In attendance: Audrey, Jackson (secretary), Maia, Payne, Salem
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Reimbursement – Jackson reserved our table at Lincoln Earth Day and got our spring calendars printed. Jackson will be reimbursed $35 for our table at Lincoln Earth Day and $44.57 for getting those calendars printed.
2. Spring Calendar Distro – The spring calendars are here! Jackson will get the Unitarian Church, Telegraph District, and UNL City Campus. Salem is doing the bulk of downtown, including the Haymarket. Payne will be distributing in some progressive churches. Audrey and Maia had a few places they could help with, too.
3. Online Promotion for Upcoming Events – Jackson will take point on getting the Killing Us Softly movie night up ASAP; we’ve run it before, so repurposing an old event description should be easy. Payne needs to come up with something ASAP for the mental health event (especially as it’s on an unusual night for one of our events); Jackson can help edit that. Payne should also start thinking about a description for the neurodiversity discussion in early April.
4. Summer calendar

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (African-American music month)

RENT OR Pride OR other queer movie (Payne exploring many possibilities)
Free Pride events to table at?

July 18th is Nelson Mandela International Day

Movies to commemorate the atomic bombing of Japan for August: Barefoot Gen, White Light/Black Rain

Malcolm X’s 100th birthday is in May; can we do something to honor that?

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Audrey, Jackson (secretary), Maia, Payne
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We had our Black History Month movie with the documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. Folks enjoyed the film, but the discussion was short and unfocused.
2. Spring Calendar – Payne reports that we’re having schedule conflicts with a guest speaker that he’s hoping will lead our trans mental health event. We’re tentatively offering to move that event to Thursday, March 27th, 7-9 PM to hopefully accommodate Payne’s contact. We will keep the neurodivergence discussion on April 5th, despite a possible conflict as April is really tight. We have to wait on the response from Payne’s contact before finalizing and printing the spring calendars.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

This meeting was canceled on short notice as Jackson was called out of state.

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Maia, Payne, Salem
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – Nobody showed up for our discussion on Saturday! The late advertising didn’t help. We’ll have to do better going forward.
2. Reimbursement – Jackson ordered the face masks we wanted to restock on, and they’re here. He will be reimbursed $24.27.
3. Lincoln Earth Day – We finally got the email from the organizers of Lincoln Earth Day. It looks like it will cost $35 for us to table there. Salem and Payne expressed interest in tabling for us, but they will need transportation.
4. Spring Calendar –

March

Saturday, March 15th, 1-3 PM: Winslow’s Wardrobe
Friday, March 21st, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Killing Us Softly 4
Satuday, March 29th [?], 1-3 PM: [Mental health resources for LGBTQ Folks… Payne is working to see if we can get someone here]

April

Friday, April 11th, 6-10 PM: Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Saturday, April 19th, 10 AM – 2 PM: Come see us at Lincoln Earth Day [@ Innovation Campus]
Saturday, April 26th, 1-3 PM: Autism as a Social Justice Issue (a community discussion)

May

Friday, May 9th, 8-6 PM and Saturday, May 10th, 8-2 PM: Annual Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 17th, 1-3 PM: [Payne’s Propaganda
Friday, May 30th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Matewan

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

In attendance: Audrey, Jackson (secretary), Payne, Salem
Start time: 7:07 PM

1. Event Review – We counter-protested the Walk for Life again on Saturday. Jackson reports that we had a turnout very similar to the past few years, and that the protest went off without any major issues.
2. Upcoming Event – We’ve got our critical look at Valentine’s Day coming up this Saturday, and we’re very behind on advertising it! Salem has struggled with drafting a description; Jackson agreed to take that on.
3. Spring Calendar –

March

Movie Night: Killing Us Softly 4
(Event where we share mental health resources for queer folks; Payne has some leads…; March 29th would be an ideal date)

April

Autism as a Social Justice Issue (a community discussion)
Tabling at Lincoln Earth Day (probably)

May
Movie Night: Matewan
Annual Yard Sale Fundraiser

Propaganda discussion and/or Manufacturing Consent documentary showing

Blackout date: Friday, March 14th

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

In attendance: Audrey, Jackson (secretary), Maia, Matt, Payne, Salem
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We had our LGBTQ Outlook discussion on Saturday. Aryn from OutNebraska was here and had a lot of information for us about the bills being proposed in this legislative session. We had a nice turnout, with a mix of old and new friends.
2. Upcoming Event – Our annual counter-protest of the Walk For Life is this Saturday. We’re ready for it.
3. Web Reimbursement – Jackson paid $36.17 for renewing one of our website domains. We’re cool with him being reimbursed for it.
4. Masks – Jackson thinks it’s time for us to buy another box of disposable face masks, as our current one is running low. Jackson will order one, and seek reimbursement for it when he has it.
5. Grant writing / 501c – Payne is interested in taking on some more ambitious projects which may necessitate more aggressive fundraising. Jackson stressed that the Black Cat House has never pursued an official 501c nonprofit status as doing so would likely limit the kinds of political speech we would be allowed to express. There was also some extended discussion about the availability of larger spaces for bigger events, and Jackson brought up how the Black Cats were part of the Red State conference in 2018 and 2019 that rented the Unitarian Church for day-long leftist conferences with attendance of 100+. And there are also sometimes possibilities for grassroots groups to partner with official 501cs on specific projects, where the grassroots folks can piggyback off the official status of the larger group in exchange for the latter getting a percentage of the grant money.
6. Spring Calendar – Our website is having issues and so our previous minutes were not accessible tonight! Here are some new ideas:

Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4 may be a good March film to add some feminist content
Maia suggested a mental health discussion; Payne added that perhaps a focus on LGBTQ mental health may be especially timely

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Sparrow, Wolf
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re welcoming our friends from OutNebraska back this Saturday as we host a community discussion on the “LGBTQ+ Outlook” for the year. We’re ready for it.

We spent the rest of the meeting on a more open-ended discussion as it was Sparrow and Wolf’s first time in the space.

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

In attendance: Aaron, Alex, Danni, Jackson (secretary), Squid
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – We ran the documentary Zapatista for our January movie. We had a strong turnout and a long, spirited discussion.
2. Inauguration Day Protest – Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Lincoln and Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) are organizing an Inauguration Day protest at the Capitol building, and the Black Cats have been invited to join. Jackson is unable to commit on behalf of the whole group; some of us may attend as individuals.
3. DSA Book Club – Aaron helps to run DSA Lincoln’s book club, which is currently reading Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. He is interested in having some later installments of his book club hosted in our space. Jackson let him know that we previously hosted a few DSA reading group meetings back in 2017, and that we would probably be interested in having them here again. That discussion will continue.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – We’re kicking off our winter calendar with our “Being Prepared for Trump” reading discussion. Jackson is still looking at trimming our article down, as it’s a bit longer than we prefer for this event format. He will get them printed before Saturday.
2. Winter Calendars – We still need to get a few minor adjustments on them before we can get them printed. Jackson will get them printed as soon as they are ready. Salem is standing by to start distro.
3. New Zines! – Historical Seditions mailed us some pretty cool zines. Thanks, y’all!

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

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

1. Reimbursement – Jackson got us more face masks. He will be reimbursed $27.35.
2. Stickers – Marc will be finalizing that order and getting it done in the next couple of days. We should get our stuff well before Earth Day.
3. Blackout Curtains – We will need them soon for our movie nights, with the days getting longer. Marc is on it! He will be reimbursed.
4. April Newsletter – Jackson is still working on this. He’ll try to get it out this year.
5. April Events – We have a draft for our discussion on April 14th, but we want to get our speaker’s blessing on it before we publish it. We also still need to get events drafted for the Israelism movie and Garden Day.
6. Summer Calendar

Marc suggests that the Soviet WWII/anti-war film Come and See might be a good movie night, but also acknowledged that it might be too intense. Previewing is advised. We probably don’t have space for it on the summer calendar, but we should keep it in mind for fall.

Marc and Ty are cautiously optimistic about our chances for running To Wong Foo for a Pride Month movie. Salem wasn’t available tonight, and we don’t have a report from them about the movie yet.

Marc and Ty were open to doing a good Godzilla movie for August. Minus One might be relevant, but one of us may have to preview it to be sure. Doing the 1954 original is also still an option, since it’s been many years since we last ran it.

Marc and Ty were both pretty enthusiastic about Matt’s suggestion of Strange Victory. Marc suggested that it may make a good June movie, to tie into the anniversary of D-Day.

Meeting adjourned: 9:00 PM