Introductions

Jackson (People’s Commissar of Getting Shit Done), Brandon (People’s Commissar of Writing Shit Down), Marc, Ty, Will, Kyle

Start time: 7:17

Event Review

Didn’t stay on subject very much. There was not as much attendance as usual because it was promoted late. We should promote events sooner.

Upcoming Event

Chicken Run screening. We already have the DVD. We just have to clean up the room. Perhaps we should advertise it by saying that we are kid-friendly.

Library Donation

2 new books to put in the library.

Block Party

No updates.

August Events

We are light on events for August because of Red State and school starting. There are only 2 events: both of which are movies. The first one is a documentary on the 9th: White Light Black Rain. It’s a documentary interviewing people who lived through the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The other movie is Pan’s Labyrinth. We will have to add a disclaimer for the blood and gore in that one. Jackson will take point on the description for White Light Black Rain and Ty will write the description for Pan’s Labyrinth.

Fall Calendar

Husker Home Gamedays: September 14th, September 28th, October 5th, October 26th, November 16th

Discussion idea: Remembering the genocide of indigenous peoples. And/or about missing and murdered indigenous women. Either in October (Columbus Day) or November (Thanksgiving). Maybe a discussion in one month, a film in the other?

Anti-Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday?

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration/Anti-Columbus Day Protest?

Discussion idea: Historical Disconnect between our bodies and medicine. / Commodification of medicine. Do we even recognize if we are sick? What do licensing and doctors orders really mean? How can we learn to listen to our bodies?

Pairing the above with a citizen doctors skill share? Perhaps a little too ambitious at this time.

Library Focus: AK Press (Saturday afternoon 1-3 format)

Reading Discussion: Inhabit booklet: After pasting into a word document, it seems like it might be doable within the format. Will thinks he’ll have a bunch of booklets, and he has a pdf to make copies of. September would work best for him.

Will proposes a Thursday screening of Trouble, available on subMedia. They’re ~30 min., and with a donation the website sends out question packets and various swag.

Will would like a September discussion on What is Autonomy.

He would also like an October discussion on Communization Theory? We’d need to unpack that and figure out how we’d advertise such a discussion.

New idea: ICE discussion about recent events. We will discuss the concentration camps and what individuals can do.

3 discussions: ICE discussion, Indigenous people discussion, Inhabit reading (voted on by people present)

We need to start figuring out movies to screen and make some decisions about the other stuff.

Homework: Bring movie suggestions.

Categories/Holidays to consider:

Trans Day of Remembrance (November)

Veteran’s Day (November)

Thanksgiving (November)

Columbus Day (October)

Mischief Night (October)

Red State

Brandon interviewed Tyler Magnuson. They seem like a cool comrade with a good breakout.

Wyatt wants to host a breakout session with Maria, a native elder water protector. The breakout would be about the legacy of Standing Rock.

Jackson, Brandon, and Wyatt are the Programming Committee. We will decide what time slots each breakout belongs in.

Mail

We got some stuff in the mail. We sang Blue’s Clues songs in our excitement. The mail was from the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces. They gave us a bunch of zines and stickers.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

Tabled Items: Fall Calendar, Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Brandon (moderator), Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:09 PM

1. Event Review – Manufacturing Consent was Friday. It was a good turnout! And it was good pizza, Wyatt did a great job with his garden-fresh veggie toppings.

2. Upcoming Event – American Empire and Islam is posted! Jackson knows his history on the subject well, and the friend who suggested the subject in the first place is planning on bringing her knowledge as well.

3. Moderator/Secretary Rotation – Brandon was voted to be an official part of the moderator/secretary rotation!

4. Will’s Stuff – Will sent a message to address at the meeting in his absence. He asks to use the copier, and says he opted against the infoshop Commune description, and will just get a personal one to share with us.

5. Block Party – Chelsea is in full support of us having a lit table at the block party, that is tentatively August 3, 5-9 PM. We’re the only org that Chelsea asked to be there, but Jackson is going to suggest to Chelsea to invite Feed the People, and Brandon will bring it to an FTP meeting to see whether the group is interested in doing so.

6. Fall Calendar –

Husker Home Gamedays: September 14th, September 28th, October 5th, October 26th, November 16th

Discussion idea: Remembering the genocide of indigenous peoples. And/or about missing and murdered indigenous women. Either in October (Columbus Day) or November (Thanksgiving). Maybe a discussion in one month, a film in the other?

Anti-Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday?

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration/Anti-Columbus Day Protest?

Discussion idea: Historical Disconnect between our bodies and medicine. / Commodification of medicine. Do we even recognize if we are sick? What do licensing and doctors orders really mean? How can we learn to listen to our bodies?

Pairing the above with a citizen doctors skill share? Perhaps a little too ambitious at this time.

Library Focus: AK Press (Saturday afternoon 1-3 format)

Reading Discussion: Inhabit booklet (excerpt? two parts?)

Will proposes a Thursday screening of Trouble, available on subMedia. They’re ~30 min., and with a donation the website sends out question packets and various swag.

Will would like a September discussion on What is Autonomy.

He would also like an October discussion on Communization Theory? We’d need to unpack that and figure out how we’d advertise such a discussion.

Are we continuing with popcorn politics?

Working class anime? This is an idea Marc is still working on and might be best tabled to the winter calendar.

Tabled Items: Fall Calendar, Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

In attendance: Brandon, Jackson (secretary), Will, Wyatt (moderator)

Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – We ran the documentary How to Survive a Plague. We had a great turnout and discussion. We seemed to have struck a nerve choosing this event.

2. Upcoming Event – Our next event will be the Manufacturing Consent documentary night on July 12th.

Meeting Cancellation – We are not having a meeting next week, because we’ll be coming back from Socialism Conference in Chicago. We will resume normal meetings on July 15th.

Will’s Updates – Will reports that the Commune has a 1 year subscription rate available to Infoshops for $90, and he offers to pay half of it himself. Jackson and Wyatt need to talk to Ty and Marc, since our budget is pretty tight.

He also had ideas about local groups doing a alternative to FoodNet in local food distro. We had a discussion about it, but we’re not ready to commit to it at this time.

Money – Jackson will be reimbursed $50 for writing a check for the security deposit on the Unitarian Church for the Red State Conference. These are the first $50 of our $200 commitment to the conference. We will put the rest towards our commitment to catering the breakfast. We also decided to continue tabling the $80 in limbo we’ve been discussing.

Fall Calendar

Husker Home Gamedays: September 14th, September 28th, October 5th, October 26th, November 16th

Anti-Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday? Maybe a movie about Indigenous issues? Remembering the genocide?

Discussion idea: Historical Disconnect between our bodies and medicine. / Commodification of medicine. Do we even recognize if we are sick? What do licensing and doctors orders really mean? How can we learn to listen to our bodies?

Reading Discussion: Inhabit booklet (excerpt? two parts?)

Library Focus: AK Press (Saturday afternoon 1-3 format)

Free School / Skill Share Idea: Citizen doctors conference / training thing.

Will proposes a Friday movie night Trouble Screening.

What is Autonomy?

Are we continuing with popcorn politics?

Working class anime

Tabled Items: Library Labels, Wellred Books, Commune Subscription, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

6/24/19 Minutes:

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

Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review.
About 8 people and a civil discussion despite some irreconcilable differences in the room. All of our core team made it, yay! We liked the contradictions on the white board and we got dialectical.

2. Upcoming
“How to survive a plague” is showing this Friday. The movie is about the organization ACTUP.

3. Email x2
We got an invite to participate in a block party on our street. Saturday August 3rd 5 to 9 pm. We think tabling is a great idea. Jackson will email back.

Saturday July 20th at the Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha. They want to know if we are interested in attending the training, or if we are interested in distributing the free Narcan Kits. We probably can’t but we will forward to Feed the People and maybe ask them if they want to host a training here. We will ask for a kit.

4. Money
$32.87 website domain renewal on the horizon, Jackson will pay.
Would we like to donate to the legal defense fund of Bernard Clark Duse Jr. We will donate $70. We will share on social media.

The Treasury sits at about $102 after all pending bills are paid.

5. July Events
Ty’s description of Chicken Run is great. We will post next week.
Jackson will write the other event descriptions tonight.
July 8th general meeting is canceled.
July 28th will be Sunday Dinner.

6. Fall Brainstorming

Discussion idea: Historical Disconnect between our bodies and medicine. / Commodification of medicine. Do we even recognize if we are sick? What do licensing and doctors orders really mean? How can we learn to listen to our bodies?

Free School / Skill Share Idea: Citizen doctors conference / training thing.

Will proposes a Friday movie night Trouble Screening.

Will proposes a reading discussion of a inhabit booklet.

Library flex. Dedicated events for particular types or publishers of books.

What is Autonomy?

Are we continuing with popcorn politics?

Working class anime

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled Items: Library Labels, Wellred Books, Commune Subscription, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks. How do we want to spend our red state money? Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

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

Start time: 7:08 PM

1. Event Review: We showed 1984 on Friday, and it had a nice turnout and conversation. Defeatist tone to the chat, but so was Orwell about the issue, so it makes sense!

2. Upcoming Event: What is Revolution is on Saturday! Marc suggests making open-ended social media posts, prompting thought ahead of time. Will proposes a reading list for people to browse to get gears turning as well. Wyatt thinks that a follow-up event in a calendar or two if we have a good turnout, which maybe the reading list would be better for. We brainstormed some ice-breakers and thought-provoking questions to ask before and during the discussion.

3. Library Donation: Will has 8 zines to donate to the library, which we graciously accept. Ty donated Comrades, which is a radical tabletop RPG ruleset. We also accept this.

4. Bookmark Reimbursement: Marc printed bookmarks for us, and asks for $19.26 for it. We agree to reimburse him.

5. Calendar Distro: Jackson still hasn’t gotten calendars at the Hub Café or the Unitarian Church. Jackson will probably be able to do Hub Café, and Wyatt will take care of the Unitarian Church.

6. Online July Events: Jackson will draft descriptions for Manufacturing Consent and American Empire and Islam. Ty will draft Chicken Run. We’ll figure them out next meeting. Wyatt already has the names of the events on the website.

7. Treasury: We had $80 that we were going to pledge to the local ISO twig, but since ISO dissolved, it’s floating in limbo.

We are going to pledge $200 to Red State, but we are not sure at this time whether to use it to pay for the breakfast (which we’re also responsible for), or to donate it in addition to the breakfast.

We decided to table both parts of this item.

8. Red State: Brandon reminds us that we have access to a scheduling sheet for interviewing applicants for panelists/workshops. We all signed up for interview times.

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

Tabled Items: Treasury Updates, Wellred Books, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Bailey, Brandon, Jackson (secretary), Will, Wyatt (moderator)

Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Upcoming Event: We’re showing 1984 on Friday. We’ll be ready for it.

2. Library Donations: We have a new book from Jackson and several from Will. Thank you!

3. Calendar Distro: Wyatt reports that we still need to get calendars up at Hub Cafe and Unitarian Church.

4. Red State: We spent some time catching up on the current planning of the Red State conference.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

Tabled Items: Wellred Books, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

6/3/19 Minutes

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)
Start time: 7:10

1. Event review:
We had our open house on Saturday! We were happy to celebrate our birthday with lots of food. We had about 10 guests who all showed up between 4 and 5, and people stayed till about 6. Maybe in the future we will move our times a little bit later and a little shorter.

We were happy to see some familiar faces, some new faces, and several people checked out books. We were very happy with the event!

2. Upcoming events
Summer events are up on the website calendar! We still of course need to add descriptions for the July and August events.

3. June events
How to survive a plague has been posted on Facebook!

4. Library donations
We have three wonderful new library book donations from authors John Pilgers, Richard Seymour, and Barbra Einhorn. Thanks Jackson!

5. Calendar distribution
Jackson finished the east side of downtown. Ty and Marc finished the west side. Wyatt will finish with the Hub Cafe and Unitarian Church.

6. Treasury Report
Jackson finished our treasury report. The general balance is over $400 and the library and speaker sub treasury are at $0. Thanks for the report! We should have enough money for what we need this year.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

Tabled Items: Wellred Books, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

5/27/19 Minutes

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc (secretary), Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:10

1. Event review:

Aragorn! came here Thursday and Jackson purchased $155 worth of books. We also received $60 for hosting the event. We have a whole bunch of books to sort through and add to the library; most of it is more contemporary.

Wyatt said that we liked having folks come by and speak if it’s convenient, and the BCH could be used as a gig space more often because of its position on I-80 between major cities. We also want to figure out ways to reach out to younger folks interested in politics.

The conversation attendees and Aragorn! had were fruitful and intriguing, and it was a great event.

Young Karl Marx movie night was on Friday; a few people showed up and spoke afterwards. The movie served as an introduction to the politics of the 19th century for some folks in attendance.

2. Upcoming events:

Our open house is on June 1st. We’ve gotta hype it up. Wyatt has offered to bake cupcakes for the event. Jackson is going to handle the punch. Ty is gonna also schedule tweets for the event.

Ty and Marc are going to table at the Feed the People grill-out event at Peter Pan Park. We’ll show up with material to pass out at the event, such as zines, publications, etc. We’ll also take the table banner with us.

3. June events

Wyatt got a description of the movie 1984 for the upcoming Popcorn Politics event with DSA. We edited the description to pertain to the event itself and include more information and will send it to the DSA for approval. Jackson will take care of this part.

What is Revolution is already up; How to Survive a Plague is not yet up. Ty has offered to write up the description for HtSaP.

4. Library donations

We had 17 leftover books from yard sale donations to add to the lending library, plus the books from Aragorn!. The zines from Aragorn! will be going into the zine archive.

5. Calendar distribution

Wyatt has already done part of his route; Ty and Marc will distribute calendars tomorrow, and Jackson will distribute calendars later.

6. New flyers

Marc made drafts of a new flyer and bookmark design. Wyatt proposed updating the mission statement and “about” information for materials in the future.

Marc will complete the design for the bookmark to be printed by June 1. He will also contact the print shop to get a price estimate for printing them.

We also discussed creating more Black Cat House swag in the future, and getting an interest check on buttons and T-shirts.

We’ll talk more about the wording update in the future.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

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

1. Event Review – We had our reading discussion for Lucy Parsons’ “I Am an Anarchist.” We had a lively discussion, but maybe we should have moderated a bit more. We discussed whether we should have appointed a moderator amongst ourselves before the event.

2. Upcoming Events – Aragorn! is speaking here on Thursday and we’re running Popcorn Politics on Friday. We sent out some questions to Adam, our contact with Aragorn! The movie will be standard stuff.

3. Reimbursement – Ty spent $14.93 on getting our readings and summer calendars printed, and we will reimburse him for these necessary group expenses.

4. Calendar Distro – Wyatt will do South Street, the Bay, and the Unitarian Church. Marc and Ty will do the Haymarket, the Hub, and the Hub Cafe. Ty will also do relevant spots on campus. Jackson will do the main downtown area.

5. June Events – We need to get our BCH Birthday Party advertised online. We spent meeting time working on it. Also, Feed the People-Lincoln is having a fundraising cookout on the same day at an overlapping time, and Marc and Ty may table for us there.

6. Calendar/Flier Re-design – Marc has some ideas for new fliers and updating our calendars. We talked a bit about this, but are mostly excitied to see what he comes up with. There was discussion of possibly starting with a bookmark design.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

5/6/19 Minutes: Yard Sale Review, Calendar Printing!

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

Event Review
Yard Sale Recap 2019
$599.14 Total Revenue. This is a low number but we are still happy. We still have some things to sell online.
We didnt have quite as much stuff this year, didnt sell our our big ticket items, and we were not totally prepared at 7am friday.
Maybe in the future we will set meeting time before yard sale to price and sort. Maybe next year ask for volunteers to help sort and price.
We will shampoo the carpet this week to clean the yard sard grime.

Upcoming Events
Lucy Parsons Reading on saturday
We will print 15 items on tue or wed. Ty will take point on that.

Aaragorn NonUpdate
We have no updates about this potential event. We are still willing to do it if it happens. If we don’t know by next week we wont be able to pull it off.

Calendar Issue
We changed one event name.
Ty will print calendar in Angry Lavender celebrating 50 years since Stonewall and cause we like to be queer.

New Slingshots Arrived!

Jackson is reimbursed for chair purchase.

Meeting Adjourned 7:45

5. Summer Calendar –

June
Saturday, June 1, 12-5 PM: The Black Cat House 6th Birthday Open House
Friday, June 14, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: 1984
Saturday, June 22, 1-3 PM: What is Revolution? (a community discussion)
Friday, June 28, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: How to Survive a Plague

July
Friday, July 12, 6-10 PM: Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent
Saturday, July 20, 1-3 PM: American Empire and Islam (a community discussion)
Friday, July 26, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Chicken Run

August
Friday, August 9, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Friday, August 16, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Pan’s Labyrinth

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)