1/15/24 Minutes: January Events

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

12/18/2023 Minutes: Calendar Design, Remote Meetings or Lack Of, Button Parts

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

12/11/2023 Minutes: Events Review, Calendar Distro, 12/25 + 1/1 Meetings Cancelled

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

12/4/23 Minutes: Winter Calendar Update

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

11/27/23 Minutes: Winter Calendar Finalized!

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

11/20/23 Minutes: Event Review, Winter Calendar

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

  1. Event Review – We had our “Difficult Conversations With Your Bigoted Uncle” workshop/discussion on Saturday. We had a nice turnout of old and new friends; the latter came and visited with us after they met us at the Pride booth and were reminded of the event by our email newsletter. It was a timely discussion that seemed to have everyone engaged. Could it be worth revisiting this event concept again?
  2. Winter Calendar – Matt has provided a draft of our winter calendar to the group Discord server. We are offering our corrections and adjustments there. It looks like we are on for Space Sweepers for our January movie. We have no other updates right now.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

11/13/23 Minutes: Winter Calendar, Library Donations

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

  1. Event Reviews – We have hosted two events since our last meeting: the Coco movie night and the community clean-up. Both were poorly attended. We need to do a better job of getting the word out. Salem recommends getting to our friends and family.
  2. Upcoming Event – Our workshop on “Difficult Conversations With Your Bigoted Uncle” is this Saturday. It’s picked up a little bit of buzz on social media, and it might be a popular event. We have a couple of friends that we should try to specifically invite as we feel they have something to contribute.
  3. Library Donations – We took some time to catch up with a bunch of donations and see which ones were appropriate for our library.
  4. Winter 2023/2024 Calendar

Friday, December 8th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Killing Gaza
Saturday, December 9th, 1-3 PM: Winslow’s Wardrobe Clothing Giveaway? (hammer out a title!)
Saturday, December 16th, 1-3 PM: Christmas’s War on Us (a community discussion)

Saturday, January 13th, 1-3 PM: 2023 labor wins (community discussion)
Friday, January 19th, 7-10 PM: Space Sweepers (if available…)
Saturday, January 27th, 10 AM: Counter–protesting the Walk For Life (at Nebraska State Capitol)

Friday, February 9th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Black History Month (10,000 Black Men Named George OR The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation)
Saturday, February 17th, 1-3 PM: Everything is racist / White supremacy as a foundational value in U.S. history (community discussion)
February TBD: Black Musicians and Liberation?

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

10/30/23 Minutes: Upcoming Events, Winter Calendar

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

  1. Upcoming Events – We have two events this weekend, and we haven’t advertised them yet! We finalized last-minute drafts for those events, and Jackson will post them online after our meeting. We will be streaming the movie off of Matt’s account.
  2. Winter Calendar –

(Note to designer: Please make sure calendars say Winter 2023/2024)

Friday, December 1st/8th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Killing Gaza (?)
Saturday, December 9th, Hours TBD: Library Open House / Clothing Giveaway (more details TBD)

January movie: Date TBD: Leaning towards Space Sweepers, but we need to know that we can get it first
January 27, 2024 – Nebraska Walk For Life (and our counter-protest)

February movie: Date TBD: Black History Month (10,000 Black Men Named George OR The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation)

Black Musicians and Liberation?
Community discussion about everything being racist? // White supremacy as a foundational value in U.S. history
Something critical about Christmas (Christian supremacism/consumerism/etc); Christmas’s War On Us
Look forward / Look back / Retrospective on 2023’s labor wins (December/January)

Luddism/traditionalism and bigotry
Do we dare do something about human nature?!
Billionaires being allowed to kill the planet? // Dystopian sci-fi movie? Elysium? They Live? (Could possibly be factored into Space Sweepers if we can run it…)

Meeting adjourned: 8:50 PM