The Omni/20 November 2013

These notes are incomplete - please feel free to add to them!

Random Notes / Questions

• How does a collective of collectives operate?
• Music collectives?
  • Would need extensive soundproofing
• Smaller office space?
  • Definitely possible
• How to mediate conflict?
• Visioning
  • Everyone gets a 2-minute slot to speak to the topic at hand

Representative Groups of the Meeting

• Oakland Nights Live
• Sudo Room
• Public School
• Counter Culture Labs
• Small Press Traffics

Other Potential Groups

• SALTA
• CorpWatch
• Groups along San Leandro & High in E Oakland

Inspiration

• Sudo Room's Conflict Resolution Policy
• BAPS' Financial Policy (link?)
• OccuCopy & 1984 Printing
• The Compound (artist studios) on 65th in Emeryville

Concerns

• Distance from BART
  • Wheelchair-accessible buses from BART
  • Inevitable trade-offs - what are we getting in exchange for distance? Huge space
• Temescal is a very upper-class, white neighborhood that's rapidly gentrified
  • This area where we are now is rapidly gentrifying, more so than Temescal
  • Space itself is largely ADA compliant
  • There are lifts that can be installed in a staircase that are affordable to build
  • Think of the long-term: We could sell this for much more, and move somewhere else in 5 years
• The area near MacArthur BART has a good deal of crime

Action Items

• Look into any pre-existing inspection records [ask tmrw at mtg] - Jenny
• Reach out to invite other groups to the next mtg or an ad-hoc mtg with some of the core organizers - Everyone
• Begin brainstorming on our values & guidelines
• Homework Assignment: What are 5-10 groups you would like to see share this space? -Everyone
• Make a video to promote
• Make a presentation for other potential groups - David
• Get folks to create User Pages on the Wiki to encourage short bios, visions and values - Jenny

Visioning

• "A culture of agency and activation - to really feel that we are actively, bodily, joining together in the work of creating a genuine shift in how we view our abilities to shape the world through our actions."
• "education and architectural (experimental and functional) construction in the space."
• "I would like an emphasis on social justice to guide the ethos and collective of the collective inclusion of standards (?)."
• "I can't yet answer this question."
• "Radical intention and simplified structure, changing structure, simplified logistics, less groups."
• "Non-judgmental, truly open and welcoming. Creative, artistic."
• "space is participatory / ...money doesn't rule the day / ...is in solidarity with groups looking to aquire space without capital, through reclamation and direct action etc; / ...considers the needs of individuals and small groups / ...is welcoming and inviting."
• "Anticapitalist, pro-reimagining the world through creating tangible alternative models [and support when they fail and require iteration]."
• "A sense of joy and excitement in our collective work; dedication to working for the common good."
• "A space that facilitates interconnection and collaboration between a diverse range of creative anti-capitalist collectives."
• "Radical generosity; the ability to exercise it with great abandon; the opportunity to be selfless."
• "A space for radicalized collectives - in all kinds of different ways."
• "EXIST"
• "ANTICAPITALIST"
• "The dedication to such a space be not limited by the physical walls that contain it. The concept of an open society allowing a synergy with and without walls to occur within and without the community."
• "An Autonomous Anomolous Anticapitalist (Non)University made up of a plethora of incredible projects constantly exploring and celebrating our diversity of roots and ideas / and their confluences / with free food / love / & make the gov't scared."
• "Innovative autonomy / wild hybrid liminality / non stop talking / questioning all existing principles / fundamentally, an illusion of fixed ground to commit to perpetual motion in ____ company, and to ____, offer an invitation to the wider world about a laboratory to completely transform what we now know as the unwanted _____ _____ they ______."