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

1. Event Review – Last Saturday was “What is Anarchism?” and it was a good turnout and a good discussion! It was very animated and just about everyone had the chance to chime in, either with questions or responses. We need to remember to bring the topic up more often than we have. Asking folks in the beginning what anarchism meant to them was a good idea as far as framing what we should talk about, but Ty recommends that we might have framed the question as “what do you want to know/learn about anarchism?” in order to further guide the discussion to make sure what topics we really should touch on. We also set up a literature table, which was a good decision as people did check some books out (we should really prioritize buying more anarchist literature). Chris recommends having a little more programming involved: examples of anarchism in practice, summaries of anarchist viewpoints, etc.

2. Upcoming Event – Our movie night is Fukushima Uncensored, and we’ll be streaming it online. We’re ready to go!

3. Sama – Sama is not going to be able to make it, so we’ll have to make some announcements that her show’s unfortunately cancelled. No FB event, but it was on the calendar, so we need to spread the word the best we can. We’ll make a few posts on Facebook and on the website.

4. Fall Calendar –

September:
Saturday, September 9, 1-3 PM: Reading Group:“Everyday Anti-Fascism in the Era of Trump” (https://roarmag.org/magazine/everyday-anti-fascism-trump/)
Friday, September 22nd, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by DSA Lincoln): Blade Runner

October:
Friday, October 13, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by DSA Lincoln): They Live
Saturday, October 21, 1-3 PM: Factory Farming Awareness Coalition Presentation: Impacts of our Food Choices

November:
Friday, November 3rd, 6-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by DSA Lincoln): Reds (1981)
Saturday, November 11th, 1-3 PM: The Russian Revolution: 100 Years Later (a community discussion)
Friday, November 17th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Sir! No Sir!

September 30 or October 28, 5-7 PM: Family Movie Night: The Brave Little Toaster (Co-Hosted by Lincoln Repair Cafe)
Lincoln Repair Cafe is interested in co-sponsoring this event, it’s just a matter of deciding the date at this point. In order to accommodate parents who might not want their children out late at night, we’ll also be having this showing be a matinee.

We need to get confirmation from Lincoln Democratic Socialists of America as far as how they actually want to shorten their name – our shorthand for it has not been confirmed as their official shortened title.

Future ideas:
Discussion Group: “10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race” (https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/10-things-every-white-teacher-know-talking-race)

January/February: Trans Clothing Exchange

Chris is interested in doing a presentation on Thomas Sankara.

Ty’s unavailability (greyout days): September 22, 29, 30; October 27
Football game days (blackout): September 2, 16, 23; October 7, 14; November 4, 24
DIO Fest September 14-17th
UNL Fall Break October 14th-15th
Thanksgiving November 24th-26th

Meeting adjourned: 7:50 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)

Start time: 7:03 PM

1.Upcoming Events: We have a What is… Communism discussion on Saturday. We came up with a list of subjects that we could bring up to stir discussion. We’ll do a little research into these to make sure we’re prepared. Other than that, we need to finish cleaning the public space.

2.Next Week: There will be a We Are Vital meeting next week during our usual meeting time. Since things have been slow on our end, we decided to cancel our weekly meeting. Everything is pretty much prepped for our movie night, so it’s okay.

Meeting adjourned: 7:23 PM

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)

Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Upcoming Event: Food, Inc. is this Saturday! Should be simple to set up.

2. Concert: A touring artist is coming through the area, and wants to book a show here on October 2nd. We listened to some songs, but we didn’t really get any explicit social/political content out of them. We decided it wasn’t worth making last minute accommodations for.

3. Columbus Day: Ty made a post in the event page asking if there would be interest in a sign-making party. We also need to make copies of Brian’s “Why We Should Abolish Columbus Day” zine. Jackson found a digital copy of it, and will send in a request to the copy center for 50 copies.

4. Copy machine: Ty needs the proper usb cord in order to set up the software. Then it’ll be good to go! Jackson ordered it, and he’ll be reimbursed for it.

5. Data entry: Looks like we waited too long on that. We’ll have to ask for Ella’s help in getting the missing pieces in our archive.

Tabled: Copy machine, data entry (LGBT fundraiser removed. We don’t have time to organize something like that after all.)

Meeting adjourned: 7:39 PM

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 8:15 PM

1. Event Review: We had an LSH meeting on Thursday, and a movie on Friday. Anarchism in America had a very good turnout and discussion, and Ty figures that we have better showings when the movies are relatively hard to get a hold of or are otherwise not in the public eye.

2. Upcoming Event: What is Gentrification is coming up on Saturday. Jackson’s going to be the moderator for that discussion, and he’s doing a bit more studying on the subject.

3. Columbus Day Protest: We should put together a flier, and get that event posted soon. Perhaps a poster making party? That will likely depend on how much interest there is for one.

4. Buttons: Ty is continuing to work on button designs. He’s making pretty decent progress, by his own account.

5. Copy machine: The copy machine still needs to have the software uploaded to our computers. Just a note that it needs to get done.

Tabled: Data entry, LGBT fundraiser

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:03 PM

1. Upcoming Events: LSH is meeting here on Thursday. There is a movie on Friday as well!

2. Fundraisers: A friend of ours has started Equality Press, a non-profit publishing company focusing on making radical literature accessible to children, and they are crowdfunding their first book. Jackson suggested donating $100 to the campaign, and Ty recommended bumping that up to $115 to count for a reward tier that would give us three hardcovers and five softcovers of the book, because while we only need one or two for the House library, being able to donate copies to other organizations would be awesome. As Ty has a Kickstarter account, we will give the money for him to pledge on the website.

We Are Vital is also raising money for a canvassing campaign to do a broader poll of the neighborhood residents on what they think of the neighborhood, rather than merely the landlords and business consultants that those in charge of the SoDo project are basing their opinions on. We plan on donating $100 to this effort, and we’ll get in touch with the organizer of this project whether she wants it through GoFundMe or through a more direct means.

3. Buttons: We need more pronoun buttons! Organizations at UNL found them to be a big hit, and we need to restock! Ty will have to figure out how to design them, or get in contact with someone who has the proper templates. Also, we would like to get a sticker designed to place on the back of pressed buttons with The Black Cat House name and website.

4. Fundraising Event: The LGBTQA+ Resource Center and similar student organizations on campus usually start raising money to go to social activism conferences around this time. Since Ty wishes to go as well in order to bring back networking and knowledge around activism, he was wondering whether we could put on some sort of fundraising event. A benefit dinner worked really well last time, but since this is a different crowd, we’re not sure if it would work. Jackson suggested selling buttons and the jewelry that Ty makes, but we’re not sure where. We’re tabling this until we can fully form a plan.

Tabled: Data entry, LGBT fundraiser

Meeting adjourned: 7:50 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had Trekkies on Friday. It was a good discussion!

2. Calendar Distro – Ty hasn’t finished distributing calendars. He’ll finish it this week for sure.

3. Next Meeting – Because it’s kinda a grey area over what day next week’s meeting will be, given that we’re switching back to Mondays in September anyway we’ve decided next week’s meeting will be on Monday as well!

4. Online Stuff – So we updated the twitter information so that we get updates from it once again. Ty will try to keep it updated. Jackson encourages more Facebook interaction, and wants to put more open-ended, conversational posts. Ty will be in charge for Twitter and Tumblr, and Jackson will mainly keep the Facebook updated. We also want to revive the listserv. Since Ty has the contact email, he’ll be doing that as well.

5. Facebook Events – September events need up on Facebook! They are already up on our website so we committed some meeting time to doing so.

6. Handbills – Ty has finished the design for them and they are ready to be printed! Ty will email Jackson the PDF to be printed.

7. Reimbursement – Jackson needs calendar reimbursement for $6.69. The deed will be done!

Meeting adjourned: 8:06 PM

Tabled: Copy machine setup, data entry of old minutes