In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Matt, Salem
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We had our 10,000 Black Men Named George movie night on Friday. We had a nice turnout, including several new young friends who seemed to have a good time. The discussion was brief, but spirited.
2. Upcoming Event – We’re hosting a discussion on Saturday called, “Why is Everything Racist?” We’re ready for it.
3. Spring Calendar

March
Movie Night: Stepford Wives/Transsexual Menace
Discussion about the state of abortion rights? (Could we find a co-sponsor for that?)

April
Garden Day?
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th (they’ve emailed us about tabling again…)
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe (4 part documentary series)

May
Yard Sale Fundraiser likely on Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th
“I Fucking Hate Amazon” discussion
Cesar Chavez documentary?

Meeting adjourned: 8:40 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Salem
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing 10,000 Black Men Named George. We’re ready for it.
2. Spring Calendar – (Notes from last week:)

Yard sale fundraiser?
Matt wonders if there’s a good documentary about Cesar Chavez

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? We’re interested! Jackson needs to follow up with Wyatt and a representative of a local group that may be interested in collaborating
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th — we think we want to table again! Ty will take point on getting us signed up. Salem may make some kind of display about reducing plastic waste.

May
Something working class/labor?
“I Fucking Hate Amazon”

Possible March Movie: Stepford Wives (maybe leaning towards ’70s version)

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem, Ty
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We counter-protested the Walk For Life again on Saturday. Jackson reports that we had one of the smallest turnouts we’ve ever had for it, which is a great concern especially given the political climate. Jackson thinks we need to find some allies and try to grow future versions of the event as more of a coalition-driven event.
2. Library Donation – Marc (via Ty) has offered our library a book about 20th century labor history. We’re happy to take it.
3. Reimbursement – Jackson paid $35.99 to get one of our website domains renewed. He will be reimbursed.
4. February Discussion – We still need to get advertising online about our February discussion about racism. Jackson hasn’t had time and focus to draft anything yet, but neither Matt nor Ty feel comfortable doing it. Jackson will continue trying to find space to work on this.
5. Instagram – We are exploring the possibilities of expanding into Instagram. We actually have a very old account started by an ex-member, and we will see if we can get access to it.
6. Spring Calendar –

Yard sale fundraiser?
Matt wonders if there’s a good documentary about Cesar Chavez

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? We’re interested! Jackson needs to follow up with Wyatt and a representative of a local group that may be interested in collaborating
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th — we think we want to table again! Ty will take point on getting us signed up. Salem may make some kind of display about reducing plastic waste.

May
Something working class/labor?
“I Fucking Hate Amazon”

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt
Start time: 7:07 PM

1. Event Review – We had a movie night for Space Sweepers on Friday night. Our turnout was just a couple of Black Cats, probably because of the extreme cold. That was unfortunate, since it was a good film.
2. Upcoming Event – We’re counter-protesting the Walk for Life again this Saturday. We’re hoping for a better turnout than last year, but it seems we will not be offering childcare or a sign-making party.
3. February Events – We need to get blurbs drafted so we can start advertising our February movie and discussion!
4. Spring Calendar –

Yard sale fundraiser?

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? (Jackson has heard a local group may want to collaborate with us on that)
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th, if we want to table

May
Something working class/labor?

5. Meeting day – Matt reminds us that we had some brief discussion of shifting the meeting day from Monday to Tuesday. He wants to revisit the matter soon when the group is all present.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Ty
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We had our Labor Wins discussion. Despite horrendous weather that probably scared people away, a couple of our hardcore friends still showed up and we had a nice discussion.
2. Upcoming Event – We have a movie this Friday! We’re ready for it.
3. Walk For Life Counter-Protest – Jackson reports that there has been no activity on the Facebook page. We would still like to offer childchare options at the House, but we have no leads on someone we know and trust who could be here to do that.

Meeting adjourned: 7:27 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Ty

Start time: 7:00 PM

We spent this meeting completing drafts for our January events.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

Meeting start: 7:00 PM
In attendance: Jackson (via phone) Matt, Salem, Ty (secretary)

1. Event Review: “Christmas’s War on Us” was a bust. Probably the same issue with our last event, that there was little advertising ahead of time. We need to be MUCH more on top of advertising, both in event descriptions being posted online, AND in getting our spring events decided upon earlier so that calendars can be finalized and printed sooner.
   
2. January Events: In the interest of getting the events online sooner, Ty will share a draft of the 2023 Labor Wins event tomorrow. Matt agreed to write a description for Space Sweepers, and Jackson will work on the counter-protest. The counter-protest may need to be up with more lead time, in order to give us time to organize counter-protesters and volunteers.
   
3. Calendar – Distro + Design: Distro is still ongoing. Salem reported putting up calendars at Matt Talbot, as well as some public transit spaces. Hurts Donuts still, unfortunately, doesn’t have a place to put up calendars. They did miss a few spots but Ty can hit those up on his distro.
   
   Matt whipped up a set of five different cat-head logos to be able to put The Black Cat House name in a more prominent way on smaller prints like our calendar handouts. We’re tabling deciding anything for sure tonight, but we discussed font choice to be dyslexia-friendly.
   
4. Remote Meeting Procedure: After weighing some accessibility issues (internet access, how to spread the word, etc.) we’re opting to just host weekly meetings in-person for now. Obviously, we can call folks in on request (like Jackson tonight and last week), but it will be much easier for folks to keep track of if it’s in-person. We’ll reserve the right to cancel due to weather or other outside factors, which we’ll update on the news box on the front page of our website.
   
   We discussed briefly whether we should move the weekly meeting to a different day of the week, but we’ll have to table that discuss as well.
   
5. Button Parts: Jackson is going to look into buying button parts for us. We’ve got enough in the treasury to order a purchase.

Meeting adjourned: 8:08 PM

Tabled: Logo, weekly meeting times

Meeting Start: 7:09 PM
In attendance: Jackson (over phone), Salem, Ty (secretary)

1. Events Review: “Killing Gaza” on Friday was a bust as far as attendance. We have really dropped the ball for advertising; the calendars were not distributed by that time. It’s also freely available on Youtube so people may have just opted to watch it at home. Winslow’s Wardrobe did much better, we had a few folks stop by to gather some new identity-affirming clothes. We will be working with Winslow’s Wardrobe to host other pop-ups in the future. We also probably could’ve gotten more people from getting the calendar distributed by that time. We did try to improve street traffic by putting up a sandwich board sign on the street corner.
2. Upcoming Event: Christmas’s War on Us is finally live online! Tell your friends.
3. Calendar Distro: Ty and Salem are splitting the majority of the calendar distro. Salem is planning to swing by Matt Talbot and a few other potential 27th street spots that they will report back on.
4. Meeting Cancellations: We will not have a weekly meeting for December 25 and January 1. Ty will update the notice box on the front page of the website with this news.
5. January Events: We’re going to try to draft the January events as early as possible to make up for dropping the ball on the advertising for December, and because we will not be holding most of the rest of the months’ weekly meetings, we want to start work on this as soon as possible. Ty will work on a draft for the Labor Wins event this week, Jackson will take care of the counter-protest, and we’ll see if Matt will be ok with drafting a description for Space Sweepers.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25

Tabled: Remote meeting policy

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt
Start time: 7:04 PM

1. Upcoming Events – We have two events this weekend! We have our Killing Gaza movie on Friday night, and we are hosting the clothing giveaway from Winslow’s Wardrobe here on Saturday. We are going to have to hustle to get the word out, but the space will be ready for the events.
2. Winter Calendar – We are hoping to get them printed in the next few days and then we’ll be hustling hard to distribute them. We are waiting right now on Matt’s handbill design, but we are hoping to start putting up our propaganda around town by mid-week. We also need to get the Christmas discussion event up online ASAP!

Meeting adjourned: 7:30 PM

In attendance: Isaac, Jackson (secretary), Ty
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. December Events – We need to get our first couple of December events up this week! Jackson will work on the Killing Gaza movie night, and Ty will tackle the Winslow’s Wardrobe Clothing Giveaway.
2. Winter Calendar – We finalized it! Hopefully we can get them printed this week!

Friday, December 8th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Killing Gaza
Documentary about Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine

Saturday, December 9th, 1-3 PM: Winslow’s Wardrobe Clothing Giveaway
Community group giving away free gender-affirming clothing

Saturday, December 16th, 1-3 PM: Christmas’s War on Us (a community discussion)
How the holiday exploits with consumerist and Christian Right propaganda

Saturday, January 13th, 1-3 PM: Last Year’s Labor Wins (a community discussion)
What working people won in 2023, and what we learned

Friday, January 19th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Space Sweepers
Korean sci-fi film criticizing capitalism

Saturday, January 27th, 10 AM: Counter–Protesting the Anti-Choice “Walk For Life”
Meet at the North side of the Nebraska State Capitol

Friday, February 9th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: 10,000 Black Men Named George
Movie about unionizing Black railroad workers in the 1920s

Saturday, February 17th, 1-3 PM: Why is Everything Racist? (a community discussion)
Examining White supremacy as a foundational value in U.S. history

(Leave Black Musicians and Liberation off the calendar)

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM