In Attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – We ran American Socialist, a documentary about Eugene Debs, on Friday night. We had a good turnout and a nice discussion, although the film itself was only so-so.

2. Upcoming Event – Our counter-protest of the Walk For Life is this weekend! Ty will be here spearheading the childcare services we offer here at the House, while Jackson and Wyatt will be at the rally.

3. Books – We have new books from the big sale at Indigo Bridge. Ty bought two, and doesn’t want reimbursement for them. Jackson bought eight of them for $56.11, and would like to be reimbursed for them. It is approved.

Also, we are ready to pay up on the AK Press order we placed a couple of months ago. Jackson will be reimbursed $200.30 for placing that order for our library.

4. Website – Jackson reports that it was time to renew one of our website domains. It cost him $30.87, and he will be reimbursed for keeping our website running.

5. Email – Ty reports that we got a couple of new emails. One was maybe a bot, or maybe a person curious about our organization. Ty will send a simple reply email… what’s the worst that can happen? We also had an invitation to table again at Lincoln Earth Day in 2019. We decided that we won’t be doing that.

6. February Events – Wyatt has a draft that we like for the KXL discussion. Jackson will prepare a draft for the documentary showing of the Garden.

7. Spring Calendar

Blackout Dates: April 13th (Huskers Spring Game), 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 or 30th?
Kurdish/PKK – April 20th?
Reading Discussion in May (18th or 25th?)? (Women and labor in early May?)
Yard Sale, Fri May 10 and Sat May 11

Popcorn Politics
March: Something that will pass the Bechdel Test (Ty suggests Hidden Figures)
April: Something environmentalist (Anthony suggests Snowpiercer, Princess Mononoke, or Godzilla vs Hedorah)
May: The Young Karl Marx

Documentaries? Strength of the Storm. One more?

Meeting adjourned: 8:31 PM

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

Meeting in session at 7:04pm

1. Event review – Videodrome was a weird movie for sure, and we had a good size group in attendence, including 3 new people, and we had a lively discussion. Thank you to Chris for the prepared analysis presented during the discussion.

2. Upcoming Event – On Friday we are showing American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Debs. We have the DVD and will prepare the chairs and AV before the start.
Due to dangerously cold weather, the Women’s March in Lincoln is postponed to Sunday the 27th, 2-5pm. We will be there on Sunday!

3. Update email about Mutual Aid working group read aloud.

4. Books – The International Socialist Organization – Lincoln Twig officially donated 16 Haymarket Press books to the Black Cat House free lending library. Thank you!

5. February events – New Off-Calendar Event: Serendipiti Presents
Our friend sent us a proposal for a Direct Action Workshop for action in the Age of Trump. We have agreed to host the workshop on Saturday February 2nd from 1-3pm. We will help her out and post that on Facebook ASAP.
Our Malcolm X Event description is approved by Lincoln DSA. Will be posted on Facebook ASAP. We will put poll for what pizzas people want, and there will be pizza.

6. Spring calander

We have multiple ideas about spring calendar events.
1. Jackson will talk to Khenda about a possible PKK/Bookchin Discussion.
2. Movie nights, we will aim for doing 2 movies per month, one documentary and one fictional movie.
3. Discussions.
a.We for sure want to do the “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event before the Lincoln general elections in April.
b.We also hope to do a discussion about the PKK, Rojava, the Kurdish Struggle, and Western Anarchist analysis.
c. We will think of something else for third discussion.
4. Annual Yard Sale fundraiser will be in early May.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

Tabled: AK Press Reimbursement, Stuff to Buy, Library Readership Development, Potential donation to ISO,

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 (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – We ran Sorry to Bother You for our Popcorn Politics on Friday. We had our best turnout for a movie in quite some time, including some new faces and some old friends we hadn’t seen in a while! The discussion was good, but half of the room hadn’t seen the movie before and the film has a lot to unpack after seeing it for the first time. Ty wonders whether we should make more of an effort to pre-screen our films as a collective and prepare some questions or discussion prompts for future movie nights, in case discussion starts slowly.

2. Upcoming Event – We won’t be meeting again before our discussion, Socialist Cuba at 60, on January 5th. We have some work to do; we want to offer a short presentation if anyone shows up who doesn’t know much (we’ll establish that with the intros, and skip it if everyone is already up to speed).

3. Red State II – Jackson reports that discussions are underway to begin planning for a second Red State conference, and that the planning committee has asked us to host their next meeting in early January. We are on board, and looking forward to building Red State II.

4. Library Checkout – Wyatt proposes that we have a nice, visible binder with contact sheets for library checkouts on our desk. He thinks it may encourage more people to check out our books. We’re going to give it a shot!

5. AK Press – We got our monthly Friends of AK Press shipment with two new books for our library!

6. January Events – We spent the rest of our meeting working on getting our January events up online.

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: 8:35 PM

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

Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Upcoming Events – Sorry to Bother You is on Friday, and we are very excited. We have a DVD identified and it will be hand delivered this week. We are expecting around 10 people. Cleaning will be done before Tuesday so we should only need to do a once over with the vacuum on Friday.

The Library Cart will be updated with books relevant to Sorry to Bother You.

2. Library Donations
Wyatt donated the Crazy Horse:The Lakota Warrior Life and Legacy book signed by Grandson of Crazy Horse to the BCH Library.
Two books sent by Ty’s pseudo- social democrat secret admirer are added to the library. Can Democracy Survive Capitalism, Robert Kuttner. The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi. The arguments may not fit our perspective but it is a reference nevertheless.
Several books left in the box of donations by Brian are added to the library.

3. Printer donation – The Triumph working class magazine needs a new printer desperately. They still need $1000. BCH would like to donate. Black Cat House agrees to give $75 now. We will consider another donation in the near future. We will also share on our social media and include the link here. Consider Donating to support this very important publication! https://www.gofundme.com/x73j5k-help-the-triumph-buy-a-printer?fbclid=IwAR2Sf_PxZHJr30D-b4bM1KPWl62C-Ny8iDTPB56G6Cei13yupFgeOU7Indo

4. January Events – We still need to three of our January events up online. We spent remaining meeting time working on a draft for January’s Popcorn Politics.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 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), AK Press reimbursement

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

1. Event Review – We showed Tough Guise here on Friday night. We had a decent turnout and a great discussion.

2. Winter Calendars – Our winter calendars are here! Ty got them printed, and will be reimbursed $7.60 for getting that done for us. Now we need to get them distributed!

3. Che Event – Ty reports that Francie & Finch has not responded to his email, so it looks like we’re hosting it here. He will contact the author to get into the details of scheduling.

4. Work Time – We spent the rest of our meeting drafting our description for our Sorry to Bother You movie night and starting to re-sort our library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, Graphic Designer, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop), AK Press reimbursement

In Attendance: Ty, Chris, Casey, Jackson (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)
Start Time: 7:05pm

1. Event Review
Movie Night: Johnny Got His Gun. We had a nice turnout with some new people and some people we hadn’t seen in awhile. Enjoyed an enthusiastic and analytical discussion after the movie.

2. Upcoming Event
Tough Guise was checked out of the library, so we have the DVD. Copy may be damaged so Ty will preview it. If needed will service at Game Room. Scheduled for Nov 16, this Friday.

3. Books
Mutual Aid Event, 17 zines, Puerto Rico Graphic Novel, Gardening in your Apartment, 5 Ak Press Books. $81 to Wyatt. Reimbursement in order.

Finally received last three items from Kerspelpedeb! Shipment Finalized. $74.95 to Jackson. Reimbursement in order.

Still waiting on final items from AK Press….tabled.

4. Che Event
Heard back from Indigo Bridge Books, unfortunately they are not interested in hosting the event. Ty will reach out to Francie & Finch bookshop and ask if they would like to host. Last resort remains doing it at BCH.

5. Winter Calender
We finalized the winter calender! Going to print this week and events will start to go up online shortly. Jackson will post online event for Gentrification discussion ASAP. Then outreach to the other orgs we would like to invite to be involved.

Tabled: “Who Owns Politics?” Discussion Event, 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)