In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:25 PM

1. Event Review – We had our anti-Columbus Day protest last Monday. We had a good turnout and handed out a lot of educational literature. Jackson even wound up being interviewed for a national AP wire article, thanks to our Facebook event. The sign-making party was a bust, probably due to poor advertising.
2. Interview – A grad student in the UK reached out to us to see if we’d give an interview about running our activist space. The collective nominates Jackson and Ty to represent the group, as they have seniority. Ty will figure out when is good in his schedule and reach out to see if our schedules can by synchronized with the researcher’s.
3. Strike Solidarity – We will be donating $200 from our treasury toward the strike fund for the Kellogg’s workers on strike in Omaha. We’re also planning to drive up there someday soon to see if we can be of any further help to them.
4. Migrating from Facebook? – Ty and Marc have continued to do more research on the potential for us replacing our internal discussions on Facebook with Discord. Ty would like a timetable for our migration from Facebook. Wyatt suggests spending the winter familiarizing ourselves with Discord and possibly moving away from Facebook in the spring.
5. Winter Calendar – tabled to next week

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In Attendance: Wyatt, Jackson, Ty, Marc (secretary)
Start Time: 7:10 PM

Upcoming Event: Anti-Columbus Day Protest
We have committed to attending the event from 1-3 PM as listed in the printed calendar. Folks may still stick around to hit rush hour, and we might have the benefit of hitting the post-lunch crowd and after-school pickups.

Marc will make some educational zines/handbills about the Nebraska state legislature’s decision to celebrate both Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day. These will include a “why are we protesting” explanation. We already published a zine a few years back about the topic and why Columbus was a scumbag, so Marc will use that as the basis with an updated intro.

Ty will cross-post the event to our site. Due to the protest and long days for multiple members, we have decided to cancel next Monday’s meeting.

Movie: Nightbreed
Ty and Marc will watch Nightbreed this week to provide a more complete description for the event post. They will also identify a pausing point so attendees can break for snacks, etc.

Marc and Ty will also loan BCH an air purifier for the event, and Wyatt will be on mask compliance duty.

Facebook
The site was down for a long time today and we should review our pages/posts for potential data loss. There was also a whistleblower who talked about the grossly unethical practices of Facebook. We also discussed using our site as our event/info hub more, and encouraging people to check the site first for updates and events. Ty also mentioned that we could begin using our listserv again.

Our long-term goal is to stop using Facebook entirely. However, as we move away from the platform, we should be gradual and purposeful so we don’t lose our connection to people. We plan on being transparent in why we’re doing this (security, ethics, longevity). Additionally, we need to figure out a new platform for online discussion between members, and Marc and Ty suggested Discord.

We discussed using zines and other publications to help encourage word of mouth in the community. There are lots of little free libraries and coffee shops in the area that such publications could be left at.

New Logo
Marc will talk to our artist friend about what we need from a logo, so it can be used digitally.

Tabled Items
Timeline for ditching Facebook, new online discussion platform, website, inside of the house video, library catalog, little library, winter calendar, and probably more

Meeting Adjourned: 8:21 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – We had our discussion on the Right’s censorship of education on Saturday, but the three of us were the only ones who came! We had a lot of social media buzz, so it seemed to be a relevant subject to many of our friends. But it obviously didn’t translate into turnout. We have questions about whether the continuing pandemic is keeping our kind of people at home. Wyatt thinks we should be more directly contacting friends who we think are specifically interested in the subject of a given event and relying less on Facebook.
2. October Events – We need to get to advertising our Anti-Columbus Day Protest as well as our Nightbreed movie night. Jackson volunteers to do the protest description. Ty and Marc will be screening Nightbreed this weekend, and will get that event description drafted soon afterwards. We’re thinking we should have an intermission about halfway through the two-hour movie, for a snack break outside. Otherwise, masks will be required on inside the house for the entirety of the event.
3. Library Update – Jackson reports that Naomi stopped by today to inventory more books for our fledgling library database. Thanks, Naomi!

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty, Wyatt (Secretary), Marc, Shakye
Start time: 7:30 PM

Event Review: Garden Day was not attended. It was hot and there was a football game. Lets keep them in the morning.

Cat Art Update: Our artist friend has volunteered to create a new logo for us. We would like one that could be placed anywhere on the page, not just at the top. Maybe a little bit freshened up. Transparent background complete image that can be digitally formatted.

We also talked about a sign for the front yard. With lights.

Upcoming Events:

On Saturday we have an upcoming event, our discussion. We got some traction on social media. We will be doing it on the porch.

Winter Calendar Ideas: We would like to have these out by mid November at the latest.

Counter Protest

Homeowners associations and city codes about colonizer lawns

Black Musicians and Liberation event in February.

Tabled Items:

website, inside of the house video, library catalog, little library, winter calendar, and probably more

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

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

Library returns and donation:

An item was returned to the library: DVD “The Corporation” were returned along with a note from the reader saying how much they enjoyed and appreciated it. Jackson donates three books including Fossil Capital, The Rise and Reign of Unruly Woman, and When Sex Goes to School and Wyatt donates two books, Jacobs’ A Generation Removed and Scahill’s Dirty Wars

Upcoming Events:

We have a upcoming garden day this Saturday. Wyatt will be around to organize those in attendance. The Saturday after that we are hosting our open discussion. We edited the event description and posted the open discussion event. See ya’ll there!

Some discussion about movie night, will we do it indoors? How can we make it safer / people comfortable?

Calendar distro:

We have hung all our colanders. I will take one more to Meadowlark for that one delayed hanging.

Tabled Items:

website, another video, library catalog, little library, cat themed art, winter calendar, and probably more

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty
Start time: 7:25 PM

1. Calendar Distro Update – Ty has had a rough week and not been able to do what he meant to last week. Jackson is willing to help with distro. Ty still needs to get a few more printed. Jackson may be fliering in the Haymarket this week.
2. Hyping September Events – Ty will try his hand at drafting descriptions for our September events (another Garden Day and our Far Right vs Education discussion), as well as the upcoming Columbus Day protest in October.
3. Next Monday – With Marc and Ty unavailable next Monday, and Wyatt likely to still be out of state, we decided to cancel next Monday’s meeting. We will meet next on Monday, September 13th.

Meeting adjourned: 8:00 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had a garden workshop here on Saturday. We got a few beds cleared and cover crops planted. We had some family show up, but we didn’t necessarily get a great turnout. Ty points out that it was maybe unattractive to a lot of our people between the recent heat wave and climbing Delta Covid numbers. We’re doing another one next month, and we’re excited for it.
2. Library donation – Jackson has two new books for our library. Folks like ’em.
3. Fall calendar distro – Wyatt will do South Street tomorrow. Ty will do the UNL campus stuff, Haymarket, and Near-South. Marc will do the stuff that’s “drive-worthy.” Jackson will do rest of downtown.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – Garden Day is this Saturday, and we’re excited for it. Wyatt is supposed to be back in town to lead this, and Jackson will keep in touch with him in case there are any complications there.
2. Fall Calendar Distro – The calendars are getting printed this week. Ty has prepared a recent list on the Black Cat website of our potential fliering locations. We will discuss specific fliering commitments via the group chat later in the week.
3. Website – Marc has created a few new draft pages for our website update. The content is still very much subject to updating later, but progress is being made!
4. YouTube – Jackson hasn’t had time to update the outline draft for the indoor tour video. He’s still planning to get this done.

Meeting adjourned: 7:35 PM

In Attendance: Jackson, Ty (moderator), Marcus (secretary), Wyatt
Start Time: 7:40 PM

Upcoming Event – The gardening day event on August 14 is all ready and set to go. The Facebook event is live and sharable, and Wyatt prepared a list of things attendees can do and learn about.

Reimbursement – We needed to renew the domain for our website, which cost $32.99. Jackson covered the cost of the renewal, and we unanimously voted to reimburse him for the full amount from the treasury.

Fall Calendar – Marc designed the calendar and handbills for our fall events. The designs were approved, and we’re ready to print and post them!

We also need to look over the list of businesses/etc. to distribute calendars, as some may have been pandemic casualties or don’t truly have public posting boards. Our previous posting list is in the minutes of November 4, 2019, from when we expanded said list. (Right before the pandemic, no less. Yeeeowch!)

We discussed adding a few new locations: Indigo Bridge’s new location, Transformations thrift store, F Street Community Church, Pepe’s, a new vegan Cajun food place, plus the other Mill locations and Cultiva East.

For now, we plan on printing 25 copies of both the large calendars and the handbills for distribution. At least one large calendar will go into the BCH archives.

YouTube – Jackson created an outline for the video tour of the inside of BCH. We talked extensively about what the video could contain, how to organize information within it, how to arrange the house, and additional parts of the BCH to include. Ty edited Jackson’s outline to include the following info: Kitten Corner, accessibility, that we accept library donations, a list of supplies we make available, tying elements of the space to events we’ve held, setting up the space to be “presentation/move” style, and inviting the viewers to participate in the BCH by attending events or joining these planning meetings.

Additionally, the trailer video for YouTube can only be a certain length, so we will need to edit our filmed trailer so it fits within those parameters. Marc will find some editing software to take care of this. Depending on how easy the video editing process is, we can also plan to do more editing for the BCH inside tour video.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM