In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc, Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Meeting Start: 7:25 PM

Upcoming Event: Friday night discussion! We’ve shared it around Facebook – Seeing Red Nebraska also shared the event! We’ve talked to other folks who are very excited about this event, and we’re optimistic for local action coming out of it. We need to brush up on local stuff (unicameral, etc.) and perhaps prep some similar literature. We also need to do some major cleaning of the space.

Yard Update: Wyatt was able to get the city inspector to drop the fine, on the condition that we move the wood pile to the side yard and we move the white soil bags from the yard.

Web Hosting: Blue Host has billed us for three year hosting and our web domains – $431.64.

YouTube: We have a YouTube channel! It now has the video for Black Musicians and Liberation (though the accurate subtitles are still in the works). We also recorded a showcase for the garden that Ty will get uploaded, Wyatt will add a description and we’ll get that published soon! We also recorded the trailer video that plays upon first viewing of the channel.

Website Updates: We will still need to table this for editing the content, but Marc has a list of updates to make. Tabled.

Fall Calendar: here’s the current status of our fall calendar…

Saturday, September 18, 1-3 PM: Garden Day
Sunday, October 10, 1-3 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest Sign Making Party
Monday, October 11, 5-6:30 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest (outside of the Federal Building on 16th and O)
Saturday, October 30, 7-9 PM: Halloween Horror Show: Nightbreed
Saturday, November 13, 1-3 PM: Women and Christianity (an open discussion)

Meeting adjourned: 8:38 PM

Tabled: Website updates

Meeting Minutes – June 7, 2021
In Attendance: Marc (secretary, moderator), Jackson, Ty
Started: 7:10 PM
Adjourned: 8:40 PM

Upcoming Event: Queer History and Fascism Discussion
– Marc created the event on Facebook, along with a graphic for it. Marc, Ty, and Jackson helped draft the description, and it was posted last week.
– Ty suggested reaching out to OutNebraska and the LGBTQA+ Resource Center to help promote the event. Basically, they could help drum up interest in the discussion.

July Event
– Jackson still needs to write up a description for this. The event is a month away yet, but Ty emphasized that we shouldn’t let it fall behind too far.
– We discussed potential talking points for the event, e.g. specifically conservative/reactionary decisions made by current Lincoln mayor Gaylor Baird, such as lowering funding for libraries and public recycling, and increasing the cop budget. We also discussed how a Democrat has been mayor of this city for 20+ years and Lincoln is still very behind in terms of public infrastructure and programs.

August Event
– Gardening day. These generally get good attendance.

Really Free Library
– Marc suggested calling it the “Black Cat Press & Pantry” though Jackson and Ty pointed out that it might not really need a name at all. Marc suggested giving it a name anyway because it’d be more useful to call it something for the purposes of the website and future updates to it.

Fall Situation with COVID-19
– We’re planning on potentially going back to something akin to normal for Fall, given the current significant drop in COVID-19 rates in Lancaster county. However, due to the Delta strain becoming more prominent, and the fact that Lincoln is a college town with international students, we will still be cautious and keep an eye on the rates through the season.
– For September and October, events could be outdoors.
– Types of Events: Reading discussion, garden day in September, resume the Columbus Day protest, and try out a movie night?
– We also haven’t had an event centered around feminism or religious skepticism in a hot minute, so we talked about potentially combining the two topics into a general “Women in Christianity” discussion. This topic proved fruitful during the meeting as everyone had lots of insight about it, so we suspect it would work really well as either a reading or open discussion.
– We also mentioned discussing Paganism and the spread of Christianity through Europe as a potential topic near Halloween. However, it might not be varied enough to have two religiously-centered discussions so near to each other. Marc suggested potentially doing this topic around Easter next year.
– Candyman 2021 will also be coming out in August, and the DVD/Blu-ray should be available by Halloween, so we could potentially show that for a movie night.

Box o’ Books
– Ty and Marc went through a box of potential library donations (leftovers from the yard sale fundraiser) and picked out a stack to add to the library.

Website
– The website will be auto-renewed this summer on July 26th for three years. The cost will be $431.64. We unanimously voted to approve this expenditure.
– Jackson still needs to contact either Bluehost customer service or WordPress to give Marc the ability to edit the site, and for Ty to fix some email troubles.
– Ty suggested doing some serious re-branding and development of the site. It needs to be more engaging and show off the BCH and its resources/offerings more.
– Marc offered to update the site when he gets editor access to it, as using WordPress and front-end site design is one of his skills.
– We discussed potential ideas for site pages—a more in-depth “about” section that would show off the space in BCH, what people can use/access in it, potentially photos of events, etc. Ty also suggested adding a form to the site to allow other likeminded organizations to request a collaboration or use of the space, too, which would definitely help us in reaching other groups.

Other
– The YouTube video for Black Musicians & Liberation will be complete before Fall for certain. Ty is finishing up the closed captions for it.

In attendance: Jackson, Marc (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Meeting start: 7:10 PM

Event Review: Community Gardening at the Hawley Hamlet
– Unfortunately, the only people in attendance were those who planned the event.
– However, they had a good conversation and made some good connections for potential future collaborations. We would still like to work with them in the future.
– One of the big problems was likely not having enough time to advertise the event and spread the word. It’s also likely that people are nervous about gathering in public due to COVID.

Treasury Update
– Jackson updated the treasuries today. We have $563.41 in the general treasury, and our subtreasuries have $0. This information has also been updated on the website.

Yard Sale
– We already have quite a few donations and expect to get more; a few folks have promised to bring items over. The living room is looking quite a mess, but it’s beautiful, nonetheless.
– Marc and Ty can come work at the sale on Saturday, but not Friday. Ty will also bring tables for the sale on Thursday before.
– Before the sale, we’ll be working on pricing items. Marc has volunteered to get some more price tag stickers for the event sometime this week.
– To help advertise, we need to take photos of what we have–especially large/nicer/unique items–and post them to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. We can also make use of the buy/sell/trade groups on FB. Otherwise, we might not get the reach we need.

Fundraiser
– Due to COVID, we have money in the treasury that we did not spend through 2020. That said, we agreed that we could donate $100-$200.
– It’s possible we could collect more money to donate from the yard sale, but we can’t guarantee a dollar amount or percentage because we’re not sure how much we’ll get from the sale.

Summer Events
– Summer tends to be slow due to Lincoln’s nature as a college town.
– We brainstormed a couple potential events:
1. Outdoor gardening event located at BCH
2. Outdoor discussion (evening in June to take advantage of the nice weather)
– June 18 and 19 will be busy due to Pride events, which we don’t want to compete with.
– Potential subjects for pride month:
1. History of Magnus Hirschfeld – how research on queer identities was progressing at a breakneck pace until his work was destroyed by Nazis
2. History of trans people in the US – how trans people frequently lived as their authentic selves and were accepted in their communities, even in a western context. When/where did transphobia come from?
– We also plan to return to putting calendars up in coffee shops and other businesses/organizations.

Tabled: Summer Events, Fall Events

Adjourned: 8:14 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:12 PM

Event Review: Unfortunately, the second medical training event was a bust. Nobody showed up. We need to advertise these better. Wyatt accidentally posted on his personal Facebook page as opposed to our account page. We do have some connection with a local street medic group that we could network with.

Library Donation: Jackson has a children’s book donation, “Our House is On Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet.” He has ordered more books, but this was the first to roll in.

Black Musicians and Liberation Video: Ty is putting together the subtitles for the Black Musicians and Liberation event, and will be getting it posted publicly soon.

Yard Sale: Marc got the description written up, and Ty proofed it… and then personal stuff happened so it never got posted online. Ty shared it with the rest of the group and we’ll get it up in the next couple days. Then we need to start soliciting for donations!

Ty let his grandpa know about it, and he’s fine with loaning his yard sale supplies again.

Meeting Adjourned: 7:36 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Marc
Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

1. Upcoming Event: Wyatt is spearheading another medical training workshop. We’ll keep sharing it and spreading it around. Otherwise, we’re moving ahead with it. We may be able to run it outdoors with the promised nicer weather. We’ll be on standby if Wyatt needs anything prepared.

2. Library Donation: Jackson got a stack of books, including a couple duplicates by Naomi Klein – “Shock Doctrine.” It’s a good haul covering wide topics.

3. Yard Sale: Ty was working on drafting a yard sale Facebook description. But things got complicated this past week, and so Marc will take point on drafting it instead with Ty’s assistance.

Adjourned: 7:38 PM

Post-Meeting Item – Black Musicians and Liberation Recording: Ty’s working on uploading the final edit of the panel video on YouTube, but it’s a large file and so it’s taking a bit of time to do so.

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

Start time: 7:10 PM

1) Naomi’s Library Update: Naomi emailed saying she’s still available to help library organization stuff. She tried experimenting with WordPress library catalog widgets to no avail with her personal account, but said she’s down to jump right into it. Barcode scanning would be done on-site, but further cataloging can be done anywhere with a Black Cat website account.

2) Black Cat Web Account: Marc needs a Black Cat website account, but we need access to the admin account to do that.

3) Pro-Choice Activism: We received a Facebook message regarding local pro-choice activism. We’ve invited the messenger to chat with us sometime about their ideas.

4) Event Review: The medical training went well – though only one new person was in attendance out of four (Wyatt included), it still went really well. We thought of other people and group we can reach out to in regards to advertising these events, particularly the one about treating chemical burns on April 22.

5) Fundraiser Yard Sale: The yard sale will be May 21^st and 22^nd. Ty will work on getting a Facebook event up so we can solicit for item donations. The only items that we will not accept is clothes. He’s also going to be reaching out to family for supplies like folding tables, signs, etc.. Jackson got a box of disposable masks for the medical training but they’re not likely to be used up before the sale so that can be put at a sanitation station with hand sanitizer pumps. Marc and Ty will also design new buttons and press a bunch to sell as well for the sale.

Meeting adjourned: 8:14 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (late)
Start time: 7:02 PM

Black Musicians and Liberation Video: Marc still hasn’t gotten a lot of time or means to work on editing the video. But we got an offer for some help with the video editing last week! Some miscommunication happened, and we’ve yet to reach out, but Jackson will do so ASAP.

March Reading Discussion: Ty still hasn’t heard back about Hawley Hamlet, so we will have to work with them a different month. Marc is not here to provide a Women’s History Month article, but our favorite from last week was “What Ulysses Grant Can Teach Joe Biden About Putting Down Violent Insurrections” (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/30/what-ulysses-grant-can-teach-joe-biden-about-putting-down-violent-insurrections-463976). We’ll schedule it on Saturday, March 27, 1-3 PM, on Jitsi Meet.

Title – Biden’s (In)Action Against Racism: A Reading Discussion

Jackson is going to work on an event description and Facebook posting.

Street Medicine Workshop Series: Wyatt couldn’t be here, but he pitched starting the street medic workshop series in April. They’ll be held at The Black Cat House, with masks and social distancing required, either inside or outside if weather permits.

Thursday, April 8, 7-9 PM – Traumatic Injury
Thursday, April 22, 7-9 PM – Environmental Injuries: Hot and Cold

Other topic ideas for the future: chemical injuries, treating diabetic symptoms, respiratory emergencies, emergency mental health care, talking to your doctor, overdose treatments

Wyatt’s going to work on the Facebook event for this. He also wants us to think of anyone who might be interested in these workshops.

Yard Sale: We’re leaning towards having the yard sale this year. We have multiple people reaching out wanting to donate things, most of our folks who would volunteer for it would be vaccinated by the usual point we have it (early to mid-May), and we have enough space to space out tables as well as have a specific table with hand sanitizer and disposable masks that we’ll encourage people to use whenever we can.

It will likely be May 14 and 15. We’ll table the actual decision on whether we do go ahead with the yard sale for next meeting.

Tabled: Yard Sale
Meeting Adjourned: 8:45 PM

Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

Attendees: Ty (moderator?), Jackson, Dance, Marc (secretary)

February Event – Black Musicians and Liberation

– Jackson posted the event description to Facebook, with time/flier/etc info. Since Facebook updated its event creation option, we had to add the UNL Institute for Ethnic Studies Facebook page as a co-host after creating the event. We also added some settings to make it easier for people to engage with the page, ask us questions, etc.

– Tonight we had some tech difficulties with Jitsi, where a couple people’s videos were frozen or unavailable during the meeting. This could potentially be a result of the extreme weather issues we’re having right this moment (Lincoln is the coldest it’s ever been in 30 years!). Hopefully we won’t have similar issues during the event itself, but there are a lot of variables at play.

– For the event itself, Jackson and Dance will each have a short introduction to the BCH and the event; we’ll try to jump fairly quick into the panel discussions.

– We would like to have a short bio for each panelist available for the audience to read as we start up the event.

– Additionally, we’re discouraging panelists from having a powerpoint presentation, but if they do want to have something like that, someone from BCH (likely Marc) will manage the powerpoint for the panelist while they speak. Any panelist who wants to show a powerpoint can send it to the BCH ahead of time.

– We will plan to devote time during next week’s meeting to play with Jitsi’s tech capabilities and have a test run. For the panelist from Sweden, we will also make certain to practice using Jitsi, especially considering the time difference between Nebraska and Sweden. We will use the same link we’ve parked for the event.

– Jackson is also finishing up sending out emails to various panelists with updated details, including asking panelists if they would be comfortable recording the event for later posting on YouTube.

– Marc will work on creating a profile page of sorts to show at the beginning of the event, as well as info about the BCH and UNL’s Institute for Ethnic Studies/African and African-American Studies.

March Event

– No new updates as of now. Ty will be able to work on reaching out to the Hawley Hamlet tomorrow.

Meeting Adjourned: 7:52 PM

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc (secretary), Dance

Meeting Start: 7:45

Library Update – Marc researched potential plugins for adding the BCH library collection to the site; right now he thinks that Weblibrarian might be exactly what we need, as it has more benefits to its system than Library Management System.

March Event & Spring Events – Wyatt has expressed support for doing a street medic training; we’d like more input from him before making more final decisions. Since he’ll be the one doing the training, we’ll need details on what the event would specifically look like, whether it’d be recurring, etc.
– We also need to figure out venue for the training; it just needs to be large enough to accommodate for social distancing and space. Otherwise, we’re still very much interested in doing it.
– A shared gardening event would probably be held at the Hawley Hamlet; we still need to reach out to them about whether they’d also be interested.
– Marc and Jackson also briefly discussed using Jitsi to share videos uploaded to YouTube.

Black History Month February Event – Title: Black Musicians and Liberation: A Panel Discussion
– Tentative Date and Time: Thursday, February 25, 7:00-8:30 PM CST.
– We’re shooting for about an hour of programming, and 30 minutes for questioning, with 3-4 panelists.
– We have three committed participants!
– We’re waiting to hear back from a few other folks. We’re also considering asking someone in Sweden, too.
– The Institute for Ethnic Studies and African American Studies have both agreed to help sponsor the event! We’re also planning on having this be a yearly event through BCH.
– Right now, we’re focusing on Black scholars, who have a song dear to them linked to liberation, the struggle for justice, etc.–and it should be a personal connection, rather than an academic one. We’ll ask them about why it resonated when they first listened, and if it still resonates. Songs should be about 20 years old or older (or 20th century or earlier).
– The format of the event would be a panel discussion, and we’d show a portion of the song via Jitsi’s YouTube sharing function. BCH organizers will take care of the technical portions of the event so the speaker(s) and moderator won’t be distracted.
– We need to get a flier ready for the event as well, so OASIS can share it.
– Marc will design a flier; Jackson and Dance will get him the content for the flier itself. It will need to contain UNL logo requirements (the N, non-discrimination statement, etc.), OASIS/Ethnic Studies/BCH logos, and so on. The flier will need to be completed by Friday at the latest.
– Ultimately, we want this event to be a yearly occurrence, and hopefully spread it to an international audience as well.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:50 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Naomi, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

1. February Event: Jackson and Dance are working on sending out a message to Dance’s contacts tomorrow regarding being panelists for our event on the history of Black music. They are going to pitch the concept of each academic to choose a favorite song of the Black-led musical genre of their choice, to explain the significance of the song and why the song is still discussed today in inspiring Black resistance. Date is still undecided, but we’re entertaining the idea of an evening event if that’s what works better for the panelists. We might have to consider Zoom as a medium,
2. Library Update: Naomi got the cat-shaped barcode scanner! It’s got some proprietary stuff linked with it but she’s got instructions on how to use it. She’s also been playing with LibraryThing using her own library, and it works well for personal libraries (which our library is about the same size of). It has free functionality but for about $3/month it has further functions that might be worth it. Ty doesn’t know what work Marc has done regarding WordPress plugins for the library but he’ll ask Marc about it. Ty asks to table it to a later meeting, but wants Naomi to do a screenshare of her computer with her personal library on LibraryThing in a future meeting, to walk other folks through how it works. Naomi will also try to stop by the house soon in order to scan in some books.
3. Spring Calendar: For March, we revisited the idea of collaborating with organizers with the Hawley Hamlet to talk about community gardening. While video chat is always an option depending on circumstances, it would be much preferred to have an outdoor event. And while Black Cat House’s garden is also always available, it would be even better if we have a “field trip” event to Hawley Hamlet so that the hands-on workshop and talk can be showcasing their own project instead. Ty will reach out to see if he can contact any of their representatives.

Tabled: February Event, Library Updates, March Event

Meeting Adjourned: 7:58 PM