3/7/16 Minutes: Movie Nights, Emails

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We showed Tangerine! It was an interesting movie and good discussion, though we did have to postpone it an hour due to the Democratic caucus. We really need to be better about keeping those things in mind.

2. Upcoming Event – Boom: The Sound of Eviction is this Saturday! We have it on DVD so setup will be super easy. Jackson is going to try and acquire speakers for the projector.

3. Emails – Joe sent us some articles regarding pro-reproductive rights events and legislation that we can share around. We also got another email from Alexandra accepting our offer to help find some speakers. So we’ll ask around our pro-choice friends to see if anyone can help her out.

4. Zines – Since a lot of zines are just sitting around and not getting sold, we sorted through to see which ones we’d like to keep and which we plan on donating to SP CE.

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM

2/29/16 Minutes: Upcoming Event, Earth Day

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re gearing up for our Tangerine movie night on Saturday. Because of the scheduling conflict with the Primary Caucus, we’re going to push our start time back to 8 PM. We’ll publicize this last-minute change, but we’re otherwise ready to go.

2. Calendar distro update – Ty just has to finish on South Street tomorrow morning. We’re looking good.

3. Lincoln Earth Day – We are now registered for a booth at Lincoln Earth Day. Jackson will be reimbursed $35 for reserving that for us. Ty thinks we should look into making some environmentally-focused button designs.

4. Organizational Vision – We talked a little bit more about our efforts at outreach and extending our message and information outside the house. Ty suggests that some of those ideas are simply unrealistic given our currently available energy. Perhaps we should try again to do more with our social media? That may be our most feasible tool for outreach at this time.

5. Event Promotion – We spent the rest of the time putting our March events up on Facebook and our website.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

2/22/16 Minutes: Walk For Pro-Choice, Lincoln Earth Day, Library

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We showed The Black Power Mixtape last night. The Facebook event got a really good response, though turnout was still pretty low in comparison.

2. Spring Calendar Distro/Reimbursement – Ty got the calendars printed, for 6.99. Reimbursement is approved. He has also distributed calendars to the Haymarket area and The Coffee House. He’ll be whittling away at the list of locations they need to go up, with the goal to make sure they’re everywhere they need to be by the 29th.

3. Library – Ty has book donations! A children’s book about transgender issues, a comic book about trans issues for the general library, a book of political labor cartoons, and a book on intersexuality. All have been accepted.

4. Email – Alexandria, an organizer of a pro-choice support walk coming up, emailed us asking for advice. We got together the information she’d need to get it set up with the city and offered to get in contact with speakers for her.

5. Lincoln Earth Day – We got an email back from the organizers of Lincoln Earth Day, saying we are eligible for the non-profit rate. We agreed to pay the $35 to get a table. We tabled talking about creating another “kid’s kit.”

6. Organizational Vision – We talked a while about how we were running the house, what we could improve as far as outreach goes, and how much we can accomplish.

Meeting adjourned: 7:57 PM

Tabled: Lincoln Earth Day, Organizational Vision (see 1/26/16 minutes)

2/15/16 Minutes: Spring Calendar, Lincoln Earth Day

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We had our “Black Lives Matter” discussion on Saturday. We were disappointed in our turnout, especially as the event concept seemed to “interest” dozens of people on Facebook. We had some discussion about what we could possibly be doing to try and push more people from “interested” to attending.

2. Upcoming Event – We’re showing the Black Power Mixtape on Sunday night. Hopefully it’s not too much of a conflict, given that UNL is also doing a documentary on the Black Panthers on Sunday afternoon. We’re not sure if that showing was already scheduled when we decided on our documenatary, but we did reiterate the need to stay in the loop on relevant events on campus.

3. Calendar – We forgot to add a yard sale! We decide to add one on May 13-14th, as that will best fit our work/school schedules. We also had to move around our April events, because we accidentally put our discussion last week on the same day as the Huskers’ spring game. Ty has also completed the calendar designs, and they will be printed this week!

4. Lincoln Earth Day – We tentatively agreed that we should table there again this year. Jackson has emailed the organizers to see what our cost would be.

Meeting adjourned: 8:05 PM

Tabled: Lincoln Earth Day, Organizational Vision (see 1/26/16 minutes)

2/8/16 Minutes: Upcoming Event, Spring Calendar

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:00 PM

  1. Event Review – We watched Panther, and it was very enjoyable! Wish we had a bigger turnout for it though.
  1. Upcoming Event – Revisiting Ferguson is coming up this Saturday. We really just need to brush up on potential talking points – some history of the movement for those who might be unfamiliar, but mostly what BLM’s current strategies are. We’d also like to tie it to Alicia Garza coming back to UNL soon.
  1. Spring Calendar –

March:
March 5th, 7 PM – 10 PM: Movie Night: Tangerine
March 12th, 7 PM – 10 PM: Movie Night: Boom: The Sound of Eviction
March 19th, 1 PM – 3 PM: The Fight Against Rape Culture (a community discussion)

April:
April 9th, 7 PM – 10 PM: Movie Night: Children of Men
April 16th, 1 PM – 3 PM: What is… Environmental Justice? (a community discussion)

May:
May 1st, 1 PM – 3 PM: May Day Today: The Fight For $15 (a community discussion)
May 7th, 7 PM – 10 PM: Movie Night: Chi-Raq
May 20th, 7 PM: Concert Fundraiser for Porchfest

Meeting adjourned: 8:34 PM

Tabled: Spring Calendar, Organizational Vision (see 1/26/16 minutes), April 23rd Lincoln Earth Day Tabling

2/1/16 Minutes: Spring Calendar, Porchfest

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

1. Event Review/Reimbursement – We had our counter-protest against the Walk For Life on Saturday. We had one of our better turnouts for this year’s version. We need to do a better job next year of marshalling the marching portion, as we had a couple of protestors fall behind while the people at the front were moving pretty quickly. Jackson also needs to be reimbursed $5.34 for buying extra posterboards for the protest. This is approved by consensus.

2. Upcoming Event – Our movie night for Panther is this Saturday! We’re ready for it.

3. Porchfest Fundraiser – Maya wants to do something in Mid-May. We came up with a handful of days that would work with us, and we’re sending them to her to see what she prefers. We also reiterated that we can’t accomodate noisy stuff here.

4. Spring Calendar –

No discussions on second Saturdays.

March:
Rape Culture Discussion (do we revive the Feminist Discussion Group brand?)
Film? “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” “Tangerine,” and/or “The Girls”

April:
No events on April 23rd (Lincoln Earth Day) — Are we tabling there?
Discussion: Environmental Justice/Classism/Racism of Environmental Destruction
Movie: Children of Men
And possibly: The Superior Human?

May:
Movie: Sir, No Sir!
Discussion: Modern-Day Labor Struggle (Fight For $15?)
Porchfest Fundraiser

Meeting adjourned: 8:34 PM

Tabled: Spring Calendar, Organizational Vision (see 1/26/16 minutes)

1/26/16 Minutes: Counter-Protest, Spring Calendar

[Note: Only one person was able to come to the usual scheduled Monday meeting – necessity required we meet on the following Tuesday instead]

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ty (secretary)
Start time: 6:40 PM

1. Upcoming Event – The counter-protest is at the end of this week! We have snacks and markers for the poster making party, and Ty will get some more poster boards. Morning of the protest, Jackson will get the donuts. We also have the childcare volunteers lined up. However, we spaced on asking ACLU for a legal observer, and Jackson will see if one can be lined up last minute.

2. Spring Calendar – We had a brainstorming session as far as events we wanted to fill the calendar with. Ty cannot have anything scheduled on the second Saturdays, but other than that we would like mostly Saturday events.

March: We’d like to do feminist-centered events for this month. For movie considerations, Ty brought up “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” “Tangerine,” and “The Girls” as possible showings. As far as discussions, we thought about rape culture and/or a historical overview of feminisms that may or may not be called “Making Waves”

April: Jackson wants to do at least one event that is environmentally focused. Animal rights is on the table, as we haven’t done something about that in a while. Ty suggested “environmental destruction as classism and racism,” using the poisoned water in Flint as an example of environmental racism in action. We also need to take into account Lincoln Earth Day as well, which is on April 23rd. TBD for a movie.

May: We wanted an anti-war film for May, and we decided to do “Sir! No Sir!” We also need something to do on May Day, which is on a Sunday this year. TBD for a discussion.

3. Graphics – Ty has a friend that has offered to help with graphic design work. We might have a few projects that we will see if he can assist with.

4. Group Organization – Ty went to the Creating Change conference, and he went to a workshop that gave organizing tips. Something he really took away from that is “defining organizational vision,” and so he’d like to go over the mission statement and our “About Us” description to make sure that 1) it reflects what we actually do and 2) it is specific about what we want to accomplish. We’re gonna table it for one of our slower meetings.

5. Black Power Mixtape – Facebook event needs to go up!

Meeting adjourned: 8:28 PM

Tabled: Spring Calendar, Organizational Vision (see 1/26/16 minutes)

1/18/16 Minutes: Walk For Life Counter-Protest

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:03 PM

1. Event Reviews – We had our “What is Communism?” discussion on January 9th. The turnout was decent, and the conversation was very good. We had our Star Trek VI movie night last Saturday night. Turnout was a bit disappointing, but the discussion afterward was still very good.

2. Walk For Life Protest Update – We discussed some of the logistics of the upcoming protest, particularly the childcare and confirming the sign-making party. We agree that we’ll provide snacks for the Friday night sign-making party, and doughnuts for the Saturday morning gathering.

3. February Events – We spent some time making Facebook events for next month’s events.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

1/4/16 Minutes: Upcoming Events, Meeting Cancellation

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

Start time: 7:03 PM

1.Upcoming Events: We have a What is… Communism discussion on Saturday. We came up with a list of subjects that we could bring up to stir discussion. We’ll do a little research into these to make sure we’re prepared. Other than that, we need to finish cleaning the public space.

2.Next Week: There will be a We Are Vital meeting next week during our usual meeting time. Since things have been slow on our end, we decided to cancel our weekly meeting. Everything is pretty much prepped for our movie night, so it’s okay.

Meeting adjourned: 7:23 PM

12/28/15 Minutes: Trump Protest, Facebook

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

Start time: 7:00 PM

  1. Protest – Jackson has been notified of a protest planned for Donald Trump’s campaign appearance in Council Bluffs tomorrow. We’d be interested in attending, but we’ll have to see if we can find a ride up there. Jackson has shared the event on our Facebook page
  2. Facebook Events – Jackson still needs to finish the Facebook events for our January events. He will get on that as soon as possible.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM