2025-11-13 Spokescouncil Meeting

Spokescouncil Meeting - Date: 11-13-2025

6:30-9 pm

Agenda 

• Role call (5 min)

  • Many working groups not present
    • tutoring, sunday dinner, yoga, writing workshop
      • these are the smaller working groups who are less dependent on the physical infrastructure of 585. 

• Role assignments (5 min)   

  • facilitator - Caroline

  • meeting notes - Nina

  • stack - Caroline

  • timer - Troi 

• Spokescouncil process (15 min)

  • quick review from SP WG (e.g. how voting works, etc) + only speaking delegate votes but all members of WGs present can contribute to discussion (5 mins) 

    • RC made up of working group s who use the space and daily operations maintained by admin committees
    • Admin groups report back to spokes councils during meetings, are accountable to those working groups 
    • Proposals are proposed by either working groups or admin groups, open for friendly amendments and then voted on using a fist to five system
    • As of right now, admin groups don't vote, only working groups do. 

  • reminder that this is an experiment! we need ideas and hands to shape this collective process of self-governance 

  • Q&A/ Feedback about Spokescouncil process (OPEN TO ALL IN ATTENDANCE 10 mins; strict stack :) )

    • what's the point of this spokes meeting?
      • decision-making, increased transparency, some big things should be discussed IRL, the only place for groups to get updates.
        • But are those updates being filtered out from meeting attendees to working group members not at that meeting? 
      • Suggestion to figure out a way to make this meeting a place for working groups to meet together and get to know each other rather than just do voting 
        • What does it mean that working groups aren't showing up? Does it indicate health and trust or disinterest or lack of accountability to the larger RC project?
          
      • "As an outsider i have no idea what's going on - I've heard there's a wiki but I don't know where to find it" 
      • We've only had 4 meetings, this is still a work in progress but we can 
      • Where is the place to discuss effective governance of the space? Is the spokescouncil the actual place where decisions actually get made? If not, how do we 
      • Admin committees have 630pm meeting on sundays for anyone to attend  

• Passed Proposal Check-in 

• (5 min), ask bottom liners to do a very short reportback :
  • Cleaning Proposal 
    • bathroom is cleaner. that feels good! 
    • suggestion that the group that does the cleaning should announce it in the spokes working group chat to keep the ball rolling 
    • some confusion because cleaning not happening on fixed day of the week. is that helpful or is it too rigid? Not super urgent, no strong feelings on this.
  • RC Community Announcements Chat 
    • how's it going? 
      • "have seen some things, learned some things, it's nice that it's not on social media" - appears to be working! 
      • we like it but also like when things are publicly announced outside of Signal to make the space more inviting and more welcoming. Could these events be put on the website? 
      • Perhaps this will be looped in under tech comms
      • Can people join the chat from the website? 
        • We have it added to a quarter page flyer 
        • Feel weird about putting it online bc anyone can join.
        • Putting it on the website feels more like any rando can join. 
        • But only admins can post 
        • BUT ppl can still see group membership 
        • People should talk to Micro / tech and comms about threat modeling and communication 

• Admin committee updates -

• Report on what was done this month, challenges faced, upcoming plans/needs, and any requests for support or approval. (25 mins; 5 min each) 

  • General announcement: admin committees need more help! 

  • Legal/ Liability

    • not present

  • Finance

    • made a ZINE - other groups take note!!!!
    • if you just look at our recurring revenue and things in the bank, we have 3.3 months runway
    • variable income is the fundraising efforts/other things that bring in money - this is what's been keeping us afloat
    • 18% increase of recurring breakdown - we're actually close to where woodbine was for recurring income
    • Every dollar of recurring $ is money we don't have to hustle for
    • We currently have a really challenging time getting money out of Monkworx and even knowing what our balance is. huge pain piont 

    • See attached finance report: Finance WG report 2025-11-13.pdf

  • Fundraising (no one will be in attendance so Facilitator will share update)

    • • $2303 was raised this weekend at bake sale
      • the raffle is this weekend at the tiny makers market ( if there are people interested in helping at the raffle table please join the fundraising support channel)
      • call on people to flyer -( people can check Iris post on the support channel )
      • if you are interested in helping with the fundraising efforts in any capacity please join the fundraising support channel / previously the party fundraising channel 

  • Facilities

    • need help incl sunday 2-5 to clean the basement - especially if you have things stored in the basement. And a longer plan for cleaning the basement
    • termite investigation to come (Dino to lead this) and then potential abatement and floor reinforcement 
    • need for a rapid response group for flooding/etc
      • ongoing question about how to bring this to the wider RC community, wider chats
    • Valve repair - this will be approx $2k and we will have to pay it

  • Tech and comms

    • spread thin, potentially splitting into Tech AND Comms
    • Looking at ways to automate, onboard, make labor clearer 

  • Programming and rentals

    • going well, bringing in more money!
    • need to make it more visible that people can rent the space 
    • Figure out better way to have programming relate to rentals - we want to be a programming space more than a rental space - the rentals are what keeps the light on. The more we fundraise, the less we need to depend on rentals
    • And in the case of conflicting rentals versus programming we want to have in the space, it is flexible! We want to always be able to have the programming we want 

• Branding presentation (5-10 min)

  • https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xCUqEFUWC6Ho_Mq9bj_VQpodgygAUKnT-4yiWerprYg/edit 
  • invitational, playful, IRL
  • goal with branding is to have plug and play way to create a visually appealing, enticing identity. Easy for working groups to use for their own purposes 
  • Eros to connect w LP on next steps

• BREAK (10 min)

• Proposal voting and friendly amendments

• (30 min) (https://wiki.commons.nyc/books/spokescouncil-proposals/chapter/pending-proposals - First, ask if there are any Blocks and any FA's. If not and no discussion feels necessary, move on to next proposal

  • Comms as Separate Admin Committee
    • wide agreement that this is needed but without a clear group of bottom liners to move this forward, we did not feel comfortable voting on this.
    • Next step: nina to recap this to Katelyn, all attendees to softly ask people who might be compelled to do this 

  • Political Education WG Charter
    

    • passed w 4's all over

  • Library/Shelving Proposal 

    • passed w 4's all over 

• Working group announcements (10 min)
  

  • basement: ceiling repairs
    

  • Meshtastic event Saturday 1pm in the basement
  • Sunday basement cleaning 2-5pm 
  • Monday event on indigenous organizing in Albuquerque 
  • come to the gym! 

   

• Special announcements (5 min):

  • You don't need a proposal to start a fundraiser
  • next meeting happening Dec 11 on a Thursday so the Autonomous Football League can have on Sat 
  • general assembly
  • Festivus (fuck jerry seinfeld) airing of grievances + feats of strength 

• spokescouncil process straw poll vote: "soft proposal" to allow folks who aren't yet in WGs to observe spokescouncil meetings + create an orientation time before meetings (5 min)
  

• Open discussion/ feedback/ Q&A  (OPEN TO ALL IN ATTENDANCE; ideally 10 min) 

• Action item review (5 min)

  • In yellow

• Closing remarks/ hugs (1 min)

  • hugs now mandatory in zohran's new york 

Meeting Highlights

Attendance

<spoke name + delegate: name + note-taker: name> , <spoke name + delegate: name + note-taker: name>,  ...

New Action Items 

• action item 1 - name of individual or groups bottomlining
• action item 2 - name of individual or groups bottomlining
• action item 3 - name of individual or groups bottomlining

Uncompleted/ In progress Action Items from Prior Meetings

• action item 1 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status (ex. stalled due to vacation, halfway done, need supplies)
• action item 2 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status 
• action item 3 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status 

Proposals Discussed

Passed

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Did not pass

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Withdrawals

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Proposals We Didn't Get To Discuss (will flow forward to next agenda)

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Detailed Meeting Notes

• notes