The Omni/2014-04-25

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April 24th Delegates Meeting (1 hr)

  • Introductions 10 min
    • Attendees
      • Nick (bookstore); Joel (TIL); Zach (TIL/CAMO); Margit (Live Space); David (BAPS/Sudo); Ahnon (CCL); Dragon (bodywork & massage); Anna (BAPS); Jose (BAPS); Jenny (Sudo); Jeremy (ONL); Ellen (FNB); Andrew (Hacker Spa); Niki (Bookstore/BAPS); Kathleen (CAMO); David BZ (BAPS/Bookstore); William (self-represent!); RyanJ (sudo); Brel (fundraising! teacher);Daniel (Sudo)
  • Old Business 10 min
    • delegate accountability?
      • What's this for? -- A reference to the responsibilities of the delegates to take the proposals and new ideas back to their collectives, and add more time for deliberatoin.
        • for instance, there were some decisions made by the omni delegates that were not brought back to the sudo room, so there was no chance to provide feedback on that process.
      • IMPORTANT: Adding new collectives to the group (need a week to let collectives be notified of application), etc.
      • Proposal: Any delegate may table a decision for one week, after which point it will voted on
    • spaces being free, access
    • revenue models
      • What are the shared spaces? What's the level of access - eg; open so long as a member's in the space - for each of the spaces?
      • Bring proposals to the meeting wrt revenue models.
      • Revenue-sharing model for enabling profitable groups/collectives to subsidize the rent for other non-profit-based collectives
      • Renting out the ballroom for events
      • Take existing financial model and submit modifications
  • Check-In / Updates (10 min)
  • New Business 20 min
    • Membership
      • Contemporary Art Museum of Oakland (CAMO, baby, it's all good)
        • Decorating the walls of the common space; booth-sized open studios representing an artist-in-residence who would produce a small show; curatorial collective that may promote an artist-in-residency
          • May just use the walls - thus not large space requirements
      • Proposal: Conditional upon any feedback from member collectives until the next Omni Collective meeting, CAMO is accepted as a new member of the Omni Collective.
    • New Wiki
    • Development website


    • Governance / consensus
      • If a vote is called, any delegate may move to table that vote for one week in order to bring the matter in question back to their group, with the understanding that any vote thus tabled will be voted on, without further delay, at the next meeting of the Delegate Council. Admission of new groups to the collective of collectives must always be referred back to the individual collectives, to be voted on without delay at the next meeting of the Delegate Council.
        • CONSENSO!!
      • Niki: Omni delegate meeting with Jesse Palmer?
      • Working group to translate that advice to concrete changes to the bylaws/Articles - David Keenan volunteers to bottom-line
        • Add content to wiki
        • Convene (when?)
        • Conflict resolution and the consensus process - eg; after two meetings and no consensus, move to majority
      • Danny's spoken with Sarah Kaplan (SELC), Dan Breitman (Real Estate), Jill Herschman (bookkeeping)
    • Space allocation
      • How is the space layed out? Who goes where? Not clear. How do we find this out?
      • Potential agreements with landlord for phased move-in over 3 months
      • Put space needs on the wiki here:
      • Build a reservation system for the common space
      • What working groups have been tentatively proposed?
      • They are 4 (so far): communications; governance; legal & financial; space and operations (Ahnon)
      • Also necessary: a board of directors
      • scheduling/space-sharing model?
        • Which spaces are generally open spaces (outside of the ballroom)?
        • Reservation of the ballroom
    • Finances
      • Bank Account
        • Western Federal Credit Union in Oscar Grant Plaza
        • Business accounts are few and far between for credit unions
        • Need co-signers, asap. Y
        • Interested in co-signing : Niki, Quick, Joel, Jenny, Cere
      • Lawyer Fees
      • Proposals?
        • Deposit
        • +- $30,000 - $39,000
        • We won't know until we come to the negotiating table
        • Minimum : $39,000
        • Membership-contribution model
        • Alternative revenue models [Zach Houston]
    • Rename Omni Collective


  • Action items / Next steps 10 min
    • Legalese:
      • Bylaws as translated into legalese by our lawyers
      • Articles of Incorp as translated into legalese
      • an action by the incorporator appointing the initial board
      • an initial action by the board appointing officers, adopting the bylaws, and authorizing the bank account
      • A conflict policy for the board to adopt. This is filed with the IRS when we apply for tax exempt status
    • Consensus policy


  • Next Meeting's Agenda
    • Board of Directors
    • Bank Account access (and accountability)


=================
  • Danny: Alfred Twu - Don't have to worry about developers swooping in on it.
  • Jenny: Margot Prado is a good ally who works for the Planning & Zoning Dept for Oakland - already familiar with CCL and Sudo
  • Danny: Almost all groups (with the exception of BAPS and Sudo) are already permitted
    • Large group assembly (>60 people) requires a conditional use permit
      • Matt: My understanding is that this applies to public assembly. Sudo room is a social club with a membership system, for which I believe we can be exempt from this on many circumstances. I think this logic can extend to other group gatherings, especially if there is some Omni "membership" in the future similar to The Gilman http://www.924gilman.org/ I believe the line is drawn at "public" e.g. advertisement, etc.
    • Hobby shop route for sudo is probably our best option
      • Matt: Our insurance agent went with "social club", but "hobby shop" has been known to be useful.
  • Niki: It's extremely common for commercial buildings to pay no rent for the first few months
    • Matt: especially if there is moving / shuffling taking place (e.g. over 3 month period)
  • We need to be able to communicate as things are happening
    • AND get consensus as things are happening
  • N: Let's try to approach this all with kindness and good faith
  • J: The informational bottleneck up to this point has been frustrating, the best we can do is put effort into providing better channels for communication. We enable do-ocracy by enabling access to the tools and information to do stuff. Once we open these channels, more people will be empowered to help with all the moving parts.
  • A: There's been attempts at formalizing shared values, but that hasn't been progressing smoothly
  • Zach: The Omni should be the most minimal possible organization to support the most maximally free space
  • Jenny: We need to define: Division of space; down-payment costs; move-in date.
  • Andrew: We need to come up with things to agree on, rather than just consenting to stuff ad-hoc
  • Niki: What's critical about this project and prevents total federation is that it's a matter of shared space
  • Zach: Let's get in the door then figure out how we share space
  • Joel: We need an office and a door that locks. We could put the letterpress equipment in the basement.
    • Matt: This could be awesome, allowing for other moves within the space layout. I did some research on staircase elevators for wheelchairs, etc. Looks like <$10,000 range for accessibility solutions, lots of local companies willing to do this work. Could be a post-consensus option, but I think it's fairly feasible to put in one for the basement, making it sudo-accessible and possible to move equipment / people down there.
  • All collectives need to provide a list of their concrete needs / minimum requirements
  • Danny: Putting financials up on the site implies that's the best we have; I need the finances to be accessible such that people can judge them, make improvements
  • David: We need to put something out there so that people can work on it
  • Andrew: We need to decide how we deal with official vs unofficial information
    • Is there any official information? How about this logic:
      • Everything is unofficial, except that which the members of the Omni Collective come to consensus upon. Meaning, unofficial notes > proposal > delegates > member collectives > member-collective-level consensus > spokes-council consensus of Omni Collective > OFFICIAL.
  • David: Two things that shouldn't be public: Donor identities; owner being able to see.
  • Position the wiki as it currently stands as an unofficial, informal proposal.
    • Matt: + 1
  • Rename to The Omni Commons, or Omni Oakland Commons ("Collective" gets flagged)
    • Matt: flagged by whom? Would be really smart, I think to use "common" since "collective" makes it hard to refer to the member groups, which are collectives.
  • David: Let's focus on internal needs and communication, rather than continually reaching out to "outside experts" - we have plenty of experienced folks with great ideas in our own groups.
  • Andrew suggests a FUNraiser to gather community together. "Hacker Spa is here to say 'chill out guys!'"
    • Word.

What are the most important and consequential parts of a proposal?

  • Initial down payments
  • Timeline
  • Move-in roadmap
  • ?

Action Items

  • Proposal for whether or not loans will be accepted and paid back
    • We still have not consented on even taking loans
      • Matt: +1
    • Can we come up with a plan for generating revenue?
    • Income from events and such, many ways we could pay it back
    • The owner might give us back $1k of that loan each month for 13 months
    • First, last and deposit would be paid to the Omni Collective, which would then budget to pay it forward to the loaners. OR that loan goes into our own reserves.
    • Good faith loans? Time-constrained terms?
    • Budget out eg a percentage of the cafe's profits
    • Andrew's concern is how money flows through the organization
  • Proposal for June-Sep phased move-in to present to owners
    • Matt: +1
  • Minimum space and timeline requirements for each of the collectives
  • Request concrete budget / financial pro forma from each of the collectives
  • Omni FUNraiser

Input Requested

  • How do we feel about loans?
  • What's your timeline over the summer?
  • Minimum space requirements, potential uses of the shared space
  • Request money on the table by May 15
  • What are your questions / concerns?


Gratuitous Link Dump

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