[sudo-discuss] [BAPS-Organizing] Re: Backspace Space proposal

[niki]

I wanna keep this short and communicate more in-person (I agree the emails
can be overwhelming).

I just want to say that I FULLY support and love the Wellness Collective!!
I am so impressed by all of the incredible work that has gone into
organizing and putting forth these proposals. I have no doubt that the Omni
community really wants to see this project succeed beyond anyone's wildest
imagination.

We're also very overwhelmed with all of the intersecting questions and
concerns that are arising around multiple concurrent proposals. We're
really trying incredibly hard to ensure that the whole community has the
ability to thrive. That involves asking and being open to receiving lots of
questions.

Please don't interpret these questions as a lack of support but rather in
response to what we have already learned, over these few short months
trying to figure out how to share space not just with each other but with
the larger community. Poor Gabriella's been through months of back and
forth!!

There's no question that this is all very stressful!! I am really hopeful
that we can all learn better, healthier ways of doing all of this work.

I love you all very much and can't wait to have Backspace up and running at
the Omni!

<3

N


On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 1:25 PM, Sara Larsen <saralarsenyoga at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Yar,
>
> Thanks so much for your email. I hope my email didn't sound like I think
> anyone at the omni is acting in bad faith, because I don't. Everyone is
> working hard to pull pieces together in a complex situation.
>
> I agree it's a complicated fog. My email was sent in the spirit of
> openness, honesty and I hope, healing. I took a risk in saying a lot of
> what I said in the hopes that others will also express the underlying
> feelings coming up around this project. Dealing openly with these things is
> one of the ways we can keep
> the culture of the Omni healthy.
>
> Yar, I appreciate your work as well, which I know is vast and not always
> easy!
>
> Re: my email about Scott's suggestion - I really just wanted to point out
> that we had already suggested what he suggested, and it was not a new idea.
> In my opinion, however, it is a good idea. My take away from that BAPS mtg
> was that BAPS members were not ready to commit then or likely later to this
> idea. I was encouraged to move forward with backspace on our own, which is
> what I brought back to Backspace and is what we did.
>
> BAPS has since changed their idea and relationship to space due to a push
> forward from some members who are worried about not having space. This is
> in progress. But that change happened AFTER our meeting and after backspace
> had taken the advice to move on. Being members of both groups at this time
> is challenging for me, for obvious reasons.
>
> Backspace's rush is that we need space to open so that we can make money
> so that we can pay rent and utilities to the Omni. If we can't do that, my
> guess is that we will have to disband and then the Omni would lose
> another member group, which I and I think no one else would like to see
> happen.
>
> Xo
>
>
> On Thursday, October 16, 2014, yar <yardenack at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thursday, October 16, 2014, Scott Nanos <scott.nanos at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> Crazy idea but I'm also a little worried that BAPS and commons
>> >> Wg don't have the labor power to handle all this commoning
>> (pragmatically
>> >> speaking, in the form of scheduling and organizing)...
>> >>
>> >> What if Baps, backspace, and commons wg all teamed up on these common
>> >> spaces, granting *x* amount of privileged hours in specific areas for
>> >> collectives?
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 8:18 AM, Sara Larsen <saralarsenyoga at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > However, I feel like your suggestion is exactly what I was trying to
>> move
>> > forward with the BAPS backspace proposal that BAPS recently voted
>> against
>> > moving forward with!
>>
>> Is that what happened? I didn't go to every single meeting but my
>> understanding was that BAPS were still open to it but needed more time
>> to talk about it and make up their minds, and Backspace just doesn't
>> want to wait any longer. It seemed (from the outside) like this
>> urgency and time pressure for Backspace was the biggest reason why
>> things didn't work out that way.
>>
>> It's not that I blame you. I can imagine how frustrating it is to try
>> to organize a bunch of skeptical bodyworkers to do their work at Omni,
>> this weird building full of construction debris, contentious politics,
>> dysfunctional processes and so on. Trying to create a wellness
>> collective at Omni at this time is an ambitious goal and I fully
>> recognize and respect all the emotional labor that I've seen you and
>> other Backspace folks put into it, Sara, and I want it to succeed too.
>> I think the new energy and people you guys bring in will be an
>> especially valuable thing for all of us and our communities.
>>
>> I only hope that you can try not to blame the rest of us either for
>> the difficult situation. We've all been working very hard with what we
>> have. I feel like we're reaching at each other through a fog of fear,
>> uncertainty and doubt, trying to make high-stakes decisions that might
>> affect us all years into the future, when we only have a few months or
>> even weeks of experience being in some of our spaces and learning to
>> know and trust all the people.
>>
>> There are so many rooms with different names. It's been 24 hours since
>> your proposal and it's taken us this long just to be sure exactly
>> which rooms you're talking about. There's confusion over what
>> commoning means (the commons wg only started meeting 2 weeks ago),
>> what scheduling will feel like (we're still developing the calendar
>> system), what the rooms will look and feel like, whether people will
>> clean up their messes like they say they will, and any number of
>> hypothetical scarcities and disasters that we have no idea if the
>> future might bring.
>>
>> It's not your fault, it's not anybody else's fault either. I really
>> hope the confusion isn't interpreted as bad faith or a lack of
>> support. We all need to get better at that, of course, but also get
>> better at forgiving each others' mistakes, in the spirit of jubilee.
>>
>> Sorry for the rant, but thanks for listening. <3
>>
>
>
> --
>
>
> Let us be together,
> Let us eat together,
> Let us be vital together,
> Let us be radiating truth,
> radiating the light of life,
> Never shall we denounce anyone,
> never entertain negativity.                                          --
> The Upanishads
>
>
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