In attendance: Connor, Jackson (secretary), Luz, Marc, Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Upcoming Event – Marc’s zine workshop is this Saturday! He’s feeling good about it.
2. Fall Calendar – Marc has a draft for our fall calendar. We fine-tuned some of the event descriptions. Unfortunately, Jackson still hasn’t received confirmation of whether we will have access to The Color of Care for September 23rd. We decided to advertise our September movie night as a Social Justice Documentary Night (title TBA), while dedicating our November movie night to Judas and the Black Messiah. Marc will be getting the calendar files to the UNL print shop tomorrow and Jackson will be picking them up on Wednesday.

Sunday, September 11, 1-3 PM: “Urban Foraging,” a tour about recognizing edible plants
Thursday, 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, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Social Justice Documentary (Title TBA)
October 10, 4-6 PM: Anti-Columbus Day Protest
October 15, 1-3 PM: “Prison Abolition for Beginners,” a community discussion
October 28, 7-10 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, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Judas and the Black Messiah

3. Website Improvements – We spent the last hour of the meeting in an extended discussion about the improvements we want to see made on our website. We’re eager to see what Marc can do with our ideas.

Meeting adjourned: 8:55 PM

Tabled Issues: Emailing list, indoor tour video/photography

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.

Jackson was the only one available tonight, so there was no meeting. We’ll try again next week.

In attendance: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)
Meeting start: 7:03 PM

1.) August Event: Description has been approved, so we got it posted tonight!

2.) Website Reimbursement: It’s time to renew our domain name, which Jackson is handling. It will be $33.99 to do so, which we’ll reimburse him for.

3.) Library Donation: Jackson had multiple library donations, including graphic novels, quick-read informational books, and several contributions for the Kitten Corner.

4.) Email: We received an email from an online used bookseller that Jackson recently purchased from. This seller drew the connection between Jackson and The Black Cat House, and sent a list of other books that they would be willing to send to us for free for the library. We looked over the list and all seemed like good titles, stuff definitely right at home on the library shelves. Ty drafted and sent an email to accept the offer.

5.) Fall Calendar
Sunday, September 11, (1-3 PM?)
Urban Gardening Plant IDing Tour (title pending)

September, date/time pending
OutNE workshop

Monday, October 10th, 4:30-6:30 PM
Anti-Columbus Day Protest (at the Federal Building, 16th & O)

Friday, October 28, 7:00-? PM
Halloween Movie Night
Ideas = Candyman, Us, Nope (Peele), Posessor (B. Cronenberg), Crimes of the Future (D. Cronenberg)

November 10th, 7-8:30 PM
“Intersectiona-LEE-ty”: How Bruce Lee Embodies Intersectionality (a Jitsi talk by Professor Lori Dance)

Date/time pending:
Prison Abolition for Beginners
Movie Night: Judas and the Black Messiah

Possibilities: pro-choice event, documentary

Blackout dates: 9/3, 9/10, 9/17, 10/1, 10/8, 10/29, 11/5, 11/19

Meeting adjourned: 8:28 PM

In attendance: Wyatt (secretary), Ty, Jackson, Brian
Start time: 7:20 PM

1. Website Updates- Scheduled an August 22^nd meeting for website stuff. We need to prioritize content ideas and make something everyone likes.
2. Library Donation – Dr. Collette donated a large box of books to the library. Thank you!
3. Fall Calendar –

• We have not heard anything for certain about a collaboration with OutNebraska in September. We will keep our ears open on this channel. If it happens too late to get on the calendar we can simply host and leave it up to OutNebraska to advertise. We would prefer to get it on the calendar.
• We had a lot of enthusiasm for follow-up pro-choice event. We are thinking of formatting it like a support group talking circle for activists. We can print out some more abortion zines and share this file with interested parties.
• An open discussion: the Prison Industrial Complex. Event about mass incarceration prison abolition based around. Use info graphic. Why are so many people inside in this county? What is this doing to the families that are missing all those people? Does it have to be this way?
• “Intersectiona-LEE-ty”: How Bruce Lee Embodies Intersectionality; talk by Professor Dance; Jitsi discussion recorded for YouTube; November 10th, 7-8:30 PM. Jackson can moderate.
• Movie night in November: Judas and the Black Messiah. This bio-pic is about Fred Hampton.
• Anti-Columbus Day protest. Monday October 10^th at the Federal Building, 16^th and O.
• Halloween Movie Night. Could do the Jordan Peel Candyman movie. Or the movie NOPE! Maybe we should ask Eric Holt for suggestions.
• DIO Fest is October 8^th. Located at the Bay, probably. We might throw up a rain barrel, if possible.
• Possible garden plant ID tour thing. Sunday September 11^th

Blackout Dates:

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

Meeting adjourned: 8:23PM

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

1. Event Review – We had our abortion rights discussion on Saturday. We had eight new people in the room, who all found us through the Facebook event. It was a great discussion that everyone seemed very engaged in, even with a self-described theocrat in the room trying to prosletyze us. (Thankfully, they left early when the attempt went nowhere.) Jackson collected emails from several of the attendees and needs to get an email out to them soon with a DIY abortion care zine we have access to. He will also use the opportunity to follow up with them about a suggestion made at the discussion to hold more of these pro-choice meetings in the coming months, possibly formatted as a “social activists’ support group” as one of our guests suggested.
2. Library Donation – Jackson is donating a book about anarchism to the library.
3. Fall Calendar

We still are planning on collaborating with OutNebraska in September, but Ty needs to follow up with Aryn soon.

We may do more pro-choice events, since there was a lot of enthusaism for follow-up on that issue at our discussion this month.

Marc suggested via group chat last week that maybe it’s time for us to do an event about mass incarceration/prison abolition.

“Intersectiona-LEE-ty”: How Bruce Lee Models/Embodies Intersectionality (Working title); talk by Professor Dance; Jitsi discussion recorded for YouTube; November 10th, 7-8:30 PM

Possible movie night(s): Judas and the Black Messiah

Recurring events to renew: Anti-Columbus Day protest, Halloween Movie Night

Collaborative idea: DIO Fest is supposed to be returning on October 8th

We have also heard from some close friends that they’d be interested in running an event, showing a movie, inviting colleagues, etc.

Blackout Dates:

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 8th, so we don’t want to compete with them on that day.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

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

Meeting start: 7:20 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty (secretary)

1. Upcoming Event: We have a movie night, “Pride” on Saturday! Have to continue tidying the room, but otherwise we have everything we need.
2. Library Donations: Jackson got some more donations for the library! Ty sorted through them a bit, and there are some stacks that we’d like some other members’ opinions on, but some of the books got accepted into the library outright. Thanks, Jackson!
3. Projector: Jackson got us a new working projector! He spent $160.88 on it. He got preapproved by other members for reimbursement on this, but this is officially documenting the total for reimbursement. He also highly recommends buying a remote for it to serve our ambition to get this projector mounted instead of on a cart, as well as an extra bulb for it to have on hand. These are also OK’d for reimbursement when he finds them at a good price.
4. OutNE: OutNE reached out to us regarding our interest in volunteering and/or hosting future events of theirs. We’re opting to volunteer as individuals rather than as a group. But as far as hosting, assuming schedules work out we’re down to host future events. If any get scheduled for fall, we can potentially put it on our fall calendar.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

Jackson and Wyatt were the only ones available tonight. We had some discussion about making the space more accessible, and then committed time tonight to actually cleaning up parts of the space indoors and outdoors towards being more ready for our next public event on June 25th.