In attendance: Arya, Dan, Jackson, Rae (secretary), Salem

Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – Our latest garden day workshop was on Saturday. We had to improvise, with our planned event leader Wyatt unable to make it. We had a large turnout, possibly due to our Facebook event being seen by many unusual suspects (50+ “interested”, many of whom we aren’t connected to). Rae points out that we need to get back to our habit of passing handbills to event attendees. Hopefully we’ll see some of those new faces again soon.
2. Upcoming Event – Our Salt of the Earth movie night is this Friday night. We want to invest in blackout curtains soon, as glare from the window was a factor in our last movie night. Jackson needs to do some serious room prep, but we should be good to go.
3. Summer Calendar –
   Thursday, June 1st, 7-10 PM — Black Cat House 10th Anniversary Movie Night: Sorry to Bother You
   Saturday, June 24th, 1-3 PM — “Transport” reading discussion (need help from Marc and Ty naming this event)
   Tuesday, July 18th OR Wednesday, July 19th, 7-9? PM — Conflict Transformation Workshop (Rae and Rae’s friend need to finalize exact day and time and event title)
   Saturday, August 12th, 1-3 PM — The Rise of Right-Wing Cults (a community discussion)
   Friday, August 25th, 7-10 PM — Movie Night: Hail Satan
   
   Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Jake (late), Jim, Marc, Margaret, Wyatt
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – Our trans issues discussion drew a full house! Our great turnout is probably a testament to the timeliness of the issue and our co-sponsors at OutNebraska helping us to advertise. Marc sent a follow-up email out with some of the information that we were discussing. Wyatt thinks the conversation could have been a little smoother if we had a designated moderator.
2. Sign-making Party for Trans Day of Visibility? – There will be a potentially large protest at the Capitol on Friday evening, as it is also Trans Day of Visibility. Ty recommended via the Discord chat that we should open up the House for a sign-making party for folks. Marc will take the lead, and Jackson will be here as well. Jim volunteers to bring us more posterboards. We will go from 6-8 PM officially. Marc will spearhead the internet advertising for this.
3. Library Donation – Margaret backed the crowdfunding for a new PM Press book about sex workers. We are happy to add it to our lending library.
4. April Events – We don’t need a full Facebook event for our tabling at Earth Day, but Marc has a couple of ideas for posts as we get closer to Lincoln Earth Day. Wyatt will prepare a rough draft for the Snowpiercer movie night. He may also have a few ideas for the garden day, but he may need help with fleshing that out with Ty and Marc.
5. Sticker Order – Marc has quotes back from the sticker maker. We will be moving forward with 100 apiece of the two most popular designs and 50 apiece of the other designs. We will be spending $283.59, and Marc is going to be fronted the money to make that order this week.
6. Earth Day Tabling – Ty and Marc have a mockup for their “interactive activity” board for the Earth Day table. Marc says that they feel confident that they will be able to build this board.
7. Website – Marc met with Ty and Rae on Saturday before the event and made good progress on some of the pages that we need to get filled on the new version of the website. Wyatt has also been doing some writing for the new website. Jackson will start work on the group’s history page this week.
8. Summer Calendar Brainstorming – reusing the TRANSport article, another Gaming the System, a BCH birthday celebration (Thursday, June 1st?), Hail Satan? documentary showing, discussion about cultural hegemony? TABLED

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

Tabled Items: Summer Calendar

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Rae, Ty, Wyatt (late)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Calendar Distro/Reimbursement – Jackson has done most of downtown and Wyatt has done South Street. We divided up the rest of the spots on our distro list. Jackson requests reimbursement for picking up the calendars; it was $20.70. Reimbursement was approved.
2. Earth Day Booth – We had an extended discussion about the themes of the materials that we want to make and distribute at our Earth Day booth. Marc has created a few designs and shared them via the Discord. We bounced a lot of other slogans and sticker/button concepts around, but we have not found consensus on whether we want to prioritize agitational/edgy stuff vs more inspirational stuff.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

In attendance: August, Jackson (secretary), Rae, Ty
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Prep for Earth Day Booth – We spent time brainstorming ideas for buttons, zines, and information for our display critical of greenwashing.
2. Library Donation – Jackson has a new book for the library. Hooray!

Meeting adjourned: 8:05 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc
Start time: 7:20 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re running The Killing Floor on Friday night. We have some tidying of the space to do before then, but otherwise we’re good.
2. Library Update – Jackson has four more books for our library. Marc reports that he has found a way to attach our LibraryThing database to his draft to the new website!
3. New Website Updates – Marc has been hard at work designing the next version of our website. He has also made some tweaks to hopefully reduce the amount of spam we get to our “contact” email, and created a list on our Discord with a list of the content that we will need to write to fill out the core pages of the new website.
4. Tabling Opportunities – Marc has created task lists for what we need to get done to table at Lincoln Earth Day and Star City Pride and posted them on our Discord. Marc has also been working on our application for Lincoln Earth Day. Marc has been very busy! The application is probably ready to be submitted, but Ty and Marc will need treasury money in advance. Pride is actually less work to apply for, but more expensive.

Meeting adjourned: 8:40 PM

Tabled: Tabling Opportunities, Website, Spring Calendar

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty
Start time: 7:20 PM

1. Event Review – We counter-protested the Walk For Life on Saturday. Our crowd was smaller than usual, probably because of the bitterly cold weather. Jackson noted that most of our regulars from years past were conspicuosly absent, and that almost all of our people were first-timers.
2. Library Donation – Jackson has more books for the library. Ty and Marc like them.
3. Tabling Opportunities – We are committing to tabling at Earth Day and Star City Pride. We are allocating $125 out of our treasury to cover the cost of tabling at both events. We need to figure out some specifics, but our time was short, so the issue is TABLED.
4. Spring Calendar –

Black Musicians and Liberation – Early March?

Tabling @ Lincoln Earth Day – April 15th

Yard Sale Fundraiser – Friday, May 26th and Saturday, May 27th (tentatively)

Trans Issues Reading Discussion – TBA

Movie(s)?

Something for May Day?

TABLED: Future Tabling, Website Timeline

Meeting adjourned: 8:40 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – It is time for us to counter-protest the Walk For Life this Saturday! Jackson will be opening up the house on Friday night for anyone who needs to make a sign. Marc and Ty will be handling any need for childcare on Saturday. Jackson will be downtown with the signs for the protest.
2. Library – Jackson has a few more books for the library. Ty and Marc like them. Ty and Marc are tentatively planning to do some library work on Saturday if there’s no child-minding to do.
3. February Events – We need to get our February events up online ASAP! Ty and Marc volunteer bravely to get those events drafted.
4. Tabling Opportunities – Ty has been contacted with opportunities for us to table at Lincoln Earth Day (Saturday, April 15th) and Star City Pride (Friday, June 9th and Saturday, June 10th). We probably have funds in the treasury to reserve tables and invest in some new Black Cat swag for said table. We have details to work out, and not enough time tonight to figure it out. TABLED.
5. Website Timeline – We have no time to discuss this tonight, unfortunately. TABLED.
6. Spring Calendar –

We want to do a reading discussion around Ty’s article about trans issues. We will approach OutNebraska to see if they want to co-sponsor.

TABLED ITEMS: Tabling Opportunities, Website Timeline

Meeting adjourned: 8:50 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Rae, Ty

Start time: 7:20 PM

1. Event Review – We had our documentary/discussion on company towns on Saturday, but no one outside of the collective attended! We still had a good discussion, but we think we should do more basic/accessible programming for the spring. This subject may have been too niche to draw a crowd, considering our current struggles with in-person programming.
2. Spring Calendar brainstorming – In no particular order:

• Yard sale fundraiser
• Ty may have an article for a reading discussion about the current state of trans issues in this country.
• alternatives to police and prisons?
• Something with an Indigenous rights focus
• something related to local politics?

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

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

1. Library Donations – We had many books donated from several sources. We spent the first part of the meeting going through those and deciding which ones we’ll add to our library.
2. Upcoming Event – We have our video and discussion on “Corporate Control Over Public Space” here on Saturday afternoon. We are ready for this.
3. Counter-Protest – Jackson will get the event up tonight. We just hashed out the last few details. Jackson will open the house for sign-making the night before, and Marc and Ty will be here Saturday morning to offer childcare if needed.
4. Reimbursement for Thank-You cards – Marc needs to be reimbursed for picking up the Thank-You cards. He spent $46.93, and we will be paying him for his service.

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

In attendance: Isaac, Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty

Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Talking about spaces – We spent the first hour meeting with Isaac, who was involved with a defunct venue space called “HQ.” We had an open-ended talk about the history of HQ, Black Cat, and other similar community projects the Black Cats were familiar with. We hope the leadership behind HQ can rebuild that project someday soon.
2. Walk For Life Counter-protest – We need to get online advertising up for this ASAP, but Jackson needs help. Marc agrees to get the ball rolling with a rough draft.
3. Library Donations – Marc, Ty, and Jackson had several new books for our lending library, and everyone liked them.
4. Defining Documents – Marc and Ty have been considering revising and augmenting some of our defining documents to better describe ourselves (especially on our website). Ideas included: an extended, more detailed version of our mission statement; a code of conduct; and a history of the Black Cat House project. There was also some discussion about if/how we should better stay on task during meetings when new people show up to them and if/whether we should try to revive our Open Hours as a preferable format to introduce new people.

Meeting adjourned: 9:05 PM