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 (secretary), Ty (moderator, via video chat), Wyatt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We hosted the “Who Owns Politics?” discussion here on Saturday. It was a really good talk. Maybe we should do it again at the next election cycle?

2. Upcoming Event – Our movie night for Boom! is this Friday. We’re good to go for it!

3. April Events – We spent the rest of our meeting working on online descriptions for our upcoming April events.

Meeting adjourned: 8:09 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), Wyatt (secretary)
Start time: 7:02 PM

>Event Review
On Friday we watched Hidden Figures, and we decided during the discussion that we didn’t really like it. There was a moderate turnout.

>Upcoming Events
On Saturday we are hosting a Venezuela discussion. Greg Palast posted an update to the article we are using that connects the Koch bothers oil refineries and the slowing of KXL construction to US interests in Venezuela. So we have some more good material for discussion on Saturday.
We will print 10 sets of the readings, which Jackson has kindly arranged.

>Posting fb Events
Coming up in March is our community discussion “Who Owns Politics?” We work to build a description of this murky subject and post a facebook event.
Jackson will also post an event for our next march movie about gentrification and eviction in San Fransico.

Meeting Adjourned 8:15

Tabled:
Library Readership Development, Library Organizing, 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 (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing Hidden Figures for Popcorn Politics on Friday night!

2. Calendar Distro – Wyatt still needs to hit up Bodhi and the Unitarian Church. Ty still needs to hit the Haymarket. Jackson still needs to go to The Bay and The Hub.

3. Online Presence – Ty will be assuming more responsibility over our inactive Twitter account. We are debating an appropriate way of reviving the use of our email list. Ty will contact Ju Ping regarding helping us create an account for Wyatt on our website. Item TABLED.

4. Library – We spent the remainder of our meeting working on re-organizing our lending library.

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)

Meeting 02/25/2019
In attendance: Jackson, Ty (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)

Meeting begins at 7:38
>Event Review
>Upcoming Events
>Calendar Distro + Reimbursement
>Messages
>Library

>Event Review
Several people enjoyed the movie The Garden, and stayed for an in depth conversation afterwords.

>Upcoming Events
None this week.

>Calendar
We reimburse Jackson for printing cost $11.24.
Distribution. It will be difficult in this weather.
Wyatt: South Street places. Meadowlark, Open Harvest, Bohdi imports, Russes?
Jackson: main downtown places. coffee house, gomez, upstairs in parish building, the bay, cultiva.
Ty needs 7full size and “a bunch” of handbills in a paper bag. Haymarket and campus places. the mill, 10thousand villages, indigo bridge, ivana cone, scooters, blue stem, love library, resource center.

>Messages
We collectively posted three comment replies on our facebook pages.

>Library
Several people checked out books.
We discussed organizing the library a little bit better. We plan to introduce geo-regional library sections including Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, Australia/Oceania. We plan to introduce a new prison industrial section, animal rights section, and potentially other sections. We will make labels for section identification.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:20 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: 7:08 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 (secretary), Ty (via video chat), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – We ran Malcolm X for Popcorn Politics on Friday night. We had a solid turnout, and they seemed to really enjoy the film. The discussion was ok, but we had some clashing personalities in the room. We had some further discussion about ways we could have possibly done more to moderate that situation. We won’t do any reimbursement for the pizza ingredients, because we wound up eating most of that ourselves anyways.

2. Upcoming Event – The KXL discussion is this Saturday. We feel pretty good about our preparations for it. We briefly discussed the Keystone leak reported near St. Louis last week, and we think we should add some mention of this on Saturday.

3. Spring Calendar: We’re finally done with it!

Friday, March 8th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Hidden Figures movie showing
Saturday, March 16th, 1-3 PM; What is Happening in Venezuela? (a reading discussion)
Saturday, March 23rd, 1-3 PM; Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion)
Friday, March 29th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Boom! The sounds of Eviction
Friday, April 12th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Strength in the Storm
Friday, April 19th, 7-9 PM; Stars Over Latin America (children’s book about Che Guevara read by the author)
Saturday, April 20th, 1-3 PM; The Kurdish Freedom Struggle (a community discussion)
Friday, April 26th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster
Friday, May 10th 8 AM-6 PM & Saturday, May 11th 8 AM-2 PM: The Annual Black Cat House Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 18th, 1-3 PM; Reading Discussion: Lucy Parsons’ “I am an Anarchist”
Friday, May 24th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): The Young Karl Marx

Ty thinks he can get these formatted and printed this week.

4. Upcoming Event Idea – Jackson and his surrogate mother Dance talked the other day about running a discussion in the future on U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and its impact on building Islamic fundamentalism. She was particularly interested in discussing the 1953 coup in Iran. Item is tabled, and we can hopefully brainstorm on developing this concept over the next few months.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 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)

Meeting in session at 703
In attendance: TY (moderator), Jackson, Wyatt (secretary)

1. Event Review

Last saturday we hosted a guest workshop on activism in the age of trump. One highlight was a handout comparing “alternative” politics to “oppositional” politics which parsed the difference between individualist and collective solutions.

2. Upcoming Events

On friday we will be showing the Malcolm X biopic! Special early start time at 6pm. We will be preparing about 6 pizzas, with cheese, meat, and vegetarian options.

3. SW

Black Cat House will be subscribing to the Socialist Worker monthly paper and make the paper available in our public space.

4. Books

Jackson is donating “Kids on Strike” by Susan Bartolli
Jackson will be reimbursed $18.65 for “You don’t have to fuck people over to survive” by Seth Tobocaman and the elusive “Wobblies!” edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman. All three books are added to the lending library.

5. Spring Events

We’re (mostly) decided on our spring calendar! It’s packed!

March 8 7pm Hidden Figures movie showing
March 16 1pm Venezuela reading discussion
March 23 1pm Who Owns Politics community discussion
March 29 7pm Boom! The sounds of Eviction Movie
April 12 7pm Strength in the Storm Movie showing
April 19 7pm Authors reading of Stars over LA
April 20 1pm Kurdish workers struggle community discussion
April 26 7pm Godzilla VS the smog monster movie showing
May 10-11 All Day Annual Yard Sale!
May 18 1pm Lucy Parsons I am an Anarchist reading discussion
May 24 7pm Young Karl Marx movie showing

Tabled: Library Readership Development

Meeting Adjourned 8:35pm

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