3/11/19 Upcoming Event Preparation

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)
Start time: 7:02 PM

>Event Review
On Friday we watched Hidden Figures, and we decided during the discussion that we didn’t really like it. There was a moderate turnout.

>Upcoming Events
On Saturday we are hosting a Venezuela discussion. Greg Palast posted an update to the article we are using that connects the Koch bothers oil refineries and the slowing of KXL construction to US interests in Venezuela. So we have some more good material for discussion on Saturday.
We will print 10 sets of the readings, which Jackson has kindly arranged.

>Posting fb Events
Coming up in March is our community discussion “Who Owns Politics?” We work to build a description of this murky subject and post a facebook event.
Jackson will also post an event for our next march movie about gentrification and eviction in San Fransico.

Meeting Adjourned 8:15

Tabled:
Library Readership Development, Library Organizing, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

3/4/19 Minutes: Online Presence, Calendar Distro

In Attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing Hidden Figures for Popcorn Politics on Friday night!

2. Calendar Distro – Wyatt still needs to hit up Bodhi and the Unitarian Church. Ty still needs to hit the Haymarket. Jackson still needs to go to The Bay and The Hub.

3. Online Presence – Ty will be assuming more responsibility over our inactive Twitter account. We are debating an appropriate way of reviving the use of our email list. Ty will contact Ju Ping regarding helping us create an account for Wyatt on our website. Item TABLED.

4. Library – We spent the remainder of our meeting working on re-organizing our lending library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

2/25/19 Minutes: Spring Calendar is out! Library Updates.

Meeting 02/25/2019
In attendance: Jackson, Ty (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)

Meeting begins at 7:38
>Event Review
>Upcoming Events
>Calendar Distro + Reimbursement
>Messages
>Library

>Event Review
Several people enjoyed the movie The Garden, and stayed for an in depth conversation afterwords.

>Upcoming Events
None this week.

>Calendar
We reimburse Jackson for printing cost $11.24.
Distribution. It will be difficult in this weather.
Wyatt: South Street places. Meadowlark, Open Harvest, Bohdi imports, Russes?
Jackson: main downtown places. coffee house, gomez, upstairs in parish building, the bay, cultiva.
Ty needs 7full size and “a bunch” of handbills in a paper bag. Haymarket and campus places. the mill, 10thousand villages, indigo bridge, ivana cone, scooters, blue stem, love library, resource center.

>Messages
We collectively posted three comment replies on our facebook pages.

>Library
Several people checked out books.
We discussed organizing the library a little bit better. We plan to introduce geo-regional library sections including Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, Australia/Oceania. We plan to introduce a new prison industrial section, animal rights section, and potentially other sections. We will make labels for section identification.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:20 PM.

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

2/18/19 Minutes: Spring Calendar Printing, March Events, Library

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:08 PM

1. Event Review – We had the KXL discussion on Saturday. Usual suspects, not a huge turnout, but a good discussion nonetheless. It might be a weather issue, it might be an interest issue, but Wyatt says that the turnout would be improved by more in-person advertisement. He advises against relying on Facebook to bring in people.

2. Upcoming Event – The showing of The Garden is coming up! Movie set-up is very easy, and we already have the DVD.

3. Spring Calendars – Ty has made them, and will get them printed tomorrow. 70 pages of handbills, 30 full-page calendars. We’ll discuss distribution next week, but Jackson might distribute what he can this weekend, weather permitting (but it doesn’t look like it’ll permit).

4. Book – We got The Anarchist Encyclopedia (Abridged Edition) from AK Press. It’s a bunch of topics as analyzed through an anarchist lens, and we’re pretty excited about it. It’s a good primer on anarchist thought!

5. March Events – We had some work time getting event descriptions for March drafted.

6. Library Readership Development – We talked about making some targeted Facebook posts advertising the library. We also discussed reinstating open hours while rebranding it library hours. Wyatt proposes a scholarship or research project competition based on the materials in the library. Also, we need to be better about following up with checkouts! That, and we need to rearrange the books to accommodate all our new books, and label the sections clearly. It’s tabled again, for more serious discussion next week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

2/11/19 Minutes: Spring Calendar Finalization

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (via video chat), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – We ran Malcolm X for Popcorn Politics on Friday night. We had a solid turnout, and they seemed to really enjoy the film. The discussion was ok, but we had some clashing personalities in the room. We had some further discussion about ways we could have possibly done more to moderate that situation. We won’t do any reimbursement for the pizza ingredients, because we wound up eating most of that ourselves anyways.

2. Upcoming Event – The KXL discussion is this Saturday. We feel pretty good about our preparations for it. We briefly discussed the Keystone leak reported near St. Louis last week, and we think we should add some mention of this on Saturday.

3. Spring Calendar: We’re finally done with it!

Friday, March 8th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Hidden Figures movie showing
Saturday, March 16th, 1-3 PM; What is Happening in Venezuela? (a reading discussion)
Saturday, March 23rd, 1-3 PM; Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion)
Friday, March 29th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Boom! The sounds of Eviction
Friday, April 12th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Strength in the Storm
Friday, April 19th, 7-9 PM; Stars Over Latin America (children’s book about Che Guevara read by the author)
Saturday, April 20th, 1-3 PM; The Kurdish Freedom Struggle (a community discussion)
Friday, April 26th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster
Friday, May 10th 8 AM-6 PM & Saturday, May 11th 8 AM-2 PM: The Annual Black Cat House Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 18th, 1-3 PM; Reading Discussion: Lucy Parsons’ “I am an Anarchist”
Friday, May 24th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): The Young Karl Marx

Ty thinks he can get these formatted and printed this week.

4. Upcoming Event Idea – Jackson and his surrogate mother Dance talked the other day about running a discussion in the future on U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and its impact on building Islamic fundamentalism. She was particularly interested in discussing the 1953 coup in Iran. Item is tabled, and we can hopefully brainstorm on developing this concept over the next few months.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

2/4/19 Minutes: Spring Calendar, Books, SW

Meeting in session at 703
In attendance: TY (moderator), Jackson, Wyatt (secretary)

1. Event Review

Last saturday we hosted a guest workshop on activism in the age of trump. One highlight was a handout comparing “alternative” politics to “oppositional” politics which parsed the difference between individualist and collective solutions.

2. Upcoming Events

On friday we will be showing the Malcolm X biopic! Special early start time at 6pm. We will be preparing about 6 pizzas, with cheese, meat, and vegetarian options.

3. SW

Black Cat House will be subscribing to the Socialist Worker monthly paper and make the paper available in our public space.

4. Books

Jackson is donating “Kids on Strike” by Susan Bartolli
Jackson will be reimbursed $18.65 for “You don’t have to fuck people over to survive” by Seth Tobocaman and the elusive “Wobblies!” edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman. All three books are added to the lending library.

5. Spring Events

We’re (mostly) decided on our spring calendar! It’s packed!

March 8 7pm Hidden Figures movie showing
March 16 1pm Venezuela reading discussion
March 23 1pm Who Owns Politics community discussion
March 29 7pm Boom! The sounds of Eviction Movie
April 12 7pm Strength in the Storm Movie showing
April 19 7pm Authors reading of Stars over LA
April 20 1pm Kurdish workers struggle community discussion
April 26 7pm Godzilla VS the smog monster movie showing
May 10-11 All Day Annual Yard Sale!
May 18 1pm Lucy Parsons I am an Anarchist reading discussion
May 24 7pm Young Karl Marx movie showing

Tabled: Library Readership Development

Meeting Adjourned 8:35pm

1/28/19 Minutes: Counter-Protest Review, Donations, Spring Calendar Planning

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – Counter-Protest for the Walk for “Life” was Saturday: those who went said it went pretty well. One guy from the anti-choicers was rather hostile, but he was scared off fairly easily. We did get a critique that the language in the description was not inclusive of other genders who are also put at risk by lack of reproductive freedom, so next year we’ll have to draft a better description. We also need to see if there are more people who are interested in organizing the counter-protest. Wyatt says next year we would benefit for an organizing meeting to delegate roles in the protest (media liaison, police liaison, parade marshals, photographer, etc.). Childcare was not taken up this year, but we will still offer it as always.

2. Upcoming Event – Serendipiti is going to come this Saturday to do her direct action workshop. Ty emailed her about any potential setup she may need. She reports that she’ll need the big whiteboard and scratch paper for people. We’re also going to give her a $20 donation.

3. Money – We got a donation! $195 is now in our treasury.

4. ISO Donation – We’re going to be making a donation of $80 to the ISO – Lincoln Twig.

5. Book – We got another book for Friends of AK Press. The title is “Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt” by AK Thompson.

6. Spring Calendar –

Blackout Dates: April 13th (Huskers Spring Game), April 27 (Lincoln Earth Day), Feed the People fundraisers on first Saturdays and distro on second Saturdays

Fri, April 19th, 7 PM: Che Children’s Book Reading

Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion) – March 23rd, 1-3 PM
Kurdish/PKK – April 20th, 1-3 PM
Reading Discussion on May 18, 1-3 PM: Women and labor? Potentially “I Am an Anarchist” speech by Lucy Parsons?
Yard Sale, Fri May 10 and Sat May 11

Popcorn Politics
March: Something that will pass the Bechdel Test (Hidden Figures?)
April: Something environmentalist (Godzilla vs the Smog Monster?)
May: The Young Karl Marx

Documentaries: Strength of the Storm, Boom! The Sound of Eviction

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled: Spring Calendar, Stuff to Buy, Library Readership Development

1/21/19 Minutes: Books!, Website Expenses, Spring Calendar

In Attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – We ran American Socialist, a documentary about Eugene Debs, on Friday night. We had a good turnout and a nice discussion, although the film itself was only so-so.

2. Upcoming Event – Our counter-protest of the Walk For Life is this weekend! Ty will be here spearheading the childcare services we offer here at the House, while Jackson and Wyatt will be at the rally.

3. Books – We have new books from the big sale at Indigo Bridge. Ty bought two, and doesn’t want reimbursement for them. Jackson bought eight of them for $56.11, and would like to be reimbursed for them. It is approved.

Also, we are ready to pay up on the AK Press order we placed a couple of months ago. Jackson will be reimbursed $200.30 for placing that order for our library.

4. Website – Jackson reports that it was time to renew one of our website domains. It cost him $30.87, and he will be reimbursed for keeping our website running.

5. Email – Ty reports that we got a couple of new emails. One was maybe a bot, or maybe a person curious about our organization. Ty will send a simple reply email… what’s the worst that can happen? We also had an invitation to table again at Lincoln Earth Day in 2019. We decided that we won’t be doing that.

6. February Events – Wyatt has a draft that we like for the KXL discussion. Jackson will prepare a draft for the documentary showing of the Garden.

7. Spring Calendar

Blackout Dates: April 13th (Huskers Spring Game), Feed the People fundraisers on first Saturdays and distro on second Saturdays

Fri, April 19th, 7 PM: Che Children’s Book Reading

Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion) – March 23rd or 30th?
Kurdish/PKK – April 20th?
Reading Discussion in May (18th or 25th?)? (Women and labor in early May?)
Yard Sale, Fri May 10 and Sat May 11

Popcorn Politics
March: Something that will pass the Bechdel Test (Ty suggests Hidden Figures)
April: Something environmentalist (Anthony suggests Snowpiercer, Princess Mononoke, or Godzilla vs Hedorah)
May: The Young Karl Marx

Documentaries? Strength of the Storm. One more?

Meeting adjourned: 8:31 PM

Treasury Log 2019 (General, Library, Speakers)

GENERAL TREASURY

We started the year with $170.34.

January 20th Update:

New donations:

1. Wyatt donated $150!

2. $15.31 collected from our donations box.

These total $165.31 in new donations, which increases our overall balance to $335.65.

April 7th Update:

New donations:

1. We received $195 from our friends Richard and Christy! This was reported at the January 28th meeting.

2. We received $1 in our donations box at the House. Every little bit helps!

These total $196 in new donations.

New debits:

1. Jackson is reimbursed $30.87 for renewing one of our website domains. This was approved at the January 21st meeting.

2. We decided to make a solidarity donation of $80 to the Lincoln ISO-Twig in appreciation of the books they donated to our library. This was approved at the January 28th meeting.

3. Jackson is reimbursed $11.24 for getting our spring calendars printed. This was approved at the February 25th meeting.

4. We made a $50 donation to the Santee Sioux nation for flood relief. Specifically, Jackson made the donation and he was reimbursed from the BCH treasury. This was decided and carried out at the March 18th meeting.

5. $272.86 is transferred from the general treasury to the library fund to cover new books purchased in the last three months.

These total $444.97 in new debits from our treasury. Altogether, our treasury is being reduced $248.97, to a new overall balance of $86.68.

June 3rd Update:

New Donations:

1. Our yard sale raised $599.14! Thanks, y’all!

2. Adam donated $60. Thanks, Adam!

3. We received $60 from Jackson selling a couple of our yard sale leftovers on Craigslist.

4. We received $1 in our donations box.

These total $720.14 in new donations.

New Debits:

1. Jackson is reimbursed $272.68 for buying new folding chairs for our public space. This was approved in theory at the May 6th meeting, and confirmed at the May 13th meeting.

2. Ty is reimbursed $14.93 for getting our May readings and summer calendars printed. This was approved at the May 20th meeting.

3.  We transferred $68.37 from the general treasury to the library to cover a couple of book purchases.

These total $355.98 in new debits.

Altogether, our treasury is increasing $364.16, to a new overall balance of $450.84.

June 23rd Update:

1. We received $50 from the sale of a yard sale leftover.

2. Jackson donated $15.

These total $65 in new donations.

New Debit:

1. Marc is reimbursed $19.26 for getting our new bookmarks printed.

(We are also setting $200 aside for Red State.)

Altogether, the available balance of the treasury is being reduced $245.74, to a new total of $205.10. (This excludes the $200 set aside for Red State and $80 that we set aside for the ISO/Socialism Conference.)

December 14th Update

New donation:

1. We had $78.25 in our donations box!

New debits:

1. Jackson was reimbursed $32.87 for paying website domain renewal. This was approved at the June 24th meeting.

2. We approved a $70 donation to the legal defense fund of Bernard Clark Duse, Jr. at the June 24th meeting.

3. Ty is reimbursed $18.46 for getting our fall calendars printed. This was approved at the September 2nd meeting.

4. Ty is reimbursed $12.87 for getting our winter calendars printed. This was approved at the November 25th meeting.

5. Jackson is reimbursed $3.00 for printing more winter calendars when our original batch weren’t enough for our distro needs.

(A. The $200 we set aside for Red State 2019 were spent on the $50 security deposit for renting the Unitarian Church and the remaining $150 were spent on our obligation to cater breakfast for the conference. Jackson paid for both expenses, and was reimbursed with the designated treasury money. The former was approved at the July 1st meeting and the latter at the August 26th meeting.)

(B. The long-tabled $80 donation that never made it to the now-defunct Lincoln ISO was donated instead to the Fetal Alcohol treatment center in Whiteclay, Nebraska. This was confirmed at the December 2nd meeting.)

Altogether, our treasury’s overall balance has been reduced by $58.95, to a new total of $146.15.

December 31st Update:

New donation:  We received a $100 donation. Thanks!

New debit: Jackson is reimbursed $32.87 for renewing  one of our web domains for another year. This was pre-approved at the December 23rd meeting.

Altogether, our treasury is increasing $67.13, to a new overall balance of $213.28.

LIBRARY TREASURY

We started the year with $2.20

April 7th Update:

New donation: $272.86 was transferred from our general treasury to the library fund.

1. Jackson is reimbursed $56.11 for buying eight new books for the library. This was approved at the January 21st meeting.

2. Jackson is reimbursed $200.30 for placing a bulk order for our library with AK Press last year. Reimbursement had been tabled until all items had been received and payment would be more convenient for the collective. This was finalized at the January 21st meeting.

3. Jackson is reimbursed $18.65 for buying two books for the library. This was approved at the February 4th meeting.

These total $275.06 in new debits. Our new library balance is $0.

June 3rd Update:

New Donation: We transferred $68.37 from the General Treasury.

New Debits:

1. Jackson is reimbursed $13.37 for buying Stars Over Latin America for our lending library. This was approved at the April 22nd meeting.

2. Jackson is reimbursed for buying an additional $55 worth of books and zines from Aragorn! when he was here in May. This was approved at the May 27th meeting.

These totals cancel out and our balance remains at $0.

SPEAKERS TREASURY

We started the year with $120.

April 7th Update:

We paid Serendipiti $20 for coming here from Omaha to give a workshop here on February 2nd. This was pre-approved at the January 28th meeting. We now have $100.

June 3rd Update:

We gave Aragorn $100. This was confirmed at the May 27th meeting. We now have $0.

1/14/19 Minutes: Event Planning, Spring Calendar

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

Meeting in session at 7:04pm

  1. Event review – Videodrome was a weird movie for sure, and we had a good size group in attendence, including 3 new people, and we had a lively discussion. Thank you to Chris for the prepared analysis presented during the discussion.

2. Upcoming Event – On Friday we are showing American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Debs. We have the DVD and will prepare the chairs and AV before the start.
Due to dangerously cold weather, the Women’s March in Lincoln is postponed to Sunday the 27th, 2-5pm. We will be there on Sunday!

3. Update email about Mutual Aid working group read aloud.

4. Books – The International Socialist Organization – Lincoln Twig officially donated 16 Haymarket Press books to the Black Cat House free lending library. Thank you!

5. February events – New Off-Calendar Event: Serendipiti Presents
Our friend sent us a proposal for a Direct Action Workshop for action in the Age of Trump. We have agreed to host the workshop on Saturday February 2nd from 1-3pm. We will help her out and post that on Facebook ASAP.
Our Malcolm X Event description is approved by Lincoln DSA. Will be posted on Facebook ASAP. We will put poll for what pizzas people want, and there will be pizza.

6. Spring calander

We have multiple ideas about spring calendar events.
1. Jackson will talk to Khenda about a possible PKK/Bookchin Discussion.
2. Movie nights, we will aim for doing 2 movies per month, one documentary and one fictional movie.
3. Discussions.
a.We for sure want to do the “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event before the Lincoln general elections in April.
b.We also hope to do a discussion about the PKK, Rojava, the Kurdish Struggle, and Western Anarchist analysis.
c. We will think of something else for third discussion.
4. Annual Yard Sale fundraiser will be in early May.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, Stuff to Buy, Library Readership Development, Potential donation to ISO,