[sudo-discuss] hoping for more transparency and inclusiveness around all the exciting developments

Thu Nov 14 18:55:52 PST 2013

Many thanks to those taking initiative. I remain a fan of the do-ocracy.
However, when the work gets complex and the stakes get higher – e.g., when
prospecting the Omni for relocation becomes a matter of serious negotiation
– I believe the initiative ought to advance from do-ocracy to more
democratic processes.

That certainly seems to be the case playing out here, which seems
productive and wise!

love to everyone,
Danny

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 12:17 PM, Anthony Di Franco <di.franco at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks for the further clarification and for your work on this. I was
> under the impression from the vague conversation I had that a commitment
> was possibly being made tonight out of the notice of the group. I don't
> have any concern if that's not the case.
>  Hey Anthony.
>
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 3:22 PM, Anthony Di Franco <di.franco at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the clarification and for the hard work on making things
>> happen. I'll watch the list for updates in preference to getting
>> information on the side.
>> My remaining question now is whether any financial commitments will need
>> to be made to hold the space, even if the planned actions are not binding
>> sudo room to move in? And what generally are the planned actions?
>>
>
> There are no planned financial commitments or planned actions. Some people
> from different groups have been investigating different options for sudo
> room / public school / CCL to possibly expand and/or find a new space
> together. The Omni is one of these spaces, and we've been trying to figure
> out if it's viable by doing research and talking to the current owners. I
> have been doing report-backs to sudo room and CCL at the weekly meetings
> since I (and others) have been investigating The Omni. There is also
> another possibly viable space in china town that CCL found but we're still
> waiting to hear back from the owners with regards to pricing. This has all
> been done do-ocratically without any formal decision since all we're doing
> is researching potential options. When there is a concrete proposal on the
> table with a monthly rent and a number of square feet and all that kind of
> info, then that will be presented at the sudo room weekly meeting and
> announced out on the mailing list such that we can talk about it and make a
> collective decision.
>
>
>> I respect the desire not to get scooped on a good deal but I hope we will
>> weigh this concern wisely against the need to keep decision making
>> participatory, and it seems at minimum the basic, broad intentions of those
>> undertaking negotiations on the group's behalf and what roughly is at stake
>> should be known to the group.
>>
>
> Yes, I would agree, but there are no decisions being made on behalf of
> sudo room or other groups. We've simply been researching if this is viable
> at all, first researching if it was possible to get a mortgage and buy The
> Omni outright (that now seems less likely) and now looking at renting for
> some number of years with an option to buy or extend the lease at the end.
> Hopefully we'll get the last bit of info on possible move-in date and
> required deposit from the landlord in the coming week, and then we can
> collectively make a decision.
>
>
>> As you may know, we are also searching for a space for Counter Culture
>> Labs, and in that case the board explicitly empowered a member to form and
>> lead a committee to pursue options, negotiate on behalf of the group, and
>> report back regularly and in a timely way on progress, options, and
>> decisions made or to be made. I have that example in mind as an example of
>> a transparent process that still lets good, urgent opportunities be seized.
>>
>
> I really like the fact that sudo room encourages do-acracy, as long as no
> important e.g. financial decisions are made on behalf of sudo room. I don't
> think anyone should have to get permission before they investigate possible
> options for sudo room. On top of that I would prefer that we empower our
> members to do things that they feel are helping sudo room, and trust them
> to make good decision, as long as it's stuff that can be fairly easily
> undone, rather than having to formally create committees.
>
>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 12:38 PM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Anthony,
>>>
>>> I totally hear you, sympathize, and hope to clear some things up.
>>>
>>> The grant opportunity came up one night at sudo less than 24 hours
>>> before the deadline. In retrospect I should have posted a callout for help
>>> to the list, and I'll be sure to do that in the future. Rather, I simply
>>> reached out to this in my immediate vicinity (Marc, Matt and Marina). It
>>> would be great if folks could add to the wiki page I started at
>>> https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Funding and take the lead on initiating
>>> applications for other grants.
>>>
>>> The Omni space proposal was also a very rushed, tight opportunity to
>>> secure the space with a deposit (not directly associated with sudo, and
>>> this does not bind sudo room to the space), and while we discussed this at
>>> general meetings (of Sudo, Public School and Counter Culture Labs), we
>>> didn't want to publish to the highly-populated mailing list out of fear
>>> that someone less than aligned would scoop us on the deal.
>>>
>>> It's been less than two weeks since that opportunity arose, and we're
>>> negotiating a way to hold the space. There will be public information
>>> available in the next week, or you could email me off-list and I can share
>>> more. We'll also be meeting about it on Thursday with the Public School
>>> folks (it was they who scheduled the meeting, which I only just learned of
>>> a few hours ago)
>>>
>>> I've also been extremely busy and have neglected to post meeting minutes
>>> after the meeting. I will do my best to get regular about that again
>>> (though I cannot make tonight's meeting). Of course, anyone else attending
>>> the meetings can also do this.
>>>
>>> Thanks for your honesty and the reminder to be ever-more-diligent in our
>>> transparency and inclusivity practices!
>>>
>>>
>>> Jenny
>>> http://jennyryan.net
>>> http://thepyre.org
>>> http://thevirtualcampfire.org
>>> http://technomadic.tumblr.com
>>>
>>> `~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>>>  "Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
>>> -Laurie Anderson
>>>
>>> "Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining
>>> it."
>>>  -Hannah Arendt
>>>
>>> "To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
>>> -Stéphane Mallarmé
>>> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Anthony Di Franco <di.franco at gmail.com
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've been very busy and haven't made the time to come by sudo room for
>>>> quite a while but I did last night and it was great to see familiar faces
>>>> again. I'm also looking forward to meeting the people I've only seen on the
>>>> list so far, and to congratulating people in person on all their hard work
>>>> in keeping sudo room moving forward! And to being able to participate more
>>>> in person in the future.
>>>>
>>>> I've been feeling out of touch with what's going on, especially after
>>>> the drafting of the successful grant proposal. I tried searching my list
>>>> archives to see if I missed anything about organizing this and it seems I
>>>> didn't. Grant writing is something I want to learn more about and I would
>>>> have liked to participate in the process and I would have made the time to
>>>> if I had known about it. I'm still looking forward to Vicky's idea for a
>>>> grant database and to contributing to that however I can.
>>>>
>>>> I have a conflict that prevents me from coming to the Wednesday
>>>> meetings and my schedule is very tight otherwise, so I've been following
>>>> the list and looking at the meeting minutes diligently to try to stay
>>>> engaged. Despite that I've been unable to gather a clear sense of what's
>>>> going on, and lately (not since early September according to my seach) I
>>>> haven't seen the minutes appear on the list at all except for last week. I
>>>> still won't be able to make it this evening, so I hope there will be
>>>> minutes to read that the whole community is informed of.
>>>>
>>>> When I stopped in last night I learned in vague terms that there is an
>>>> important meeting about securing a new space at the Omni happening on
>>>> Thursday evening. If this is true, can anyone who is involved in that
>>>> inform the community via the list about what is going on, and defer a final
>>>> decision until there's broad consensus? The last I see about it from
>>>> searching the list is from October 1st.
>>>>
>>>> While I appreciate the initiative and effort on the part of people
>>>> moving this forward, (though I'm not sure who they might be,) I want to
>>>> make sure that whatever decisions made that affect the whole community are
>>>> still based on informed, explicit consensus by the whole community, which
>>>> is fundamental to how sudo room works.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> sudo-discuss mailing list
>>>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>>>> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
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>
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