[sudo-discuss] Fwd: [omni-consensus] Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status

[Yardena Cohen]

Hi folks, sorry I've been a bad delegate and forgot to forward these
proposals before now.

I haven't made up my mind personally about whether this is a good
idea. Back in 2013 BAPS and Sudoroom were the formative members of
Omni. They are a very different group today. In some ways, we are too.
I don't take this lightly at all, and I feel it may be one of the most
consequential decisions we've made in years.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Laura Turiano <scylla at riseup.net>
Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 6:08 PM
Subject: [omni-consensus] Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area
Public School Fiscal Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status
To: consensus at lists.omnicommons.org <consensus at lists.omnicommons.org>


Proposal to Immediately Terminate Bay Area Public School Fiscal
Sponsorship Contract and Member Collective Status

Bay Area Public School was fiscally sponsored by OC to:

● enlarge movement and collective understanding of the structures we face;

● place our present activities in their relevant history;

● understand the forces of evolution acting on our actions and organizations;

● study the extant literature addressing political forms and
structures, varieties of party and organization forms, the archive of
movement politics and principles, and strategies of organizing;

● organize classes, seminars, workshops and educational events on the
above topics;

● coordinate space for these activities in the Omni and elsewhere;

● develop syllabi, outlines, focus topics, lists of references, etc.

Since January 2018, BAPS has only held the following 4 classes:

Marx was Right Reading Group - 2-6/2018

Poets’ House - Intermittent events 2-11/2018

The East: Solo Performance Laboratory - 5-10/2018

Writing with World Stuff - 10/2018 to the present.

BAPS has made little to no effort to recruit new classes, research
what kind of classes would be of interest and benefit to OC or the
neighborhood community, or otherwise use OC fiscal sponsorship to
develop the activities for which it was sponsored.

BAPS has made no effort to ask for donations from class participants
or do any other fundraising and has made no material contributions to
OC in over a year.

BAPS has had only between 1-5 active members for at least 2 years.
Only 2 people have consistently attended BAPS meetings. With usually
only 2 members from similar backgrounds discussing and deciding upon
any proposal or issue, they only hear a very limited range of
opinions. Most collectives have to reach some level of agreement
between many more people from more diverse perspectives.

Currently, BAPS and its delegate are blocking the proposal to hire
Jenny Ryan as bookkeeper on a temporary contract. This proposal is
urgent and supported by everyone else in the organization. This block
shows that BAPS does not take seriously the main duty of a Delegate to
support sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management
of Omni Commons as an organization.

Given BAPS minimal activities at OC, it’s lack of any unified
organizing effort, its lack of support by participating members, it’s
failure to fulfill its responsibility to support the continued healthy
functioning of the organization, and its lack of need for fiscal
sponsorship (since they collect no donations), BAPS’ fiscal
sponsorship agreement should be discontinued. Per the agreement:

8. The board retains the right to terminate collection of funds for
the Project at any time upon giving written notice to the Committee.

Taking into account the large workload of the Treasurer, bookkeeper,
and Finance Working Group over the next several months, and the length
of time the proposal to hire Jenny has been stalled, this decision
should be made and enacted immediately.

Since member collectives are required to be either fiscally sponsored
projects of OC or tenants of OC, termination of the fiscal sponsorship
contract also ends BAPS status as a member collective.

Current or future classes that members of BAPS would like to hold can
be scheduled at OC through event contracts via the Commons working
group.

Should an actual collective come together to undertake similar
activities to BAPS in the future, it is welcome to apply to be a
member collective or for fiscal sponsorship.

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