BCH Minutes – 12/21/2020

Attendees: Alexis, Jackson (Moderator), Marcus (Secretary), Ty (intermittently)

Meeting Start: 7:10

Meeting End: 8:20

Upcoming Event – Walk for Life Counter-protest

– Alexis brought up some questions about the counter-protest and who might be there. We know that there will be various politicians speaking at the event (on the side of the anti-choice groups): Ricketts, the AG, various members of the unicameral, etc. They also typically rent space at the student union at UNL for several more hours of programming and speakers. Also, the cops present are there on voluntary overtime, meaning they can get paid to be ~holy~, and are definitely not neutral observers, so counter-protesters generally play it safe.

Given the complete lack of response on the Nebraska’s government’s part to COVID, it’s entirely possible that the pandemic spread will be so bad that even Ricketts needs to shut things down. But even in this situation, we can still expect that WFL protesters will be there in full force.

– Alexis also brought up the idea of an information pamphlet to give to WFL protesters; Ty also suggested using a pamphlet to embolden counter-protesters for discussion. Jackson pointed out that because so many WFL protesters can be expected to be plague-spreaders as well, counter-protesters may not be willing to get up close enough to speak with them since they probably won’t be wearing masks.

We also discussed strategies to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing at the protest, with the above assumptions in mind. Tactics discussed included using the buddy system and having folks on our side form smaller groups, with someone dedicated to telling more aggressive pro-lifers to back off. Since signs on sticks would be only selectively enforced, we could potentially use pool noodles.

We discussed having a bigger zoom meeting with more people who are specifically interested in the counter-protest to bounce ideas around. This meeting would likely be held about a week before January 16 to give time to prepare for the counter-protest.

Library Organization Project

– Naomi has spent a little bit of time at BCH to sort books, mostly new arrivals that haven’t been shelved yet, and to survey what’s here and what needs to be done.

Library Donation

– Marc donated a handful of fiction books, as well as a children’s book for the Kitten Corner. Jackson also donated several books and zines to the library about a variety of topics.

Winter Calendar

– For February, we are making headway on a poetry or music-related event. Ty has also been interested in having a Black music event as well, since there’s so much rich political and emotional history there. We also have tons of connections through Dance, and since it would be an online event, any participants would not have to live nearby. We also discussed asking Dance to moderate a potential panel of people. For now, the year is particularly rough for professors (who we’d to participate), but after January things might be better.

Impromptu Spring Calendar – gardening-focused events, potentially reaching out to the Hawley Hamlet

Next week’s meeting

– We have decided to not meet on the 28^th next week.

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

1. Event Review – Our panel discussion on Activists and Police Repression was on Saturday afternoon. We had a good turnout on Saturday, and the folks were engaged. Our panelists were knowledgeable and the discussion went really well. It might’ve been better if there had been a bit more interaction between the panelists, but there was no obvious way we could’ve gotten them more familiar with each other before Saturday.

2. Library Donation – Ty’s mom got us a children’s book about peaceful protesting. It will make a good addition to our Kitten Corner.

3. Library Catalog – We would like to integrate our library catolog with wordpress. There are some plugins that may work on this. Marc and Naomi are on this. There are a couple of other software widgets that we are experimented with; one of them is even called LibraryThing!

4. Walk For Life – Alexis is very interested in helping us with the counter-protest of the Walk For Life, and may have connections to other allies in NLC-Lincoln and on UNL’s campus. We will keep our channels open for further collaboration on this event.

5. Winter Calendar – It sounds like the group wants to focus on only the counter-protest for January and a Black History Month event for February. Jackson and Dance have been brainstorming on the latter event concept, and we are now considering a panel discussion on Black music and/or poetry. Ty would be especially enthusiastic for this concept if we can focus on Black music, as he’s been lobbying for a music-centric event for some time now.

6. Next week? – With the holidays around the corner, we considered whether our meetings will continue the rest of the year. We decided that we will be meeting normally for next Monday, December 21st.

Meeting adjourned: 8:32 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Begins: 7:04 PM

Library Updates: Jackson got quite a few diverse titles for donation to the library! Naomi was unable to make it today but she says she will give an email update with the library research she’s done.

Email: We got an email from someone who expressed interest in getting to know The Black Cat House and what we do here. Ty will reply.

Upcoming Event: We’re still having a little trouble contacting some panelists, though we’ve gotten confirmation from them that the day and time working for them. Ty volunteered to act as co-moderator for the panel, keeping an eye on the chat and making sure discussion questions are brought forward, while Jackson will focus on making sure each panelist gets their opportunity to speak on the discussion topic. We will not be recording it, as we have not had a chance to discuss this with the panelists.

Winter Calendar: Jackson would need to touch base with folks regarding the Black History Month poetry event idea. A book feature of our library titles by black authors to feature on social media might be a fun idea. Another potential synthesis of various ideas for an event would be a Radical Activism Under Biden themed event. Jackson says that might be a better fit for a January online event to contrast the in-person counter-protest, and then having a Black History Month event in February.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:02 PM

Tabled: Winter Calendar

Meeting Minutes for 11/30/2020. Panel Preparation, Library Organizing, Winter Brainstorming

Meeting begins at 7:06pm

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

> Upcoming Event

We have an event coming up on Dec12 from 1 to 3 pm. Some of our panelists are locked down and others have tentatively confirmed. We are posting the event description tonight. We are reserving a URL, we have designated a tech person (Marc) we have designated a moderator (Jackson).

For next week we would like to have questions for our panelists ready.

> Library Stuff

Naomi is interested in organizing our library. We planned several work days.

>Winter Calendar Brainstorming

December is our Protesters and Police event

January we have the counter protest

February:

SCOTUS ideas

Innaguration ideas

Activism in age of Biden

Book feature of black history

Poetry for black history month

>Meeting Adjourned 8:15

In attendance: Ty, Marc (secretary), Jackson

Meeting Began: 7:05 PM

Emails:

We got an email from the Feral Crust Collective from the Philippines; they’re working on getting a mini-cab (like a small truck) and requested donations to get this so they can carry stuff around and transport people. We’ll examine our treasury and consider a potential figure.

Second email was from a comrade offering to help out with the library cataloging project, and wanted links to the meeting. Ty responded and said he could send the link next week/whenever she’s available. He also explained that we want to organize the physical library better, but also catalog things to make the collection searchable online.

December Panel:

Wyatt got into contact with one panelist, who has confirmed the time/date. Jackson has not heard back from the other two panelists; one panelist has agreed to the time/date, but the other has not responded.

We still need to have a discussion about what the panelists would like to say/talk about before we can advertise the event; it’s coming up quickly.

Marc brought up making the event description fairly vague until we lock down more information about who’s participating and what they’d like us to include in the description.

Jackson is taking point on writing up the first version of the event description.

Ty and Marc tested recording the event (with the panelists’ permission) on Jitsi. We have not tested with livestreaming yet.

We also tested some additional recording capabilities of Jitsi—such as whether it captures the chat, and how sharing YouTube videos works on the platform.

Winter Calendar:

Panel discussion on the 12^th of December – Jackson is working on the description.

Counter-protest for Walk for Life – Marc drafted the description and Jackson worked on revising it a bit to provide more context. After revision, Marc and Ty approved the finalized description. Jackson posted the event on Facebook.

We likely cannot commit to doing childcare this year due to COVID. People may not need childcare for this reason, as well.

We also won’t be able to host a sign-making party as well, sadly.

Tabled: Winter Calendar, Library Cataloguing Project (for next week’s discussion)

Meeting Adjourned: 8:28 PM

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

1. Library Donation – Jackson has another batch of books for the library from a PM Press sale.

2. December Panel? – Jackson reports that one of our three prime panelist candidates have been in touch in the last week and has confirmed availability on December 12th. We’re still waiting to hear back from the other two candidates. Ty wants to wait to contact his options until we get a second confirmation from our prime candidates. Ty and Marc are still planning to investigate recording options if our panelists consent to that.

3. Winter Calendar – Ideas:

Panel Discussion on Police Repression and Activist Resilience (December 12th?)

Counter-protesting the Walk for Life (January 16, 10 AM). We still need to get the web event up ASAP.

January community discussion on the Supreme Court and/or Inauguration Day?

Street medic training

Black History Month-themed event for February

Spring Suggestion: Community Gardening Discussion with representatives of Hawley Hamlet?

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM

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

Meeting start: 7:10 PM

November Event: We have three very interested panelists, we just need to get a date agreed on. We decided to propose postponing it to December, to give the panelists more time to prep and us more time to promote it. The date we’re going to propose is December 12, 1-3 PM central time. If that doesn’t work for our panelists, we’ll reevaluate.

We’ll also want to get some bios for our panelists in order to give attendees an idea of why we asked these folks to be speakers on police repression. We’re also going to have some questions prepared ahead of time for the Q&A portion of the discussion in order to break the ice. We also discussed recording the discussion though doing so would be entirely dependent on the panelists’ comfort level with doing so. We’ll pitch the idea and see what they think.

Winter Events: The police repression panel is now a winter event!

We’re pretty dedicated to counter-protesting the Walk for Life (January 16, 10 AM). We don’t really have the means with COVID to have the pre-protest organizing meeting like we wanted, but we will plug away with this regardless. Marc and Ty will work on creating the web event description for it.

A SCOTUS discussion might be a good one to have. The issue is forefront on people’s minds right now, plus there’s a lot of historical and political ground to cover there. We’re thinking to do that in January.

Wyatt would be down to host a street medic training anytime, and the rest of us are all for it! Though it may not be very productive to host it in The Black Cat House itself given its size, so we’d considered other venues for it. He’s thinking January or February for that, at least for our first event of this nature.

Tabled: November Event, Winter Events

Meeting Adjourned: 8:10 PM

We weren’t able to meet tonight. We’ll be back next week.

In attendance: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:01 PM

Event Review: We had our digital installment of Can We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess on Saturday. Small turnout, good discussion. Probably should’ve thrown the event up sooner, but we also decided on it last minute, so we can’t beat ourselves up too much about it.

November Event: We have two panelists confirmed, but it’s been hard to get in touch with them this week to confirm date/time. If we can do that though, we might already have a third panelist ready to go, as they were also pretty interested.

Winter Events: We discussed the possibilities of making sure the digital link to the Black Cat House Monday meetings are readily accessible, and an online social gathering event to keep people connected during winter. We also might do a digital follow-up to the election, regardless of results.

Other discussion ideas brewing: different communities’ responses to COVID-19, World AIDS Day (December 1) event regarding the queer community’s aftermath in the wake of the 80s/90s and how they’re dealing with HIV (and how their response to COVID is influenced by it), discussion about courts/SCOTUS specifically?

February is Black History Month and we would want to do something for that but we’re not sure a more specific topic yet.

Ty wants to do something involving music but he’s not sure yet whether he wants to discuss political music or whether he wants to get leftist musicians in a video chat together to have an online concert.

January 16 is the Walk for Life – what do we want to do to counter this year?

Tabled: November Event, Winter Events

Meeting Adjourned: 7:39 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had our first in-person discussion in seven months on Saturday. The turnout was small, but there was still some good discussion with some old friends (who also took advantage of our library!).

2. Upcoming Event – Marc is still excited to move ahead with our digital part two of the election discussion this Saturday on Jitsi, but hasn’t had the time to put the event up online yet. He’ll try to get that up tonight.

3. Library Donation – Jackson is donating two more books to the library.

4. November Discussion – Jackson has secured one panelist for our November discussion, and needs to get in touch with Wyatt regarding his potential panelists. Ty has a couple of leads, but wants to wait until we settle on a date (with Jackson and Wyatt’s leads) before making contact.

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM