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

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – The counter-protest for the Walk for Life was on Saturday. Our crowd was much smaller, but this was expected – our side is more considerate of others’ safety than the anti-choicers, plus the knowledge ahead of time that the anti-choicers would be unlikely to wear masks reliably (which was true) and wanting to minimize potential COVID-19 exposure. We do need to be more on top of tracking the other side. They made announcements about changing their route and destination for their keynote in time for our meeting last week, but we did not see it until the day before the event.
2. Web Domain – We needed to renew our domain name, which Jackson did. $29.87 for a year, which Jackson will be reimbursed for.
3. Library Donation – Jackson is donating 10 books to the library, which Ty, as the only other member present at this meeting, agreed to include in the collection.
4. February Event – We have not been able to reach out to the colleagues that we wanted to get together for our discussion on Black music for February. Jackson will follow-up after Wednesday to see whether those contacts have been made.
5. TV Spot – Jackson mentioned that a reporter wanted to do a TV spot on local news on The Black Cat House. We need to clean up the place a bit, plus figure out which Black Cats want to be around for the filming, before we set up a time to do so. We need to talk to a few more folks about interest in appearing.

Tabled: February Event, TV Spot

Meeting Adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Alexis, Jackson, Marc (secretary), Simone, Ty (moderator)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

Upcoming Event – The Walk for Life counter protest is January 16. So far, we have guessed that a couple dozen people interested in being part of the counter protest will show up, based on our Facebook responses and conversations.
– We can anticipate that WfL will have a large crowd as usual. Allegedly, WfL is going to take some COVID precautions, but we’re not sure if they actually will, or if the crowd will actually follow them.
– There are also some safety concerns with the planned armed protest at the capitol, though that is planned for the 17th. We may have a street medic available just in case, but hopefully we won’t have to worry about violence breaking out.
– We plan on having 3 or 4 people to work as escorts/guides to prevent anyone at the counter protest from getting left behind by the rest of the group. One person at front, one at the very back, and others spread through the middle for communication. Jackson and folks from the NLC have offered to volunteer as marshals for this purpose.
– We also would like someone to serve as our media representative, particularly someone directly affected by anti-choice laws. Ideally, she would speak beyond “vote for democrats/support Planned Parenthood” talking points. Most often reporters want a soundbite of 10 seconds or so—something that can be easily summed up.
– As far as signs go, we have plenty leftover from previous years in case folks want to make use of those.
– We’d like to have a public planning meeting for folks who want to attend the counter protest, to discuss what roles/etc they can take on. We already have folks from NLC who have offered to help; another group may be the DSA.

February Event – We’re going to connect with some comrades about a music-focused event centering Black musicians for February. Right now, we want to wait for the holidays to settle down before reaching out. This could potentially involve panelists from around the world, so we should have an exciting group of people from a variety of backgrounds and musical talents working with the BCH soon!

BCH’s Role in the Community
– We briefly discussed how folks from similar organizations can always reach out to the BCH for help and collaborative projects! We can share meeting/venue space, knowledge, resources, and so on as we’re able.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

No one was available to meet with Jackson tonight, so there was no meeting. We will try again next week.

BCH Minutes – 12/21/2020

Attendees: Alexis, Jackson (Moderator), Marcus (Secretary), Ty (intermittently)

Meeting Start: 7:10

Meeting End: 8:20

Upcoming Event – Walk for Life Counter-protest

– Alexis brought up some questions about the counter-protest and who might be there. We know that there will be various politicians speaking at the event (on the side of the anti-choice groups): Ricketts, the AG, various members of the unicameral, etc. They also typically rent space at the student union at UNL for several more hours of programming and speakers. Also, the cops present are there on voluntary overtime, meaning they can get paid to be ~holy~, and are definitely not neutral observers, so counter-protesters generally play it safe.

Given the complete lack of response on the Nebraska’s government’s part to COVID, it’s entirely possible that the pandemic spread will be so bad that even Ricketts needs to shut things down. But even in this situation, we can still expect that WFL protesters will be there in full force.

– Alexis also brought up the idea of an information pamphlet to give to WFL protesters; Ty also suggested using a pamphlet to embolden counter-protesters for discussion. Jackson pointed out that because so many WFL protesters can be expected to be plague-spreaders as well, counter-protesters may not be willing to get up close enough to speak with them since they probably won’t be wearing masks.

We also discussed strategies to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing at the protest, with the above assumptions in mind. Tactics discussed included using the buddy system and having folks on our side form smaller groups, with someone dedicated to telling more aggressive pro-lifers to back off. Since signs on sticks would be only selectively enforced, we could potentially use pool noodles.

We discussed having a bigger zoom meeting with more people who are specifically interested in the counter-protest to bounce ideas around. This meeting would likely be held about a week before January 16 to give time to prepare for the counter-protest.

Library Organization Project

– Naomi has spent a little bit of time at BCH to sort books, mostly new arrivals that haven’t been shelved yet, and to survey what’s here and what needs to be done.

Library Donation

– Marc donated a handful of fiction books, as well as a children’s book for the Kitten Corner. Jackson also donated several books and zines to the library about a variety of topics.

Winter Calendar

– For February, we are making headway on a poetry or music-related event. Ty has also been interested in having a Black music event as well, since there’s so much rich political and emotional history there. We also have tons of connections through Dance, and since it would be an online event, any participants would not have to live nearby. We also discussed asking Dance to moderate a potential panel of people. For now, the year is particularly rough for professors (who we’d to participate), but after January things might be better.

Impromptu Spring Calendar – gardening-focused events, potentially reaching out to the Hawley Hamlet

Next week’s meeting

– We have decided to not meet on the 28^th next week.

In attendance: Alexis, Jackson (secretary), Marc, Naomi, Ty (moderator), Wyatt
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – Our panel discussion on Activists and Police Repression was on Saturday afternoon. We had a good turnout on Saturday, and the folks were engaged. Our panelists were knowledgeable and the discussion went really well. It might’ve been better if there had been a bit more interaction between the panelists, but there was no obvious way we could’ve gotten them more familiar with each other before Saturday.

2. Library Donation – Ty’s mom got us a children’s book about peaceful protesting. It will make a good addition to our Kitten Corner.

3. Library Catalog – We would like to integrate our library catolog with wordpress. There are some plugins that may work on this. Marc and Naomi are on this. There are a couple of other software widgets that we are experimented with; one of them is even called LibraryThing!

4. Walk For Life – Alexis is very interested in helping us with the counter-protest of the Walk For Life, and may have connections to other allies in NLC-Lincoln and on UNL’s campus. We will keep our channels open for further collaboration on this event.

5. Winter Calendar – It sounds like the group wants to focus on only the counter-protest for January and a Black History Month event for February. Jackson and Dance have been brainstorming on the latter event concept, and we are now considering a panel discussion on Black music and/or poetry. Ty would be especially enthusiastic for this concept if we can focus on Black music, as he’s been lobbying for a music-centric event for some time now.

6. Next week? – With the holidays around the corner, we considered whether our meetings will continue the rest of the year. We decided that we will be meeting normally for next Monday, December 21st.

Meeting adjourned: 8:32 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Begins: 7:04 PM

Library Updates: Jackson got quite a few diverse titles for donation to the library! Naomi was unable to make it today but she says she will give an email update with the library research she’s done.

Email: We got an email from someone who expressed interest in getting to know The Black Cat House and what we do here. Ty will reply.

Upcoming Event: We’re still having a little trouble contacting some panelists, though we’ve gotten confirmation from them that the day and time working for them. Ty volunteered to act as co-moderator for the panel, keeping an eye on the chat and making sure discussion questions are brought forward, while Jackson will focus on making sure each panelist gets their opportunity to speak on the discussion topic. We will not be recording it, as we have not had a chance to discuss this with the panelists.

Winter Calendar: Jackson would need to touch base with folks regarding the Black History Month poetry event idea. A book feature of our library titles by black authors to feature on social media might be a fun idea. Another potential synthesis of various ideas for an event would be a Radical Activism Under Biden themed event. Jackson says that might be a better fit for a January online event to contrast the in-person counter-protest, and then having a Black History Month event in February.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:02 PM

Tabled: Winter Calendar

Meeting Minutes for 11/30/2020. Panel Preparation, Library Organizing, Winter Brainstorming

Meeting begins at 7:06pm

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

> Upcoming Event

We have an event coming up on Dec12 from 1 to 3 pm. Some of our panelists are locked down and others have tentatively confirmed. We are posting the event description tonight. We are reserving a URL, we have designated a tech person (Marc) we have designated a moderator (Jackson).

For next week we would like to have questions for our panelists ready.

> Library Stuff

Naomi is interested in organizing our library. We planned several work days.

>Winter Calendar Brainstorming

December is our Protesters and Police event

January we have the counter protest

February:

SCOTUS ideas

Innaguration ideas

Activism in age of Biden

Book feature of black history

Poetry for black history month

>Meeting Adjourned 8:15