8/3/20 Minutes: The Future?

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

7/20/20 Minutes: Fall Calendar, Ferguson Movie?

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

6/8/20 Minutes: Gardening Day, Bail Fund

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty

Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Gardening Day – After working out a few details, we got the event up on Facebook. We’re excited for this Saturday.

2. Bail Fund – There have been some technical snags getting the bail fund set up. We’re hoping to have the bank account squared away in the next few days, as well as getting a burner cell phone to be the public contact for anyone who needs our help. In the meantime, we’ll start promoting on social media now and soliciting for cash donations from our friends. Regardless of how long the demand holds up for this service in the current wave of BLM protests, we are prepared to offer this service for the long-term.

Meeting adjourned: 7:50 PM

6/1/20 Minutes: Bail Fund, Garden Day

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc (by videochat), Ty (by videochat), Wyatt

Start time: 7:15 PM

  1. Bail Fund – We are committing to starting a bail fund to help with the legal costs of the many protesters being targeted by the police during this crisis. We’re looking into starting a bank account to make soliciting online donations easier.

2. Garden Day – Ty will try to draft a description for our upcoming garden day, now that he has a list of projects from Wyatt. There was some discussion of whether it would be appropriate to move forward with promoting this event since there is also a BLM rally happening at the Capitol at noon. Since our event starts much earlier, we’re currently planning to go ahead and also promote that rally on our event page.

Meeting adjourned: 8:00 PM

5/25/20 Minutes: Upcoming Events

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (via video chat)

Start time: 7:20 PM

  1. Upcoming Event: Our reading discussion on the “Image of the Anarchist” is this Saturday. At Bailey’s suggestion (via group chat before the meeting), we will try our luck with the encrypted, open-source video chat service Jitsi. A PDF of the reading has been posted to the event page tonight, but Ty is unsure whether he and Marc will have enough time to retype it into an easier-to-read document for those with visual impairments. The PDF is, at least, pretty clean and not too hard to read for anyone with pretty good vision.
  2. Summer Calendar: We are done with it and it has been shared to our Facebook. The Garden Day for June is already coming up quick, as it will be two weeks from this Saturday. We need to get that up to Facebook very soon; Ty is willing to help draft it, but he will need a list of likely projects from Wyatt to finish it.

Meeting adjourned: 8:03 PM

5/4/2020 Minutes: Very Informal Meeting

In attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary), Wyatt

1. May Discussion: Marc and Ty are working on getting the article ready for online reading, and Ty will get the event up for it before this coming Friday.

2. Summer Calendar: We’ve decided to keep the summer calendar very informal. June will have another gardening day, July will have What is Ecofascism (which will be online if need be), and August will have a harvest day for the garden. Next week we’ll decide on set dates and times.