In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Rae, Ty
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – Our discussion “Prison Abolition for Beginners” flopped! We’re going to have to continue better advertising our events.
2. Upcoming Event – Our next event is going to be our Candyman (2021) movie night. We’re going to get online advertisements up soon, as Marc has a draft for us to consider tonight.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In Attendance: Marc (sec), Jackson
Meeting Start: 7:10 pm

Anti-Columbus Day Protest

• About 10 people showed up to the protest.
• One person contacted local news stations; Jackson and a few others spoke to Channel 8 and 10/11 News.
• We made zines to distribute at the protest; we have a few left over for next year’s protest.
• One attendee noted deciding to join after seeing our Facebook post, another mentioned seeing a paper calendar. We will continue using these modes to share event info.
• Local Native American activists were part of the group as well, along with some young people, so we had a good crowd and turnout!

Upcoming Event

• The Prison Abolition for Beginners discussion will be this Saturday.
• One of our friends has connections with an academic who specializes in PIC research, and she offered to get into contact with this person. However, we figured that it’s probably too little time to both ask the academic to join us, and either switch to an online mode/account for travel.
• However, we thought it would be excellent to ask this person if they would be willing to lead/present a PIC-related event, probably a future Jitsi discussion.

Outreach

• We also talked about the challenges we’ve faced with getting people to attend in-person events again.
• We discussed getting the indoor tour video created and posted so that people new to the BCH would be able to familiarize themselves with the space/location before coming to an event, which might make them feel more comfortable.
• We also discussed other elements that might make the space more welcoming, e.g. getting a greeter cat again, pushing our events more/advertising specific events, general organization and comfort, etc.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 pm

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

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

1. Event Review – Aryn from OutNebraska was here on Thursday night to give a workshop. Our turnout was smallish, but the folks who came were definitely engaged. Our library was also very popular with our new folks. Jackson noticed that the event wasn’t showing up properly on our Black Cat House Facebook page, possibly because OutNebraska created the event and tagged us in as co-hosts. Ty is pleased with the precedent of this and wants to see us having more co-hosted events in the future.
2. Upcoming Event – We have a movie this Friday night. Our projector is still being repaired, so it may not be ready for Friday. We may have to check one out from Love Library, and hope that we have a laptop and soundbar that will talk to it. The technical details are a bit more convoluted than usual, but we think we have a plan.
3. Book Donations – We spent the remainder of our meeting time sorting through a backlog of books that have been donated to us over the past several weeks. There were many good titles that we will be adding to our library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

In Attendance: Jackson, Marc (secretary), Ty, Connor, Wyatt
Meeting Start: 7:40 PM

Event Review: Urban Foraging

• A couple of new faces showed up for the urban foraging event on Saturday, and it seemed like folks were interested in the topic and learning! Wyatt enjoyed giving the workshop.

Upcoming Events: Workshop with OutNebraska, the Color of Care movie night

• This Thursday (9/15) will be our workshop with OutNebraska on talking to family, friends, and neighbors about LGBTQ+ issues.
• We checked with our contact to make sure we had all the equipment necessary for the event; we’ll wait to hear back. Otherwise, we’re ready to go for a conversation.
• For the Color of Care movie night, we need to get the projector in working order.

Ongoing Projector Issues

• Marc and Ty will take the projector to the Game Room to ask about repairing it. We have sufficient funds in the treasury and agreed to try this route to see if the HDMI port can be repaired.
• Marc and Ty left with the projector tonight.

Site Updates

• The calendar plugin is fixed; full event pages now load properly.
• Marc is also still working on the updated site design. He will show other members the changes soon and ask for feedback then.

Calendar Distro

• There are still a few places left to place calendars. Jackson took care of the lion’s share of calendar distribution over the past week or so.

The Box!

• Wyatt installed a box on the corner of the Black Cat House lot (next to the sidewalk), which we will likely use as a community bulletin board and possibly zine/food distribution. There are still a few aspects of the box that need to be adjusted, namely making sure it’s watertight and installing a corkboard (or something similar) on the back so calendars can be more easily posted.
• We discussed also allowing/encouraging other like-minded groups to post their events in the new bulletin board.
• Right now, it might not be an appropriate spot to distribute books. However, we still have a little free library box that we could install next to it later, which is more watertight.

Donations

• We have a house megaphone now, which is owned by one of our friends but being stored at BCH. We also have a number of new books for the library.

DIO Fest

• Marc submitted running the zine-making workshop at DIO Fest this year. Wyatt also submitted two workshops: how to build a rainwater-collecting barrel array, and how to change a tire. We’re looking forward to the event!

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

Folks weren’t available to meet tonight. We’ll try again next week.

Folks were not available to meet tonight. We’ll try again next week.

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

1. Upcoming Event – Marc’s zine workshop is this Saturday! He’s feeling good about it.
2. Fall Calendar – Marc has a draft for our fall calendar. We fine-tuned some of the event descriptions. Unfortunately, Jackson still hasn’t received confirmation of whether we will have access to The Color of Care for September 23rd. We decided to advertise our September movie night as a Social Justice Documentary Night (title TBA), while dedicating our November movie night to Judas and the Black Messiah. Marc will be getting the calendar files to the UNL print shop tomorrow and Jackson will be picking them up on Wednesday.

Sunday, September 11, 1-3 PM: “Urban Foraging,” a tour about recognizing edible plants
Thursday, September 15, 7 PM: “Changing Hearts and Minds: Talking to your Family and Neighbors about LGBTQ+ People,” a workshop we’re co-hosting with OutNebraska about how to help folks understand and support LGBTQ+ folks
September 23, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Social Justice Documentary (Title TBA)
October 10, 4-6 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest
October 15, 1-3 PM: “Prison Abolition for Beginners,” a community discussion
October 28, 7-10 PM: Halloween Movie Night – Jordan Peele’s Candyman
November 10, 7-8:30 PM: Intersectiona-LEE-ty: How Bruce Lee Embodies Intersectionality, a digital discussion with Professor Lori Dance (this will be recorded as well)
November 18, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Judas and the Black Messiah

3. Website Improvements – We spent the last hour of the meeting in an extended discussion about the improvements we want to see made on our website. We’re eager to see what Marc can do with our ideas.

Meeting adjourned: 8:55 PM

Tabled Issues: Emailing list, indoor tour video/photography

Meeting Start: 7:20 PM
In attendance: Ty, Marc (secretary), Wyatt, Jackson, Luz

Upcoming Event: Zine Workshop

• Marc is basically prepared for the event on August 27. He will provide a list of supplies to be made available during the zine workshop.
• Marc will also take point on contacting a local repair shop to see about getting the HDMI port on the projector fixed, since having the ability to project his laptop screen would be ideal.

Library Donations

• Jackson donated a huge stack of books. Ty and Marc also donated a few books and a zine.
• A donor reached out to us via email with a list of books she had and was willing to donate. We received the package of books and are very thankful for the donation!

Emails

• We received emails regarding screening documentaries that largely deal with racial justice in the United States. The emails included information about the documentaries, as well as offering promotional materials, etc. if we wanted to host a screening.
• The documentaries are: “The Color of Care,” which is about how the medical system often fails people of color; “Recipe for Change,” a documentary about Black women celebrities.
• Jackson has already filled out the form for “The Color of Care,” as its topic is more relevant to what we discuss at the Black Cat House. We have yet to hear back with more information for showing this documentary. If we get the ability to show this documentary, we will include it with our Fall calendar.

Fall Calendar

• We more or less finalized our Fall calendar events:
• September 11, 1-3 PM: “Urban Foraging,” a tour about recognizing edible plants
• September 15, 7 PM: “Changing Hearts and Minds: Talking to your Family and Neighbors about LGBTQ+ People,” a workshop we’re co-hosting with OutNebraska about how to help folks understand and support LGBTQ+ folks
• September 23, 7 PM: Movie night, yet to be determined based on if we hear back regarding “The Color of Care”
• October 10, 4-6 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest
• October 15, 1-3 PM: “Prison Abolition for Beginners,” a community discussion
• October 28, 7 PM: Halloween Movie Night – Jordan Peele’s Candyman
• November 10, 7-8:30 PM: Intersectiona-LEE-ty: How Bruce Lee Embodies Intersectionality, a digital discussion with Professor Lori Dance (this will be recorded as well)
• November 18, 7 PM: Movie night, yet to be determined; might be either Judas and the Black Messiah or a trans-themed documentary for Trans Day of Remembrance
• Marc will work on the Fall calendar design, which should be done before next week. We will finalize the exact movies at our next meeting.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Issues: Emailing list, site discussion, indoor tour video/photography

Our next meeting (8/22) will be a working meeting regarding our website updates.

Jackson was the only one available tonight, so there was no meeting. We’ll try again next week.