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

Meeting start: 7:10 PM

1) Upcoming Event – We posted the neighborhood cleanup event on Facebook, as well as the website. Jackson’s going to double-check to see if we have enough trash bags; he’ll get some if not. There may be another Everett clean-up happening this Saturday? Ty saw a yard sign about it but we’re not sure about the details. We may also need grabbing sticks, sharp sticks, and gloves.

2) Library Donations – Marc donated a couple books.

3) October Event – Jackson will draft and post the event for Can We Vote Our Way Out Of This Mess on Facebook.

4) November Event – We haven’t heard back from one potential panelist. Jackson is in contact with other potential panelists. We’re going to set a firm date and time soon to make scheduling easier for the panelists.

5) Domain Renewal – Jackson donated the cost of domain renewal and security for the year for the Black Cat website. (Treasury should probably be updated soon)

Meeting adjourned: 7:35 PM

Jackson was the only one available to meet tonight, so it didn’t happen. We’ll try again next week.

9/7/2020 Meeting minutes. Fall Calendar. Medic training location change.

In Attendance : Ty (moderator), Wyatt (Secretary) , Jackson

>This week. The street medic training got moved to a larger venue. We were not told where exactly this new venue is…. Jackson will continue to investigate and try to find the location.

>Calendar image
Ty made a beautiful calendar meme for the interwebs. We shall post on FB. We need to post the two known events on the website and. asap, post the trash pickup as a facebook event.

We are still searching for a canopy for the October outdoor discussion. We want a white or canvas looking one. We might decorate it later.

>November event updates
We invited one more potential speaker and are waiting to hear back. Our other speakers are still looking OK. We have invited a total of 4 people so far.

Meeting Adjourned 7:40

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty

Start time: 7:07 PM

1. Fall Calendar – Ty provided a draft of our fall calendar image over the group chat this evening. Jackson wants the house’s address added to it, since two of the three events have some relation to this physical space. Otherwise, it looks fine to us and Ty will publish it tomorrow unless there are criticisms in the group chat. We also really need to get the neighborhood clean-up event put online no later than next week, since we’re already less than a month away from that.

2. Street Medic Training – We’ve been asked to host a workshop on street medic work at protests here in the fall, and we’re happy to accommodate it. This event will not be publicly advertised, per the wishes of our guest organizer.

3. November Event – Jackson announced the commitment of a second panelist for our web discussion. Since we want three or four, we’re at least halfway there! We talked a bit tonight about the focus of the event being on not only police repression of activism, but also wanting to prioritize discussion on how activists have adapted to repression to survive and continue their struggle.

Meeting adjourned: 7:42 PM

Minutes August 24^th 2020

New books! Guest Speakers Panel work, final Bail Fund decision.

In Attendance: Ty, Wyatt (Secretary), Jackson (Moderator)

Meeting Start Time : 7:20

> Event Review: Garden Day. We did get several projects done around the yard. Attendance was about 8 people. Several children and families attended. We are happy about this as we wish to get the perspective of more different aged people during our discussions and activities. Some discussion was had as to how to broaden our reach further.

> Library Donation: Our friend Jackson donated 24 new books on a variety of topics from Queer History to Police State to Labor History. We even got a coloring book and a few more graphic books. We discuss the departure of Indigo Bridge where many of these discounted books were sourced.

> Fall Calendar: Ty is working on drafting an image. We need to decide a name for our event: Guest Speakers on Police Repression. We do hope to get four “speakers.” So far we have several leads and one tentative Yes.

September 26^th 10am – 12pm

October 17^th 1pm – 3pm Can we Vote Our Way Out of this Mess?

November TBA Guest Speakers on Police Repression

> Bail Fund. We had a meeting on Saturday with several people who were interested in starting a bail fund for Lincoln. The discussion did not end in consensus but in a two sided divide. After the discussion a proposal was sent by the proponents and majority. The dissidents expressed their frustration that the written proposal only reflected one side of the arguments. The arguments presented by the dissidents were not stated but merely characterized with adjectives. Dissidents were ignored and dismissed which is not the basis for a trusting relationship. The Black Cat House Collective will not participate in this endeavor. As always individual members of the BCH may participate as autonomous individuals.

Black Cat House will continue to investigate plans to create a bail fund in its own right.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:45

No one was available to meet tonight. We’ll try again next week.

Meeting Minutes 8/10/2020. Fall Calendar. Jail Support. Venue Expansion. Website Updates.

In Attendance: Wyatt (Secretary) Ty (Moderator) Jackson

Meeting Begins 7:01pm

>Fall Calendar.
Football was canceled. This opens things up for us. We did get our fall calendar pretty well sorted out. We are doing three events and we will forgo a paper calendar in favor of doing a ‘meme’ calendar.

Three Events:
September: Community Clean Up
October: Can We Vote Our Way Out of This?
November: Guest Speaker on Police Repression: Date TBD

>November Discussion: We need to find a speaker.

Jackson and Wyatt will follow with their connections. Ty will follow up with Will re: Portland connections

>Jail Support Discussion:
Black Cat House is trying to get a jail support system going. Ty gives update on meeting with Atlanta jail support.

ROLES for an effective jail support organization:
1. “Vigil”: drives ’em home, brings snacks, physical support for the folks coming out

2. “Spreadsheet operator”

3. “fundraising agents”

ALSO:
phone banking/re-routing a public phone number to several in the network/post-jail resources

>Emphasizing Venue Aspects of Black Cat House.
As an organization, we want more community people and national people to use the living room to their advantage. Some immediate steps we can take now.

-Adding website tab about “our event space”
-Creating YouTube Channel about black cat house, video series: Garden, Rain Barrels, House Tour, Library Tour, Event Space Feature.
-In the future we want to do more advertising to open up the space.

Meeting Adjourned 8:45pm

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Start time: 7:10 PM

1. The Future? – Ty has been thinking about whether we ought to make some changes to how we do things. What else should we be doing to better retain folks who visit the House? Should we do more to collaborate with other projects and get people who visit the space more directly plugged into activism? Should we be working harder to make the space a more public venue? Should we be doing more with multimedia publishing, whether it’s reviving the dormant radio project or adding a blog to our website? We didn’t have any answers tonight, but we spent a lot of time on these questions.

2. Jail Support Update – Ty sat in on the e-training on Saturday, and got a lot out of it. The folks who did the training have done this kind of work for a long time, and had a lot of specific advice that we will try to emulate as we move forward on our local bail fund and prisoner support.

3. Fall Calendar – We didn’t have time to deal with this tonight! TABLED

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Meeting Start: 7:04 PM

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc, Ty (secretary), Will

Bail Fund + Further Jail Support: Ty has got the bail fund account website ready to go; it just needs a description. He’s going to also send in a donation of his own just to make sure the account was properly set up to the bank account. We’re making it Lincoln-specific because that’s the most reasonable place for us to give jail support outreach to. Will has invited us to a jail support workshop on Saturday given by some activists in Atlanta in order to further foster a jail support network in Lincoln that we can sustain. We’re going to ask around in the meantime for pro bono lawyers and other people who could offer support. Marc has volunteered to help format any information we want to share into readily accessible and easy-to-distribute formats. Tabled for next week after we learn more at the workshop.

Fall Calendar: We are still looking into potential speakers for our online discussion on police repression. Because of that, we’re leaving the dates potentially open further – not only Saturdays in November, but also possibly considering Friday evenings (we need to remind potential speakers that any scheduling will be done using central time).

For the neighborhood clean-up, Ty proposes September 26. We considered the possibility of having it be in the late afternoon followed by an outdoor gathering/cookout at The Black Cat House but we’ll have to discuss this further.

We may need to get a new canopy for the Can We Vote Our Way Out Of This Mess outdoor discussion.

Scheduled events so far below:

• Everett-Near South Neighborhood Clean-Up (and Cookout?) – September 26 (10/11 AM? Late afternoon?)
• Can We Vote Our Way Out Of This Mess? An outdoor community discussion – October 17, 1-3 PM, Black Cat House (outside)
• Untitled online discussion on police repression of protests – November (Friday evening or Saturday)

Tabled Items: Lincoln jail support, fall calendar

Meeting Adjourned: 8 PM

In attendence: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Ferguson Movie – The activists who made the documentary Touch the Sky about Ferguson, Missouri contacted us to to say they’re going to be making the movie more available for showings starting in mid-August. We discussed our situation, and we’re not optimistic about doing another showing for it next month. We’re not comfortable with an in-house screening, we lack the means to do an outdoor movie screening, and we’ve been unimpressed with our efforts at online movie nights. At very least, we agree to do some social media posts about the movie when it is released online to encourage our online followers to see the film.

2. Future Events During Time of Pandemic – We had an extended discussion tonight about what our events should look like for the foreseeable future. We’re eager to try some in-person events during the fall, when weather will be mild enough for us to do them outdoors. We should see whether we need to buy a canopy tent, or whether we can borrow one.

3. Fall Calendar – We’re leaning towards doing one event a month through the fall. The neighborhood clean-up for September, Can We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess? for mid-October (preferably out in the yard), and we’re leaning towards some kind of event on police repression for November. There was some discussion of it being an online discussion, and maybe checking with some of our connections to see if we could feature one or several speakers from places like Portland or Standing Rock.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM