9/11/17 Minutes: Event Review, AK Press

In Attendance: Chris, Jackson (secretary), James, Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We had our reading/discussion group on “Everyday Anti-Fascism in the Era of Trump.” We had a good turnout, and a pretty lively discussion. We probably should’ve moderated better, as it was heated at a couple of points. Ty thinks we could’ve been more assertive. James thinks we should’ve asked more questions to maybe better understand some of the disagreements in the room.

2. Railroad Safety/Solidarity – Chris gave a report back on railroad safety and the legal importance of a current legal case against two Canadian rail workers.

3. DSA Fundraiser – James reported back on the DSA fundraiser in town last night.

4. AK Press Sale – Ty informed the group of AK Press having a sale on their books. We spent the rest of the meeting looking into adding some anarchist literature to our lending library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

8/28/17 Minutes: September 25th Meeting, Button Labels

In Attendance: Dino, Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review: We hosted “Dismantling the Patriarachy: Via Communication.” Jackson reports that it went well, that he paid out the $50 speaker’s stipend we agreed to last week, and that our speaker Serendipiti may be in town for a while longer and expressed interest in doing more workshops here soon. We would be excited to host her again.

2. Upcoming Event: Jackson reports that the Lincoln DSA will be hosting a discussion on Venezuela here tomorrow evening. He will be opening up and having the room ready for them.

3. Self-Care For Activists: Ty reports that there will be an interesting event on campus on Monday, September 25th called “How to Change the World and Have a Good Time: Self-Care For Activists” from 7:30-9 PM in the New Cather Dining Center. We agree that we’d like to check that out, so we’ll cancel our meeting that week.

4. Graphic Designer: Ty has friends volunteering to design buttons for us! And he has a lot of ideas for new designs and updates on our existing inventory. Tabled to next week.

5. Labels for Buttons: Jackson reports that he can get us 100 sheets/12,000 labels for $29.90 including shipping. Ty thinks we can burn through those eventually, and suggests that we go for it! Jackson placed the order at the meeting and will be reimbursed $29.90 for the labels.

6. September Web Events: We spent the rest of our meeting posting our movie nights for the latter part of September.

Meeting adjourned: 8:18 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

8/14/17 Meeting Minutes: Solidarity for CVille, Fall Calendars!, Last-Minute Events?!

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We ran Fukushima Uncensored (maybe) on Friday night. Jackson may have accidentally loaded the wrong documentary, which had also been posted to YouTube under the same title. We had a great turnout though, and a pretty lively discussion afterward.

2. Vigil – We co-hosted an emergency vigil along with DSA Lincoln on behalf of the anti-fascists attacked by Neo-Nazis in CVIlle, Virginia this weekend. On less than 36 hours notice, we helped to rally about 500 people to Downtown Lincoln and raised almost $1000 for the survivors’ medical bills.

3. Solidarity Donation for CVille – We’ll also make a $50 donation to the comrades in Virginia from our treasury.

4. Reimbursement – Ty got our fall calendars printed, and he needs to be reimbursed. We agree that he’ll get his $12.07 back.

5. Calendar distro – Ty and Jackson made plans to get our fall calendars up tomorrow.

6. September Reading Group – Jackson took a few minutes of our relatively light meeting to get our first fall event up to Facebook, and Ty copied it to our website.

7. Last-minute Summer Events – DSA has contacted Jackson today about running another Young Socialists educational discussion on Tuesday the 29th. Jackson is free that day, so he’ll open up the House and host them.

We’ve also received an email about a travelling speaker who wants to host a workshop called “Dismantling the Patriarchy: Via Communication” here on Saturday the 26th from 6-8 PM. We’re interested in this event, and Jackson can open the House and host. Jackson will call the provided number and work out the logistics.

Meeting adjourned: 7:50 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop

7/31/17 Minutes: Website Renewal, PayPal button, Fall Calendar

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Upcoming Event – “What is Anarchism?” is this Saturday! We should read up a bit, and share it on Facebook. We should be ready by Saturday.

2. Web Renewal – Our website hosting is due for its annual renewal expenses. It will cost Jackson $193.39, and we agree he will be reimbursed from the treasury.

3. Fundraiser – Ty took a few minutes of meeting time to make some changes to our website to better accomodate Robert’s fundraiser. We now have a PayPal button!

4. Fall Calendar –

September:
Saturday, September 9, 1-3 PM: Reading Group:“Everyday Anti-Fascism in the Era of Trump” (https://roarmag.org/magazine/everyday-anti-fascism-trump/)
Friday, September 22nd, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by Lincoln DSA): Blade Runner
TBD: Another movie night?

October:
Friday, October 13, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by Lincoln DSA): They Live
Saturday, October 21, 1-3 PM: Factory Farming Awareness Coalition Presentation: Impacts of our Food Choices
TBD: Another movie night?

November:
Friday, November 3rd, 6-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by Lincoln DSA): Reds (1981)
Saturday, November 11th, 1-3 PM: The Russian Revolution: 100 Years Later (a community discussion)
Friday, November 17th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Sir! No Sir!

TBD: Family Movie Night: The Brave Little Toaster (potentially collaborating with the Repair Cafe? The themes of the film and why we’d show it in the first place also meshes nicely with their mission. Jackson will message folks he knows from that group on whether they would want to co-sponsor the event somehow)

Future ideas:
Discussion Group: “10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race” (https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/10-things-every-white-teacher-know-talking-race)

Ty’s unavailability (greyout days): September 22, 29, 30; October 27
Football game days (blackout): September 2, 16, 23; October 7, 14; November 4, 24
DIO Fest September 14-17th
UNL Fall Break October 14th-15th
Thanksgiving November 24th-26th

5. Sama – Jackson tried to contact Sama today for follow-up on her touring plans, but she did not respond to him in time for a report at this meeting. Tabled.

Meeting adjourned: 8:18 PM

Tabled items: Sama, Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop

7/17/17 Minutes: Popcorn Politics, Fall Calendar

In Attendance: Anthony, Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review: We co-hosted the movie Pride with the Lincoln DSA. It was a good turnout and a really good film. Jackson says we should consider running it again.

2. Upcoming Events: We’re hosting a DSA discussion on Wednesday and running The Great Dictator on Friday night. We’re ready for them, but Ty reminds us to make sure we promote it well on Facebook.

3. Popcorn Politics:

September: We have decided to start the series on Friday, September 22nd. This is in accordance with two polls on the DSA Facebook, which stated a preference for Friday nights and no preference as for which Friday in September. We have decided that we will run Blade Runner for the first movie night. Anthony will run two more polls on the DSA Facebook to see about film and date preferences for October. We decided we will let the winner of the poll be our October film. It will be an open poll, but it should be pre-loaded with the following films that have already been recommended:

They Live
Reds
Get Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
Snowpiercer

4. Fall Calendar:

September:
Friday, September 22nd, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted by Lincoln DSA): Blade Runner

October:
TBD: Popcorn Politics #2
Saturday, October 21, 1 to 3 PM: Factory Farming Awareness Coalition Presentation

November:
TBD: Popcorn Politics #3
Date TBD: Movie Night: Sir! No Sir!

Ideas:
Discussion Group: “10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race” (https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/10-things-every-white-teacher-know-talking-race) OR “Everyday Anti-Fascism in the Era of Trump” (https://roarmag.org/magazine/everyday-anti-fascism-trump/)
Family Movie Night: The Brave Little Toaster (potentially collaborating with the Repair Cafe? The themes of the film and why we’d show it in the first place also meshes nicely with their mission. Jackson will message folks he knows from that group on whether they would want to co-sponsor the event somehow)
October Revolution 100 year anniversary: Movie Night “Reds” (potentially part of Popcorn Politics) AND also a discussion event.

Ty’s unavailability (greyout days): September 22, 29, 30; October 27
Football game days (blackout): September 2, 16, 23; October 7, 14; November 4, 24
DIO Fest September 14-17th
UNL Fall Break October 14th-15th
Thanksgiving November 24th-26th

5. August Events – We still need to get them posted to our website and Facebook, but we don’t have time or energy left to do that tonight! Tabled.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled items: August events, Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

7/3/17 Minutes: A Very Short, Internet-less Meeting

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Event Reviews – We showed Paris is Burning on Friday night. The turnout was low, as unfortunately we wound up competing against a fundraiser at the Indian Center.

We also hosted our discussion on Racism, Capitalism, and the American Revolution on Saturday afternoon. We had a good turnout, and a lively discussion. We were even visited by an anarchist from Sweden!

We wound up having two pretty good events, even if we awkwardly dealt with not having Internet access at the House this weekend!

Meeting adjourned: 7:20 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

6/19/17 Minutes: Questions for Robert, Tilted Scales Recap

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

1. Event Reviews – Jude from Tilted Scales was here on Friday night. Our turnout was a bit disappointing, but it was a late-minute scheduling move and we didn’t get much time to promote it. We’re still glad we were able to meet and hear from him, and get a copy of his book for the lending library. He was paid a $100 stipend from our Speakers Treasury, as was agreed upon at last week’s meeting.

We also tried to host a reading discussion on Saturday afternoon, but it was a bust too! We did end up scheduling at the same time as a Juneteenth celebration downtown, which may have hurt us. (It was being celebrated two days early… we may need to avoid scheduling anything on this whole week of June in the future.) Jackson would like to try another one in the fall.

2. Tabling Invite – We got a mass email from Star City Pride wondering if we want to table there again this year. (We tabled there once several years ago.) We are not interested, because we are unable and unwilling to pony up $120 for that privilege.

3. Interview Questions – We finished our interview questions for Robert, and Ty emailed them out to him.

4. Putting July Events Online – We spent the rest of our meeting as work time to get our July events posted to Facebook and our website.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled items: Interview Questions for Robert, Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

6/5/17 Minutes: A Quick and Fairly Uneventful Meeting

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

1. Event Review – Jackson hosted a DSA discussion group here on Thursday night. It went well.

2. Upcoming Event – Jackson is hosting another DSA discussion here on Wednesday evening. It’s nothing to worry about.

3. Donations – Jackson picked up a 3-ring binder and three books for our library at a yard sale this weekend. Since it cost him less about $1.25 for everything, he doesn’t want to be reimbursed.

4. Book Festival – We were invited to table at a book festival. While it sounds cool enough that we may want to visit it, we’re not entirely sure that we fit in well enough that it would be worth us sitting outside all day in the July heat at a table. Ty politely declined the invitation on our behalf, and we saved the date so we can maybe check it out.

Meeting adjourned: 7:17 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

5/22/17 Minutes: Upcoming Speakers, Summer Calendars Printed

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

1. Event Reviews – We showed Harlan County, USA on Friday night. We enjoyed the movie. We also had our first Little Red Singalong on Saturday. We had fun, but we wish we’d had a bigger turnout. Ty suggests possibly scheduling the next one if possible with a confirmed day and time that a local musician would commit to, and maybe use that for promotion. (Singing along with YouTube videos wasn’t ideal.)

2. Upcoming Event – We’re showing Dr. Who on Friday. We’re ready for it.

3. Summer Calendars – Our summer calendars are printed. Jackson picked them up, and asks to be reimbursed $19.73. We’re all cool with that. We also started to discuss our distro plans. Jackson notes that he’s ordered a paper cutter, and tracking indicates it will probably arrive in a day or two; we’ll wait for that to arrive to make cutting our handbills apart easier.

4. Messages – We got two messages. We’ve been emailed from a contact that we initially met at Earth Day who is interested in giving a talk on industrial agriculture and environmental racism. We’re very interested, but think we’ll be a better fit in the fall. Ty will respond to the message.

We also got messaged on Facebook about a speakers’ tour by the Tilted Scales Collective, who do radical legal support. They may be passing through here on or near June 16th, and we’re very interested in hosting one of their talks if they can make it. Jackson responded to the message, and we’ll be waiting on further information as this develops.

Meeting adjourned: 8:01 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

5/8/17 Minutes: Summer Calendar is Finalized!

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Reviews – Jackson hosted a DSA Study group here a couple of weeks ago. It went well, and we’re planning to host their next one on May 25th also. We also wound up hosting a May Day get-together on April 30th, since the weather was too nasty to be outside that day. We had a good turnout, and hopefully we made good connections to build toward next year’s May Day. We also tabled last Saturday at the Residents Together resource fair at F St. Rec Center. We passed out some buttons and zines, got some generous donations, and hopefully made some old and new contacts there.

2. Upcoming Event – Our Trans clothing swap is this weekend! We need to get our donations out of the basement in the next few days; this will also be a good opportunity to judge which of our non-clothing donations will be most Craigslist-worthy (as we substitute this for our annual yard sale fundraiser).

3. Summer Calendar –

June:
Saturday, June 17th, 1-3 PM – Reading Group: “How Free is Higher Education?” by Howard Zinn
Friday, June 30th, 7-10 PM – Movie Night: Paris is Burning (a documentary about drag balls in Harlem)

July:
Saturday, July 1st, 1-3 PM – Racism, Capitalism, and the American “Revolution” (a community discussion)
Friday, July 21st, 7-10 PM – Movie Night: The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin’s famous spoof on Hitler and fascism)

August:
Saturday, August 5th, 1-3 PM – What is Anarchism? (a community discussion)
Friday, August 11th, 7-10 PM – Fukushima Uncensored (a documentary about the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan)
Monday, August 21st, 7 PM – Queer Folk-Punk from Wisconsin! Sama and Bloth Summer Tour

Ideas for Fall: Collaborate with DSA on “popcorn politics” movie night? (They Live, RoboCop); “10 things every white teacher should know when talking about race” but he feels the points made were general enough that they could apply to anyone. (https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/10-things-every-white-teacher-know-talking-race/)

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled items: Articles for Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)