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

1. Upcoming Event – The abortion rights discussion is this Sunday afternoon! Matt has been in contact with our representative from NEAR, and she will be bringing swag!
   
2. Spring Calendars – They are printed! Jackson needs to be reimbursed $23.60 for getting those printed. Jackson also reports that the city union copy center is apparently closing later this year! We will need to start going to the main UNL print center on Y Street. We need to get on distribution ASAP, as events start this week.
   
3. Visiting Speaker – Dr. Fredrik Gregorius, a colleague of our good friend Dr. Dance, is visiting Lincoln in mid-April. The Black Cat House will be co-hosting his visit along with several academic units at UNL. We are planning on adding an event with him, most likely on Saturday, April 13th after our garden workshop or on Sunday, April 14th in the afternoon. We are tentatively hoping for a more informal event format than the talk he’s preparing for campus; we may build it around a discussion between Dr. Gregorius and Wyatt, as they have mutual expertise and interests.
   
4. March Events Online – Our abortion rights discussion and Stepford Wives movie night need to be posted ASAP. We took time to draft the discussion event with remaining meeting time. Jackson will continue work on the movie description and post it to the Discord channel.

Meeting adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Instagram – Ty has recovered our ancient Instagram account, and we’re going to post some stuff on it and see how it goes! Matt says we will definitely want to put our calendars up there. Salem recommends taking advantage of their “reels” with short videos. We now have a meme stash section of our Discord to collect and vet memes to be shared to social media.
2. Newsletter – Ty has asked for some assistance with the next month’s Black Cat email newsletter. Jackson will draft something very basic. He welcomes assistance to make it less basic.
3. Masks – Jackson will be ordering another box of face masks for the house, but he will need to be reimbursed for it. We are cool with that.
4. Button parts/stickers – Ty also reminds us with tabling at Earth Day around the corner that we’re going to need swag to give away. Jackson will get the button parts figured out soon. We’ll probably do another order of the stickers that Marc designed for last year, since they were so popular then. Jackson thinks an order similar to what we got for last year’s Earth Day is appropriate, and that the treasury can afford it.
5. Earth Day Tabling – Ty got our application in, and had to pay $35 for it. He will be reimbursed. Jackson, Matt, and Salem have committed to working the booth.
6. Spring Calendar Notes and Updates:

-> Matt has provided several potential calendar templates. We picked one we preferred via the Discord.

-> Winslow’s Wardrobe got back to us to say that they were busy with another engagement on April 13th. They offered three alternate dates, but the only one that might work for us is May 18th. We were planning an anti-Amazon discussion on that date, but Matt is willing to postpone that event to a later calendar. We’ll reach out to them and try to get an answer ASAP.

-> We reached out to a community group about co-sponsoring our abortion rights event. We got one email back, where they wanted to change the date and title of the event. Attempts to follow up with alternate dates have not been answered, and we don’t have time to wait on that. We will be changing the name of the discussion to “Desperation and Hope”, but we are planning to go forward with the event on our own with our original date.

-> We will be showing the dramatization Cesar Chavez (2014) for our May movie.

-> We still need a few microblurbs for our calendar. We need to fill them in ASAP on the Discord.

-> We’re shooting to get the calendars printed this week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had our “Why is Everything Racist?” discussion on Saturday. Our turnout was modest, but we had a good quality discussion.
2. Spring Calendar

MARCH

Saturday, March 9th, 1-3 PM: Death & Desperation: Abortion Rights in 2024 (a community discussion)

Friday, March 22nd, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Stepford Wives (1975)

APRIL

Saturday, April 13th, 12-2 PM: Garden Day Workshop
(NOTE: The folks of Winslow’s Wardrobe want to do something here in April. We think this would be the best day for them to do so.)

Friday, April 19th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Israelism

Saturday, April 20th, 10 AM – 2 PM: Come see our table at Lincoln Earth Day!

MAY

Friday, May 10th, 8 AM – 6 PM and Saturday, May 11th, 8 AM – 2 PM: Yard Sale Fundraiser

Saturday, May 18th, 1-3 PM: Why Does Amazon Suck? (a community discussion)

Friday, May 31st, 7-10 PM: Cesar Chavez film/documentary?

3. Donations – Marc donated a DVD/Bluray player and a book for our library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Matt, Salem
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – We had our 10,000 Black Men Named George movie night on Friday. We had a nice turnout, including several new young friends who seemed to have a good time. The discussion was brief, but spirited.
2. Upcoming Event – We’re hosting a discussion on Saturday called, “Why is Everything Racist?” We’re ready for it.
3. Spring Calendar

March
Movie Night: Stepford Wives/Transsexual Menace
Discussion about the state of abortion rights? (Could we find a co-sponsor for that?)

April
Garden Day?
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th (they’ve emailed us about tabling again…)
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe (4 part documentary series)

May
Yard Sale Fundraiser likely on Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th
“I Fucking Hate Amazon” discussion
Cesar Chavez documentary?

Meeting adjourned: 8:40 PM

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

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing 10,000 Black Men Named George. We’re ready for it.
2. Spring Calendar – (Notes from last week:)

Yard sale fundraiser?
Matt wonders if there’s a good documentary about Cesar Chavez

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? We’re interested! Jackson needs to follow up with Wyatt and a representative of a local group that may be interested in collaborating
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th — we think we want to table again! Ty will take point on getting us signed up. Salem may make some kind of display about reducing plastic waste.

May
Something working class/labor?
“I Fucking Hate Amazon”

Possible March Movie: Stepford Wives (maybe leaning towards ’70s version)

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

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

1. Event Review – We counter-protested the Walk For Life again on Saturday. Jackson reports that we had one of the smallest turnouts we’ve ever had for it, which is a great concern especially given the political climate. Jackson thinks we need to find some allies and try to grow future versions of the event as more of a coalition-driven event.
2. Library Donation – Marc (via Ty) has offered our library a book about 20th century labor history. We’re happy to take it.
3. Reimbursement – Jackson paid $35.99 to get one of our website domains renewed. He will be reimbursed.
4. February Discussion – We still need to get advertising online about our February discussion about racism. Jackson hasn’t had time and focus to draft anything yet, but neither Matt nor Ty feel comfortable doing it. Jackson will continue trying to find space to work on this.
5. Instagram – We are exploring the possibilities of expanding into Instagram. We actually have a very old account started by an ex-member, and we will see if we can get access to it.
6. Spring Calendar –

Yard sale fundraiser?
Matt wonders if there’s a good documentary about Cesar Chavez

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? We’re interested! Jackson needs to follow up with Wyatt and a representative of a local group that may be interested in collaborating
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th — we think we want to table again! Ty will take point on getting us signed up. Salem may make some kind of display about reducing plastic waste.

May
Something working class/labor?
“I Fucking Hate Amazon”

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt
Start time: 7:07 PM

1. Event Review – We had a movie night for Space Sweepers on Friday night. Our turnout was just a couple of Black Cats, probably because of the extreme cold. That was unfortunate, since it was a good film.
2. Upcoming Event – We’re counter-protesting the Walk for Life again this Saturday. We’re hoping for a better turnout than last year, but it seems we will not be offering childcare or a sign-making party.
3. February Events – We need to get blurbs drafted so we can start advertising our February movie and discussion!
4. Spring Calendar –

Yard sale fundraiser?

March
Something feminist?

Discussion about the state of abortion rights?

April
Something ecological?

Garden Day? (Jackson has heard a local group may want to collaborate with us on that)
Lincoln Earth Day is April 20th, if we want to table

May
Something working class/labor?

5. Meeting day – Matt reminds us that we had some brief discussion of shifting the meeting day from Monday to Tuesday. He wants to revisit the matter soon when the group is all present.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had our Labor Wins discussion. Despite horrendous weather that probably scared people away, a couple of our hardcore friends still showed up and we had a nice discussion.
2. Upcoming Event – We have a movie this Friday! We’re ready for it.
3. Walk For Life Counter-Protest – Jackson reports that there has been no activity on the Facebook page. We would still like to offer childchare options at the House, but we have no leads on someone we know and trust who could be here to do that.

Meeting adjourned: 7:27 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Ty

Start time: 7:00 PM

We spent this meeting completing drafts for our January events.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

Meeting start: 7:00 PM
In attendance: Jackson (via phone) Matt, Salem, Ty (secretary)

1. Event Review: “Christmas’s War on Us” was a bust. Probably the same issue with our last event, that there was little advertising ahead of time. We need to be MUCH more on top of advertising, both in event descriptions being posted online, AND in getting our spring events decided upon earlier so that calendars can be finalized and printed sooner.
   
2. January Events: In the interest of getting the events online sooner, Ty will share a draft of the 2023 Labor Wins event tomorrow. Matt agreed to write a description for Space Sweepers, and Jackson will work on the counter-protest. The counter-protest may need to be up with more lead time, in order to give us time to organize counter-protesters and volunteers.
   
3. Calendar – Distro + Design: Distro is still ongoing. Salem reported putting up calendars at Matt Talbot, as well as some public transit spaces. Hurts Donuts still, unfortunately, doesn’t have a place to put up calendars. They did miss a few spots but Ty can hit those up on his distro.
   
   Matt whipped up a set of five different cat-head logos to be able to put The Black Cat House name in a more prominent way on smaller prints like our calendar handouts. We’re tabling deciding anything for sure tonight, but we discussed font choice to be dyslexia-friendly.
   
4. Remote Meeting Procedure: After weighing some accessibility issues (internet access, how to spread the word, etc.) we’re opting to just host weekly meetings in-person for now. Obviously, we can call folks in on request (like Jackson tonight and last week), but it will be much easier for folks to keep track of if it’s in-person. We’ll reserve the right to cancel due to weather or other outside factors, which we’ll update on the news box on the front page of our website.
   
   We discussed briefly whether we should move the weekly meeting to a different day of the week, but we’ll have to table that discuss as well.
   
5. Button Parts: Jackson is going to look into buying button parts for us. We’ve got enough in the treasury to order a purchase.

Meeting adjourned: 8:08 PM

Tabled: Logo, weekly meeting times