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

1. Upcoming Events – Two of them! The first is the Chomsky documentary on Friday, which we have and will be easy to set up for. Our “Organizing Resistance in the Age of Trump” is the Saturday after.

We wanted to have a talk on moderation efforts, since this discussion could be a large one. We reiterated our points from last week – we don’t want to focus on the actual election results, because it seems very unlikely that anything will stop Trump from being inaugurated in January. We want to focus on the fight going forward. While the emotional impact is hard on a lot of people, we also would like this to be a tactical discussion and not only spend our time venting.

We now have #NoDAPL as an example of direct action non-violent tactics that has been a recent success as well, that goes beyond letters to politicians.

Discussion moderation: Ty and Ju Ping are going to be co-facilitators of the discussion, to keep those ground rules down and to help people who are finding ways to speak. As part of a democratic agenda forming, we will go around the room and introduce ourselves, our pronouns, and what we would like to get out of the discussion in order to hit up as many of what topics people want to cover as possible.

2. Calendar distro – Ju Ping only has Bluestem left to go to before all our usual places have calendars!

3. Stuff to Buy – We are adding a no-slip outdoor mat for our porch to our list of stuff we need. It is pretty crucial that we buy it as soon as possible before winter starts making the porch slick.

Meeting adjourned: 8:24 PM

Tabled items: Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels, 7×7 no-slip outdoor mat for porch)

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

1. Upcoming Event – Our discussion, “Now What: Organizing Resistance in the Age of Trump” is next Saturday.

Going beyond writing letters to politicians; toward more productive forms of protest (occupations, barricades, boycotts?); critiquing non-violence/not conflating it with legality — property destruction? Police being violent against protestors?/self-defense; Ground Rules? – should we even talk about the election at all? Probably not — let’s keep the focus on the fight ahead… Try to keep emphasis on tactics, try not to bog down in feelings too long;

Tabled sub-item: We decide to thoroughly revisit our discussion on more effectively moderating our discussions next week. This might be very necessary, given the strong feelings many have on this situation and the reality that there could be diversions and distractions.

2. Calendar distro – It’s a work in progress, but Ty and Ju Ping seem confident that they can finish the distro this week.

3. Library Sorting – We spent a little worktime shelving some of our new library books and brainstorming how we may go about re-arranging our library soon.

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

Tabled items: Review moderating discussion next week!, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Ju Ping, Ty (secretary)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – Ma Vie en Rose was last Friday, but we didn’t do a lot of advertising so there was not much of a turn out.

2. Reimbursement – Ty bought the calendars for $7.78. He’ll be reimbursed for this.

3. Calendar Distribution – Now that the calendars and handbills are printed, we can start distributing! We separated out the locations to hit up, and we’ll be fliering over the next couple days!

4. Web Events – We need to post our December events online! We’re working on that for the rest of the evening.

5. Data Crow – A quick announcement, a friend of Ty’s is working on getting Data Crow, a new library organization software set up on the public laptop. We’ll have the library and what digital versions of our materials available, as well as potentially having the library viewable online again.

Tabled items: Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard, labels)

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – We’re watching Ma Vie En Rose on Friday night. Ty will have the movie ready for us.

2. Winter Calendar finalization –

December:
Friday, December 9th, 7-10PM – Movie Night: Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
Saturday, December 10th, 1-3 PM – Now What?: Organizing Resistance in the Age of Trump (a community discussion)
Friday, December 16th, 7-10 PM – Movie Night: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

January:
Saturday, January 7th, 1-3 PM – #NoDAPL Discussion: Water Protectors and the Fight Against Climate Change
Monday, January 16th, 7-9 PM – How to Protect Yourself Against Trump’s NSA (a digital workshop)
Date TBD: Walk For Life Counter-Protest (Tentatively Jan 14th?)

February:
Saturday, February 11th, 1-3 PM – What is Imperialism? (a community discussion)
Saturday, February 18th, 7-10 PM – Movie Night: The Black Panthers – Vanguard of the Revolution
Friday, February 24th, 7-10 PM – Showing of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Far Beyond The Stars”

Tabled items: December Calendar, Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard)

Meeting adjourned: 9:15 PM (officially extended to complete the calendar)

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

1. Event Review – We had our “Can We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess?” discussion on Saturday. It was well attended and a good discussion, but we didn’t really stay on electoral politics all that much. We figured it was inevitable given the audience this time around was mostly longtime activists who have dealt with this kind of electoral stress before. The whiteboard to keep track of what topics we did want to talk about was helpful, though we will need to get ourselves a bigger board. Jackson thinks we should dedicate some significant time to review our discussion moderation guidelines before our next discussion.

2. Book Order Review – We sent in our large order to Haymarket Books, which ended up as a total of 63 books. The damage was $596.56, over our preapproved budget of $520. There was a glitch that resulted in Jackson having to pay for shipping despite it being free, but he is supposed to be refunded the cost manually by Haymarket Books after the shipping goes out. We will reimburse Jackson for the $520, but we will reimburse him for the additional $76.56 as we are able to have extra funds to place in the library fund.

We also bought a few books from Pathfinder Press, which was $10. We will also reimburse Jackson for these as we can, so the grand total for the IOU to him is $86.56.

3. Winter Calendar –

Movies:
December:
Friday, December 9th, 7-10PM – Movie Night: Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
Saturday, December 10th, 1-3 PM – Did We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess?
Friday, December 16th, 7-10 PM Movie Night: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

January:
Saturday, January 14th, 1-3 PM, DAPL Discussion
Movie Night: Rebuilding Hope: Sudan’s Lost Boys Return Home
Date TBD: Walk For Life Counter-Protest

February:
What is Imperialism? A Community Discussion
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Far Beyond The Stars”

Tentative Events:
Race: The Power of an Illusion (three-part documentary series)
The Clintons’ Anti-Working Class Record – book discussion
Movie Night: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Note: Ty will not be able to be around for February 17-19 as he’ll be at MBLGTACC in Chicago.

Meeting adjourned: 8:04 PM

Tabled items: December Calendar, Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter, whiteboard)

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

1. North Dakota – Wyatt just came back from North Dakota, and he spent some time telling us about what’s going there around the DAPL protests.

2. Nebraskans For Peace Conference – Wyatt and Jackson discussed some of their takes from the NFP conference that they both attended on Saturday.

3. Upcoming Event – “Can We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess?” is this Saturday! We need to promote it, and continue to think about what we want to open the talk with.

Winter Calendar –

Discussion ideas:

DAPL? (hopefully in Late Jan when Wyatt could be available or at least have materials to share)

A response to the election? (“Did We Vote Our Way Out of This Mess?”)

Imperialism?

Movies:
December:
Movie Night: Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
Movie Night: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

January:
Walk For Life Counter-Protest

February:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Far Beyond The Stars”

Tentative Events:
Movie Night: Rebuilding Hope: Sudan’s Lost Boys Return Home
Race: The Power of an Illusion (three-part documentary series)

Note: Ty will not be able to be around for February 17-19 as he’ll be at MBLGTACC in Chicago.

Library – We agree that Ty will be reimbursed $7 for buying us 7 new library books, including six collections of Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For!

Also, Haymarket Books is having a huge 50% off sale and we want to take major advantage of it. We agreed that we will put up to $300 of our general treasury into the library, and Jackson and Wyatt will each be donating another $20 to the library out of pocket. Altogether, we seemingly have a budget of up to $520 to upgrade our library.

Meeting adjourned: 9:10 PM (including a vote to formally extend the meeting… a lot going on tonight!)

Tabled items: Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter)

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

1. Winter Calendar –

In Progress:

December:
Movie Night: Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?
Movie Night: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

January:
Walk For Life Counter-Protest

February:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Far Beyond The Stars”

Tentative Events:
Movie Night: Rebuilding Hope: Sudan’s Lost Boys Return Home
Race: The Power of an Illusion (three-part documentary series)

Note: Ty will not be able to be around for February 17-19 as he’ll be at MBLGTACC in Chicago.

Meeting adjourned:  7:49 PM

Tabled items: Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter)

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Event Review – We had our discussion on debt on Saturday. We had a good turnout, and the discussion was great. We should probably schedule another discussion on this subject again down the road. We didn’t get around to testing our new moderation techniques. We didn’t need them on Saturday, but it would still be good to review those and be ready to use them soon. The election discussion may require more moderating.

2. Getting November Events Online – We spent the rest of our meeting putting our November events up on Facebook and our website.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled items: Stuff to buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, paper cutter)

Reminders: “Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?” for Winter Calendar

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

Start time: 7:38 PM

1. Upcoming Events – We have the movie ready to go and we just need to set up the room to prep for the night. We also have an Indigenous People’s Day rally, which we have premade posters and blank poster boards to offer people. Jackson talked to Chris regarding the Capitalism and Debt discussion and we put up a Facebook events.

2. Meeting Cancellation – Next week, due to our own rally and the rally right afterwards at the Capitol, we will not be having a meeting on the 10th.

Meeting adjourned: 8:11 PM

In attendance: Ju Ping, Ty (moderator)
Late: Jackson (secretary)

Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – Ju Ping’s Ubuntu workshop was on Saturday. He was able to help a couple of visitors who came by for technical assistance.

2. Columbus Day – There have been some changes in the larger Columbus Day rally at the Capitol, and it will now be starting later than initially discussed. The good news is that their rally no longer conflicts time-wise with ours; the bad news is that there seems to be some dissension and disorganization within that larger action. We have tentatively agreed to return to our original plan of holding our rally at the Federal Building from 5 to 6ish, and then possibly joining the Capitol rally for a little while as well at or just after 6. We’ve also learned that there will be a Columbus Day action in Omaha on the Saturday before the holiday, and we may investigate our options for participating in that as well.

3. Online Promotion – We spent some meeting time putting up Facebook events for October events.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM