July 20, 2008 at NYCAHN
In attendance, John W.B., Melissa, Alycia, Jonny, Jonathan, Christi, Vani
Fall Fundraiser at the Brecht Forum
Vani reported back from her meeting with the Lesbian Herstory Archives. She got a tour with the archivettes, and saw such fun things as their t-shirt collection. We had expressed interest in viewing some kind of movie from their collections at the Brecht Forum, but unfortunately they do not lend out any of their films (due to prior losses). They expressed interest in coming to the BF and having a talk about what they do, how they are structured and their history, perhaps in form of a slideshow?
The group then discussed how we could restructure our event to suit this idea and thought instead of having an evening of films perhaps we could highlight "New York Radical History" through local archival collections. Melissa pointed out that we can reach a wider audience by focusing on radical history rather than the more librarian-esque details of these collections.
Each archive representative would be given 20 minutes to give a presentation about how they address NY Radical history, how they are structured, why they collect what they do and to present a slideshow, video, or other accompaniment. This will be followed by time for discussion, comparison, Q&A, etc. (and possibly some short films from Prelinger???-I'm adding this as I type...)
We are pursuing the following collections participation:
Lesbian Herstory Archives (Vani is the point person)
Tamiment (Melissa will ask Gretchen if she can look into contacting)
ABC No Rio (Christi will be the point person)
Schomburg Center (Alycia will pursue)
Reanimation Library (did we give up on this one? Alycia can look into it if there is interest)
The tentative dates are either Friday October 3 or 24th.
We plan to charge on a sliding scale at the door $2-10?
New Jersey Library Association Reference Section
John was approached about RR being involved in the May conference in May 2009 or in another manner. Jenna had replied via email and stated that we could perhaps try a different presentation other than the Eric/Jenna Backend/Frontend talk that has been given in the past. The group did not have a lot of ideas about what else to present, other than with other individuals present, and perhaps with a librarian instead of a techie giving the backend tour. Alycia suggested contacting the requester and asking what about RR excited this person and what they would most like to have presented, and since John cannot be involved with presenting due to other involvement at NJLA, Alycia will follow up and see what the NJLA-RS is most interested in.
Friday's Angst & Horror Benefit
Julie is working on liquor permits, and Alycia and Julie will retrieve the beer from the distributor on Friday (which Jonny informed is only open business hours).
No Rio has a DVD player and projector, so we are set up for equipment. They also have tubs for ice, a fan (!!!) and chairs are in the gallery.
Christi is emailing Stephen reminding him about opening doors for us on Friday.
Vani is bringing soda, juice, cups, and paper goods.
Alycia sent out an email to remind everyone who is interested in helping to meet at 6:30 or whenever they can at No Rio and to be prepared to help with setup, door/donations, selling drinks and take down. AND all volunteers can help with the "horror" open mic!
We counted the money from the button bag and it was 29 singles and 3 five dollar bills. We plan to use this for change, and John will also bring some small change. Anyone who wants to bring boxes/fishbowls for donations still can! Melissa stressed the fact that the door $ needs to stay separate from the drink $ since a percentage of door donations needs to go to No Rio.
Finally, we agreed that Jenna (perhaps since she wasn't at this meeting?) gets to be in charge of pulling unruly open mic'ers off the stage with a giant hook. And she is in charge of supplying said giant hook for herself.
