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)

2/11/19 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

1/21/19 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,

12/17/18 Minutes: Library Checkout, January Events, Red State II?

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

1. Event Review – We ran Sorry to Bother You for our Popcorn Politics on Friday. We had our best turnout for a movie in quite some time, including some new faces and some old friends we hadn’t seen in a while! The discussion was good, but half of the room hadn’t seen the movie before and the film has a lot to unpack after seeing it for the first time. Ty wonders whether we should make more of an effort to pre-screen our films as a collective and prepare some questions or discussion prompts for future movie nights, in case discussion starts slowly.

2. Upcoming Event – We won’t be meeting again before our discussion, Socialist Cuba at 60, on January 5th. We have some work to do; we want to offer a short presentation if anyone shows up who doesn’t know much (we’ll establish that with the intros, and skip it if everyone is already up to speed).

3. Red State II – Jackson reports that discussions are underway to begin planning for a second Red State conference, and that the planning committee has asked us to host their next meeting in early January. We are on board, and looking forward to building Red State II.

4. Library Checkout – Wyatt proposes that we have a nice, visible binder with contact sheets for library checkouts on our desk. He thinks it may encourage more people to check out our books. We’re going to give it a shot!

5. AK Press – We got our monthly Friends of AK Press shipment with two new books for our library!

6. January Events – We spent the rest of our meeting working on getting our January events up online.

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, PKK/Bookchin Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

12/10/18 Minutes: Triumph Donation, New Books

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

Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Upcoming Events – Sorry to Bother You is on Friday, and we are very excited. We have a DVD identified and it will be hand delivered this week. We are expecting around 10 people. Cleaning will be done before Tuesday so we should only need to do a once over with the vacuum on Friday.

The Library Cart will be updated with books relevant to Sorry to Bother You.

2. Library Donations
Wyatt donated the Crazy Horse:The Lakota Warrior Life and Legacy book signed by Grandson of Crazy Horse to the BCH Library.
Two books sent by Ty’s pseudo- social democrat secret admirer are added to the library. Can Democracy Survive Capitalism, Robert Kuttner. The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi. The arguments may not fit our perspective but it is a reference nevertheless.
Several books left in the box of donations by Brian are added to the library.

3. Printer donation – The Triumph working class magazine needs a new printer desperately. They still need $1000. BCH would like to donate. Black Cat House agrees to give $75 now. We will consider another donation in the near future. We will also share on our social media and include the link here. Consider Donating to support this very important publication! https://www.gofundme.com/x73j5k-help-the-triumph-buy-a-printer?fbclid=IwAR2Sf_PxZHJr30D-b4bM1KPWl62C-Ny8iDTPB56G6Cei13yupFgeOU7Indo

4. January Events – We still need to three of our January events up online. We spent remaining meeting time working on a draft for January’s Popcorn Politics.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, PKK/Bookchin Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), AK Press reimbursement

11/19/18 Minutes: Winter Calendars, Che Book Talk

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

1. Event Review – We showed Tough Guise here on Friday night. We had a decent turnout and a great discussion.

2. Winter Calendars – Our winter calendars are here! Ty got them printed, and will be reimbursed $7.60 for getting that done for us. Now we need to get them distributed!

3. Che Event – Ty reports that Francie & Finch has not responded to his email, so it looks like we’re hosting it here. He will contact the author to get into the details of scheduling.

4. Work Time – We spent the rest of our meeting drafting our description for our Sorry to Bother You movie night and starting to re-sort our library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), AK Press reimbursement

11/12/18 Minutes: Winter Calendar Finalization, More New Books

In Attendance: Ty, Chris, Casey, Jackson (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)
Start Time: 7:05pm

1. Event Review
Movie Night: Johnny Got His Gun. We had a nice turnout with some new people and some people we hadn’t seen in awhile. Enjoyed an enthusiastic and analytical discussion after the movie.

2. Upcoming Event
Tough Guise was checked out of the library, so we have the DVD. Copy may be damaged so Ty will preview it. If needed will service at Game Room. Scheduled for Nov 16, this Friday.

3. Books
Mutual Aid Event, 17 zines, Puerto Rico Graphic Novel, Gardening in your Apartment, 5 Ak Press Books. $81 to Wyatt. Reimbursement in order.

Finally received last three items from Kerspelpedeb! Shipment Finalized. $74.95 to Jackson. Reimbursement in order.

Still waiting on final items from AK Press….tabled.

4. Che Event
Heard back from Indigo Bridge Books, unfortunately they are not interested in hosting the event. Ty will reach out to Francie & Finch bookshop and ask if they would like to host. Last resort remains doing it at BCH.

5. Winter Calender
We finalized the winter calender! Going to print this week and events will start to go up online shortly. Jackson will post online event for Gentrification discussion ASAP. Then outreach to the other orgs we would like to invite to be involved.

Tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), AK Press reimbursement