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

1. Event Review – We had our discussion on the Right’s censorship of education on Saturday, but the three of us were the only ones who came! We had a lot of social media buzz, so it seemed to be a relevant subject to many of our friends. But it obviously didn’t translate into turnout. We have questions about whether the continuing pandemic is keeping our kind of people at home. Wyatt thinks we should be more directly contacting friends who we think are specifically interested in the subject of a given event and relying less on Facebook.
2. October Events – We need to get to advertising our Anti-Columbus Day Protest as well as our Nightbreed movie night. Jackson volunteers to do the protest description. Ty and Marc will be screening Nightbreed this weekend, and will get that event description drafted soon afterwards. We’re thinking we should have an intermission about halfway through the two-hour movie, for a snack break outside. Otherwise, masks will be required on inside the house for the entirety of the event.
3. Library Update – Jackson reports that Naomi stopped by today to inventory more books for our fledgling library database. Thanks, Naomi!

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty
Start time: 7:25 PM

1. Calendar Distro Update – Ty has had a rough week and not been able to do what he meant to last week. Jackson is willing to help with distro. Ty still needs to get a few more printed. Jackson may be fliering in the Haymarket this week.
2. Hyping September Events – Ty will try his hand at drafting descriptions for our September events (another Garden Day and our Far Right vs Education discussion), as well as the upcoming Columbus Day protest in October.
3. Next Monday – With Marc and Ty unavailable next Monday, and Wyatt likely to still be out of state, we decided to cancel next Monday’s meeting. We will meet next on Monday, September 13th.

Meeting adjourned: 8:00 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had a garden workshop here on Saturday. We got a few beds cleared and cover crops planted. We had some family show up, but we didn’t necessarily get a great turnout. Ty points out that it was maybe unattractive to a lot of our people between the recent heat wave and climbing Delta Covid numbers. We’re doing another one next month, and we’re excited for it.
2. Library donation – Jackson has two new books for our library. Folks like ’em.
3. Fall calendar distro – Wyatt will do South Street tomorrow. Ty will do the UNL campus stuff, Haymarket, and Near-South. Marc will do the stuff that’s “drive-worthy.” Jackson will do rest of downtown.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – Garden Day is this Saturday, and we’re excited for it. Wyatt is supposed to be back in town to lead this, and Jackson will keep in touch with him in case there are any complications there.
2. Fall Calendar Distro – The calendars are getting printed this week. Ty has prepared a recent list on the Black Cat website of our potential fliering locations. We will discuss specific fliering commitments via the group chat later in the week.
3. Website – Marc has created a few new draft pages for our website update. The content is still very much subject to updating later, but progress is being made!
4. YouTube – Jackson hasn’t had time to update the outline draft for the indoor tour video. He’s still planning to get this done.

Meeting adjourned: 7:35 PM

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

1. YouTube – We’ve had a really nice reaction to the gardening video we put on YouTube last week! We spent some time brainstorming our next video, which should be an overview of the inside of our space to complement the garden overview video. Jackson volunteers to draft an outline for our content for this video and bring that to next Monday’s meeting. TABLED.
2. Website – We’re anxious to get our website overhauled! We need to get some content created and edited to fill out the new site. To-do list: Review defining documents, Describe events, Space description. Wyatt volunteers to start drafting outlines for this content. TABLED.
3. Upcoming Event – Wyatt got the event posted last Monday night. Invite your friends! He’s bought some seeds, and we’ll be doing some planting.
4. Murals – Jess is interested in painting murals on the plywood covering the sides of our rain barrel arrays! Wyatt commits to getting the supplies she needs together and will be in contact with her when we are ready to move forward.
5. Fall calendar –

Saturday, September 18, 1-3 PM: Garden Day
Saturday, September 25, 1-3 PM: The Far Right vs. Education (a community discussion) [working title]
Sunday, October 10, 1-3 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest Sign Making Party
Monday, October 11, 5-6:30 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest (outside of the Federal Building on 16th and O)
Saturday, October 30, 7-9 PM: Halloween Horror Show: Nightbreed
Saturday, November 13, 1-3 PM: Women and Christianity (a community discussion)

We need to finalize this next Monday! TABLED.

Meeting adjourned: 8:40 PM

Tabled Items: Indoor Tour video for YouTube, Website outline, Fall calendar

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Wyatt

Start time: 7:30 PM

1. Event Review – We had our discussion on the porch about the local Democrats on Friday night. We had a great turnout, with folks from three different generations in conversation. The subject really seemed to excite and engage folks. Maybe the local edge to it was intriguing, or maybe we were just overdue to go after the Democrats again. We moved the event back to 8 PM on a few hours’ notice, which was confusing. Our folks who weren’t on social media still showed up at 7 PM, and we basically had two events: a pre-discussion starting immediately with the (primarily older) folks, and then the younger folks showed up at 8 since they had seen the time change. We probably shouldn’t make these kind of last-minute schedule changes in the future, since there are so many people in our circles that aren’t plugged into social media. Wyatt suggests that if when we find ourselves double-booked in the future, we may be better served going ahead as planned and splitting our collective to also be sure some of our folks are joining the other action.

2. August Event – Wyatt spent the remainder of our meeting time getting our August Garden Day event online.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

We were not able to meet tonight. We will try again next week!

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

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

1. Really, Really Free Library – We further discussed the idea of adding a “Little-Free-Library-esque” library with books, zines, grocery items, and our calendars. It was suggested that we could possibly make the donations box look like a miniature version of the Black Cat House. (Complete with a miniature water barrel?) Ty is playing with design ideas, and we’ll see what Wyatt can build.

2. Summer Events – Thursday, June 17th, 7-9 PM, outdoor discussion, Working Title: “Pride on the Porch”; Marc to lead discussion, will hopefully spearhead online advertisement

Friday, July 16th, 7-9 PM, outdoor discussion, “With Jackasses Like These… Who Needs the Elephants?”; hopefully to focus on local Lincoln Democratic politics; Jackson volunteers to write up the advertising

Saturday, August 14th, 10 AM – Noon, garden workshop, Harvest Day in the garden

3. Fall Calendar Brainstorming – Possible reading discussion for September; Garden Day… clean-up and planting of winter cover crops?; Columbus Day protest in October; open discussions?; bring back movie nights?

Events could be outdoors in September or possibly October, but should definitely be indoors for November. We haven’t done an event themed around feminism or religious skepticism in awhile. Ty wonders if we should do something around Halloween on paganism and/or the Christianization of Europe.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

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

1. Yard Sale Review – We had our biggest haul ever at this yard sale. We raised a total of $1286.35! It’s possible that the lack of yard sales last year and economic uncertainties around the pandemic gave us a boost. Wyatt built some tables, and that was very helpful in giving us more space to display our wares. We also had a lot of help from several new volunteers and that probably contributed to our success as well.

2. Little Free Library/Pantry – Wyatt is interested in building a donation-holding little box a la the Little Free Libraries/Pantries around town. We do often give away food and literature as it is, but this could also be another piece of our public outreach by having our latest event calendar taped up inside the door. Wyatt really wants us to call it something other than a Little Free Library, but Jackson also points out that it could be beneficial for us to piggyback off the existing networking/advertising for Lincoln’s Little Free Libraries.

3. Refugee Fundraiser – Since we made so much money off of our yard sale, we are going to contribute another $250 towards our Swedish friend trying to save refugee families there.

Meeting adjourned: 8:05 PM