[sudo-discuss] [omni-commons] Sudoroom's sponsorship of Spaz events at Omni

[Jenny Ryan]

Hi all,

My sincere apologies for not being present at last night's sudo room
meeting to directly address these concerns - had I known it would be a
topic of discussion, I would have been there!

As the Commons WG member who's been most directly involved with the
onboarding and evolution of the SPAZ events over the course of this year, I
would like to summarize how things have gone to date and exactly what
transpired on Saturday night (which I'll be the first to admit was
unexpectedly challenging and risky):
- SPAZ crew has stored a sound system in the basement since ~2014, and only
this year did we finally collectively decide to experiment with the
viability of hosting events in the basement on the monthly. Every
subsequent event has been an iteration based on direct feedback from myself
in communication with the Commons WG.
- As the SPAZ monthlies have evolved, we've instantiated two formal paid
roles: that of a door person to ensure membership cards are shown or
purchased, and a security person to keep an eye on the sidewalk for noise
levels and overpopulation. Myself and/or Lukas (occasionally Robb, Joe, or
other SPAZ bottomliners as well) do walkabouts around the block on the
hourly to ensure that no noise is audible. This has been successful, for
the most part. One improvement I could see here is keeping a formal log of
sound checks (I use a decibel meter app on my phone when sound levels are
questionable, but usually they aren't).
- These events have been quite successful, bringing in not only much needed
$ for sudo (approx. $300/month on the average) which goes directly to Omni
rent, but also introducing hundreds of new people to the building (the
majority of whom are queer POC) and its projects (since 1/3 of all income
received goes to a rotating charitable campaign often affiliated or
directly linked to Omni collective projects).

These past 2 months or so, there has been a huge uptick in groups wanting
to use the space and the SPAZ model to put on events of their own. Some
confusion of communication occurred around SPAZ' role in mentoring these
groups and setting up/running sound for them, and Omni's policies around
outside groups working directly with the Commons WG. I had Life Events and
didn't pay as much attention as I should, but once I was aware reiterated
that _all_ events must go through the formal booking request process, that
interested SPAZ folks should join the Commons WG, and proceeded to train
Lukas on our booking process. Several attempts were made for him to attend
a Commons WG meeting, but life (and work, in particular) intervened time
and again.

This peaked in July with two outside events - Club Chai and STABLE
Collective, the latter of which had full event insurance and an ABC permit.
Any outside event must have both moving forward, and we should have done
that with SKAST (we did genuinely believe it would be a small art show!).

The SKAST event had a contract directly with Omni, listing Lukas as point
person which I mentored him through. I was present at the beginning of the
SKAST setup in the afternoon, then returned at 10:30pm (as coordinated with
Lukas) to help with point person responsibilities (unfortunately, just
after Joe left). The turnout was huge - much larger than anticipated - and
so we all agreed to make the door "No ins & outs" at 11:30pm as per the
contract. The crowd thinned out hugely after that.

Quite a few erroneous statements made to the event so far that I'd like to
clear up:
* Lukas and I spent most of the time on the sidewalk doing sound control,
and the sidewalk dwindled to < 20 people by midnight thanks to collective
enforcement of this.
* I made regular walks across the street and around the block between
11pm-4am to ensure no music was audible to our neighbors (it wasn't). Atop
of that several folks including myself were shushing, asking folks to come
inside or leave, and grabbing the odd kazoo right out of people's hands.
* We both supervised and assisted in cleanup until 6:30am with full
awareness of the event at noon, and it would seem in our tired and
overworked state did not do a good enough job of restoring the space for
the 12pm event.
* The organizers came back at 4pm as we requested and finished a thorough
cleanup of the space.
* There was no amplified sound in the entrance hall other than an art
installation, which I heard turn up the volume around 1am and promptly got
the steward to turn back down.

*Improvements we will make:*
* Hourly log of sound levels recorded for the Commons WG.
* Purchase a clicker to formally keep track of attendee numbers, with no
more than 100 (50 each in basement and entrance hall) allowed at any one
time.
* Blocking off entry to the ballroom doors as well as sudo/CCL (unless
sudo/CCL members present are willing to chaperone the oft-delighted
wanderers-in)
* Enforce event insurance and permits for any outside group, even if
seemingly small and affiliated.
* Begin process of formalizing a member collective role for SPAZ at Omni.

I have other ideas, but wish to keep this email as brief as possible.

I'll be present at the Delegate's Meeting tonight to discuss further
in-person.

Love and solidarity,

On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 2:55 PM Marc Juul via commons <
commons at lists.omnicommons.org> wrote:

> On 9/5/19, robb <sf99er at gmail.com> wrote:
> > additionally, when liberated lens has inquired with the commons wg about
> > liberated lens sponsoring an outside groups event, the commons wg
> required
> > us to have an equal part in organizing & facilitating the event in order
> > for our sponsorship to be considered legitimate & not just supplanting
> the
> > commons wg.
>
> I thought SKAST had signed a normal rental agreement with Omni directly?
>
> --
> marc/juul
> _______________________________________________
> commons mailing list
> commons at lists.omnicommons.org
> https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/commons
>
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