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

1. Upcoming Events: LSH is meeting here on Thursday. There is a movie on Friday as well!

2. Fundraisers: A friend of ours has started Equality Press, a non-profit publishing company focusing on making radical literature accessible to children, and they are crowdfunding their first book. Jackson suggested donating $100 to the campaign, and Ty recommended bumping that up to $115 to count for a reward tier that would give us three hardcovers and five softcovers of the book, because while we only need one or two for the House library, being able to donate copies to other organizations would be awesome. As Ty has a Kickstarter account, we will give the money for him to pledge on the website.

We Are Vital is also raising money for a canvassing campaign to do a broader poll of the neighborhood residents on what they think of the neighborhood, rather than merely the landlords and business consultants that those in charge of the SoDo project are basing their opinions on. We plan on donating $100 to this effort, and we’ll get in touch with the organizer of this project whether she wants it through GoFundMe or through a more direct means.

3. Buttons: We need more pronoun buttons! Organizations at UNL found them to be a big hit, and we need to restock! Ty will have to figure out how to design them, or get in contact with someone who has the proper templates. Also, we would like to get a sticker designed to place on the back of pressed buttons with The Black Cat House name and website.

4. Fundraising Event: The LGBTQA+ Resource Center and similar student organizations on campus usually start raising money to go to social activism conferences around this time. Since Ty wishes to go as well in order to bring back networking and knowledge around activism, he was wondering whether we could put on some sort of fundraising event. A benefit dinner worked really well last time, but since this is a different crowd, we’re not sure if it would work. Jackson suggested selling buttons and the jewelry that Ty makes, but we’re not sure where. We’re tabling this until we can fully form a plan.

Tabled: Data entry, LGBT fundraiser

Meeting adjourned: 7:50 PM

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

1. Donation – A Novel Idea gave us $200 as the spring beneficiaries of their Thank You Tuesdays! We should thank them on social media. We’ll be adding the donation to our general treasury for now.

2. Buttons – Ty has been giving out lots of our pronoun buttons. We’ll need to print more soon. Ty also reminds us that we need to get stickers with BCH info to put on the backs of them. We also had a request to add a “No Pronouns” option to our line of pronoun buttons. We might also need more pride flag buttons soon. Ty reports we are out of pansexual buttons. Ty will also see about whipping up a BCH button.

3. Copy Machine – We took some meeting time to set up our new copy machine.

Tabled: Data entry

Meeting adjourned: 7:40 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had Trekkies on Friday. It was a good discussion!

2. Calendar Distro – Ty hasn’t finished distributing calendars. He’ll finish it this week for sure.

3. Next Meeting – Because it’s kinda a grey area over what day next week’s meeting will be, given that we’re switching back to Mondays in September anyway we’ve decided next week’s meeting will be on Monday as well!

4. Online Stuff – So we updated the twitter information so that we get updates from it once again. Ty will try to keep it updated. Jackson encourages more Facebook interaction, and wants to put more open-ended, conversational posts. Ty will be in charge for Twitter and Tumblr, and Jackson will mainly keep the Facebook updated. We also want to revive the listserv. Since Ty has the contact email, he’ll be doing that as well.

5. Facebook Events – September events need up on Facebook! They are already up on our website so we committed some meeting time to doing so.

6. Handbills – Ty has finished the design for them and they are ready to be printed! Ty will email Jackson the PDF to be printed.

7. Reimbursement – Jackson needs calendar reimbursement for $6.69. The deed will be done!

Meeting adjourned: 8:06 PM

Tabled: Copy machine setup, data entry of old minutes

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

1. Event Reviews – Sama et al performed here on Thursday. It was a good show, and turnout was ok despite us unintentionally competing with the much-larger DIO Fest. We should’ve got the fliers up sooner, but there’s probably not much else we could’ve done better. Sama mentioned she was planning to drop in here again on her next tour.

We also watched Killing Us Softly 4 on Saturday. Turnout was low, but the conversation was good. Jackson would like to show it again someday, as it’s a good film. Ty suggests adding the subtitle “Advertising’s Image of Women” as a way of making the subject matter more obvious next time. (This was also unfortunately competing with DIO Fest.)

2. Upcoming Event – Trekkies returns on Friday. We’re ready for it.

3. Calendar Distro – Ty is working on it. It should be done by Friday.

4. Buttons – UNL’s LGBTQA Resource Center is planning to a button-pressing event on campus Saturday night, but their button parts never arrived! Ty proposes that we offer to let them use our press and sell them 300 sets of our available parts. We decide that it would be ok to this, if they can pay us $30 for the parts.

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

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

Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Upcoming Events: Sama and crew are coming to perform tomorrow! They’ll call Ty when they get into town.  We’ll be making sure the space is tidied and ready after the meeting, and we’ve got food ingredients prepared to cook a feast for the musicians tomorrow.  We also have Killing Us Softly on Saturday that we’ll run off Ty’s computer.  He assumes we have the right cord to do so, but he’ll double check.

2. Copy Machine: Jackson bought us a new copy machine! He’ll be reimbursed $172.59 for his trouble.  We need to set that up as soon as we get the chance.

3. Fall Calendar: Ty finished and sent in the new calendars for printing – 25 8 ½ x 11 ones. He still needs to make handbills.

4. DIO Fest: Ashley reports that Margot would like to borrow chairs and tables for DIO Fest tomorrow. We said yes on the tables, maybe on the chairs, given the concert tomorrow.  Ty will be home all day to loan them to her.  Jackson says that it might not be an issue, since the event is at SP CE and they have a ton of tables and chairs.

5. Facebook Usage: Jackson wants to do a little brainstorming on how we use our Facebook page. He thinks we need more variety of content rather than just promoting events.  We talked about good material to share on the page and methods of keeping the page active.

Meeting adjourned: 7:37 PM

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

1. Event Review – We watched Grave of the Fireflies on Saturday. It was sad.

2. Copy Machine – Jackson hasn’t found a copy machine yet, but a bit of research has been done. More research will need to be done, to make a good choice for our needs.

3. Email setup – Ty has set up his BCH email addresses, and has possibly got Jackson’s up too. Hooray!

4. Sama – Jackson still needs to send a follow-up email to Sama. Ty and Jackson have distributed fliers for the concert. Ty will share it around Facebook a bit more.

5. Website – Our new WordPress site is up and active on our blackcathouse.org and theblackcathouse.org URLs! We still need to do a bit of data entry to replace some of the old minutes that are still only on the old site. Jackson has contacted Ella for some help with that.

6. Fall calendar –

Thursday, September 10th, 7 PM – Lincoln Secular Humanist Meeting
Friday, September 11th, 7 PM – Movie Night: Anarchism in America
Saturday, September 19th, 1-3 PM – What is Gentrification? (a community discussion)
Saturday, October 3rd, 7 PM – Movie Night: Food, Inc.
Friday, October 9th, 7 PM – Trekkies For Humanism: “Mortal Coil” (Star Trek: Voyager)
Monday, October 12th, 5-6 PM (at the Federal Building – 16th and O St.) – Indigenous People’s Day Rally
Saturday, October 17th, 1-3 PM – Protest: What is it Good For? (a community discussion)
Sunday, November 8th, 5 PM – Movie Night: Reds
Saturday, November 21st, 1-3 PM – Transgender Rights: Our Struggles, Our Victories, Our Future (a panel discussion)

Tabled: Copy Machine, Facebook
Meeting adjourned: 8:47 PM

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

1. Event Review – Trekkies was on Friday. The turnout was okay, but discussion was brief. It did give Jackson some incentive to want to put Trekkies on the calendar for fall.
2. Upcoming Event – Grave of the Fireflies is on Saturday, given it’s a movie night there’s not much prep needed.
3. Copy Machine – Jackson is continuing to search for a suitable copy machine.
4. Website – We are still migrating information over to the new website. Jackson is approved for reimbursement for $134.63 for new website expenses.
5. Sama – We did some last minute edits to the flier and we’ve sent it off for printing!
6. Fall Calendar – Ty still needs some digital files to build the calendar; he’ll need to contact Ashley about that.

Meetings are returning to Monday nights at 7 PM. Open hours will not return for fall.  Trekkies will return for fall

September
Thu, Sep 10, 7 PM – Lincoln Secular Humanist Meeting
Fri, Sep 11, 7 PM – Movie Night: Anarchism in America
Sat, Sep 19, 1-3 PM – What is Gentrification? Discussion
October
Sat, Oct 3, 7 PM – Movie Night: Food, Inc.
Mon, Oct 12, 5 PM? (Federal Building) – Indigenous People’s Day Rally
Sat, Oct 17, 1-3 PM – Why protest? (Title TBD) discussion
November
Sun, Nov 8, 5 PM – Movie Night: Reds
Sat, Nov 21, Time TBD – Transgender Rights: Our Struggles, Our Victories, Our Future

Tabled: Calendar, Facebook Usage

Meeting adjourned: 8:31 PM

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

1. Event Review – We showed 416 on Saturday night. Turnout was a bit low, but the discussion was very good.

2. Upcoming Event – Trekkies For Humanism returns this Friday. We’re ready for it. We’ll be sure to plug it on Facebook in the next couple of days.

3. Reimbursement – Jackson bought some new dry-erase markers for the house, as ours were dried out. We reimburse him $3.21 for the expense.

4. Copy Machine – We still need to replace ours. Jackson will see what he can find locally. We’re thinking we have a budget of around $200.

5. Sama – The concert/discussion is coming up fast! Sammi reports he is nearly done with our flier. Jackson will be making the Facebook event at the conclusion of the meeting tonight, and will also be sending Sama another follow-up email.

6. Fall Calendar – Ty still needs some digital files to build the calendar; he’ll need to contact Ashley about that.

Meetings are returning to Monday nights at 7 PM. Open hours will not return for fall.

Will we continue to run Trekkies For Humanism?

September
Thu, Sep 10, 7 PM – LSH meeting
Fri, Sep 11, 7 PM – Movie Night: Anarchism in America
Sat, Sep 19, 1-3 PM – What is Gentrification? discussion
October
Sat, Oct 3, 7 PM – Movie Night: Food, Inc.
Mon, Oct 12, 5 PM? (Federal Building) – Anti-Columbus Day protest
Sat, Oct 17, 1-3 PM – Why protest? (Title TBD) discussion
November
Sun, Nov 8, 5 PM – Movie Night: Reds
Sat, Nov 21, Time TBD – Transgender Day of Remembrance panel discussion (Title TBD)

Discussion tabled for the night. We hope to finish the calendar next week.

Tabled: Fall calendar, Facebook usage?

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM