In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – Counter-Protest for the Walk for “Life” was Saturday: those who went said it went pretty well. One guy from the anti-choicers was rather hostile, but he was scared off fairly easily. We did get a critique that the language in the description was not inclusive of other genders who are also put at risk by lack of reproductive freedom, so next year we’ll have to draft a better description. We also need to see if there are more people who are interested in organizing the counter-protest. Wyatt says next year we would benefit for an organizing meeting to delegate roles in the protest (media liaison, police liaison, parade marshals, photographer, etc.). Childcare was not taken up this year, but we will still offer it as always.

2. Upcoming Event – Serendipiti is going to come this Saturday to do her direct action workshop. Ty emailed her about any potential setup she may need. She reports that she’ll need the big whiteboard and scratch paper for people. We’re also going to give her a $20 donation.

3. Money – We got a donation! $195 is now in our treasury.

4. ISO Donation – We’re going to be making a donation of $80 to the ISO – Lincoln Twig.

5. Book – We got another book for Friends of AK Press. The title is “Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt” by AK Thompson.

6. Spring Calendar –

Blackout Dates: April 13th (Huskers Spring Game), April 27 (Lincoln Earth Day), Feed the People fundraisers on first Saturdays and distro on second Saturdays

Fri, April 19th, 7 PM: Che Children’s Book Reading

Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion) – March 23rd, 1-3 PM
Kurdish/PKK – April 20th, 1-3 PM
Reading Discussion on May 18, 1-3 PM: Women and labor? Potentially “I Am an Anarchist” speech by Lucy Parsons?
Yard Sale, Fri May 10 and Sat May 11

Popcorn Politics
March: Something that will pass the Bechdel Test (Hidden Figures?)
April: Something environmentalist (Godzilla vs the Smog Monster?)
May: The Young Karl Marx

Documentaries: Strength of the Storm, Boom! The Sound of Eviction

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled: Spring Calendar, Stuff to Buy, Library Readership Development

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

1. Event Review – We had our Cuba discussion last Saturday. There were a few new people, and the discussion went good, partially thanks to the discussion points we already had formulated ahead of time. We should definitely make further efforts to make those discussion points ahead of time for other events.

2. Upcoming Event – Popcorn Politics: Videodrome is coming up on Friday! Might be a little bit of a lower turnout, just because of the weird, horror-esque sci-fi nature of it. But we’re looking forward to it! We have the DVD and only need to have configure the room for movie showings.

3. Emails – We got three emails, and we took a bit to respond to them.

4. Books – Jackson donated 15 books from his personal collection. Wyatt donated “Evicted” to the library, and Ty donated 2 books. We also got another book from a friend for a grand total of 19 books.

5. Spring Calendar – April 19th, 7 PM is when our Che children’s book author friend will be coming in, and we’ll have to contact him to see about how to brand it. Tony has multiple documentaries that he’s able to have shown here: documentary on Mother Jones, David Gilbert interview, Laura Whitehorn interview, American Revolution 2, Up the Ridge, Strength of the Storm. We also had tabled a “Who Owns Politics?” discussion event, as well as a Kurdistan and/or Bookchin discussion event. Another friend suggested a topic for an event: food autonomy. The Young Karl Marx might be a nice Popcorn Politics for May, to commemorate Marx’s birthday.

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, PKK/Bookchin Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

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

1. Event Review – Our Solidarity Network reading discussion was a success! Plenty of people, and while the discussion didn’t stick to the reading so much, it definitely stuck to the idea of solidarity networks for housing justice. We actually had quite a few action items, and people got connected where there weren’t connections before. The room was excited about this and we should keep pushing events like this on gentrification, because it’s a issue that’s affecting people right now in a very tangible way.

2. Reimbursement – Ty printed more calendars and the discussion articles, and spent $5.29 on it. He was approved for reimbursement. We finally got the last AK Press book, and so Jackson is up for reimbursement on that, but he asked for that to be tabled.

3. Winter Calendar Distributions – Jackson got the rest of the calendars up. He also proposed putting up one at The Bay. Jimmy John’s on 14th and O also has a bulletin board. Wyatt says he can get The Bay. Jackson will get the Jimmy John’s.

4. Counter-Protest of the Walk for “Life” – It’s still something we’re supporting, and we’re still going to provide child care. There are other people who want to get involved and we really encourage that, but we established among the group that The Black Cat House is not a sponsor: we are a participant in the counter-protest, and we volunteer the child care.

5. Meeting Cancellations – Our meetings on December 24th and 31st will be cancelled. We’ll get them off the website calendar, and post as much on Facebook as well.

Meeting adjourned: 8:32 PM

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, PKK/Bookchin Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:04 PM

1. Upcoming Event – Reading discussion is coming up! We need to print off 15 copies of the article, and we need to clean the room, but we’ll be good.

2. Che Event – We have it scheduled! April 19, at 7 PM! We will work out further details with Martin Smith as we approach the event.

3. Winter Calendar Distributions – 8 more of the big calendars need to be printed! Cultiva, Bluestem Books, and Scooters still need to be posted, and the LGBTQA+ Resource Center at UNL can get one. We also brainstormed potential new options. Perhaps some receptive churches?

4. Event Idea – We had proposals for a discussion from a friend! Specifically, on Murray Bookchin and the PKK (Worker’s Party of Kurdistan). This would be for the spring calendar, but the friend in question seems fine with that.

Meeting adjourned: 7:52 PM

Tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, PKK/Bookchin Discussion, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), AK Press reimbursement

In Attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:08 PM

1. Event Review – Men’s Rights vs “Men’s Rights” got a nice turnout, and the discussion went fairly well. We hit most of the issues that folks wanted to discuss.

2. Upcoming Event – This Friday, we’re showing Johnny Got His Gun. We have the DVD, we just need to set the room up for a film showing.

3. Books – We’re still waiting for the final AK Press and Kersplepedeb books. Wyatt brought some books from Southeast Community College’s book sale that he thought would be of interest to the library. We’ll reimburse Wyatt the $1 it cost him.

4. Che Guevara Children’s Book Author – Ty got in touch with Indigo Bridge about hosting the event, and they’re initially interested and are just passing info along their staff to see who would be a point person on it. After letting M. Smith know about this update, he also let us know that he had some copies of “Little Karl” available. We would definitely like to get a copy from him.

5. Winter Calendar –

December:
December 1, 1-3 PM: Reading Discussion: Solidarity Networks and Housing Justice (roarmag.org/essays/us-housing-solidarity-networks)
December 14, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-hosted with DSA Lincoln): Sorry to Bother You

January:
January 5, 1-3 PM: Socialist Cuba at 60 (a community discussion)
Popcorn Politics (Co-hosted with DSA Lincoln): Videodrome
Movie Night: American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs
January 26, 10 AM – 12 PM, at the Nebraska State Capitol: Counter-Protest to the Walk for Life

February:
6-10 PM: Popcorn Politics (Co-hosted with DSA Lincoln): Malcolm X
February 16, 1-3 PM: Obama Didn’t Fix It? The KXL Pipeline
Movie Night: The Garden

Jackson still needs to reach out to DSA and Renters Together about possible collaboration on the reading discussion on Solidarity Networks and Housing Justice.

Malcolm X, due to the long runtime, will have an intermission for food. We’ll order pizza.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:19 PM

Tabled: Reimbursements for AK/Kersplepedeb books

Continue Winter Calendar Discussion

Indefinitely tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – “To Each According to Our Needs” was a bust, unfortunately. Fall is tough to schedule, what with competing events around non-Husker home games, but our open discussions don’t bomb very often so this is weird to us. Ty wants to shelf this topic and try it again some other time.

2. Book Orders – We finally got an email notification that the AK Press order had shipped, with an estimated date of Friday the 19th. Jackson also got the money removed from his account, and for the Left Wing Books order, though one of the Left Wing Books was out of stock so he was partially refunded for that. We’ll talk reimbursement for him when they get here. Wyatt’s also looking into some mahogany bookshelves.

3. Winter Mat – Wyatt successfully got us a mat for the porch! He paid $10 for it, and we’ll reimburse him for it.

4. November Events – We spent a lot of time getting November events up online.

Tabled – Winter Calendar Brainstorming
Discussion idea: Who owns politics?/Why working people think they don’t/Not into politics? Your boss is!, Other event: Cuban Revolution 60th Anniversary is Jan 1, 2019
Something about gentrification?
KXL Pipeline? Sometime in February?
December 2: anniversary of John Brown’s hanging
December 7: Noam Chomsky’s birthday

Meeting adjourned: 9:58 PM

Tabled items: Winter Calendar, AK Press Purchase, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt

Start time: 7:03 PM

1. AK Press – There’s no update! Jackson has called again, Ty has email again, and we’ve heard nothing! Ty has suggested just splitting the order in half and send it in conventionally rather than wholesale if we hear nothing soon.

2. Reimbursement – Jackson bought us button parts that we were running low on, and he’d like to be reimbursed $66.23. We approve this.

3. Addressing Tabled Items – We brought up finding a new winter mat for the porch to Wyatt, and he thinks he’d be able to find a few mats that’ll work for our needs.

4. Books – We dug through a different website, Left Wing Books, because there’s a sale there too. We gathered up $84.95 worth of books, and we’ll allocate the money for that and reimburse you for it.

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

Tabled items: AK Press Purchase, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

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

1. Event Review – Popcorn Politics: Free State of Jones was last Friday. Jackson reports that it was cool, enjoyable film about a bit of forgotten history. There was an OK turnout, and a decent discussion.

2. Upcoming Event – The reading discussion for “The Politics of Survival” is coming up, and Ty will pull together print-outs for the article, and print off 15 copies of them for Jackson to pick up (he’ll also take care of printing off 25 more sheets of fall calendar handbills).

3. AK Press – We got a children’s book from AK Press, which will go in the Kitten Corner! We also have yet to get a invoice from them for our bulk order. Ty will email them… again. But first, Jackson’s gonna try calling them.

4. October Events – Ty will get the “To Each According to Their Needs” discussion description drafted by the end of the week, and Jackson will talk to DSA Lincoln to draft a description of Alien

5. Work Time – The rest of meeting time was spent sorting through potential books for the library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled items: AK Press Purchase, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop, more button parts), Getting all fall events to website

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:05 PM

1) Distro Update – Ty has STILL not yet gotten to The Black Market, the Scooter’s next to The Black Market, Cultiva, Indigo Bridge Books, Ivanna Cone, The Mill, and Bluestem Books. He is listing the locations here to help Jackson if he’s able to assist at any point.

2) Fall Events – Jackson is getting up the Free State of Jones event on Facebook, and Ty put up placeholders on the website for events to come.

3) AK Press Purchase – AK Press has still not gotten back to us about the shipping issue. We’re emailing them again about it.

Meeting adjourned: 7:25 PM

Tabled items: AK Press Purchase, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop, more button parts), Getting all fall events to website

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

1. Event Review – Popcorn Politics: Shin Godzilla happened last Friday. It went pretty good! There were definitely some things we disagreed with as far as the political takes of the movie, but hey, we show these for the discussion, not because we agree with them all the time!

2. Book Donation – Jackson accidentally bought a second copy of “A Hundred Little Hitlers” for his own library, a book about the rise of neo-Nazism in America. His loss is the library’s gain! He’d like to donate it, and it seems to be a good fit for our antifascist collection, so the donation is accepted.

3. AK Press Purchase – We made a list of books to consider for our upcoming AK Press purchase, but we need to table this so we have time to finish the fall calendar.

4. Fall Calendar – We finalized the fall calendar! We basically just needed dates for the events, which we worked on getting tonight. Ty will whip those up, send them to print, and Jackson will pick them up this week.

Friday, September 14, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Free State of Jones
Saturday, September 22nd, 1-3 PM: Reading Discussion: Puerto Rico: “The Politics of Survival”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/04/puerto-rico-left-hurricane-maria-colonialism-independence

Saturday, October 13th, 1-3 PM: To Each According to Their Needs: How Marxism Empowers the Impaired
Friday, October 26th, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Alien

Saturday, November 3rd, 1-3 PM: Men’s Rights Vs. “Men’s Rights”: Why Men Need Feminism, Too
Friday, November 9th, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Johnny Got His Gun
Friday, November 16th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Tough Guise

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

Tabled items: AK Press Purchase, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch, new SSD hard drive for public laptop, more button parts)