In attendance: Jackson, Naomi, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

1. February Event: Jackson and Dance are working on sending out a message to Dance’s contacts tomorrow regarding being panelists for our event on the history of Black music. They are going to pitch the concept of each academic to choose a favorite song of the Black-led musical genre of their choice, to explain the significance of the song and why the song is still discussed today in inspiring Black resistance. Date is still undecided, but we’re entertaining the idea of an evening event if that’s what works better for the panelists. We might have to consider Zoom as a medium,
2. Library Update: Naomi got the cat-shaped barcode scanner! It’s got some proprietary stuff linked with it but she’s got instructions on how to use it. She’s also been playing with LibraryThing using her own library, and it works well for personal libraries (which our library is about the same size of). It has free functionality but for about $3/month it has further functions that might be worth it. Ty doesn’t know what work Marc has done regarding WordPress plugins for the library but he’ll ask Marc about it. Ty asks to table it to a later meeting, but wants Naomi to do a screenshare of her computer with her personal library on LibraryThing in a future meeting, to walk other folks through how it works. Naomi will also try to stop by the house soon in order to scan in some books.
3. Spring Calendar: For March, we revisited the idea of collaborating with organizers with the Hawley Hamlet to talk about community gardening. While video chat is always an option depending on circumstances, it would be much preferred to have an outdoor event. And while Black Cat House’s garden is also always available, it would be even better if we have a “field trip” event to Hawley Hamlet so that the hands-on workshop and talk can be showcasing their own project instead. Ty will reach out to see if he can contact any of their representatives.

Tabled: February Event, Library Updates, March Event

Meeting Adjourned: 7:58 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – The counter-protest for the Walk for Life was on Saturday. Our crowd was much smaller, but this was expected – our side is more considerate of others’ safety than the anti-choicers, plus the knowledge ahead of time that the anti-choicers would be unlikely to wear masks reliably (which was true) and wanting to minimize potential COVID-19 exposure. We do need to be more on top of tracking the other side. They made announcements about changing their route and destination for their keynote in time for our meeting last week, but we did not see it until the day before the event.
2. Web Domain – We needed to renew our domain name, which Jackson did. $29.87 for a year, which Jackson will be reimbursed for.
3. Library Donation – Jackson is donating 10 books to the library, which Ty, as the only other member present at this meeting, agreed to include in the collection.
4. February Event – We have not been able to reach out to the colleagues that we wanted to get together for our discussion on Black music for February. Jackson will follow-up after Wednesday to see whether those contacts have been made.
5. TV Spot – Jackson mentioned that a reporter wanted to do a TV spot on local news on The Black Cat House. We need to clean up the place a bit, plus figure out which Black Cats want to be around for the filming, before we set up a time to do so. We need to talk to a few more folks about interest in appearing.

Tabled: February Event, TV Spot

Meeting Adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Alexis, Jackson, Marc (secretary), Simone, Ty (moderator)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

Upcoming Event – The Walk for Life counter protest is January 16. So far, we have guessed that a couple dozen people interested in being part of the counter protest will show up, based on our Facebook responses and conversations.
– We can anticipate that WfL will have a large crowd as usual. Allegedly, WfL is going to take some COVID precautions, but we’re not sure if they actually will, or if the crowd will actually follow them.
– There are also some safety concerns with the planned armed protest at the capitol, though that is planned for the 17th. We may have a street medic available just in case, but hopefully we won’t have to worry about violence breaking out.
– We plan on having 3 or 4 people to work as escorts/guides to prevent anyone at the counter protest from getting left behind by the rest of the group. One person at front, one at the very back, and others spread through the middle for communication. Jackson and folks from the NLC have offered to volunteer as marshals for this purpose.
– We also would like someone to serve as our media representative, particularly someone directly affected by anti-choice laws. Ideally, she would speak beyond “vote for democrats/support Planned Parenthood” talking points. Most often reporters want a soundbite of 10 seconds or so—something that can be easily summed up.
– As far as signs go, we have plenty leftover from previous years in case folks want to make use of those.
– We’d like to have a public planning meeting for folks who want to attend the counter protest, to discuss what roles/etc they can take on. We already have folks from NLC who have offered to help; another group may be the DSA.

February Event – We’re going to connect with some comrades about a music-focused event centering Black musicians for February. Right now, we want to wait for the holidays to settle down before reaching out. This could potentially involve panelists from around the world, so we should have an exciting group of people from a variety of backgrounds and musical talents working with the BCH soon!

BCH’s Role in the Community
– We briefly discussed how folks from similar organizations can always reach out to the BCH for help and collaborative projects! We can share meeting/venue space, knowledge, resources, and so on as we’re able.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

BCH Minutes – 12/21/2020

Attendees: Alexis, Jackson (Moderator), Marcus (Secretary), Ty (intermittently)

Meeting Start: 7:10

Meeting End: 8:20

Upcoming Event – Walk for Life Counter-protest

– Alexis brought up some questions about the counter-protest and who might be there. We know that there will be various politicians speaking at the event (on the side of the anti-choice groups): Ricketts, the AG, various members of the unicameral, etc. They also typically rent space at the student union at UNL for several more hours of programming and speakers. Also, the cops present are there on voluntary overtime, meaning they can get paid to be ~holy~, and are definitely not neutral observers, so counter-protesters generally play it safe.

Given the complete lack of response on the Nebraska’s government’s part to COVID, it’s entirely possible that the pandemic spread will be so bad that even Ricketts needs to shut things down. But even in this situation, we can still expect that WFL protesters will be there in full force.

– Alexis also brought up the idea of an information pamphlet to give to WFL protesters; Ty also suggested using a pamphlet to embolden counter-protesters for discussion. Jackson pointed out that because so many WFL protesters can be expected to be plague-spreaders as well, counter-protesters may not be willing to get up close enough to speak with them since they probably won’t be wearing masks.

We also discussed strategies to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing at the protest, with the above assumptions in mind. Tactics discussed included using the buddy system and having folks on our side form smaller groups, with someone dedicated to telling more aggressive pro-lifers to back off. Since signs on sticks would be only selectively enforced, we could potentially use pool noodles.

We discussed having a bigger zoom meeting with more people who are specifically interested in the counter-protest to bounce ideas around. This meeting would likely be held about a week before January 16 to give time to prepare for the counter-protest.

Library Organization Project

– Naomi has spent a little bit of time at BCH to sort books, mostly new arrivals that haven’t been shelved yet, and to survey what’s here and what needs to be done.

Library Donation

– Marc donated a handful of fiction books, as well as a children’s book for the Kitten Corner. Jackson also donated several books and zines to the library about a variety of topics.

Winter Calendar

– For February, we are making headway on a poetry or music-related event. Ty has also been interested in having a Black music event as well, since there’s so much rich political and emotional history there. We also have tons of connections through Dance, and since it would be an online event, any participants would not have to live nearby. We also discussed asking Dance to moderate a potential panel of people. For now, the year is particularly rough for professors (who we’d to participate), but after January things might be better.

Impromptu Spring Calendar – gardening-focused events, potentially reaching out to the Hawley Hamlet

Next week’s meeting

– We have decided to not meet on the 28^th next week.

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Begins: 7:04 PM

Library Updates: Jackson got quite a few diverse titles for donation to the library! Naomi was unable to make it today but she says she will give an email update with the library research she’s done.

Email: We got an email from someone who expressed interest in getting to know The Black Cat House and what we do here. Ty will reply.

Upcoming Event: We’re still having a little trouble contacting some panelists, though we’ve gotten confirmation from them that the day and time working for them. Ty volunteered to act as co-moderator for the panel, keeping an eye on the chat and making sure discussion questions are brought forward, while Jackson will focus on making sure each panelist gets their opportunity to speak on the discussion topic. We will not be recording it, as we have not had a chance to discuss this with the panelists.

Winter Calendar: Jackson would need to touch base with folks regarding the Black History Month poetry event idea. A book feature of our library titles by black authors to feature on social media might be a fun idea. Another potential synthesis of various ideas for an event would be a Radical Activism Under Biden themed event. Jackson says that might be a better fit for a January online event to contrast the in-person counter-protest, and then having a Black History Month event in February.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:02 PM

Tabled: Winter Calendar

In attendance: Ty, Marc (secretary), Jackson

Meeting Began: 7:05 PM

Emails:

We got an email from the Feral Crust Collective from the Philippines; they’re working on getting a mini-cab (like a small truck) and requested donations to get this so they can carry stuff around and transport people. We’ll examine our treasury and consider a potential figure.

Second email was from a comrade offering to help out with the library cataloging project, and wanted links to the meeting. Ty responded and said he could send the link next week/whenever she’s available. He also explained that we want to organize the physical library better, but also catalog things to make the collection searchable online.

December Panel:

Wyatt got into contact with one panelist, who has confirmed the time/date. Jackson has not heard back from the other two panelists; one panelist has agreed to the time/date, but the other has not responded.

We still need to have a discussion about what the panelists would like to say/talk about before we can advertise the event; it’s coming up quickly.

Marc brought up making the event description fairly vague until we lock down more information about who’s participating and what they’d like us to include in the description.

Jackson is taking point on writing up the first version of the event description.

Ty and Marc tested recording the event (with the panelists’ permission) on Jitsi. We have not tested with livestreaming yet.

We also tested some additional recording capabilities of Jitsi—such as whether it captures the chat, and how sharing YouTube videos works on the platform.

Winter Calendar:

Panel discussion on the 12^th of December – Jackson is working on the description.

Counter-protest for Walk for Life – Marc drafted the description and Jackson worked on revising it a bit to provide more context. After revision, Marc and Ty approved the finalized description. Jackson posted the event on Facebook.

We likely cannot commit to doing childcare this year due to COVID. People may not need childcare for this reason, as well.

We also won’t be able to host a sign-making party as well, sadly.

Tabled: Winter Calendar, Library Cataloguing Project (for next week’s discussion)

Meeting Adjourned: 8:28 PM

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

Meeting start: 7:10 PM

November Event: We have three very interested panelists, we just need to get a date agreed on. We decided to propose postponing it to December, to give the panelists more time to prep and us more time to promote it. The date we’re going to propose is December 12, 1-3 PM central time. If that doesn’t work for our panelists, we’ll reevaluate.

We’ll also want to get some bios for our panelists in order to give attendees an idea of why we asked these folks to be speakers on police repression. We’re also going to have some questions prepared ahead of time for the Q&A portion of the discussion in order to break the ice. We also discussed recording the discussion though doing so would be entirely dependent on the panelists’ comfort level with doing so. We’ll pitch the idea and see what they think.

Winter Events: The police repression panel is now a winter event!

We’re pretty dedicated to counter-protesting the Walk for Life (January 16, 10 AM). We don’t really have the means with COVID to have the pre-protest organizing meeting like we wanted, but we will plug away with this regardless. Marc and Ty will work on creating the web event description for it.

A SCOTUS discussion might be a good one to have. The issue is forefront on people’s minds right now, plus there’s a lot of historical and political ground to cover there. We’re thinking to do that in January.

Wyatt would be down to host a street medic training anytime, and the rest of us are all for it! Though it may not be very productive to host it in The Black Cat House itself given its size, so we’d considered other venues for it. He’s thinking January or February for that, at least for our first event of this nature.

Tabled: November Event, Winter Events

Meeting Adjourned: 8:10 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:01 PM

Event Review: We had our digital installment of Can We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess on Saturday. Small turnout, good discussion. Probably should’ve thrown the event up sooner, but we also decided on it last minute, so we can’t beat ourselves up too much about it.

November Event: We have two panelists confirmed, but it’s been hard to get in touch with them this week to confirm date/time. If we can do that though, we might already have a third panelist ready to go, as they were also pretty interested.

Winter Events: We discussed the possibilities of making sure the digital link to the Black Cat House Monday meetings are readily accessible, and an online social gathering event to keep people connected during winter. We also might do a digital follow-up to the election, regardless of results.

Other discussion ideas brewing: different communities’ responses to COVID-19, World AIDS Day (December 1) event regarding the queer community’s aftermath in the wake of the 80s/90s and how they’re dealing with HIV (and how their response to COVID is influenced by it), discussion about courts/SCOTUS specifically?

February is Black History Month and we would want to do something for that but we’re not sure a more specific topic yet.

Ty wants to do something involving music but he’s not sure yet whether he wants to discuss political music or whether he wants to get leftist musicians in a video chat together to have an online concert.

January 16 is the Walk for Life – what do we want to do to counter this year?

Tabled: November Event, Winter Events

Meeting Adjourned: 7:39 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:10 PM

1. Library Donation: Jackson made a very hefty PM Press purchase for real cheap, and donated much of his haul to the Black Cat library, in addition to some other books he’s found.
2. Upcoming Event: It’s this Saturday! There’s not an event description or a Facebook event up! Ty proposed pushing back the event for more time to advertise but since we had some regulars referencing the event as scheduled, that isn’t going to work. Joe brought a canopy over – he’s downsizing and will let us hold onto it for use in our events! Thanks, Joe! We discussed social distancing and mask wearing while outdoors – Jackson had some concerns over people being able to hear each other with masks on and making sure it’s accessible, but safety is still paramount. Marc suggests relocating it to Standing Bear Grounds (more secluded from traffic sounds) but the bare minimum of ads we have had says it’s at Black Cat. After a pretty in-depth discussion about it, we opted to do an in-person event as scheduled this Saturday, and an online discussion with the same topic next Saturday, 1-3 PM. That way people who do not want to risk face-to-face interaction can still participate in the discussion. Jackson will get the event for the in-person one up tonight, while Marc will prep the online one later this week.
3. November Discussion: We had some potential panelists not work out, so we’re not sure what to do about the November discussion right now.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:35 PM

Tabled: November Discussion, Library Cataloguing Project, Website Remodel

Meeting didn’t happen, because Jackson was sick and nobody else showed up.

– Ty