Okay, where's recording? Here we go.
Morning, afternoon, evening, you folks, as we're sort of spread across the.
Country at the moment.
We have a small group. So I think we're gonna fly through. We had a big agenda, but we'll probably fly through.
Most of this, because there's not a lot of people here to.
Bring content or context to.
Elk.
A lot of.
I posted.
Minutes from our august meeting.
So on our website, there's a there's a page for meetings. And then under meetings. There's a.
Section for each month.
And so the.
Aud. The transcript of the audio recording from August.
Is up there along with the agenda. We're originally gonna do.
And so then I kind of recap that here in a.
In a September.
It's called proposed agenda. So people can just go read that.
Da, da, da. So we're we have a, we have a really, a working merchandise store. Now, if people don't know that.
It's again posted to the website.
Things are going well. I meant to wear both my shirt.
And to use my mug.
So we've got. We're exploring. So we like the T-shirts. We like the T-shirts right.
On!
Oh, left is gonna go get his t-shirt.
Yes, you mean this one.
Well, you're just a.
Hang on!
Yeah. Oh, here's Mel.
This is awful!
Okay, les, Mel needs to get into the meeting. Let me see. Alright. So.
Let me!
Oh, my God! It's so.
Let me get Mel. The meeting code.
So.
Oh, can't tell from that! Alright
Hold on! Let me get Mel. The code. Oh.
When they come to Alejandro. Okay, let me get Mel. The code.
Good morning, everyone.
Morning Alejandra.
Good afternoon. Yes.
I'm good afternoon. Personally. Yeah.
It's morning where it counts.
Okay.
Let me get the code to.
Mel.
Who does anybody have the meeting.
Andy.
The invite.
The link.
Yeah.
I got I got it off of our off the bears projection.
Okay.
Web, Page.
Yeah.
I went ahead and sent that to Mel.
Oh, okay.
Great. Thank you.
Yeah.
Because my phone isn't showing.
The whole magical.
Art.
Okay, let me get notes again. So we have a store is happening.
We've explored lots of the options. We like the T-shirts. We like the.
Tote bags. We like the message, the the.
Not cards.
Less is experience. The note cards.
The sizes are pretty good.
On the T-shirt.
We've explored the mugs. The mug is fine.
So I think we're gonna continue with the store. We've seen no problems.
I haven't seen any money.
Magically flow from it, but.
The cafe prep setup is pretty.
It's designed for them to keep your money as long as possible. They only send it in chunks of.
Only as you have made $200 at a time, or whatever, and so.
That's kind of to be expected.
Okay, yeah, I.
But here comes Mel yay.
I've been. I've been wearing the shirt here and.
Rohab speech, and I've had a couple of people who want it to buy it. So.
I've sent them to our web page to to find the store.
Great.
Okay. I think that's going pretty well. We've seen no problems. I was. I was worried. The mug.
Has a little bit of.
I'll call it an artifact.
It looks like.
They took a picture of what we sent them, and there's a bit of glare.
But that's only on the mug. It's not on the T-shirt, so I think.
Are pretty good.
Next up. I'm exploring the idea of.
Poison a pins, because I'm a big lapel person.
And I think we're gonna go with wizard pins, which we've had a couple of recommendations for.
I don't think we're gonna get.
Thousands of them, I'm thinking we'll get. I'll put in an order of like 200.
And I will front that, and we'll figure out how to.
How to disperse them, I'm thinking. And I'm looking at. You're nodding that that's okay with you because you're the money guy.
I'm thinking.
Yeah, I can. I can try.
I can try to help out.
Purchasing of those too, so.
Well, I've got a job for you.
Alright!
So, but about the pins.
So they're gonna cost us, probably around.
$2 a piece.
I thought we would just resell them, for you know, 5 or 10, maybe 5.
I think they're gonna look really nice.
Yeah.
I just not.
Jump ahead or anything but going to, anyway.
As far as beer bus is concerned.
Concern! I think that'll be a good time to sell some of that merch.
They have a table set up.
And there's also.
Sorry. Just go bear.
God, does it just happen in August that's posted by.
My friends.
And they're having some beer bus, too, and I think that'd be a great opportunity.
And partner with them to tell some of the stuff, and.
To, the.
In terms of our project.
The.
So your 1st thought that's at the San Francisco Eagle right.
Yeah. So as far as general beer is concerned, they're still booked for the entire year.
Waiting for any open slots for cancellations actually.
Working on some 25 ones.
Gets lots in there, but.
That with that
Paired project that.
For contest.
I could squeeze in there.
And then.
Just something in there, but.
Working on that. So.
Thank you.
Great.
Oh!
And then I I asked you, I think, privately about or you entered me privately. I forget.
Are we ready to have a checking account.
Yeah, I.
I just said, I think I'd said that we all we need is the Irs letter.
I want C 3 status, and that's all we need to take to the bank.
If you need me to do that and open it up, just send me a copy of it.
Okay, and.
And I can work.
Les. Do you have that? Or do I have that because it came in physical mail, or does Mike have that.
It usually comes in a.
Terms of physical mail. So yeah.
Yeah, I think Mike has it. I have.
A Pete. Yeah, I think a Pd, anyways, I printed out, I think, in Pdf, and.
And made a print copy of it. Yeah.
Yes, you could send me a Pdf. And I'll front. I'll front up the.
Okay.
Fee to open accounts. And just let me know this preference of bank. That's local.
All of us that we can all access.
Change is pretty.
Of.
Available domestically here. So.
Probably a choice.
Great. And that's that's gonna be.
Be, a.
It's either there's a non profit or a cheap version of a checkmable count.
Yeah, it should be no fees and whatnot once.
Yeah.
We have to.
This is a business account. We have this.
Present the Irs letter to prove that so.
Okay, it. Do you get it? Get
Do we get it cheaper if we do it through a credit union instead of a bank.
Definitely credit unions. Better? Yeah. But the issue with that is to make sure that.
The create unit that we go with any other local trade unions that you have.
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.
Your areas. So when we have plenty here, but that's the matter. They're in network or not. So.
But I can. I can explore both options, too. So.
Okay.
I, I think, sounds like a better choice, because it's also international. So if we end up doing international events, and somebody needs to be able to access funds to.
Drew.
Rent a hall or something.
We're gonna be better with Chase than we are. Say with City, which is.
Well in the Bay area. But yeah.
Nothing got it!
And wells fucks over their customers, so.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think Chase is my 1st choice. And so I think.
And with.
Something to explore, but I'll look into that. But just send me a Pdf. Of the letter, and then.
I can go to that.
Oh, yeah, just I experience, when I.
You know I I now own a so a queer small press publishing business, and.
When I do international stuff with bank, there are like bank numbers that the banks exchange, which with each other.
As well.
With what I'm sorry.
Right.
There are like bank identification numbers when banks are dealing with each other internationally.
Right. And we we actually do expect some international money because of what Nick is trying to do. Nick is going after.
International Fund.
Or funds from international sources for our project. So we will. We will be, you know, even though it's the 6 of us sitting here.
We do expect there's going to be some international.
Stuff, money.
Okay.
International Funds.
And then just logistically.
Alejandro, I don't think you're at the last meeting we talked about.
Turnover.
We expect to do. We're thinking, let's do. Or maybe it was just in my head we will do new board elections.
Like around the time of international Mr. Leather. So around the end of next May.
We would do new.
Next morning. Okay.
Elections.
And we're also talking about having a really big board. I don't see how we're gonna get to having a really big board, but
Just as we think about who's signing checks and things. You know it all might change in May, and then it might not all change in May.
But yeah, I would really like to see.
Things that are not hooked to my checking account, because even what I'm.
Donating money to the project.
I'd like it to go to the project and then go to pay, so that I can say this is a charitable.
You know.
Because that's 2, $300 a month at the at the moment. So I'd rather the project and then gets dispersed to things that needs to pay for it.
And also money comes back to the project like.
Depends on the T-shirts, etc. So great.
Thank you.
But I come back up for a second, and the merchandise.
I I've been into. I've I.
I'm on the road right now, so I don't have.
Matured handy, but I've been in touch with the the guy who designed the the leather bear flag this past year.
And he has given it over to the community the same way that.
That Craig Burns did when the original one. So we're free.
To do anything we want with that flag. So.
Something we might want to think about.
Adding in some fashion.
To the market.
I'm thinking of some.
Dual PIN. Design of.
You know.
Our fair history, project international flag.
Yeah.
You know it's like us and Canada. It's me and Trudeau. It's the the bare history. You know, our bare history project, and.
The the bare flag together.
Yeah.
Yeah, interesting.
Yeah.
That's a great idea. Yeah.
Okay. Here.
Like I got Rupaul drag race with 2 flags like pulling up like that.
Yeah.
Yes.
Rare Projects.
What does that look like? Is that just the.
What?
Is that what the bear paw on the.
Well, it's it's.
On the bare color background.
Well, it's a blend of the 2 flags.
I think half of it are the are the columns of the Bear Flag.
And the other is
You know, a section of the design lifted off of the leather flag with the with the red heart in it.
Right.
And I have a screenshot which I can maybe.
Send to you.
Yeah. Sent to me.
But.
I don't think I can get it up on the screen here. I'm not that tech.
Alrighty!
No, don't worry about it, but you know I'm I'm a vexology person. I'm I'm all into the flag. Yes.
So he.
I'm going to first.st
1st name basis with the owner of flags for good, and I have several of his flags.
So. Yes, I'm all about that.
Great.
Excellent. So who's gonna send me a.
A a jpeg or a file large enough to do to do flags with. Yeah.
Okay.
So just also, quickly, so.
We have killed the.
The wiki went away.
So that's $18 a month. We're not spending anymore. Yay.
So all that Content got moved into the website.
So obviously, we're paying. Well, we're paying something to maintain the website. But.
The wiki, as a second instance of everything, has gone away.
So if anybody knows of anywhere that we have.
Only mentioned the wiki we tend to have said, Oh, we have a website, but not tell people what's in it.
So we should start telling people what's in it. But.
The wiki has gone away so.
I'm glad for that.
Also
Oh, so anybody who's.
You board members. So Mel and Les.
And Alejandro, you have a page on the website.
There's a page for the board.
And then each of you has a page, and I lifted it from what we've said before.
But they're also available links. Obviously.
For contacting you.
So.
If you want your.
Twitter Handle or Facebook.
Profile, etc, linked from there.
Then let me know what you want specifically, and if you don't, then that's fine, I'll just.
Take those. They're like empty links at the moment on the board, on your individual board pages. So.
If you want help with finding that, let me know.
Okay.
I you can. You can add my Facebook or just copy and paste the link from there. You have that. But I I don't have. I don't have twitter.
I Linkedin, but not their.
You can have my Facebook profile.
Yeah.
Okay.
For web.
No.
And and it's Instagram. But I'll send you my Instagram.
And.
We have? Do we have? Do we have an Instagram page.
Yes, we do. Yes.
We have pretty much all the things.
And and do my first.st
What'd you say? Les.
I was gonna say, yeah, add my Facebook page as well.
Those.
It's building a bigger and bigger kind of networking of bare folks, so that would be.
A way to get them.
Network.
Right, and then, and nothing else for you, les.
No, I guess your email address is already on your own.
That's on your Facebook page. But and no Twitter, no Instagram.
Yeah, no, Twitter. I only do my photography on Instagram.
Cool.
Okay. Fine, Mel. We'll talk.
So. Clark, just so that I'm sure you know.
You don't have a board position, and you're not part of the what has been the Central Committee, but.
We have a page called Hall of Fame, and it's people who have done significant things for the organization and.
You're listed there so.
I think you know that. But okay.
Cool.
Okay.
What are?
Let's talk a little bit about.
Go ahead!
What are sorry. What are our rules right now about who isn't on the board.
We had
Less.
Appointed.
A board.
Isn't that what we did last you appointed the board? So it's it's less, Alejandro.
Yeah.
Nick.
You mel.
Me!
That's the founding board right? Is that everybody on the board.
And is that is that in our, that's in our 5 c. 3. Do we have a set number on the 501 c. 3. About how many board members.
No.
So I remember I'd argued that we have a 9 member board, which is what Bossip did.
Yeah.
Yep.
Just so you don't have like tiers of people.
Yeah.
Yep.
People that actually are showing up and doing things all get to be board members. So.
There's no reason, since we're gonna have an actual.
You know, race for who gets on the board with some sort of membership rules and everything. By May of next year.
We could. Just it's.
I'm sure people will be clamoring.
Huh!
Exactly, but the point is less right now, less has the power to declare by fiat who's on the board, and then we could just expand the board, or contract the board as needed.
Yeah.
So
The argument was.
To.
Most organizations, like the leather.
Motorcycle clubs and things all had like a multi tiered thing. They had a board, and then they had associate members, and it was all very much based on the whole, you know, biker gang sort of idea.
Yeah.
Okay.
And.
Oh!
I thought that worked well, for, as far as I know, they still have a very large board.
And that way everybody that.
Is actually doing significant work is.
Has a significant say in.
What we're going to do.
Yep.
Yeah, my question.
Oh, good!
So it'd be something to think about for next meeting.
And my question is, is there a process? I mean, because I think the consensus was that we will simply expand the board.
If you know, is there procedure we need to do to.
Open the number up.
And bring people.
I think it's just. It's just up to you, because your your name is on the filing papers of you're in charge.
And we have no official.
Other officers that would do such a thing. I don't think right, Mel.
Yeah, and so.
It's just. It's all up to you, les.
Yeah.
I love you.
Les your Emperor, so your bare Emperor.
So.
Well, I'm I'm still waiting for all those hot cups to peel my grapes for me.
Step up to the plate. Please.
I've I've declared, and maybe this is before Alejandro landed on the.
Actual meetings. I declared that he is the money bear. I think that's what I called him, so he's got that title, but otherwise we're all just.
I think I actually do have the title secretary.
Yes.
And I think others are board members at large.
Bear, console.
Commander Troy.
Yeah.
So, yeah. Les, I think Mel has a good point, which is during this time before.
We have something in May. If that's what we're gonna do. Then you could declare more people board members if if they're.
If they're in agreement.
So.
Yeah, and and.
I, but I think, before you joined this call, I declared, that Clark is our.
What did I call you? Clark? You are our our official archivist, our bear, archiv.
Yep.
I guess you'd be archivist cub.
Yeah.
So
Well, that's that's a foot in the door. Yeah.
Yeah, if.
If if we want to talk, if you need to talk about archiving stuff. My 1st boyfriend, who is also a bear.
Ran the archive department for Dartmouth College for many years.
And so.
He's.
Maybe you know, if there's any.
Well, where is he?
Ideas or questions. He's in Montreal now.
I tried to get him involved, but.
Wes's.
But.
Anyway, I mean, if there's any other Archival.
Down.
Advice, or anything that.
No.
Do I do I know him? Did I? Did you? Did you know him when I met you?
No, I was back in Utah. He was my 1st boyfriend first.st
In love with.
Person, and.
He's a very hot old bear. Yeah.
Okay.
So. But the point is, he has archive experience.
All of our love letters were organized.
When I asked, Do you have any pictures from that period, he says, Oh, let me send you the verify, the mail, the mail bear file.
Oh, yeah.
Where.
I said the what he says. Oh, I'll make copies of the mailbear file, and so I got this file folder of every embarrassing letter I'd written to him.
Yeah.
And all of the weird music I'd had from that age in there.
Hey! I.
All digitized and archived properly.
I have. I have one of those in my past.
You went back after college, and I'm like.
You know, we kind of lost. Like, yeah, here's your Christmas gift from 2 years ago, like, Oh, okay.
He did come to my father's funeral, so.
Introduce them to my brother. It's like, Oh, this is the guy was dating when I came out. My brother's like, what? Okay?
But that's a personal side. Okay, back to the back to the topic of hand.
Okay, since I've been picking on Clark.
Let's talk a bit about, since several of us are involved in interviews and stories.
So.
Les and I continue to do interviews.
We have one scheduled for next week.
Yeah.
We're gonna interview mama bear.
Do I know her last.
She's she's.
Mama, beard, leather.
Local leather, San Francisco leather, community, right.
I think so. Yeah.
Michelle. I think I know her, but I don't. I'm not sure. So anyway, we're interviewing her.
I think we've done 25 or so interviews. So we have.
A goodly number of.
Of Content, pieces.
Ready, and we've done them almost all in zoom.
And then we brought them into the script.
And either use the zoom transcription, or let the script.
Do a transcription. So we have.
Audio and video, there.
And then oh, good! Clark has come off of mute. So, Clark, do you have wonderful things to say about.
Organizing our archival, content.
Yes, so I'm about a 3rd of the way through the interviews we've done so far in terms of like creating metadata for them, and organizing them by timestamp and topic, discussed.
And then, next to that, I've also annotated. If there's like a theme that I think we want to touch on. So if you guys want.
Can I share my screen? Is that something that can happen.
Yeah, cool.
Yeah, I think I need to. Let's see, do I need to empower you.
See if it lets me. Oh, yeah, okay, I can't yet.
Hold on!
Hold on! Hold on! Let's see.
Oh, here!
Allow to multi PIN make host. Okay, I'm gonna make you host.
Oh, okay.
Okay, your host.
Great.
So I'm gonna share this.
Can folks see my screen now?
Yeah.
Yes.
Great.
So this is what the spreadsheet looks like.
And it's organized by the person's name, as you can see. And then what they talked about, and when they talked about it, and then in the notes I talk about, I annotate and talk about like whether or not that's something we want to talk about so like in maybe like a a stories type setting. So.
Leather community is something that comes up a lot we could do like a story series about leather. Certainly. Religion comes up a lot. That might be a topic that we talk about. Drag comes up a lot so as you can see.
Yeah bears and drag it kind of. And it isolates where that was spoken about. So that when we create the stories, all you have to do is lift directly from that section. Does that make sense.
Yeah.
Take.
This is wonderful!
Does it? Yes.
One thing. Go ahead.
Amazing fun.
One thing I wanted to ask you all while we're here.
Is.
When I'm creating the metadata for this, and like when I'm tagging things.
There's some like sort of ethical things that we think of a lot about in the archives, about like how you define other people. And I just want you guys thoughts about like when I'm tagging like what the thing is about, what identity terms do you think makes sense to document and what don't like. What do you think is the most important things to put when we're trying to identify and distinguish like what an interview is about? Does that make sense.
You mean if someone is using the word queer, what do we think of the word queer or.
Not really like. I mean, I'm not so concerned whether or not people find the language like politically correct, like, if someone's using a word to talk about themselves. That's the word they use, and it's not up to me whether or not that's appropriate, because, like, that's what they're using. But like in terms of like. If you were searching for these interviews by topic like, what are things that you might want to search for? And what are things that you think aren't important, that people might not be searching for.
Or does that make sense.
Yeah.
So if I were on social media, and I was somebody trying to come to terms. I think about this the same way that a lot of folks have come to a.
Understanding themselves as non binary is by.
Learning stories about other non-binary people, and then realizing, Oh, that's.
That's me!
What is a bear is one that just jumps out is a really great social media. 1st step.
And just have like, lots of different.
People defining it, and hopefully finding some slight differences.
But that are all still part of the spectrum of what it is to be a bear.
And.
Then the other sub-identities within that would be.
This gender people non binary people
Emails, mails.
You know that, so that you show that the bear is also a spectrum and and also, of course.
Because we tend to think of bears as just white.
Older, middle aged.
Men, and we don't recognize that there's this whole spectrum of people.
Feel themselves as part of that community, so that would be really good for a step for these little short.
Bytes.
And it's.
What you've started to identify is interesting. These other topics that come up a lot.
I would never have guessed religion. But there's probably, as you say, there's a probably a really great, maybe there's a really great podcast. There about how.
People's coming to terms with their Lgbtq identity and their religious ideas and their ideas may cross over. And then that creates this interesting rich.
Narrative that we can tell was one of the podcasts. So I, this sounds like this is really great material.
This is what a journalist would do.
If they were looking at a large data set.
To try to.
Yeah.
Pull out a story.
So this is really helpful.
Thank you, Paul. That's her.
I also think it's.
I also think it's great. Thanks, Clark. I have 2 suggestions, one about your specific question about.
Words and identification.
You know I believe in dropbox. That's I live by dropbox, and I bring that up to say.
I think we can assume.
Pretty much the full text of what we're doing is going to be available for searching. So.
It's not. I'm not worried about hashtags or specific topics.
I mean, if someone mentions, let's assume they're gonna mention the word religion or Catholic, or whatever it is, coming out.
And that's gonna be available for searching.
So.
I'm not real worried about that. The other thing is.
My overly Ocd type approach. I'm thinking.
We have.
I think we have a unique number for each, and I think I'm the only one who thinks that because I have this original list of.
You know, bare number 0 is less because he's the original.
And then other people have a number. But I think I'm the only person who has that, so that to me would be helpful to have.
That number along with their name, because sometime we've got to Dan.
You know. Dan goes by several names. I've heard 3 names this morning from Dan, so.
Like. Oh, what are we gonna look for?
So the number would be good, too. So that's from my original spreadsheet, or I mean you could come up with your own. But we have that to start with. And when we talk to people, we say, Oh, you're bare number 74, or whatever, just so that.
We've got some identifier. So.
That's great work, Clark. Thank you.
That's really helpful. Thank you.
Oh, my other thought is.
There's a world coming soon, where.
What you've done.
Could magically. And I mean Mel is Head's gonna explode. But what you've done? Clark could almost feed into an artificial intelligence engine that would say.
Build me a video starting at this.
Hmm.
Timestamp with this content, for I mean we're almost there.
Yeah.
In terms of what you're doing, the work that you're doing, and where artificial intelligence is in terms of at least creating the raw.
Set of data in order to create those.
Reels.
So that's great.
Good.
And again for people.
Sure. That's that's what.
That's what that's what that's what the technology will do. It won't be art. Then you'd be. Then a human mind will create the art of it that knows that this bite will follow this bite better than this bite.
Where the AI will only be able to put things by category, and.
Topic.
Yeah.
So then you use art, and then you have to create narration to.
Go between the pieces and etc.
Sweet.
Great. So, Clark, do you go ahead. Let.
Gonna say 3 quick things, and you can tell me where they.
If that should appear later in the agenda.
But just one thing I wanted to, you know, show the observation. I'm now in my 3rd weekend this summer.
The Pitan was, you know, the beginning of kind of like the non, but you know the.
The inflected spectrum folks showing up.
Bare your soul in
The Adirondacks was a lot, I mean, we had a large group of
Trans and others identifying in.
Out of outside of the cisgender.
And here in Rohab Beach it's like Old Home Week for the.
For the 1st generation of bears.
So I mean they're all over the place, you know, simultaneously.
Into other.
So is your point that there's a like a non.
Traditional.
Bears.
Slant.
That you'd want to see.
Yes, yes.
Because the people yeah, who identify.
From, you know.
Other steps along the spectrum. I mean, they're younger. They're coming into the community and.
It's a lot of work.
Like the people that bear your soul are doing a lot of work to bring everyone in.
And the folks here in Mojis Beach are just like.
They can't even conceive of them not being.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I wanna chime in. And you know, like, I identify as asexual. And I'd like to sort of like, bring that element to it that there's like asexual bears and great asexual bears and stuff like that. So that's sort of an interest of mine, and sort of I've always been into.
Asexual awareness.
So I don't know. I'd like to bring that in somehow.
That sounds like a whole.
Like we need to interview you. I'm glad you mentioned that, Dan, because we talked before we were recording before everyone else showed up and.
I didn't want to say Hey and Dan, by the way, because, you know, you're identity is up to you. But.
That's it. We should interview you for.
Yeah.
Our archive.
And it is another perspective. And that's part of what we're here for. So that's great.
Yeah, and like like, I was saying to Phil, like, I also run the local bear community here. And that's like.
Brought in a different crowd than when.
This very hyper sexual guy was running it. Pre covid, you know. And so yeah, I always like to bring awareness to that sort of thing.
So it. It sounds like.
The.
Early. The earliest product to produce would be a 2 min video.
Of what is a bear with a really wide spectrum.
Of what is a bear, and that we could use that as our first.st And and we could probably just pull that straight from the archival work that's been pulled up.
So to show that it's this living, breathing thing. It's not this thing that's been frozen in time.
And that that will spark discussions. And then maybe we use that as a way to also recruit more people.
To tell their stories, and younger people to tell their stories.
That sounds great. Yes.
So for people who.
Are not familiar with what we're have been planning.
In my mind. We're heading toward. We're heading down 2 tracks. One is.
What I think of as stories, which is.
Just a shortened retelling from each person's perspective, because that's going to be easy to do. We do a 45 min.
Interview. Let's make that a 15 min. If if that long.
Just kind of a Youtube video, eventually of what they had to say. And then the other is cut the other way, which is, I think, of this podcast, which is.
Let's hear what 40 people have to say about what is a bear, or coming out, or religion, or the military. We've got several people who talk about military so far.
So.
That all that fits into all of that. So that's been kind of the.
Some of the thinking.
So far.
That's been my thinking so far, anyway.
Yeah, may may I say it? So I think.
I think the podcasting is the is the last thing.
Because.
We come up with topics and narratives, and we may even bring in experts, or whoever you know, to talk about about those issues.
The 1st one should be a couple of these short.
Specific topic things that we've been able to pull by just looking at the archival stuff. What is a bear.
Coming.
Coming out as a bear. Stories.
Maybe differences of bear that we these be really short, like 2 min things.
And some in many ways. You can probably do them without any narrative of voice work that you could. It's called. They're called back to backs.
Where you just like. Let the person's 1 voice into another, lead into another, lead into another, and they'd be fairly easy to cut.
And maybe with a little script on it.
And it's something quick and digestible is something on Instagram.
Then the next layer is the shortened versions of individual stories, and we highlight.
A subset of stories that are of a nice spectrum.
Or really relevant or important. And then the final product is this.
Is the monster.
The Podcast,
And I would treat those like journalism. So one story that obviously pops to mind is that.
Bare houses bear community adapted to the changes in perspectives about gender and gender expression and things. And how did it move from this kind of.
Sort of offshoot from the leather community.
Back in the 80 s. Being this kind of.
Much more complicated thing today, and how it's still living.
A living identity that's still evolving. And then we bring in some experts that are that have actually studied it.
Including less, including.
You know, other people that are actually doing academic work on it.
We have, we interview them.
Yeah.
Be kind of interesting.
Les. We interviewed that
Was he a psychotherapist who was there in.
Keytown.
Yes.
Does he work?
Phrase that comes to mind is, Does he do sex work.
Does he do.
Does he work on sexuality and sexual identity? Or he's just a.
He's a gay psychotherapist.
I think it's just a gay psychotherapist.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm, yeah.
I mean, he's certainly seasoned. He might know.
Some of.
You don't.
What Mel is thinking about talking about. So, okay, cool.
Okay.
Great a couple more things I wanna mention. I don't want people to be here forever, and maybe well, do you have.
Specific things to talk about.
Anything else.
I say just a couple of things I'm I'm like, right in the middle of beach.
Bare, weekend.
And again being here is key.
Break.
You know, for.
For networking and for promoting.
The History Project, and you know and I mean, it's like I've run into more people that I that I know from you know years ago than.
Than anywhere else in the.
Folks all kind of know each other.
Anyway. So it has been very. It's developing a lot of rich contacts and.
And one thing like to do a.
An archive committee soon. There's somebody else here who I've worked with in the past, who.
Has a lot to, you know. Help us with to voice to add to that
DC.
Cool.
I think that's it right now. Yeah.
Okay. So at Archive Committee is you and Clark, and is it Nick?
And.
Somebody.
It's the Iml person, right, or the leather archives person.
A. Gary.
Yeah.
Here we Austin.
Right.
I think so.
Yeah.
We should. I need to talk to him because.
I think we should still think about heading toward.
A presence at Iml.
2025.
And.
I think he came to a meeting where we talked about a launch of.
The.
Bear history project, international together with.
Yeah.
Iml, together with Leather Archer Museum, and you know at least do a table or something. And so.
I'm starting to think that I'll at least go to Iml 25.
And.
Less. I think.
I.
Let's say we need to get you. There is my thinking so.
One way or another, I will get there. Yeah.
I'm working on that a little bit. Okay?
Great.
I have to make may have to break out my red dress and tambourine, and work the.
Yeah, okay.
I I lost one of my airbuds. Okay.
Let me also say.
People can still hear me.
Okay.
So.
Some of us. So Mel and me.
And.
Nick, who's not here?
We had an in-depth.
Second.
The script, planning.
And deep dive meeting, descriptive software we intend to use for.
Future interviews and.
Editing, etc.
And also I've sat in on a
A session that the President of the Script Company did about what they're working on and changing, etc.
And that's really.
They've got some good stuff coming. We're on a waiting list for.
A new version of their software, which will be bigger, better, and faster and wonderful. And so that's gonna solve some of the questions we had about.
Do we have to wait like? Does each person have to wait.
To like. We have to make sure they don't log off before we've moved their video over. And that kind of stuff. So.
That all went really well, and I'm I mentioned it somewhere in the.
I think I posted it to our Facebook page. So.
A. A. A lot of our questions were answered about the script. We don't know when, but that's kind of coming, and it sounds like they're kind of. Towards the end of.
Getting that stuff together.
So that's just all good.
Strikes, committee.
Let's remember that.
Nick wants to be involved, although he's not here, so Nick wants to be involved in how we.
Do the archiving and the story so.
He's.
He's geographically.
Undesirable. He's not here, but.
He's interested.
Should I invite him to the Archive Committee?
Meeting.
Again.
Should I invite him to the Archive Committee meeting.
Yes.
I mean, he's kind of one of the people we're trying to appeal to. He's an academic who wanted to. Basic the basic mission is, we want this stuff captured for academics to use.
In the future, so that all of these stories don't get lost, especially as the older.
Thanks.
Oh, so it's less is gonna be in a park committee meeting quick.
And it looked weird. But I'm technically on one computer talking to on another computer.
Okay.
I think those are all the things I wanted to.
Anything else, from anybody.
Well, just just one thing. You're coming across very garbled. Am I coming across? Garbled.
No.
No just once!
Is it just me?
Say.
Quickly, that you know, as as I locate.
We really have to strike while the iron is hot. I've got a list right now about 15 or 20 people who have in the past, agreed and.
You know, I'm now on my like 3rd email, saying we really would like to do it. And.
So.
Dumb
There are lots of folks out there and just trying to wrangle them in at this point.
Great. Yeah.
I lost an air pod. That's part of my.
That sound garbled.
That's better.
The.
Oh! Is that better?
So I think we can continue to build our momentum.
Which is.
If we get some of these interviews.
And content out there that will help.
And.
Yeah, I'm trying to. I'm trying to make sure I'm available. We've had some.
You know we have. We have. We've had a couple of people flake out on the schedule, and that's hard.
Keep going, folks.
Can we prioritize? Doing that little? I'm a bear, you know. What is a bear thing.
And.
We just pull up some clips and and try to throw them together.
I don't use video editing, but we could see if that would work.
Clark, what do you think about.
I can't really take a lot of.
I'm pretty tied up until after the election, but I could probably carve out enough time to make that happen.
With somebody else's help.
I teach a little bit of video editing, so I can help out a little bit with that. If you want Mel.
What do you? What platform do you use.
Premiere.
You. Okay? Good. I have an adobe account for my other job. So I use addition. I use the audio version, but somebody knows premiere.
If we could pull.
Little short bits from some of the better zoom interviews.
I mean, it's zoom video. It sucks. But you know.
It's better than nothing.
Yeah, maybe we could do that.
Yeah, definitely.
I would like to try to do it before the election. I'm just. I'm not gonna have much bandwidth before the election, because it's my news organization is like.
You know it's insane crunch time right now to try to get.
All of the San Francisco election done. We have to do it. Get a.
We do a ballot initiative. We do a ballot.
Rundown for people to read, and it's like.
Huge amount of work.
So.
Cool
Anything else, from anybody.
I'm good.
No, no.
So I just I just wanna say something really quick.
Oh, you're muted, Daniel.
Don't want to sound like a jerk, but the.
So on the website, it has like the username artist 1, 4, 8 whatever like, if someone could just change that to say bare history international shop, and there's no like a profile picture for the bears. I think that might help a little bit, cause. When I went to this I was like.
Is this real? I don't know if it's like up yet. So I you know, I just wanna see? Make sure like that. Looks okay.
You know, I'm an artist. So I sort of agonize over these types of things.
Yeah.
You know, and I I would do it. But I don't have like the access to that. Obviously.
So, yeah, I just wanna point that out.
Nope.
And.
So is there something specific you'd want to do.
Alright. So I'm gonna put the link in the chat. Basically, yeah, it has just a.
Instead of like a profile picture. It's just a P.
Oh, cool!
Oh, yeah.
No.
In the green circle, and it just says, artists 1, 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 3, instead of saying, like, you know.
So I think that might help a little bit. Cause I do want to share this.
Project, and this page with my.
Eugene Bear group, but you know it looks a little bit.
I hate to say it, but like unprofessional, you know, just like or like it looks like a draft.
Rather than something fully published. So I just wanted to point that out.
Sure, cool.
Oh, there's 2 of me now.
Mute them.
Mute, this one.
Oh, there, okay.
Yes, understood. I kind of put that together quickly. The store.
And
I'll work on that some. Yeah, it's sort of 1st of all, it.
What we've done is like one or 2 levels down.
I would like when you go to cafe, com slash.
Bhp, I.
You know, that should bring you to a list of our products.
And you. It doesn't. So I'll work on that.
And then we'll have to kind of rebrand where we've pointed people to. But yeah, that was done kind of quickly.
I might bring in
My friend Jose.
It was at the last meeting.
Is a visual artist.
And.
He had some suggestions about merchandise, pricing, etc. So.
Might call on him as well to.
Kind of finagle that so.
Yeah, that's good feedback. Thanks. Yeah. I kind of, I focused on.
If you get to the logo page.
Yeah. Oh, here, yes, this is the logo, and that's good. But you gotta kind of find your way there. So I'll work on that.
Yeah, I because I again, I want to share it with my bears. But I wanna make sure like they don't question anything about it, you know, cause they can be critical.
Yeah.
You know.
Imagine.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
It could be a scam site. It could be a scam, you know you. If you look at it, you go wait a minute. Maybe this legit from someplace else. But am I actually sending money to get that t-shirt, or is this a scam site somebody's throwing together.
Yeah.
Exactly, and of course I want to order a sure and a mug, or something, you know, too. So.
Yeah.
Great thanks.
Hunter welcome. You've joined us.
Hey!
Anything you.
Alright!
Have to add.
I'm really sorry that I'm I'm I'm late.
I think I'm about.
6, 7 h ahead of ahead of you guys. I'm in Ireland, currently. So I'm really, I thought that I had time this out right what I was gonna be arriving when I should. And I'll I'll know better next time. Apologies.
Don't worry about it. It's good to see you.
To.
Yes, you need to get together with
Nick, who is in.
Right.
Where is he? Nick is in.
Broken.
Brighton.
In the Uk. He's in.
Yeah.
In England, Southern England.
Yeah.
Yeah, Nicholas Mclenn, we've got an interview coming up. I think it's on the 19th for the barely noticed. I I've just started that one up. It hasn't really. I've got some interviews ready, but because of the move, and because of
School and and signing up for conferences. I've kind of had to keep putting them that they interviews back that I wanna do. But I've got one for that. And alope has also said that he'd be interested in interviewing. We just gotta figure out a date for that as well. So.
I'll get. It's get one of those things you just get back into the natural rhythm of scheduling.
Interviews
Yeah.
Tell him.
Yeah, so i i i have. I have a couple
Comcast projects I work on. And so this one's kind of like the.
The next one I kinda just wanted to get in habit of of helping out with. And I and I know that you guys are are trying to set up interviews.
You know. i i i'd be happy to help in that department if if you ever need any help or need any
Sort of assistance, maybe with software or video editing. If you want to use video as as the the visual model
I, I typically use wonder to to, to edit videos and to edit
Kind of like visual problem problem in case there's like buffering. Or in case there's like
You know. There's like long pauses and.
Yeah, so.
I'd like to. I'd like to. I'd like to pick your brain. I'm a broadcast journalist by many decades of training, and I run a.
News divisions unit. But we, we're doing just audio Podcasts.
The fun.
I'd like to see what you work you've you've done, and.
Yeah, and and see where you're seeing.
Podcasting, moving to and how.
Much success you're having and.
We're trying to port everything over to Youtube.
Yeah.
You know, how is, how is Youtube being used as.
Okay. So that's that tends to be
Kind of a double edged sword. I mean Youtube. If you're looking for something visual, that's definitely the place you go to like. If you had like an interview like 1 1 on one or 2. If you're just going with audio recordings, though.
And I'm kind of hypocritical in this, because all my, all my podcasts are on Youtube and.
It. It doesn't help that. They're only audio, but I think usually another platform. If if you want to just do, the audio equivalent would be
Better, and I'm sure maybe we can. We can work that out down the road. But yeah.
Yeah, no, we're we're just we already. We already.
Send our stuff out the traditional way. But we hear about Youtube being because SEO search is so much better on Youtube.
That even even just audio, even just audio.
Podcaster discovered on Youtube.
Lady.
Oh, fair. Yeah.
Do significantly so. But yeah.
Okay. Well.
By by Clark.
Don't share. Can you share with us your the name of your.
Podcast and things, and we'll check it out and be in touch with you.
I mean, I can put it. I can put it in.
The chat if that would help. Yeah.
Okay.
And the very, the very 1st interview was with our our very own Dr. Les K. Wright, so.
That one. I'd like to say I went very well for for a pilot episode. And yeah, I'll put it. I'll put it in the link.
The only people call me doctor are brown nosing for grade, but.
Okay.
Like everybody wants to marry a doctor. Lisa.
I'm not trying to brown nose. I'm just trying to be differential, you know. There's a difference.
Anything else, anybody.
Hunter no reason to apologize for.
Being on the late side you still, you're above, you know we have 200 and something members, and.
You're in that second tier of people who've come to a meeting. So thank you.
There's the board, and then there's people who come to the meeting, and then there's everybody else who we never hear anything from so.
Thanks for that.
Anything else, anybody.
Well, I just go to 100. I will say hello to.
Ollie and his husband are driving.
From DC. Out here to home. It's Beach tomorrow to have lunch, and I will.
Say, say, I saw you today.
New King.
It.
Cheers. Cheers. Thank you. Yeah, I I initially. We were supposed to interview him like, I think it was earlier this month. But unfortunately, my the the apartment.
That I I.
Long story short, it's not ready. And so I'm sleeping in the living room on campus, which.
Yeah.
Back in college.
So you're studying in Ireland.
It's typically not allowed. So just keep it between us. I know this is a recording. But by the time that if if people find this out by the time I'll be moved out anyway, and it doesn't matter so.
Oh, yeah, yeah, but I also. But I I'm really excited about this. I've I've recently got accepted into the the University of Queenborough. So I'm excited for that. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm it's a it's a. It's a new project. I'll have to learn Portuguese, which I'm I'm kinda looking forward to also kinda language to
To master. And I've also got Latin to to get on top of. But yeah, it's okay.
Les does
Denise spoke, speak Portuguese? Does he speak Portuguese?
Jeannie's. Yeah, did I?
I think he does.
Yes, he right. He lives in in Madrid. But he grew up in Portugal.
You know.
Yeah, yeah, he does.
So we have a, we have a bear history project, international.
Member. And, by the way, you'll always hear me say it that way, because there used to be another.
Bear History Project, which is now Archae, which less started, and that's archived at Cornell, and we are not them. So that's why we're always saying, Here's your project, international. So we did an interview with one of our.
Members.
Denise deniz deniz DINI.
S. Or Z. Depending on the day of the week, and.
He's.
Liz been based.
Bear. He's Mr. Lisbon bear, I think, but he also goes by the name. Spicy. Tutu, boy. That's a good dancer, spicy. Tutu, boy. I'm still trying to get video from him because we have several people. We have.
Like bears of color, who do some kind of.
Drag performance. And oh, there's a video there to be done. So.
Good.
He's he's in there, spicy. Tutu, boy. He's promised me they'll eventually be video. So.
Okay, I put.
It's amazing how the perception of bears has changed over time, and they've grown and included and become this more.
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna put.
Dan's name.
Next to the.
The Merch page needs to be better.
Okay, I put down October 12th for our next meeting. I'll send out.
I'll I'll schedule that and send out links. There's nothing.
Huge happening at that time that I know of so.
I'll schedule it for them.
And thanks everybody anything else that.
Mel, you're gonna talk to.
Hunter about.
Geeky!
Yeah, hunter, why don't you
You're on the bare history.
Page is a member. Right? So just black me, I mean Facebook. Me, I know I'm old.
Facebook, me or.
Okay, I can do that right now is is, it's just Mel Baker.
Yeah. Or Mel Baker. Well, my Facebook is Melvin Dean Baker. I think we're just mail Baker, 2 Mel Baker, 2 50 at Gmail.
Plus years. Okay.
Yeah.
Now, now, just to be clear, the the podcast that I do. That, that isn't the barely notice one. It's a medievalist history, kind of philosophy based. Podcast so it's it's it's a little far removed from the kind of research. We wanna do. But but
Yeah. Yeah. So I'd be happy to help.
Is? Is there chain, mail involved.
Is there chain, mail.
Excuse.
Are there Vikings? Are there loin.
I was.
Well, I do hope to have an episode on on the making of armory cause it's a really cool aesthetic. Is anybody.
Are there loincloths.
I was in the.
Well, yeah.
I was in the Society for Creativeism.
The medieval recreation group you familiar with them.
Hmm.
Yeah, they're still active.
Yeah, I've heard of them. Yeah.
Yeah, no, they're they're serious.
They're they're serious. It has to be period, and it has to be accurate.
Yeah, I mean.
All of the sorts are made out of 10.
Well, it's kind of funny, I mean, every so often like you'll see something shown in a movie or some sort of like creative medium that looks like an anachronism. But it's actually an example of a kind of Tiffany problem where, like, we think it's anachronism based on. But like, yeah, I get what you're saying. Sorry.
No problem.
Okay.
Thanks a lot, folks. I'm gonna when this recording is done I'll take the transcript that'll become part of our archives.
On the website.
And a couple of people have some action items. So.
Yeah, it's really good.
That's great great meeting folks. This is. This is, this is a really productive meeting.
Yeah.
Yes, very juicy. Yes, which is great.
Thanks. Everyone.
Great thanks.
Take care!
Thanks.
Bye.