Meeting Notes 2015-10-28

Sudoroom Weekly Meeting Wednesday October 28, 2015

Attendees

• remote-jenny
• ballroom-yar
• remote-dk
• Alex - He. Sudohack planning, teaching game dev and audio production wednesdays. Grateful for sudo!
• Andrew - He. study physics, AI, C, love hackerspaces and want to become Sudo member. Grateful for being around awesome people.
• John - He. Hosted a lecture on live sound reinforcement and donated sound gear to Omni - here to present trades applicable to the group about locksmith and QA assurance experience. Grateful to be alive given dangerous work!
• Laura - She. New to programming, background in biology, researching psychology, into alternative lifestyle and counter culture communities
• Miriam - She. Here once before, want to become sudo member, studying arduino. Hackerspaces!
• Matthew - He. Enjoy programming and interested in learning more about game design with Alex and Mari
• Rob - He. Currently hacking on different types of systems, phone hardware systems, open source systems. Grateful for the dead!
• Mari - She. Like to hack on wearables. Grateful for opportunity to hang with smart people at hackerspaces!
• Captain morgan - He. Ask me about programming. Grateful for laser cutters!
• Yar - My pronouns are she and her! I do a lot of work at the omni. Our icebreaker question should be, what are you grateful for?
• dk - male pronouns.. helpin out. grateful for yar.

Announcements

• Omni's first Collabazaar is this Satuday from 12-8pm. Spread the word! - https://omnicommons.org/collabazaar - Send an email to collabazaar [at ] omnicommons [dot] org if you're interested in running a table.
• Jenny applied for a zoning clearence permit and a business license for sudo room so we can reclaim our web domain. We should be receiving the license within two weeks.
• history: Sudo's domain may need to be reclaimed if the registering person doesn't respond to mail about it soon.
• John Evans: Union stagehand member of IAATSE, oakland local, frequently in Fox and all the local theatres which is how I found Omni. I have two skills could be useful to Sudoers: Locksmith services and Software QA.
• Worked at Golden Gate key and lock and did full training and technicial training. Available to help with residential, auto, commercial, can do rekeys, lockouts, installs. Auto locks can be rekeyed, programmed, lockouts of your stuff is a key place to save money. Can do master keying and other things at cost.
• Does installation of audio and other systems with orange clean power systems.
• Worked at Balthaser Online developing reading clarity software.
• Did electronic ebook and comic formats.
• Experience at end user testing, product requirements documents,
• Robb: Talked to a structural engineer and nets can be connected to ceiling to make Sudo Cloud made of Sudo Nets! Engineer suggests it is code-feasible.
• Mari: Sudohack tentatively Nov 7-8th pad.riseup.net/p/sudohack add your name email and ideas and a date you want to come if 7th doesn't work for you.
• Jenny: Here now, mostly internet active lately but changing that! Grateful for friends!

Announcements

• Alex: If you would like to help us teach code and circuits and things, come to hackthefuture.org and apply to be a mentor. The event is on Nov 14.
• Game class is coming next week Tuesday 5PM!

Finances

• November rent and October utilities were paid early to help buffer Omni's bank account.
• Currently in account: $1,818.84
• $248.54 being transferred from PayPal, bringing us to $2,067.38
• Needed in bank to be solvent: $7,125
• PayPal Sept. 29th - Oct. 27th: $790.97 (~$107/wk from Gratipay + some member dues)
• Stripe Sept. 29th - Oct. 28th: $1,629 (37 members paying)
• Current monthly income: $2420
• Total monthly expenses: $2000 rent + ~$375 = $2375
• Big project idea: Get financially trained people to internally audit Sudo and the whole OMNI!!
• Let's buy the omni.

New Members

https://sudoroom.org/wiki/New_Member_Script

Andrew

• likes physics, AI, philosophy. somewhat broad
• how? found sudo through long winding road. noisebridge.
• whY? wants to monetarily support sudoroom
• What do you want to hack?: Exploring things like bitnation cryptogovernance, Swarm and other projects worth doing.
• What do you want to share?: Still exploring topics worth teaching. Interested in NVC talk about how to apply it.
• What is plan to abolish police brutality etc: Improve communication and culture iteratively by changing ourselves every day.

What's your plan to abolish sexual violence, police brutality and white supremacy? in 10 words or lessWhat's your plan to end the anthropocene extinction, world hunger, global warming and global inequality? in 10 words or less A: Ditto. Q: What's your plan to ensure freedom and privacy of communication for all? in 10 words or less A: Ditto. Q: What do you know about sudo room's values? A: I read them. I agree with them. Q: What do you know about sudo room's history? A: I know anecdotes and hearsay. Q: What do you know about the Omni Commons' statement of solidarity? A: I've read it and I have one idea to improve it. Q: What do you know about the Omni Commons' safer space policy? A: I'd like to know more about it. Notes: It basically says don't harass people. And you can ask someone to leave if you feel unsafe. A: Have you ever been banned from a hackerspace or any other collective? No. Q: Are you a cop? No. Q: An informant? A: No. I try not to speak to the cops. Q: A federal agent? An undercover cop? No. Q: An undercover cat? If I am I am unaware. Q: What makes you happy? Connection. Understanding. Love. Knowledge. Explosions. Good explosions, not bad ones. Q:What's 20 + 3? (this is not a trap) 23 in the usual paradigms Q: Can you please tell me what is in the captcha? There is none, thus I cannot.

General questions

• alex: have you ever been involved in consensus process before?
• andrew: is that ... majority?
• alex: no that's democracy
• andrew: so that means 100%
• Alex: are you interested in being an NVC-equipped mediator?
• andrew: yes!
• Torri: What makes you happy?
• Laura: How would you apply your physics background to things in Sudoroom?
• Andrew: Hard question. Physics I'm interested in, not many people want to fund so I see it as a side project, but the general problem-solving skills I learned through physics I want to apply along with mathematics. Not sure how it will be applied but in that broad way it will be.
• Laura: What sorts of physics?
• Andrew: Interpretations and how to make them more learnable models. Quantum field theory for example is understood but not explained well, and some articles have broached the topic. Balls of liquid bouncing on a surface is a physically intuitive illustration that can explain quantum mechanics. Doing it for quantum fields takes a step beyond quantum mechanics.
• Laura: How would you explain quantum fields to someone who didn't know about physics?
• Andrew: I might start: We can explain matter as vibrations of quantum fields. What the fuck is a quantum field? My friend and I wrote a paper with that exact title [actually "WTF is Quantum Field Theory" or "WTF is QFT"]. We are hoping to explain it in terms of a physical vibrating material that interacts with others in special ways. We haven't figured out the explanation yet.
• Torrie: Let's say Sudoroom had a big open house party coming up. What would you bring to it?
• Andrew: I haven't made a lot of things to show people so that's one reason I come to hacker spaces is to get into that mode of building things more. I would bring myself and my ideas and stories.
• Torrie: Would you bring people?
• Andrew: I would try!

pondering

https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-10-07 https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-10-14 https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-10-21

• Ari applied on Sep 23 and become a member last week. Yay Ari!
• Tom applied on 10/7 and pondering will end next week
• Daron applied on 10/7 and pondering will end next week
• Alex Peake applied on 10/14 and pondering will end in 2 weeks
• Lef applied on 10/14 and pondering will end in 2 weeks
• Mari applied on 10/14 and pondering will end in 2 weeks
• Merry applied on 10/21 and pondering will end November 18, but is currently being blocked by a sudoroom member

Keys

proposals:

• Yar: safety concerns and difficulty traveling should be criteria for who gets a physical front-door key
• give keys to ryan and jessie
• We just replaced the front door of the omni and changed all the internal lock doors. We now have our own key cutter. Now we have a new process the Omni passed for giving people physical keys. Only for people who need physical keys such as opening the building and holding events and fixing the card reader.
• Yar: I'm proposing that for Sudo, we add two new criteria: People with safety concerns and difficulty traveling such as Ryan and Jessie because they both visit wheelchair bus on wheelchair.
• Small c consensus at this time: Who feels how?
• Matt: I think they should both get keys. There have been a couple multi-day periods where the card swiper went down where it was hard for people coming from a distance and it is different for them!
• Torrie: Question, who will audit the list of people who have physical tokens that are really hard to revoke? Is there a list of people who have keys?
• Yar: There's a clipboard in secure storage closet where we write it down. I tried to find it. There's a mailing list called keys@omnicommons.org for it.
• Torrie: Everyone here and online should subscribe to https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/keys so they will receive notification of key policies and who is granted keys.
• Yar: If anyone wants to learn how to use the keycutter it is fun!
• Torrie: If anyone wants to learn to make keys with C&C ask me.
• Alex: how does one get keycards?
• Yar: Someone knows how to do it.
• Sudoroom members who like this idea:
  • 4/4 consent. Torrie, Matt, Yar, Jenny in favor.
• yar found the old list. Ryan and Jenny are already on it: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-05-27#Rekeying

• A wild Jenny approaches.

• Jenny: I don't have a key. Who has keys? Criteria for having a keycard is membership and for having a key has been hosting events and being around late at night.
• Mari: How do you find out when you become a permanent member?
• Yar: Whenever we have a meeting with membership process, we have a short session members only where we talk not only people who just applied tonight but also the people pending review and put their status in the notes. It is a little confusing because anyone can block a new member but someone has to come to the meeting and relay the message. It is responsibility of blocker to make it known somehow.

Omni delegate can announce something decided to omni. 10 members are on hand including remote members.

Omni Proposals

Jenny: There are three membership proposals to the Omni for new collectives to join the Omni commons as voting member collectives.

See https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom for details on proposals

• delegates mtg commentary on birdhouse & supersonic proposals: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/10/15_Delegates_Meeting

Chiapas Support Committee Membership

• Does activist work with Zapatista community. Has events at Omni doing fundraising for a long time. Pretty awesome comrades. Offering $300 a month for shared office space.
• Jake wanted to block this: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2015-October/000676.html
• Patrik is concerned because no financial commitment
• Consenso: 10/10 sudoers 1 abstain

Birdhouse Collective Membership

• Art collective. Not asking for particular space, just to be able to put on shows and exhibits. Contributing $200+$175ish utlities = $375-325ish a month. Has been part of omni for a long time. Good at getting art grants and doing scene things.
• Patrik has no problem with this because no dedicated space, offering $200 + utilities
• 8/8 humans approve, including 3 sudo members. there have been no objections on the mailing lists.
• 10/10 sudoer members consented.

• Chiapas and Birdhouse Consensus process participants: Consenting: 10/10 Jenny, Yar, Torrie, Sam, Lesley, David, Matt, Patrik, Rob, Jake

Supersonic Pandemonium Membership

• A music collective that would like to host musical events in the basement.
• Is Rob a member? Unclear from notes whether he is a member of this collective or merely speaking in support of it.
  • dk - Idk, but my impression was he was not? Not sure tho
  • Rob is not a member. https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2015-October/000698.html "We currently have 6 confirmed members, with six others who are interested in joining once we get rolling. Of the initial 6, 2 are members of other Omni collectives. Dragon is a member of Liberated Lens, and Benji is a part of "Becoming Omni" and a trained sound tech for the ballroom."
• On Supersonic: Consenting: Rob, Yar, matt, Torrie
• Abstaining: Lesley
• Support for membership but needing modifications to proposal to address space and sound concerns: Sam, Jake

Discussion on the three collectives currently applying for membership

• Birdhouse is an offshoot of the bay area public school's art projects.
• Jenny: All three groups have members who've been involved in Omni. One of the music members is a founding member of the film collective. The film collective has the most new group but we can support them because they bring in many people to explore the Omni.
• Laura: Why are they proposed in Sudo?
• Jenny: Omni operates on consensus so every omni collective has a say in major decisions. Consensus is a process so if we have concerns we bring them up and try to work it out.
• Yar: The delegates job is to communicate between collectives and thursday Omni meetings. We hacked the charter so any convening of delegates is technically acting as the board of the Omni. It is very scary. :)
• lesley: That's an awesome, incredibly useful hack. Good going.
• Andrew: Can we read the meetings of the Omni?
• Yar: Yes. I am working on a curated version of the delegates meetings so we can more easily show people everything that's ever been decided.
• Yar: Only members with concerns so far were Jake who suggested they should pay more money.
• In consensus, we don't throw a gauntlet, we make proposals based on being aware of what others will accept, and if objections rise we work to find common ground. It was a week ago that Jake said "I block" and some considerations were asked of him but he hasn't replied yet.
• Torrie: Should we get this resolved before the delegates meeting?
• Jenny: I will call him.
• Yar: Not sure if objection was to all three or just one.
• Yar & Jenny: Patrick and another Sudoer are in CCL right now, let's ask them.
• Yar: Chiapas support committee thread was where the concern was raised.
• Alex: What reason for needing more money was raised?
• Yar: We price for need and ability to pay. It is part of what we do. Jake asked this: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2015-October/000676.html
• Jenny: I have a report back from Patrick. He has no problem with birdhouse. He's concerned with music collective only offering $100 and no utilities. He's concerned with Chiapas because they're unclear about any financial commitment, even if it is something involving a share of fundraising events in the future.
• It should be more fine tuned before its raised for agreement. It is hard to say for Chiapas because we should mostly be supporting their non-profit work anyways. But we should honor the concerns of people to establish if we should bring in members who make no financial commitment.

• matt: Point: Supersonic pandemonium has actually participated in two fundraisers for free playing music and have already actually raised money for the Omni. Everything else is negotiable and they're super chill. They want to work out any issues. They're open to cut of utilities as a negotiable. They've proposed a 3 month term to try to build up their collective.
• David has been involved with all previous music studio project attempts in the space and is aware of the issues that plagued previous music groups.

Chiapas Support Network purged lots of international organizations for being leaches to the movement and this is one of the few that they recognized as in true solidarity with their work. It is testament to efficacy of the work. Two of their members were in our visioning process meetings at Omni.

• (just for historical sake, I don't think chiapas was involved since the beginning, nor the music group, though dragon has worked on various projects in the space periodically fairly soon after we moved in)

Yar: Because all of the objections have been about money and scarcity of space, we should at least do the time honored tradition, we should be able to say if we approve of someone being part of the family.

• Torrie: They're bringing in money. Great!
• Jenny: I'm down for them.
• Jake says: I want to see some financial suggestion from Chiapas. I vote for a replacement delegate for Pat Xu.
• Chiapas & WGS talking about sharing office with TIL which has office space on east side of space thinking of sharing space. Right now TIL shares it with two other publications, including a books group. They would consider expanding to another room and sharing space and time with Chiapas Support Commitee and Global Women's Strike. GWS and Chiapas aren't interested in downstairs because of lack of windows. They're also considering upstairs mezzanine space in the ballroom.
• Yar: Their application didn't include any need for space. We should approve their membership and wait for their future space issues to arise.

• Matt: Gabby gave her notice that the silkscreen company is leaving. I just found another silkscreening group that's looking for space. I emailed him tonight saying what they want is gonna be available in a month.
• Jenny: Is it a couple hipster white people?
• Matt: Not sure, ask them!
• Jenny: Asked them without finding out?
• Matt: Just told them the space might become available.
• DK: I think the music collective may not realize how many conflicts arose from the previous 2 music collectives in terms of loud music blocking the ability of others to meet, talk etc in adjacent spaces. I think that would have to be addressed specifically and proactively in the proposal. Right now, even though it may not be clear to the music collective, the proposal sets up a situation where a lot of conflict could occur - i don't think they intend that but it is not a hypothetical unfo.
  • Sam: So can we say we support them, but have issues that need to be addressed before consensing/agreeing to membership?
  • DK: Thanks for responding, Sam! Basically yes, the proposal needs to be re-written - it's not their fault but with the proposal like that will cause* them and others grief.
  • Lesley: The proposal didn't seem very well-thought-out, which might also be indicative of other things
  • Lesley: also, it's about taking space others could use. The music collective wants a dedicated, locked room--not sure if more locked exclusive space at the omni is a good thing.
  • DK: Lesley, you're on point here - this was a big problem in the past too. Who gets to use the equipment, when, etc - without structure, it creates arguments
  • Lesley: Right...maybe a solution could be for them to bring in their recording equipment and then not leave it
  • DK There are other issues too. For example, throwing events in the ballroom and stuff. Anyone can do that but it could conceivably become a problem if a lot of loud events were held there for noise issues with neighbors. So can we say, you can have as many events in there as you want? We should be upfront about limitations or again people (in that group) might get upset
  • DK: At the moment just going off my instict for what happened before, I dont there there can be any live music as a regular, unscheduled occurrence in the basement or problems.. no live music. Music post-production etc that is not loud is not a biggie
  • yar: how should the proposal be rewritten? they have another week left but i hope somebody will hurry up and work on this so we can bring them in next week
  • Jenny: It is possible to work things out to let the music collective know what other meetings use space and when not to place loud music. They should have a representative involved in the space scheduling so as to be aware of making disruptive noise. Most likely they'd be making noise pretty late at night after 9PM or so.
  • DK: It is possible but our scheduling just makes all that very hard..late late at night doesn't sound bad but thats sorta limiting for them maybe?
  • Sam: Address these concerns:
    • noise
    • scheduling of events
    • space - how much is mandatory? Can they go without if it is a blocking issue for some? What storage is available/would collectives be willing to share or give that can be reasonably secured?
• Jenny: I believe they applied for a basement room that had mold that Rob is working on.
• Torrie: Do they know that someone may come up to them at random and ask them to be quiet for a bit to allow something to happen that they didn't know about in advance? Can we ask them that?
  • DK: we could yea but.. it just didnt really work before. People would play anyway, or someone would get upset. Basically nothing at all (except making food) can happen in the basement when there is live music in the basement.
  • DK Also what does Phat Beets think? They are next door..
• yar: $100 for that little room is about proportional to $2000 for sudoroom. let's be real.
  • Lesley: Sudoroom is very rarely locked, though. Anyone from the omni has access.
• DK: I remember Sudo railing against Black Hole for paying like, $400 or something for the same room? But Yar, I agree. I do think though $100 is low enough that that room should be shared, not just for a small group. Like, would they be willing to share the room with other audio equipment so everyone can use it for post-production?
  • yar: it wasn't "sudo", it was matt. most people were in favor.
  • My bad! Sorry forget I said (re: BH)
  • yar: It is 10:30 and we'd like to conclude something and work out details later. Chiapas hasn't asked for space, Birdhouse everyone sounds ok, and Supersonic is a 3 month trial. Can we start and consent on birdhouse?
• Yar: recording 5/5 in the topic proposal up above the chat. There have been no objections on the list.
• Chiapas: Jake wanted to block it based on rental amount being inadequate. Chiapas said they need chairs and storage filing cabinet.
• DK just speaking for myself, I support Chiap & Birdhouse, but the music proposal needs to be retooled before I can consent even to a 3-mo
  • yar: do you at least consent to them being a member collective and sorting out the space issues later?
  • DK: Im not trying to be difficult I just dont understand how we can consent to them being a member collective without agreeing to their proposal. I am in full support of a music collective using the omni, always have but if these groundrules aren't set from the start then you will have people yelling at eachother just like the last 2 times and that I am worried about. I feel like the proposal would have to be changed to reflect what omni & they agreed is cool. Are we gonna say yea you're a member collective, but you can't play live music until 11pm or something, even though you're a music collective? That seems misleading. If that's the case they may not WANT to be a collective at omni..it just seems important.. idk.

• Jake live on the phone: ok to chiapas if they don't require space.
• Yar: Birdhouse is asking for a filing cabinet. Chiapas is asking for a desk to be shared with TIL. Supersonic is asking for the downstairs room for $100 for a 3 month period. Do you consent on them being member collectives even if you disagree about the rental amount for Supersonic?
• Jake: Abstaining on Chiapas and birdhouse, abstaining on supersonic money amount.
• Jake: Thanks for calling me!

• Jenny: Patrick, David & Jake consented on all but music collective. With all here, that's 8 consents. We can reach Sam & Lesley.
• Torrie: I consent, and the delegate should ask for more cash if possible. If they can't pay more, well, we'll still be making some cash anyways. Either way, we'll have money. I don't think a block is productive here.
  • Lesley: consent on Birdhouse, providing they don't try to restrict and control the space that can be taken up by art from other individuals/collectives. Abstain on Chiapas. Honestly...torn between abstain and no on the music collective. I guess no as the proposal stands, no to the designated locked room. And just a subjective observation, if someone asked us, in another context, if the Omni needed to have a 'supersonic pandemonium' what exactly would the reaction be? Doesn't sound like they put much more thought into the name than into the proposal.
  • yar: can i just say, that room has been sitting empty for way more than 3 months?
  • Lesley: Ok, perhaps it would be better if I abstain on the music collective as well.
  • Sam - Consent Birdhouse and Chiapas, express support for Supersonic Pandemonium but agree that they should work on their proposal, address others' concerns, and perhaps have a backup option for space. It seems the money issue is only critical with respect to the space...

• Chiapas and Birdhouse Consensus process participants: Consenting: 10/10 Jenny, Yar, Torrie, Sam, Lesley, David, Matt, Patrik, Rob, Jake

On Supersonic: Consenting: Rob, Yar, matt, Torrie

• Abstaining: Lesley
• Support for membership but needing modifications to proposal to address space and sound concerns: Sam, Jake

• dk sorry support with addressing concerns = consenting as a member collective or accepting proposal as it stands?
• dk I don't have space concerns I have sound concerns.. urgh why can't we ask them to address concerns in their proposal or something
  • yar: it sounds like there's no objection to them being a member collective? or is there? just say so
• alex: Ammended to say space and sound concerns
• DK I object until they and omni figure out how to have loud sounds and meetings toghether
• yar: DK, are you willing to come to a meeting and talk to them, or reach out on your own to work with them on it? in the next week?
• DK: Sure they meet sunday 5pm in the old la commune? I'll figure it out
  • yar: yes
• DK ok. I just would hate to see a 3rd music collective implode is why i am doing this just for the rekkid
• Yar: I propose that we should send everyone with concerns to Supersonic's meeting on Sunday to try to work out concerns.
• DK: sounds emenently sensible
• We have consensed that Chiapas and Birdhouse should become members.
• People wanting to amend Supersonic will meet with them on Sunday.
  • Sam: I have concerns, but I will proxy them to others, since they are not unique and I believe less strong than those expressed by others
  • DK I really hope others will come if they can cause this is always better and more collective-y. no presh tho
  • Sam: I can try to remote if that is helpful, if I cannot be there in person...
  • DK coolness. thanks :)

For next meeting discussion since we ran late

• Alex: Space improvement party Nov 7th
• Mari: Fundraising event with chiptunes and other bands to raise money for Omni!
• Jenny: We have an event Saturday so jump in and have tables then! 20% of sales go to Omni minimum. Set up at 10:30 Saturday till 8PM.
• Thanks for everyone coming and participating in person and online, this concludes business till members applicant discussion at end.

Action Items

• lxpk: Mailed notes to Jenny for putting on wiki.
• Need to send an email to sudo discuss with the meeting notes when that's done.

previously: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meetings