Meeting Began: 7:00 PM

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

1) Update from Mechelle: The BCH will write a brief summary of how Ricketts lied to the Omaha Tribe about providing aid for responding to COVID-19. We will also post relevant, more recent news articles.

2) Upcoming Reading Discussion: Marc will transpose the article for the upcoming reading discussion on the historical depiction of anarchists in the media. He will also scan images included in the article, and write up descriptions so that the document is accessible for people with vision-related disabilities. Ty will write the description for the Facebook event, and get it posted soon. The discussion will likely be held over Facebook video chat.

3) Summer Events: We will be trying to switch to more digital events for summer, since we want to have a community presence in spite of the pandemic. Instead of group readings, we considered using Facebook video chat. Gardening days may still be possible, since attendees can keep further apart outdoors, but these are very weather-dependent. We also discussed the possibility of making YouTube videos instead of having movie showings. Another option may be to use Facebook Live to have discussions/presentations about various topics.

Potential Topic Ideas: Ecofascism, Looking at formerly rejected ideas and see if there are any topics that can be rekindled or revised, U.S. Imperialism and the Military Industrial Complex

Our calendar will be smaller for summer since some of these “event” ideas may take more planning/preparation than usual. We will also redesign the calendar to be more friendly for mobile screens and laptops, so it’s more easily-shared. Right now, the plan is to brainstorm ideas for these new formats and have proposals for next week’s meeting.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:01 PM

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

Meeting Start: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – We showed Tending the Wild via online chatroom on Friday. One person tuned in besides us, and she thought it was a beautiful film. A couple friends of Marc’s asked if we’d be doing similar events in the future, so there is interest in these events. If we do these in the future, it will have to be stuff freely available online/videos that aren’t copywritten. Marc will do some research into future showings. He also volunteered to moderate the chatroom discussions in the future.
2. Upcoming Event – We were intending on doing the discussion “Witch Hunts and the Inquisition.” We’ll probably instead find some videos about the topic to show, then open the chatroom up for discussion. Wyatt is going to put the event up.
3. Rest of Spring Calendar – We’re going to try to make Gardening Day an online/physical event. We’re going to encourage people who want to show up in-person to mark themselves as “going” on the Facebook event so we can maintain a safe amount of people. Then an online version of various ecological/gardening videos in a chatroom.
4. Militant – Joe called saying we’re on our last few Militant papers. We’re going to renew our subscription.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:03 PM

In attendance: Bailey (moderator), Jackson, Marc, Max, Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start Time: 7:07 PM

1. Event Review: Know Your Rights went super well! It was very engaging, well attended, and provided new material for future events of a similar vein. Jackson brings up a concern that only people who were already savvy on their rights attended; Bailey thinks we just need to normalize doing these on a regular basis.

2. Upcoming Event: Fighting The Black Snake’s event has been posted! It’s going to be an open discussion, and while there’s not a specific goal for the event, there are quite a few options to talk about along that line.

3. March Events: Jackson has a draft for Libertarias, Wyatt is going to message regarding the Tending the Wild.

4. Calendar Distro Update: Calendar distro was going well! We still need to do the Unitarian Church, though.

5. Library Donations: Marc donated some labor history books and trans books to the library!

6. Yard Sale: The yard sale is on May 22nd and 23rd. The May 18th meeting will be dedicated to pricing, and we’ll also have a pricing day on May 21st at 5 PM.

7. Library Development: Marc advocates having a stamp rather than a sticker to mark our books as a reminder for folks to return our books. We also need to invest in a barcode scanner. Ty has a new (to us) laptop to donate for library database purposes. Marc thinks we need a new bookcase; Ty thinks we just need to weed the library. Next meeting we’re going to dedicate to the library.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:07 PM

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

1. Event Review: Love Your Library
– Nobody showed up, so we need to promote library & events more.
– Potential ideas:
Post regular photos of relevant displays to site and Facebook
Post book reviews to site/Facebook
Write follow-up posts after events– “if you missed our event, check out these books”
Basically, we need to make progress with our library’s organization.
Set up datacrow for searching/checkouts. The software is already installed on the public laptop, but needs to be filled. We probably need a barcode scanner for this project.
Put stickers with our info inside covers of books
We’re tabling the library discussion, since there’s a lot to cover.

2. Upcoming Event: Black Power Mixtape movie on Friday!
Know Your Rights training afterwards. Bailey and Will are going to practice the skits over the next week.

3. Calendar Distro
Ty printed the calendars and they’re ready to go. We still have two events left on our Winter calendar.
One option is to create separate flyers for Know Your Rights and get the calendars up relatively early/before March hits us.
Will and Bailey offered to create the flyer for KYR. Bailey also let the Dandelion Network email thread know about the training.
Marc will cover the Haymarket
Wyatt will get South Street and Unitarian Church
Jackson will get downtown
Bailey will get Cultiva
Ty will get campus and additional downtown locations (since there are a lot of places in DT).
We also re-counted the new calendar distro sites and figured out which ones to axe (since they take calendars down).

4. March Web Events
We need to write a couple of Facebook event descriptions for upcoming events in March, since they’re coming up. Wyatt and Jackson are taking point on those two events (Killing the Black Snake and Libertarias movie night).
Ty also made an image of the calendar, which we’ll also post to Facebook.

5. Library Donations
Jackson donated a bunch of books to the library. Thank you!

6. Tabled Items Discussion
We are continuing work on developing the library & promoting it. We also need to discuss where the database for the library will be stored, and whether we need a new laptop/SSD/HDD.
Reviving the email list: We have collected a few email addresses officially, but haven’t used it in a long time. At the moment we’ll probably just use the thread that the Dandelion Network provided. ‘Til then, we’re taking this item off the table.
We’re also canceling the radio revival discussion—right now it’s just too much work.
Wellred Books: We know they exist, so we’ll potentially procure books from them in the future.
Items to buy: We have a bike rack now. We have no need for a canopy. External SSD for laptop is needed since the HDD on our current laptop is failing. We’d need the laptop for our library database and to check in/out books. Marc suggested testing out the library system to see where the database could be stored/accessed; now, the potential SSD will fall under “library development” as a tabled item.
Presentations vs. Discussions: Keeping it
Event Outreach: Also keeping
Facebook posting protocol: Keeping it just in case a timely event happens; we’ve gotta explore the theoretical a bit more.

New Tabled Items List: Presentations vs. Discussions, Event Outreach, Facebook Post Protocol, Library Development

Meeting Adjourned: 8:08 PM

4. Global Day of Protest – We got a message about a Global Day of Protest against war with Iran on Saturday, Jan. 25. We’re going to meet that day at 11 AM to 1 PM at the Federal Building, with signs and potentially a few speakers. We’ll be making signs for that during the same sign-making party as the Counter-Protest.

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc, Ty (secretary), Will
Start time: 7:12 PM

1. Event Review – Marc and Will went to the assembly, which went well! There was a good turnout of folks, and a good discussion of new imaginings of community. There’s also a lot of talk of alternative ways of communication. Related to that, we talked about a revival of the radio station we used to do, but that’s going to be tabled.

2. Upcoming Event – Jackson is working on getting ingredients for Ty’s curry, Will’s got mac and cheese covered, Marc’s bringing brownies. Ty’s going to arrive two hours early to start cooking. Weather might dissuade people from coming, but we’re expecting 15-20 people.

3. Donations – Thank you, Corncob Commie Collective, for the beautiful art donation! We also got new Slingshots in the mail! These are our last issues unless we email them so Ty’s going to send them an email to make sure we continue to get issues.

4. Calendars (Reimbursement/Distro) – The fliers and calendars are $12.87, Ty’s been approved for reimbursement. Will’s going to take some to distribute, Jackson will take some as well, and Brandon mentioned that they would be able to assist, too.

5. Free School – Free School will not have a calendar this December.

6. Email – Ty got an email regarding our big pile of logs outside, wondering if it’s up for grabs. Because of how fresh it is, it’s really not suitable for firewood now.

7. December Events –Marc’s going to draft his Self-Advocacy with your Doctor event, Ty will draft a description for The Living End, Jackson will come up with a description for Love Your Library, and Will said that he could potentially work something out for the Solstice Fire Pit. We need these up soon!!!

8. Zines – We’re going to work on zines! Jackson and Marc have a zine concept, a leftist primer. Jackson was also inspired to work on a zine that’s a summary of Fossil Capital, a book he’s become very enamored with that he encourages everyone else to read.

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

Tabled Items: Radio Revival, Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), procedure for posting things on Facebook (when do we allow it)

Black Cat House – 10/21/19

In attendance: Jackson, Brandon, Will, Ty (remote), Marc (secretary; remote)

Start Time – 7:15 PM

1. Event Review

• Smoke Signals: Not a huge turnout, but it was a good movie. A few folks expressed that they wished they could come after the event. Good discussion as well.

2. Upcoming Events

• Power Tools free school class: Jackson will be around if Wyatt needs help setting the event up.
• Marc wrote up the description for the Halloween party. It will be posted tonight along with a link to doesthedogdie.com.

3. Library Donations

• We got a couple book donations! We also got a great donation of garden supplies from a kind Anonymous.

4. Winter Calendar

• December
  • The Living End movie – a gay Thelma and Louise movie about a couple of guys living their best lives J
    • Marc is gonna buy & screen this to see if it’s worth putting on the calendar
  • Solstice event? Such as a firepit or something
• January
  • Counter-protest for Walk for Life!!!! It’s a tradition!!!!!!!!!
    • No date yet as of their website.
  • February
    • An event centered around restorative justice
  • We’d like to finish up the calendar by like early early November

5. Candlelight Vigil

• A vigil for the Rojava is happening at the capitol steps tomorrow evening at 7:30.

Meeting adjourned 8:33 PM

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

1. Event Review – Pan’s Labyrinth had a pretty good turnout and a good discussion!

2. Upcoming Event – We have Red State coming up this Saturday! We’re getting breakfast locked down.

3. Parade – We have a meeting at August 31 for prepping any parade props, and we decided a time to meet up. We’re going to discuss it further next meeting, and talk about what props we’re going to make (a black cat puppet is probably involved).

4. Free School – Bailey gave us a low-down on how free school is looking. There’s going to be a table at Red State, passing out info for free school classes. We talked about passing out a separate calendar of free school events along our usual flyering route.

5. Email and Messages – We got an email from a couple comrades in Chicago, looking for a place to crash while they travel. We’re going to look around for somewhere they can stay. We also got a message from a friend on Facebook a while ago! Asking if we wanted a movie, and it unfortunately slid under the radar so we have to respond to her really quickly.

6. Fall Calendar – We tweaked the calendar design a bit. We’re printing 75 pages worth of handbills, and 30 full-color calendars. Ty’s going to send the order to the print shop, and Brandon will pick them up.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled Items: Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Brandon (late), Jackson (moderator), Marc, Ty (secretary), Will (late), Wyatt
Start time: 7:13 PM

1. Event Review – We showed White Light/Black Rain on Friday. We had a very good attendance, and it was a great memorial of the atomic bombings. The discussion was lively, but moderation was probably needed. We also need to put a warning on this documentary in the future for graphic imagery of death. We had a broader discussion on future warnings for triggering content (Does the Dog Die? is a great website to do a precursory check on potential triggers).

2. Upcoming Event – Pan’s Labyrinth is on Friday. Set-up will be easy, there are already warnings on the website. We’re good!

3. Parade – Brandon and Will gave us an update on a parade meeting. We’re interested in participating – maybe making a big black cat prop, among other more explicit politic themes. We’ll meet up here on Aug. 31 to make some arts and crafts!

4. Fall Garden – Wyatt and Jackson needs some help with managing the garden, and asks us to schedule some days to do some garden work. We scheduled Oct. 5 as a day to meet up for garden projects. Will suggested reaching out to some friends who also do community gardening, and we also talked about putting it up online as an event and inviting people and giving folks food, too. Maybe turning a few tasks into a gardening skillshare/free school? We probably can’t put it on the calendar, but a separate free school calendar is probably in the works.

5. Fall Calendar – Ty has a calendar template whipped up for both the main calendar and handbills. Marc will help him figure out the remaining design details, and Wyatt will figure out a place to donate money to for the anti-Thanksgiving fundraiser feast. Then Ty will get the calendars printed.

September
What are borders? A Community Discussion – Sep 7, 1-3 PM
Movie: Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (2017) – Sep 13, 7-10 PM
Love your Library: AK Press Spotlight – Sep 21, 1-3 PM

October
Legacy of Standing Rock – Community Discussion- Oct 12, 1 – 3pm
Anti-Columbus Day Protest @ Federal Building – October 14th, 5-6 PM
Movie “Smoke Signals” (1998) – October 18, 7-10 pm
October 31st Black Cat Halloween Party. We’re showing Candyman! 7-10 PM

November
Reading Discussion: “Inhabit: Instructions for Autonomy” – Nov 9, 1-3 PM
Movie Night “Skins” (2002) (Drama filmed at Pine Ridge) – Nov 15, 7-10 PM
Anti-Thanksgiving Fundraiser Feast– November 29th (7-10 PM)

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Fall Calendar Printing, Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Brandon (moderator), Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:09 PM

1. Event Review – Manufacturing Consent was Friday. It was a good turnout! And it was good pizza, Wyatt did a great job with his garden-fresh veggie toppings.

2. Upcoming Event – American Empire and Islam is posted! Jackson knows his history on the subject well, and the friend who suggested the subject in the first place is planning on bringing her knowledge as well.

3. Moderator/Secretary Rotation – Brandon was voted to be an official part of the moderator/secretary rotation!

4. Will’s Stuff – Will sent a message to address at the meeting in his absence. He asks to use the copier, and says he opted against the infoshop Commune description, and will just get a personal one to share with us.

5. Block Party – Chelsea is in full support of us having a lit table at the block party, that is tentatively August 3, 5-9 PM. We’re the only org that Chelsea asked to be there, but Jackson is going to suggest to Chelsea to invite Feed the People, and Brandon will bring it to an FTP meeting to see whether the group is interested in doing so.

6. Fall Calendar –

Husker Home Gamedays: September 14th, September 28th, October 5th, October 26th, November 16th

Discussion idea: Remembering the genocide of indigenous peoples. And/or about missing and murdered indigenous women. Either in October (Columbus Day) or November (Thanksgiving). Maybe a discussion in one month, a film in the other?

Anti-Thanksgiving dinner on Black Friday?

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration/Anti-Columbus Day Protest?

Discussion idea: Historical Disconnect between our bodies and medicine. / Commodification of medicine. Do we even recognize if we are sick? What do licensing and doctors orders really mean? How can we learn to listen to our bodies?

Pairing the above with a citizen doctors skill share? Perhaps a little too ambitious at this time.

Library Focus: AK Press (Saturday afternoon 1-3 format)

Reading Discussion: Inhabit booklet (excerpt? two parts?)

Will proposes a Thursday screening of Trouble, available on subMedia. They’re ~30 min., and with a donation the website sends out question packets and various swag.

Will would like a September discussion on What is Autonomy.

He would also like an October discussion on Communization Theory? We’d need to unpack that and figure out how we’d advertise such a discussion.

Are we continuing with popcorn politics?

Working class anime? This is an idea Marc is still working on and might be best tabled to the winter calendar.

Tabled Items: Fall Calendar, Library Labels, Wellred Books, Event Outreach, What to do about $80 ISO bucks, Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM