[Blacklabcollective] Saturday events

Sat Aug 1 02:28:14 PDT 2015

To chime in,

I still think the plan we discussed earlier could work if the group are given keys. I have no problem ensuring the space is clean. Clear boundaries about food and waste are important and necessary, but I still believe the meetings are a functional use of the space and valuable to the neighborhood. While I understand your concerns and am willing to discuss further, my two cents are that we continue having the meetings with clear boundaries - no food waste or leftovers and storage in a clearly defined area, even for something left behind. Again, a one strike you're out policy might be the best way to approach this. I was in the space today and tea was all over the floor again. I believe this problem is caused by the rats running amok but in a way not necessarily related to the meetings. Imagine Ratatouille but punk.  Let's try to be diligent about taking out our trash!

-Eris

Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:03:59 -0700
From: aanjusingh at gmail.com
To: blacklabcollective at lists.resist.ca
Subject: Re: [Blacklabcollective] Saturday events

I'm into suggesting that they take another weekly venue but that we put forward that we will take proposals for workshops they want to do at our space, they can pitch it like a show and if someone can take it on, let's do it. I would happily host something once in a while for them. 
On Friday, July 31, 2015, Anju Singh <aanjusingh at gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for your perspective. I understand your sentiment for wanting to be a space for positive stuff to happen. My concern is that doing this weekly and providing keys feels like an overcommitment. I believe we can "do more than be just a venue" in other ways too that don't require giving keys to a group and/or having a weekly responsibility. 
I have suggestions : can someone bottomline these weekly, OR can we offer something more sustainable (a monthly workshop?) and have someone bottomline those?

I'm interested in workshops more than bottom lining shows, and I have proven that by attempting to do different projects. I would happily teach a computer course for locals, resume writing or host a discussion group or facilitate a once a month meeting like this, but weekly, I think it's an overcommitment. 
Those are my thoughts maybe talk to others in person for their thoughts? 

On Friday, July 31, 2015, Brendan Plummer <brendan.plummer at gmail.com> wrote:
Hey,

I feel like I have been doing a lot of emotional labour around the Saturday meetings. Because of my emotional investment in it, and also my desire for the Black Lab to be more than a venue, I can't help but feel under siege from the folks in the collective who don't want the meetings to happen.

And I agree, it doesn't make anyone 'bad' to not want the meetings, although I think there are differences in terms of ideals/vision for what the Black Lab could be about. I understand people not wanting to take on the role of managing the thing, and I was hoping giving Wendy keys would alleviate some of the time necessary to facilitate the meetings. Folks have multiple other projects/bands going on, and there isn't a lot of space or incentive/social capital for the thankless task of helping facilitate community events. So let's be realistic, and let Wendy know asap if we want to shut it down. She mentioned that they may have another space available in the fall, and although she loves the Black Lab because people feel comfortable and it has a great location it will not be the end of the world to pull the plug on the SRO collaborative if that will ease people's minds.

That won't actually do anything about the rats though, and I agree that it should be the landlord's responsibility to deal with pests. So in a lot of ways that means that we need to talk about how to broach that one, especially with a pending visit from Michael. And that's another conversation.

Anyways, I need to laundry but thanks for the response and sorry about the emailing ...

<3 B.

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 11:48 AM, Anju Singh <aanjusingh at gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Brenden, 
Ya the smell is pretty bad (what happened to your car?).
I asked my co-worker about landlord responsibility in commercial units, pests are one of them. 
It's not healthy or safe for us to try to clean and resolve a rat problem, we need to bring in professional cleaners and pest control (if we want). Also I recognize that smell sort of, is it possible there is a dead rat in the back somewhere? 
Yea it's gross :(
And regarding Saturday's, the many containers of sour cream in the fridge is confusing, and yes there was a mess. 
I'm sorry you feel like you are defending it, but we do need to discuss when things happen, and you shouldn't have to defend it!! But also maybe it's ok for us to decide what will happen if we don't have the people to manage the project or if we decide to wait to find someone to bottom line the sessions instead of giving out keys. It doesn't make us bad people, it makes us realistic. 
On Friday, July 31, 2015, Brendan Plummer <brendan.plummer at gmail.com> wrote:
Hey all,

Just to be clear: the sour cream containers were left out? Or in the fridge? I did a quick sweep of the space on Monday eve and things looked the same as they were prior to the meeting last Saturday.

When I went down on Saturday to  clean/set up, things were pretty messed up from someone leaving food garbage another day (not a saturday, because it was someones takeout garbage). My tool bags got shit in and pissed on and I am so sick of that smell because of what happened to my car ... so I am not stoked on any of this.

Anyways, if there was food garbage left out I will let Wendy know. She should have known because we were definitely talking about rats as we cleaned up rat shit on Saturday morning. And I don't know what's up with the food in the fridge either, that can't be a thing.

There are no meetings for the month of August, so perhaps we should revisit this at a meeting. I am getting a little weary of defending this, if I am the only person that cares then what's the point of continuing when I am gone?

Again, sorry about not ensuring things were legit in the fridge. I have had a busy week and haven't been super present in relating to the space over the course of the past few days. I hope the show went well last night, talk soon.

B.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 30, 2015, at 6:38 PM, Anju Singh <aanjusingh at gmail.com> wrote:

>

> hey everyone

>

> I'm not convinced by the Saturday space use without a collective member cleaning up after, there are like 8 containers of sour cream in th kitchen and the kitchen is a total mess. It stinks like rat piss, there was a shirt left behind, I'm not 100% sure about this...

>

> The food in the fridge takes away space for beer, it's not really cool :(

>

>

>

> --

> Anju Singh

>

>

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