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

Start time: 7:08 PM

1. Event Review: We showed 1984 on Friday, and it had a nice turnout and conversation. Defeatist tone to the chat, but so was Orwell about the issue, so it makes sense!

2. Upcoming Event: What is Revolution is on Saturday! Marc suggests making open-ended social media posts, prompting thought ahead of time. Will proposes a reading list for people to browse to get gears turning as well. Wyatt thinks that a follow-up event in a calendar or two if we have a good turnout, which maybe the reading list would be better for. We brainstormed some ice-breakers and thought-provoking questions to ask before and during the discussion.

3. Library Donation: Will has 8 zines to donate to the library, which we graciously accept. Ty donated Comrades, which is a radical tabletop RPG ruleset. We also accept this.

4. Bookmark Reimbursement: Marc printed bookmarks for us, and asks for $19.26 for it. We agree to reimburse him.

5. Calendar Distro: Jackson still hasn’t gotten calendars at the Hub Café or the Unitarian Church. Jackson will probably be able to do Hub Café, and Wyatt will take care of the Unitarian Church.

6. Online July Events: Jackson will draft descriptions for Manufacturing Consent and American Empire and Islam. Ty will draft Chicken Run. We’ll figure them out next meeting. Wyatt already has the names of the events on the website.

7. Treasury: We had $80 that we were going to pledge to the local ISO twig, but since ISO dissolved, it’s floating in limbo.

We are going to pledge $200 to Red State, but we are not sure at this time whether to use it to pay for the breakfast (which we’re also responsible for), or to donate it in addition to the breakfast.

We decided to table both parts of this item.

8. Red State: Brandon reminds us that we have access to a scheduling sheet for interviewing applicants for panelists/workshops. We all signed up for interview times.

Meeting adjourned: 8:33 PM

Tabled Items: Treasury Updates, Wellred Books, 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: Jackson, Marc (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:29 PM

1. Upcoming Events – We have a lot of donations from Ty’s grandpa for the fundraiser yard sale. There are a few things that aren’t priced yet, and we also have some donations yet to come. Wyatt has some tables that he’s going to bring over, and we have some tables from last year for set up.

2. Arragorn! – It looks like we’re a-go for an event on May 23rd at 7 PM. Adam’s going to draft us a description for the event.

3. Contacts – We got a message on the Facebook page about Dear UNL, but we probably missed the boat on the actual campaign they were going for. Whoops! We sent a message acknowledging we got it, however.

We also got an email from someone representing Wellred Books and whether we’d be interested in Marxist literature (which we are, of course). We will table this item to next week, after we get more funds from the yard sale, before we browse their catalogue for possible titles.

4. Chairs – Jackson found a lot of cushioned folding chairs – much nicer than what we already have. 17 chairs in total, altogether $272.68. Jackson would like reimbursement, which we approve, but we’ll have to differ the reimbursement until we have more funds in the treasury.

Now we have a surplus of folding chairs. We’re opting to keep the lime plastic chairs from our old stock, but are selling the rest of them at the yard sale in favor of the new chairs.

5. Summer Calendar –

June
Saturday, June 1, 12-5 PM: The Black Cat House 6th Birthday Open House
Friday, June 14, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: 1984
Saturday, June 22, 1-3 PM: What is Revolution? (a community discussion)
Friday, June 28, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: How to Survive a Plague

July
Friday, July 12, 6-10 PM: Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent
Saturday, July 20, 1-3 PM: Open discussion on the relationship between U.S. imperialism and Middle Eastern religious fundamentalism (Proposed Title: Why They Hate U.S.: American Empire in the Middle East)
Friday, July 26, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Chicken Run

August
Friday, August 9, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Friday, August 16, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Pan’s Labyrinth

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: 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: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:09 PM

1. Event Review – The documentary, “Boom! The Sound of Eviction” was a good film, and the turnout was pretty decent. There was a lot of connections drawn between Lincoln and San Francisco’s gentrification in the discussion, and solutions generated for combatting gentrification locally.

2. Upcoming Event – Not this week, but next week is Strength of the Storm. We’ve got the DVD so we’ll be ready.

3. April Events – We have not heard from M. Earl Smith in regards to the event, so we’re going to order the book and have a reading discussion no matter what. If he is still able to show, fantastic! But given his last email, Ty will write the event up tonight as if he will not be able to make it.
The rest of the April events need up on the website. Jackson will add them.

Note: the WordPress calendar is a little wonky, and Marc volunteered to take a look at it to see if he could fix it.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, 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: 7:02 PM

1. Event Review – We had a reading discussion on Venezuela on Saturday. It had a good turnout and discussion. We hit on a great deal of the points in the readings.

2. Upcoming Event – Who Owns Politics is coming up on Saturday! We should be ready besides cleaning the room up.

3. AK Press – Two more books came in from our Friends subscription: Pleasure Activism, and the Sons of Night. The subscription for Friends of AK Press is coming up, and we’re opting to not renew it. Seems more reasonable to take advantage of their 50% off sales.

4. Calendar Distro – Haymarket calendars are up, and everywhere has one except for Bodhi Imports and Unitarian Church. Ty still has his and will bring them back to the House, and posted one up on the Facebook page.

5. Twitter – Ty says the Twitter is now active, and had some questions on what sort of use we should be trying to get out of it.

6. Santee Sioux Flood Relief – There is a supply drive for the Santee Sioux Nation for flood relief efforts, coordinated by the Dandelion Network. We shared the Facebook event to our page, and we will donate $50 to the Santee Sioux Nation’s GoFundMe page.

7. Library – We have freed three bookshelves from use in the kitchen, that we can potentially use for the library instead. We decided to reorganize the kitten corner into a more book-friendly, kid-friendly space and place one of the bookcases there. Another bookcase is going into the foyer. There’s more to do with library organization and readership, but that will be tabled again.

The rest of the time is working on library organization.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, 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: 7:08 PM

1. Event Review – We had the KXL discussion on Saturday. Usual suspects, not a huge turnout, but a good discussion nonetheless. It might be a weather issue, it might be an interest issue, but Wyatt says that the turnout would be improved by more in-person advertisement. He advises against relying on Facebook to bring in people.

2. Upcoming Event – The showing of The Garden is coming up! Movie set-up is very easy, and we already have the DVD.

3. Spring Calendars – Ty has made them, and will get them printed tomorrow. 70 pages of handbills, 30 full-page calendars. We’ll discuss distribution next week, but Jackson might distribute what he can this weekend, weather permitting (but it doesn’t look like it’ll permit).

4. Book – We got The Anarchist Encyclopedia (Abridged Edition) from AK Press. It’s a bunch of topics as analyzed through an anarchist lens, and we’re pretty excited about it. It’s a good primer on anarchist thought!

5. March Events – We had some work time getting event descriptions for March drafted.

6. Library Readership Development – We talked about making some targeted Facebook posts advertising the library. We also discussed reinstating open hours while rebranding it library hours. Wyatt proposes a scholarship or research project competition based on the materials in the library. Also, we need to be better about following up with checkouts! That, and we need to rearrange the books to accommodate all our new books, and label the sections clearly. It’s tabled again, for more serious discussion next week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, 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: 7:05 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)