In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Marc (briefly, late, by phone)
Start time: 7:07 PM

1. Event Reviews – We haven’t met in three weeks, so we have had three events since our last meeting!

We had two online events, Professor Lynn’s CRT talk and our friend Aryn’s talk on Title 11. Marc stayed home tonight to work on editing those talks for our YouTube channel. We did have minor issues with Jitsi on both events, with the recording stopping prematurely and having to be restarted. We also still need to get Ty reimbursed for upgrading his Dropbox account to hold the files from these video recordings.

We also had our latest reading discussion this last Saturday. The turnout was low, but it was a good discussion.

2. Yard Sale – The yard sale is coming up next weekend. We’re now publicly accepting donations. We’re not sure at the moment if Wyatt will have time to build the temporary tables we enjoyed last year. Ty is not sure yet about his availability for next week, because of his work schedule. It sounds like we could really use some more volunteers to help us pull this off. We have a lot of uncertainty tonight, and we’ll have to continue planning logistics for this via the Discord as more details become known.
3. Buttons – Marc has pressed some prototype Black Cat House swag buttons. They are very cool! And we are excited to have swag with our name/logo on them at last. Marc has offered to make more buttons, possibly as things to sell at the yard sale. This is a good idea in theory, but we’re not sure what designs those would be.
4. Niskithe Prayer Camp – We extend our solidarity with the Niskithe Prayer Camp trying to save the Native sweat lodges here in Lincoln. We will be donating $200 to their PayPal.
5. Summer Calendar –

June or July: Movie Night: Pride
July or June: Some kind of discussion on abortion rights; Marc will reach out to a professor contact at UNL
August 27th, 1-3 PM: DIY Publishing: A Zine Workshop (working title)

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

No one was available to meet tonight. We’ll try again next week.

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

1. Event Review – We had an open house for our library on Saturday. We had a few people show up late, but it was generally not well attended. We did at least use the time to do a little bit of organizing in our library. We’re wondering if there just isn’t going to be an uphill climb to get people back into attending in-person events.
2. Upcoming Event – Our online discussion with Professor Marvin Lynn about Critical Race Theory is this Thursday! Ty helped Jackson send out a calendar reminder. We are excited for this!
3. Title 11 – We are pretty much ready for next Monday’s event. Ty experimented with the security options on the Jisti chatrooms, with promising results. THIS WILL PREEMPT NEXT MONDAY’S USUAL BCH HOUSE MEETING!
4. Accessibility – Ty has concerns about our accessibility given the current state of the house. It’s something that we’ll need to work on in the coming weeks.
5. Summer calendar – Jackson would like to keep the summer calendar light; exactly one scheduled event per month. We are considering a movie night for June; possible something queer, like Pride (2017). Ty also suggests having Marc run a zine workshop in late August, right when the university students are back on campus.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

In attendance: Heather, Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We are hosting a Library Open House on Saturday. We just need to clean up a bit, and we’ll be ready for it.
2. Library Donation – Dance donated three books on race to our lending library. We like them!
3. The Attack on LGBTQ Rights: A Q&A on Title 11 and the “Fairness Ordinance” [April Web Event #1] – Our friend Aryn from OutNebraska is ready to give their presentation to us on the current developments on the fight to protect LGBTQ people from legal discrimination. We are going to do this on Monday, April 25th in place of our usual Black Cat meeting, from 6-8 PM.
4. Facts and Fiction of Critical Race Theory [April Web Event #2] – We are still moving forward with Professor Marvin Lynn’s April 21st talk on CRT. It will be from 7-8:30 PM.
5. Jan 6th Reading Discussion – Jackson still needs to get this online, but it’s a little less urgent than the CRT event. TABLED.
6. Summer Calendar Planning – We didn’t have time to get started on this. TABLED.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

TABLED: January 6th Reading Discussion, Summer Calendar

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

Start time: 7:25 PM

1. We spent a lot of time informally discussing gardening projects.
2. Event Review – We had our latest Garden Day workshop on Saturday. It wasn’t well attended, but Jackson did get to meet and talk to someone who was new to the space and had been curious about us for a while.
3. Black Musicians and Liberation Video – Marc is still trying to get it uploaded to our YouTube page.

Tabled: April Online Events (Fairness Ordinance, Critical Race Theory), Summer Calendar

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – Garden Day is this Saturday. Wyatt says that we don’t have yard gloves that he’s comfortable giving to new people. We’re good with him buying some this week, and getting reimbursed for them at next week’s meeting.
2. Library Donation – Naomi brought several books for our lending library. We like them. Thanks, Naomi!
3. BML Video – Ty has been unable to download the video because his computer is junk. Marc will try it next, on his less-junky computer.
4. Gardening Email – Ty got a couple of emails from a neighbor interested in getting some help gardening. Ty will invite her to this Saturday’s garden day or we can possibly accommodate her at a future Monday meeting.
5. Library Open House – Marc and Ty’s draft in the group chat looks good, and it will be posted online very soon.
6. Yard Sale – Ty had to fix a glitch or mistake in our yard sale event, but it may have deleted some invitations. Thanks, Facebook. We’ll have to redo that.
7. Dropbox reimbursement – Ty’s premium Dropbox account is coming up for renewal for another month. We think we’ll need it for another, and we’ll reimburse him for that.
8. “Wilderness Crossing” Bullshit – Wyatt reports that there is a proposed 500-unit housing development being considered adjacent to Wildnerness Park. There is community resistance to the project, because it endangers both wildlife in the Wilderness Park area as well as two Native sweat lodges. Complaints to the zoning department are strongly encouraged before the deadline tomorrow morning and the official government hearing on the development on Wednesday.
9. Fairness Ordinance Discussion – We have an offer from our friend Aryn to give us an inforational presentation about the issues surrounding the controversies around the return of the “Fairness Ordinance.” We are interested in hosting such an event as soon as Aryn is ready to do it, since it may possibly come up to a vote as early as this spring. We are interested in doing this as an online event, and would prefer to record it if Aryn is comfortable with that. It would mean getting onto YouTube after the live event, and giving more people a chance to get that information.
10. Library Organization – Naomi has done a lot of work, but is moving out of state, and we will miss her terribly! She has a bit of a backlog of individual books to be manually inserted, but may still be able to work through those remotely for us. We have the login info for LibraryThing, so we will carry on with that. We also spent a bit of time when we had the whole group together to decide on a little bit of physical reorganization.

Meeting adjourned: 8:50 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty

1. Event Review – We hosted “Intersectional Feminism for Beginners” on Saturday. We had a small turnout, but did meet two new people and they seemed to have a good time. We may have been able to draw more people if we had advertised the event sooner.
2. Library Donation – Jackson has a few more books for our lending library. Marc and Ty like ’em, too.
3. Black Musicians and Liberation Video – Jackson has reached out to Monte, and Monte has agreed to edit the video for us again this year. He has also declined compensation. Thanks, Monte!
4. Upcoming CRT Talk – Jackson has been in communication with Professor Lynn, and we should have some final details to start advertising soon.
5. Advertising Upcoming Events – We need to get the April 2nd Garden Day workshop posted online ASAP; Wyatt is working on it. Marc and Ty will begin drafting our Library Open House Event, and Ty will also start work on drafting our advertising for the yard sale fundraiser. Jackson will be working on the May reading discussion.

Meeting adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – We had our second-annual Black Musicians and Liberation on Thursday night with Professor Kwame Dawes. It was really well attended, and there are already people asking when we’re going to get the video up. Marc is working on getting thank you notes for Kwame and Dance. Jackson will reach out to the friend who edited our video last year to see if he can help us edit the video again this year.
2. Upcoming Event – We’re hosting an in-person discussion this Saturday! We’re excited for Intersectional Feminism for Beginners. We have to clean up the event space a little bit, but it’ll be fine.
3. Reimbursement – Ty needed to upgrade his Dropbox storage account to save our video of Kwame’s talk, which is going to cost him $12 a month. He will be reimbursed, and we are tentatively pre-approving keeping his account upgraded at our expense until we’re done getting Kwame’s talk edited and uploaded to YouTube and we get Marvin Lynn’s upcoming Critical Race Theory talk recorded and edited.
4. Calendar distro – Wyatt hasn’t been able to get out to the Unitarian Church. Marc still needs to do his spots, but he’s planning to do it this week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – Our annual counter-protest of the Walk For Life is this Saturday. We are ready.
2. Library Donation – Jackson has two more books for the library this week. They’ll fit in nicely.
3. Spring Calendar –
   March – Open or Reading Discussion (preference to feminist topic?) OR Feminist Panel?
   Saturday, April 2nd, 1-3 PM – Garden Day workshop
   Late April – Digital Panel on Climate Change or Environmental Justice
   Early May – Open or Reading Discussion
   Friday, May 20th (8-6) and Saturday, May 21st (8-2) – Yard Sale Fundraiser

Possible discussion subject: current state of right-wing/proto-fascism; Jackson is investigating leads on a good article to build a discussion around.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

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

1. Event Review – Our Matrix movie night was a bust!
2. Next Week’s Meeting – We decided not to meet next week. Our next meeting will be on January 3rd.
3. Janurary 8th Panel – The event is now up on Facebook and the calendar on our website. Marc has designed and printed fliers, and we need to get them up around town this week, including at some of the more progressive churches. Our efforts to find a third panelist have seemingly fallen through, and we need to explore other leads if we’re going to add anyone else to the event.
4. Library Organization – Naomi was here with Jackson and Wyatt last Friday and we have our “Marginalized Identities” books on our new shelves. We need to decide what we want to put on our former Identity bookcase. There was discussion of wanting to put something of high priority and interest there, as that case is in the middle of the room and convenient to browse. There was some thought of putting up the communist/anarchist theory stuff, or possibly the environmentalist stuff. Jackson also has the thought of having a shelf of “Greatest Hits” or specific favorites or recommendations from the Black Cats. Ty added that we should possibly put more collaborative work into our library cart displays a la the staff recommendations shelf at local bookstores.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM