colder than today
  • marc/juul - he/they - tropical by the sea (eastern australia'ish)
  • cere - i guess i'm a girl i don't know (i guess that means she) - ireland
  • yar - she/her - earth-like
  • Quorum is available, including online members

announcements

discussion on meetings

  • switch hacker happy hour to wednesdays?
    • important that HHH include non-alcoholic beverages and snax
  • switch to an online voting system (ie; Loom.io) so members who can't make meetings can still participate in decision-making [lots of support]
  • smart marketing move to say, "we're not having meetings anymore; only parties"
  • two or three seconds for monthly meetings instead of weekly
  • meet on the First Wednesday, every other Wednesday is Hacker Happy Hour
  • Second Wednesday so we can consent on proposals brought up on the First Thursday Omni mtg, so time to discuss for the Third Thursday Omni mtg.
  • it seems we are converging on the idea of wednesdays being hacker happy hour instead of meetings except for one wednesday per month which is a regular meeting that then slides into hacker happy hour when/if it's done. now matt is drawing charts on the whiteboard to decide which wednesday would be best for the meeting in relation to when omni decisions are made
  • Leaning twoard one wednesday as the primary meeting, leading candidates are the 1st wednesday or the 2nd wednesday, due to the 1st/3rd thursday omni meetings.

DECISION TIME:

proposal for changing meetings

  • Sudo room will have one scheduled meeting per month on the 2nd Wednesday, with optional meetings that can be called on other Wednesdays at the request of at least one member. All other wednesdays will convert to hacker happy hour. After the meeting-wednesday we will also have hacker happy hour.
    • Does anyone block? Do online people have opinions?
  • For: Marc, Jenny, Dante, Anthony D, Patrik, Steve, Faust, Sigma, Robb, Morgan
  • Abstaining: yar
  • Blocking:

AGREED! PASSED! CONSENSO!

finances

  • OH MY FNORD we sold our bitcoins for $1220
    • we are now cyberpoor and meatspacewealthylesspoor
  • Currently $363.72 in the bank (not including the $1220 for btc), we owe $500 for April rent
  • Yikes
  • the financial downturn is partially due to stripe screwing us over due to some scammers using our donation page to test stolen credit cards and us getting hit with fees for that. that was a one-time situation.
    • Received thousands of fraudulent credit card transactions through stripe. Forty went through and Stripe was trying to charge $15 each, but Jenny talked them down to $5 but still unfortunate waste of money.

post-members

  • Member twice involved with police showing up to the omni and make a direct threat to go to omni and kill themselves via electrocution.
    • Member gets quiet for a while, but then starts storming around Omni looking for gf. Once left car in the middle of street, took keys out, cops showed up. Put hands on gf in several incidents. Disrupted large, paying events. At harborside employee party, storming around stage yelling at gf. Wanted to be banned after last event, but after this one seems like a pattern that is getting worse.
    • Note that when police are called, these events go on the record, become a problem going forward. Even many spurious complaints start looking negative. Cummulative effect of police interaction. Two of three police officer incidents were related to this member.
    • Worthwhile to also think about this members psychological wellbeing and find some places where they could get help.
    • Also worred about gf.
    • Brought up that it seems to be directed at Omni.
    • Brought up that it isn't known what intentions are.
    • Brought up that repeatedly using threat of suicide as leverage.
    • Brought up aggressive behavior toward another member, involving staring and snapping and aggressive demeanour.
    • Brought up that expected reaction by this member is some sort of escalation
  • Proposal: Sudo Room's community, unable to provide the kind of support and help Anthony needs, unfortunately and regrettably has determined that Anthony is in bad standing based on the definition of sudo room's membership and sudo room's values. Therefore Anthony's membership must be revoked.
  • Proposal: Based on an escalating pattern of Anthony's choices resulting in negative consequences, including inappropriate behavior during rental events, as well as deliberately instigating law enforcement to come to and therefore threaten the Omni Commons at vulnerable moments (on two specific occasions), and because we cannot understand what his intentions are, he is both a risk to himself and to the overall omni commons community and must therefore be asked to leave, to be banned from Omni Commons.
  • For: Marc, Jenny, Dante, Steve, Faust, Sigma, Robb, Morgan, Cere, Matt, yar
  • Abstaining: Patrik D
  • Blocking:
  • Proposal passes

new members

Jacob

  • Want to be a member here, am a maker. Also a hacker, hacked my leg open on this table. Like to solder, code, talk, drink beer. General contractor, construction.
    • Matt jumps in with schematics and plans trying to get work setup
  • Friends of joe, few others here.
  • Smart home projects, extra parts and components
  • What's your plan to abolish sexual violence, police brutality and white supremacy? in 10 words or less?
    • Just going to chill
    • Police brutality - jump in break it up hasn't worked
    • White supremacy - hang out and with other people
  • What's your plan to end the anthropocene extinction, world hunger, global warming and global inequality? in 10 words or less?
    • Glocalization
  • What's your plan to ensure freedom and privacy of communication for all? in 10 words or less
    • Giving consumers a choice to produce projects that don't infringe on privacy
  • Sudo is great etc. Safe space policy, Is this a problem for you?
    • No
  • Banned?
    • No
  • Contact?
    • jacob.mowbray@gmail.com
  • Schedule?
    • Just work and sleep, may be here often.
  • Daytime or night owl?
    • Yes. Working a lot recently.

Jason

  • Want to be a member here, learn about hardware/electronics. I am a developer, specifically Ruby/Rails, previously PHP. Work with front-end HTML/CSS/Javascript/jQuery/angularjs also. Interested in learning more about NodeJS.
  • Had some friends here, but some have moved away, interested in finding a place to collaborate and work on stuff. Want to be inspired by what other people are working on.
  • What's your plan to abolish sexual violence, police brutality and white supremacy? in 10 words or less?
    • Related to social justice, fairly new thing to me. Spent some time advocating for those who are in denial of it. Got banned from reddit/r/feminism. Just for asking questions. Was a bad forum and no course for recourse. Ended up embracing the opposite side of things. Got tired of that. Recently become more open an trusting and realized there is another context to things. In a nutshell, going to remain receptive and welcome to other people and their stories and their context.
  • Q: So you supported people who say PC is a bunch of bullcrap?
    • It's easy to avoid real conversations, there is an echo chamber. There immature people who identify with a movement, and you can't let those people represent the whole movement.
  • Comment: It's cool that you are reevaluating things.
    • There is a group which is misrepresenting.
  • Contact?
    • Call or text
    • 407-324-6807, email takes longer for response - jason@redconfetti.com
  • What's your schedule like?
    • On/off weekdays, probably after 6pm
  • What's your plan to end the anthropocene extinction, world hunger, global warming and global inequality? in 10 words or less
    • I don't know, maybe a solar project. Learn solar.
  • What's your plan to ensure freedom and privacy of communication for all? in 10 words or less?
    • Learn to go dark and not expose much about myself appropriately.

omni proposals

Agua Viva Membership Application

1. Mission statement - What do you do? What happens in the world because you exist? (1-3 sentences) Agua Viva is dedicated to providing a warm and welcoming introduction to the Omni Commons. A cafe is a place that people understand and feel allowed to enter, providing community members who are not already familiar with the Omni with a reason to come in and explore the space. In addition. Agua Viva will provide the existing Omni community with a convivial space in which to gather and collaborate. We will serve affordable and responsibly sourced coffee, tea and snacks and will donate a portion of any profits made from sales of these items to the Omni.

We’re excited to act as ambassadors to the Omni and hope to facilitate more open communication and participation through the curation and visualization of information about the Omni, its member collectives, upcoming events and meetings.

2. Origin and group history - How did you start? What have you done? (1-3 sentences) The collective is currently comprised of members of past and current Omni collectives including the Bay Area Public School, Sudo Room, and La Commune. Collective members have participated in various Omni working groups and performed myriad Omni organizational tasks.

After the closure of La Commune, a few Omni community members agreed that having a welcoming introduction to the Omni was important and began discussing their desire to move forward with opening a cafe in the entrance hall.

3. Participation in the Omni - Why are you interested in becoming a member? How does your group intend to use the space? What are your needs? (less than 5 sentences) Creating a welcoming introduction to the Omni Commons is the foremost aim of this endeavor, and an aspiration of the founding members since the inception of the project. We intend to build out a viable cafe in the front counter area that will have regular open hours (TBD) and to steward the use of the entrance hall.

4. Group finances and paying rent - What does your group do to support itself financially? What is your best plan for contributing your potential share of rent to the Omni? (less than 5 sentences)

The core financial aim of Agua Viva is to serve as a source of revenue for the Omni through a combination of coffee/tea/pastry sales and stewarding rental responsibilities of the entrance hall. At the same time, we believe in providing a fair living wage for collective members in order to ensure their ability to continue to participate in the collective as well as to to encourage the participation of community members who do not have the luxury of being able to make commitments as unpaid volunteers.

All financials and accounting will be made transparent to the public, and quarterly reports produced will be accompanied by a reevaluation of the amount we’re able to contribute to the Omni’s many expenses.

We propose a worktrade during the buildout phase (maximum 3 months), during which we’ll be focusing on finishing the wheelchair bathroom, fixing the electrical and drywall in the entrance hall in addition to building out the cafe space.

Our goal is to be able to make a regular monthly rental contribution of $1000 within 6 months of opening. We will also contribute to shared costs such as utilities, insurance and taxes in an amount TBD. 

  Phase 1: Buildout (1-3 months)
  Phase 2: Open to the public (1-6 months): $500/mo plus shared expenses
  Phase 3: Open to the public (6+ months): $1000+ (after evaluation of Phase 2) plus shared expenses

5. Dedicated space - If your group would like some dedicated space at the Omni, what square footage and what features are you looking for? Which specific rooms do you feel might be suitable? (1-3 sentences)

We would like to request the front counter and space behind it as dedicated collective members-only space.

We would also like to place tables and chairs throughout the entrance hall that could be used by other Omni community members at any time.

6. Other contributions to the Omni - This question should inspire some imagination. We are exploring ideas to pay rent and purchase the building in the long-term. The basic plan is for each group paying a share of rent. Potential plans include groups sharing profit from their activities, producing Omni events, and booking other events. What is the best-case scenario for using the Omni space to further support your group? (less than 5 sentences)

Our primary desire is to contribute to the success of the Omni by fostering meaningful relationships with the surrounding community, supporting Omni member collectives, curating a welcoming space and nurturing a culture of mutual aid. To that end, we intend to: 

  Actively promote and curate events in the entrance hall with an eye towards programming free community events.
  Offering coffee, tea, pastries and other concession items for the purposes of increasing revenue for the Omni. 
  Hosting monthly neighborhood potlucks in the space.
  Offering commercial retail space for other collectives in the Omni (and obtaining the necessary permits and licenses for retail).
  Curating an Omni Infoshop and providing information about the Omni and its various member collectives to newcomers.

7. Additional - Is there any other information that you think would be useful for us to know about your group? (as many sentences as you like) Agua Viva will begin operations as a horizontally organized member collective serving coffee, tea and some pastries planning to eventually graduate to a more robust co-operative model with the addition of new members. We believe in starting small and growing slowly to ensure that we are building the necessary infrastructure to support the project and that we are engaging in open and mindful communication with all members.

  • Q: Any unresolved technical or permit issues leftover from La commune?
    • Lots of construction, they left a big mess.
  • Q: Is this a for profit?
    • This is a worker collective. Want to pair a fair wage for workers and then let rest go to omni. Want to make money for Omni. Organized finance around transparency, produce quarterly reports.
    • Suggestion to do non-profit. Problem is that most of the income must come as donations. Talked to lawyer, think it will raise issues with IRS although it can work as cafe in museum in some cases.
    • Suggestion to do benefit corporation.
  • Q: Membership process?
    • Not yet articulated. Start out as collective, see what roles people want to play. Want to avoid La Commune issues. Want stricter controls like if members miss too many shifts, they lose membership. Want to keep consensus.
  • Q: What is the incentive you and Niki need to start investing in the space? Are options popups? Cart thing? Build out?
    • Possible options, need to talk to Niki.
    • Juul: Also need to be shown by Omni that Omni will continue to exist.
  • Concern about it's profit status.
    • Income from sudo and ccl still counts as rent through omni.
  • Brought up to not do a membership proposal and instead do a space proposal as the status as a collective is new.
    • Can talk to Niki about it as a friendly amendment.
  • Already on top of business plan, applying for grants, permits, insurance, homework around coops.
  • Q: ready to pass inspection?
  • Working on it
  • Space needs to be open for public.
  • Wall needs to be patched up for electrical, it's in progress. Floor needs to be finished behind counter, drain check, mop sink
  • Niki wasn't involved in many of these decisions with La Commune due to many things not being consensed on.
  • Different from Buried Seeds in that they are membership organization with members getting something in return. This would be open to public.
  • The idea to enable a living wage for people helping out, not to siphon effort from volunteers into particular people.

Friendly Amendments: 1) to apply as a tenant, and wait until membership process is articulated and collective grows to apply as a member collective 2) income from events that utilize the front space goes to the Omni, not the cafe employees

    • Benefits from concessions are still should be determined by the commons working group
  • For: Sigma, Matt, Jenny, Marc, Dante, Morgan, Cere, Patrick, Francisco
  • Abstaining: Carl
  • Blocking:

Proposal passes

Art Bison Membership Application

  • This is Kazoo and I am speaking on behalf of Art Bison Design Coop. Please forward to the correct list, there were so many I didn't know which.

We, Art Bison Design Coop, would like to formally propose a satellite screen printing setup at the Omni! We won't be moving our entire studio in, just our extra setup so we can see if Omni makes sense for the full move. Here is our proposal below:

1. Mission:

Art Bison is a feminist collective that shares resources and produces media. Our principal media is screen printing and we are as much makers as we are teachers. We empower youth, womyn, those with barriers to employment, LGBTQIA folks, and all who are curious, to make their own media. Through work/trade we are able to produce shirts and posters for, often at no cost, to a wide variety of social and political events.

2. Origin:

ABDC was founded in 2011 by Kazoo Studios at 603 Tennessee. The Coop quickly grew from a open studio once a week, into a group run studio in San Francisco's (no longer) industrial Dog Patch neighborhood. There are currently 9 studio members. With the satellite location at Omni we hope to grow the coop to 16 or members or more. Members split rent and supplies equally, and share all the space, screens, and supplies in the studio. Members also share skills through in-house workshops.

3. Participation:

We have been interested in the Omni Commons and have been in conversation with OC since its inception. We were invited to attend meetings by The Public School originally. We have a strong ethos about sharing knowledge and skills outside of exploitative frameworks, and we think Omni is trying to be a hub for this radical reality. We would like to set up shop in Oakland so that we can begin our internship program on the side of the bay where half of us live, and Omni seems like a great place for that to happen. Our internship program currently fosters three teenaged youth per year in San Francisco.

At the Omni we would be able to grow this number and support more youth finding employment within an educational framework. Several of us work in public education and are building a feeder program in middle and high schools in Oakland to prepare kids for our paid internship program. We would be bringing in Oakland youth to collaborate with and support the larger space. We could use our intern hours to do projects like building, drywall, murals, etc. as well as producing shirts and posters for radical events and causes.

4. Group finances:

ABDC takes commissions for events, artists and groups all the time. We have a regular income and can provide financials in person (not on the Internet).

5. Space:

We currently pay 400$ for 400sf in SF. We would like to propose paying 200$ for 200sf. The space we would propose to use is what is currently referred to by some people as "the den". We would only need half of it. All the tables could still be there, just moved forward a bit. We would also need (shared) access to the shower room.

6. Other contributions:

We have a wide variety of skills in our collective. We have carpenters, musicians, designers, doctors, city planners, teachers, professional organizers, there is no limit to what we can contribute. Tangibly though we would greatly increase foot traffic into the space and support the media reality of the space.


Discussion

  • Concerns about enclosure of common space
  • Concerns about having kids in the space and being totally by-the-book
  • What about contributing to shared expenses?
  • Friendly amendment: Precise term (eg; 6 months)
  • Friendly amendment #2: Fully research and propose to delegates before having kids in the space [add to contract].
  • Request: Please tape off the area you intend to use
  • Divergent discussion re: TIL and how little they're paying for a large amount of enclosed private space - would be way better if they were sharing with GWS and CSC


Friendly amendments

With six month term tenancy contract, including a clause that they will be compliant with any regulations and responsible for any building improvements needed for hosting minor / youth activities, and with informal talk about the space usage (marking off the area of the den of interest), does sudo want to support this proposal?

For: Sigma, Matt, Jenny, Marc, Robb, Patrik, Alan, Cere Abstain: Dante, Carl, Francisco Blocking: Proposal passes

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