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.