In Attendance: Ty, Marc (secretary), Jackson, Wyatt
Meeting Start: 9:00 PM

Before the meeting formally began, we shared a meal with friends, hence the very late start.

Spring Calendar

• We’re on the wire regarding the spring calendar, so we made some quick decisions. Our calendar of events for spring will be:
• March ? – Black Musicians and Liberation – we still need to confirm the day/time for this with the panelists. We will promote this event separately.
• March 17 – Movie Night: Killing Us Softly 4, a classic of feminist documentaries
• March 25 – Community Discussion: The State of Trans Rights, cohosted with OutNebraska
• April 15 – Boothing at Lincoln Earth Day
• April 21 – Movie Night: Snowpiercer, an environmental disaster sci-fi film that also goes into class analysis
• April 29 – Garden Workshop: Planting Native Plants – we will show attendees how to include native species of plants in their gardens and help them thrive
• May 5 – Movie Night: Salt of the Earth, a movie that explores gender/class dynamics with striking workers
• May 26 and 27 – Yard Sale Fundraiser

Website Redesign

• Marc showed the staging website to Wyatt and got feedback; he will make some minor changes, but otherwise the site is basically ready to go. Some content does need to be written up and added.
• We hope to get the site to a presentable place before Earth Day, since we’ll be promoting our site there.

Earth Day and Lincoln Pride Boothing

• We discussed potential button/sticker designs to give out at the event, as well as information to include for the “Behind the Greenwashing” activity at the Earth Day event.
• Ty has submitted the form for Earth Day
• We encountered a hiccup while trying to submit a boothing request to Lincoln Pride; Marc will reach out to the event coordinators for further guidance.

Meeting Adjourned: 10:00 PM

In Attendance: Jackson, Marc (secretary), Rae
Meeting Started: 7:10 PM
Minutes were posted late because Marc got super busy. He’s very sorry.

Event Review: The Killing Floor Movie Showing

• We had a decent turnout with a great discussion afterwards. Folks seemed to enjoy the movie really well.
• One attendee specifically expressed interest in the movie because of its connection to union history specifically.
• We discussed how The Killing Floor is a fairly unknown movie, and how that might have appealed to people. We talked about other potential films to show with this aspect in mind, including some ones that might have a (relatively) hefty screening fee because of their association with academic orgs, etc.

Upcoming Event: Gaming the System

• We’ll be playing The Great Dalmuti this upcoming Saturday. Marc and Ty will be there to explain the rules and get feedback/other game recommendations from attendees.
• Otherwise, it’s an event that doesn’t require a lot of set-up, since it’s a card game.

Spring Calendar

• Jackson is in touch with a potential panelist for the Black Musicians and Liberation digital event. However at this point, we likely need to push the event date back so we have adequate time to promote it.
• Earth Day booth – Ty will submit the form/payment for this boothing opportunity. $35.00 was taken from the treasury to cover the cost.
• Lincoln Pride booth – Though this will happen in summer, we’re going to submit our booth request soon. $90.00 was taken from the treasury to cover the cost.
• State of Trans Rights – Marc is in contact with OutNebraska to co-sponsor this event.
• Event Ideas: We discussed playing Pandemic, which is a cooperative board game instead of a competitive one, which might be an interesting comparison in and of itself. We also discussed playing Settlers of Cataan, which Jackson described as a zero-sum competitive game. In the past we’ve also talked about how Settlers represents a sort of colonialist fantasy that whitewashes the actual effects/process of colonization.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:50 PM

In Attendance: Marc (sec), Jackson
Meeting Start: 7:10 pm

Anti-Columbus Day Protest

• About 10 people showed up to the protest.
• One person contacted local news stations; Jackson and a few others spoke to Channel 8 and 10/11 News.
• We made zines to distribute at the protest; we have a few left over for next year’s protest.
• One attendee noted deciding to join after seeing our Facebook post, another mentioned seeing a paper calendar. We will continue using these modes to share event info.
• Local Native American activists were part of the group as well, along with some young people, so we had a good crowd and turnout!

Upcoming Event

• The Prison Abolition for Beginners discussion will be this Saturday.
• One of our friends has connections with an academic who specializes in PIC research, and she offered to get into contact with this person. However, we figured that it’s probably too little time to both ask the academic to join us, and either switch to an online mode/account for travel.
• However, we thought it would be excellent to ask this person if they would be willing to lead/present a PIC-related event, probably a future Jitsi discussion.

Outreach

• We also talked about the challenges we’ve faced with getting people to attend in-person events again.
• We discussed getting the indoor tour video created and posted so that people new to the BCH would be able to familiarize themselves with the space/location before coming to an event, which might make them feel more comfortable.
• We also discussed other elements that might make the space more welcoming, e.g. getting a greeter cat again, pushing our events more/advertising specific events, general organization and comfort, etc.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 pm

In Attendance: Jackson, Marc (secretary), Ty, Connor, Wyatt
Meeting Start: 7:40 PM

Event Review: Urban Foraging

• A couple of new faces showed up for the urban foraging event on Saturday, and it seemed like folks were interested in the topic and learning! Wyatt enjoyed giving the workshop.

Upcoming Events: Workshop with OutNebraska, the Color of Care movie night

• This Thursday (9/15) will be our workshop with OutNebraska on talking to family, friends, and neighbors about LGBTQ+ issues.
• We checked with our contact to make sure we had all the equipment necessary for the event; we’ll wait to hear back. Otherwise, we’re ready to go for a conversation.
• For the Color of Care movie night, we need to get the projector in working order.

Ongoing Projector Issues

• Marc and Ty will take the projector to the Game Room to ask about repairing it. We have sufficient funds in the treasury and agreed to try this route to see if the HDMI port can be repaired.
• Marc and Ty left with the projector tonight.

Site Updates

• The calendar plugin is fixed; full event pages now load properly.
• Marc is also still working on the updated site design. He will show other members the changes soon and ask for feedback then.

Calendar Distro

• There are still a few places left to place calendars. Jackson took care of the lion’s share of calendar distribution over the past week or so.

The Box!

• Wyatt installed a box on the corner of the Black Cat House lot (next to the sidewalk), which we will likely use as a community bulletin board and possibly zine/food distribution. There are still a few aspects of the box that need to be adjusted, namely making sure it’s watertight and installing a corkboard (or something similar) on the back so calendars can be more easily posted.
• We discussed also allowing/encouraging other like-minded groups to post their events in the new bulletin board.
• Right now, it might not be an appropriate spot to distribute books. However, we still have a little free library box that we could install next to it later, which is more watertight.

Donations

• We have a house megaphone now, which is owned by one of our friends but being stored at BCH. We also have a number of new books for the library.

DIO Fest

• Marc submitted running the zine-making workshop at DIO Fest this year. Wyatt also submitted two workshops: how to build a rainwater-collecting barrel array, and how to change a tire. We’re looking forward to the event!

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

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

Upcoming Event: Zine Workshop

• Marc is basically prepared for the event on August 27. He will provide a list of supplies to be made available during the zine workshop.
• Marc will also take point on contacting a local repair shop to see about getting the HDMI port on the projector fixed, since having the ability to project his laptop screen would be ideal.

Library Donations

• Jackson donated a huge stack of books. Ty and Marc also donated a few books and a zine.
• A donor reached out to us via email with a list of books she had and was willing to donate. We received the package of books and are very thankful for the donation!

Emails

• We received emails regarding screening documentaries that largely deal with racial justice in the United States. The emails included information about the documentaries, as well as offering promotional materials, etc. if we wanted to host a screening.
• The documentaries are: “The Color of Care,” which is about how the medical system often fails people of color; “Recipe for Change,” a documentary about Black women celebrities.
• Jackson has already filled out the form for “The Color of Care,” as its topic is more relevant to what we discuss at the Black Cat House. We have yet to hear back with more information for showing this documentary. If we get the ability to show this documentary, we will include it with our Fall calendar.

Fall Calendar

• We more or less finalized our Fall calendar events:
• September 11, 1-3 PM: “Urban Foraging,” a tour about recognizing edible plants
• September 15, 7 PM: “Changing Hearts and Minds: Talking to your Family and Neighbors about LGBTQ+ People,” a workshop we’re co-hosting with OutNebraska about how to help folks understand and support LGBTQ+ folks
• September 23, 7 PM: Movie night, yet to be determined based on if we hear back regarding “The Color of Care”
• October 10, 4-6 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest
• October 15, 1-3 PM: “Prison Abolition for Beginners,” a community discussion
• October 28, 7 PM: Halloween Movie Night – Jordan Peele’s Candyman
• November 10, 7-8:30 PM: Intersectiona-LEE-ty: How Bruce Lee Embodies Intersectionality, a digital discussion with Professor Lori Dance (this will be recorded as well)
• November 18, 7 PM: Movie night, yet to be determined; might be either Judas and the Black Messiah or a trans-themed documentary for Trans Day of Remembrance
• Marc will work on the Fall calendar design, which should be done before next week. We will finalize the exact movies at our next meeting.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Issues: Emailing list, site discussion, indoor tour video/photography

Our next meeting (8/22) will be a working meeting regarding our website updates.

In Attendance: Jackson, Ty, Marc (secretary)
Meeting Start: 7:24 PM

Upcoming Event: Abortion Rights Discussion
The discussion will be this upcoming Saturday, July 16. So far, the Facebook event has pretty decent interest generated so far. We will promote the event through this week.

Ty suggested sharing the event alongside good news about abortion rights across the country—e.g. today a Minnesota judge ruled that abortion restrictions in the state were unconstitutional. Basically, emphasizing how people are already fighting back against SCOTUS’ decision.

Library Donations
Jackson donated a lot of books to the BCH library, including a novel and graphic novel. Thank you!

Website Updates
Marc talked about plans for making the site more interesting and with more focus on what BCH is, what the space is, what resources are available, etc. Marc discussed plans for totally revamping the homepage, as well as developing ideas for regular blog posts and promoting other groups’ events.

We brainstormed some ideas for what the site could look like and what the purpose of the home page should be. Ultimately, everyone’s on the same page that a big change in the design, layout, etc. needs to be reviewed by core/usual members, particularly any content changes. Marc will also explore how to update the site’s layout in the back-end so that it doesn’t change what our visitors see.

Marc will take point on website updates and creating dummy/private pages to bring to the group for review. He’ll also figure out how to fix the current calendar widget.

Fall Events
We still are planning on collaborating with OutNebraska in September.

Potential event themes/ideas: Anti-Columbus Day protest, Halloween Movie Night, reaching out to DIO-Fest organizers and seeing if we could collaborate somehow? We have also heard from some close friends that they’d be interested in running an event, showing a movie, inviting colleagues, etc.

Husker home football games are on: 9/3, 9/10, 9/17, 10/1, 10/29, 11/5, 11/19

DIO-Fest will also be on October 8^th, so we don’t want to compete with them on that day.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:47 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Wyatt, Conner, Marc (secretary)
Meeting Start: 7:40 PM
Note: There will be no planning meeting on July 4th, 2022.

Event Review: Pride (2014)

• We showed Pride (2014) on the 25th. Folks who attended seemed to enjoy the movie and we had OK turnout. We figure it will be an uphill climb to get people to attend in-person events again due to COVID concerns.
• For future events, we can plan on putting COVID safety requirements (masks) near the top of the event description, so it’s clear that we’re taking precautions.

Upcoming Event: Abortion Open Discussion

• Ty wrote up the event description draft; Jackson will edit it. The event posting should be live soon.
• We anticipate that attendees may still be in a reaction/venting mode during the event. We want to make sure to make space for that during the event, but also provide a space for tangible takeaway.
• Conner offered to provide the Powerpoint slides for a past event he attended, which could be used to inform the discussion.
• During the discussion, we want to make sure to talk about a few elements: some historical context as well as the failure of the Democratic party to do anything meaningful to protect abortion access.

New Projector

• We used the new projector for the first time on Saturday for the Pride showing. The picture looks great, but the HDMI ports are dead. Other connectors/ports work decently, but since the HDMI port was the whole reason we upgraded, we need to get it repaired.
• Jackson will contact repair shops to see if they can fix the HDMI port. Marc has offered to transport the projector wherever it needs to go.

OutNebraska Event

• Aryn reached out to us regarding hosting an event later this year, August at the earliest. We will be able to host, though we are anticipating that the 1st half of September will work best since August is so busy.
• We will include the OutNebraska event in our Fall calendar when we discuss it in the coming weeks.

Accessibility

• The living room, entry way, ramp, and driveway have been cleaned up and are more accessible now.
• We still need to improve the threshold between the porch and front door, but this may be part of a larger project that we hope to get started on in Fall.

Tabled: Further accessibility discussion (furniture), library donations, YouTube video tour

Meeting Adjourned: 9:15 PM

In Attendance: Jackson, Ty, Marc (secretary)
Meeting Start: 8:00 PM

Accessibility

• The driveway is temporarily full of supplies. We discussed moving the supplies to the east yard of the house. We will be reconstructing the rain barrel array in the east yard, which should give us more space and also use up some of the supplies currently in the driveway.
• We discussed organizing the inside of the space as well. Folks will be able to assist depending on availability and time constraints. Ty brought up that we would need to make sure that paths are at least 3′ wide to be ADA compliant, so we will keep this in mind as we clean/organize the inside and outside space.
• We also talked about ways to make the free food table indoors more accessible and organized so visitors can quickly see what’s available and take what they need.

Movie Night

• Jackson will write up the description for the movie night sometime in the next week or so.
• Our current projector encountered an error during/after a power outage and likely needs to be replaced sooner than we originally anticipated. We’ve already approved Jackson spending funds from the treasury to replace it once he does the research and finds a proper replacement projector. Marc will also assist with research.

Calendar Distribution

• Jackson took care of everything downtown and in the Everett/Near South neighborhood. Wyatt also did his usual route, and Marc and Ty will take care of hanging calendars in other locations.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

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

Dropbox:

• We have no planned online discussions that will need to be recorded in the near future. Ty cancelled the paid subscription to DropBox.
• We still have the files archived on DropBox, as well as Marc’s HDD from editing/posting the videos to YouTube.
• We discussed getting a SSD or HDD for BCH recordings in the future which these could be archived on.
• Final total for reimbursement: Subscription was $11.99/month for 3 months, for a total of $35.97. Ty accepted a round $35 as reimbursement and we approved reimbursing Ty for the cost.

Calendars:

• Marc completed the draft of the color version/full-size of our summer calendar and the handbills.
• We reviewed the content and design of the calendars and double-checked for errors. All looks good, so we’re ready to print. Ty will send the documents to the print shop tomorrow. Jackson will pick up the prints.
• We decided to get 35 full-sized calendars and 20 sheets of handbills.
• We divided up the calendar distribution between members.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 PM

In Attendance: Jackson, Marc (secretary)
Meeting Start: 7:04 PM

Upcoming Event: Counter-Protest at the Walk for Life
– The Facebook discussion group for the counter protest has been fairly quiet.
– Jackson posted in the group asking if there was any interest in a meeting to discuss counter protest strategies and organizing. Marc is still available to host/moderate the Jitsi discussion if there is interest.
– Marc will create a Jitsi link for said discussion.
– We’ll also share the counter protest event page more often on the BCH Facebook page.

Upcoming Event: Black Musicians and Liberation Panel
– Jackson reached out to a potential panelist and is waiting to hear back. It’s possible that the email got buried in their inbox, so Jackson will work with another potential panelist on how to proceed. Otherwise, no further updates here.

Upcoming Event: Reading Discussion
– Jackson wrote up the event description for Facebook.
– We decided to change this into an online event due to the extreme spread of COVID in Lincoln. Marc created a Jitsi link for this discussion and sent it to Jackson.
– The reading is quite philosophical in nature and style, so this event could benefit from using the Jargon Giraffe shorthand (or something similar).

Spring Calendar Planning
– Wyatt expressed interest in moderating a panel about social justice in non-christian religions.
– We are planning on shooting for hosting 1-2 events/month during Spring, due to planned unavailability for some folks and potential unavailability because of COVID.
– March: Jackson suggested having a reading discussion in the tail end of March or early April, probably about gender to some regard due to March being women’s month. Additionally, we could have a gardening day at some point during March, depending on the work that needs doing.
– April: Earth Day is during this month, and depending on the panel’s topic. We still need to hammer out details for the panel topic and potential panelists. Marc and Ty will reach out to one potential panelist to see if they’re interested and have the knowledge base/background we’re looking for.
– May: Reading Discussion in early May, and Yard Sale in late May.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:10 PM