[Sudo-kids] Sudo Kids Update & Status for Next Week

[Marina Kukso]

Hi everyone,

To catch everyone up on what's been going on, during Tuesday night's Sudo
Kids, George, one of our landlords, came to the space and asked that all
children under 18 leave. Yardena and others spoke with him and kept kids
night going for that night, but he insisted that in the future children
under 18 would no longer be allowed.

His request was ostensibly based on an email (included below) sent in
mid-August from Laurie (George's wife and the co-landlord of 2141 Broadway)
regarding children in the space. Unfortunately, not everyone was aware of
her email before this past Wednesday. While this was part of the source of
the problem, the other part of the problem was that George's request (that
no children be allowed in the space) was not the same as Laurie's request
(that all children be accompanied by parents and that George and Laurie
receive advance notice before any child-oriented events), and that George
did not communicate his request in a productive way.

On Wednesday we discussed what to do and a number of us drafted the below
email which Matt sent to Laurie in response to her August email. We haven't
yet heard back from her.

So the current situation is that we must unfortunately assume that Sudo
Kids is on pause until we hear back from her. We will keep everyone updated
on the situation if we have any updates. And we will still have Sudo Kids
outdoor chapter at my house on Sunday morning!


Marina

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matthew Senate <mattsenate at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Subject: [sudo-discuss] Letter sent to Laurie, one of our Landlords
To: sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org>


Hey all,

As a result of our meeting tonight and a discussion the on-going issue with
sudo-kids, we drafted and sent this letter to Laurie. We wrote it in
collaboration with folks at the space after the meeting, and sent it in
do-ocratic fashion. We provide a copy below in transparency and
accountability:

Hi Laurie,

 This week George addressed a group of folks in the common area outside of
Sudo Room and the Public School regarding the presence of minors in the
building. His behavior was confrontational, hostile, loud, and very
upsetting to many of those who were present, including some
parentally-accompanied minors. There has unfortunately been a series of
miscommunications about this issue, and we are dedicated foremost to
resolving it amicably.

 First, thank you for communicating the building's policies on minors via
email. Unfortunately, due to a lapse in our own internal communication, the
contents of your email were not conveyed sufficiently to the relevant sudo
room members before Wednesday of this week. Please understand this was a
lapse in communication that has been rectified.

 Secondly, since early June, every Tuesday evening parent-supervised minors
have attended sudo room. We provide no supervision services for minors. In
fact, we provide no services to customers (we don't have customers) as we
are a membership association. It was unclear that this event was
specifically of any concern since it followed the requirement of
supervision by parents. We are willing to meet the necessary requirements
to ensure that you and George are provided with the appropriate advanced
notification of any planned future sudo room events involving supervised
minors and their parents. It is relevant to note that in the past we have
allowed accompanied minors to be in the "Art Room" and not use common
space, but in recent instances the common room has been used as well.
Further, since we are interested in being as accessible as possible to
different communities and demographics, we would like to clarify what
opportunities there might be (through city services, insurance, waivers,
etc.) for minors to be in the building in ways other than those outlined in
your email.

 Thirdly, regarding the damage to the bathroom you discuss in your email,
we understand your concerns and are sorry that it happened. We have raised
awareness in hopes of preventing instances like this from happening in the
future. While we are happy to take shared responsibility for ensuring the
bathrooms are clean and usable, we want to communicate that we are not
aware of any evidence that the minors who have been at sudo room were
responsible for the damage. We fully support your desire to keep all parts
of the space (including the bathrooms) vandalism-free, clean, and usable,
so we have made all sudo room members aware of this incident, reinforced
the expectations surrounding bathroom cleanliness, and reiterated the
policy that children should not use bathrooms unaccompanied. Please let us
know if you encounter any problems with the bathrooms in the future so that
we can take appropriate action. However, we also ask for understanding that
if there are problems with a shared space in the building, that absent
specific evidence, sudo room may not have been the source of a particular
problem.

 Finally, we would like to share with you a few of our expectations as
lessees that we hope will help us continue to stay in this building that we
have been very happy to rent for the last 9 months:

 Our Expectations:

That issues with our use of common space or our use of our rented "Art
Room" be conveyed in writing, with disrespectful confrontations being
completely unacceptable, in any circumstances.

Consistent with Sudo Room standards, that minors continue to be able to
participate at Sudo Room, provided they are accompanied by parents or a
legal guardian.

To work together with you as we grow, which requires we be accessible to
more communities and demographics.

To consider options for mitigating liability through additional insurance,
waivers, etc.

// Matt

_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list
sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Laurie Cooperman Rosen <Lscoop at comcast.net>
Date: Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 8:01 PM
Subject: Children
To: eddan at eddan.com, mattsenate at gmail.com, exchequer at sudoroom.org,
poems at zachhouston.com


Hi All-

We are having big problems with the number of children in the building.  We
are not insured for children, and to use that space for any type of
children’s program the City has stringent requirements that must be met,
both in terms of physical layout/inspections and insurance.  Children
(under 18) should not be in the space except when accompanied by their
parent(s) with advance notice to us.  There should be no special programs
involving children happening in the upstairs area.  We are also aghast at
the destruction that has been done to the restrooms by the children, and
ask that all children using the bathroom be accompanied by and monitored by
their parents.  The stress on the restrooms in general has been huge
because of the number of people in the building from The Bay Area Public
School and The Sudo Room, and we ask that you start to clean the bathrooms
regularly or be prepared to start to pay for the additional Janitorial
time/supplies that are driving us both crazy!

Also, the ADA restroom is for the disabled, and should not be used except
when others are full or for a special reason.  The stress being put on that
room could mean that when it is really needed it may not be in working
condition.

Please call George if you need any clarification on these issues, and
thanks in advance for cooperating with us on these matters.
Laurie & George


On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 9:38 PM, Carolyn Lunger <carolyn.lunger at yahoo.com>wrote:

> In regards to Sudo kids and george issue?
> Are we continuing on with Sudo Kids at the current site?
> Carolyn
>
> _______________________________________________
> sudo-kids mailing list
> sudo-kids at lists.sudoroom.org
> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-kids
>
>
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