 Jennifer. All right. So I'm going to call the meeting to order at 213. This is the April 10th meeting of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted. But every effort will be made to ensure the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And I'm going to announce, it's already been announced, but I will say again that this meeting is being recorded. And I will begin with a sound check to make sure everybody can be heard and can hear. So I'm going to start with you, Hala. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Excellent. And Alexis. Hello, I'm here. Thank you. Okay, Yvonne. Yes, I'm here. I can hear everyone. I hope you can hear me. Yes, you sound great. And Jennifer. I can hear you. And I'm here. And I just let Dr. Shavasin. So. Great. Perfect. And Pamela, can you hear us? Yes. You're heard. Okay. How about you, Dr. Shavasin? Can you hear us? Maybe I think Dr. Shavasin's audio might just be connecting now. Dr. Shavasin, if you hear us, just let us know. Just unmute and let us know when you can. All right. So let's see. Ms. Bridges was unable to attend the meeting today. And Dr. Irv Rhodes is in another meeting, but is hoping to be able to join us shortly. So we're going to go ahead and get started. And then hopefully Dr. Rhodes will be able to join us. And I think Dr. Shavas is in a position where he's unable to mute at this unmute at this time. So I'm going to go ahead and start with our first public comment period. We'll just start there and then we'll move into our agenda and just for folks who are listening in the public. And of course, for our committee members today, we are going to spend the first part of the meeting discussing and finalizing our survey, which is due to launch tomorrow. And then we're going to have some updates on some other things. And I would also like to have a discussion with the assembly on the elementary school building project. You may remember earlier, maybe about a month ago now, Maura Keane came and spoke to us in public comment and asked if the AHA was interested in making any sort of statement or endorsement or anything along that lines for the elementary school building project. So that's on our agenda as well today. So if you have, hi, Dr. Shavas, seeing you. So if you would like to make a public comment, this is our first of two public comment periods, please use the raise hand feature. And I will recognize you and we'll bring you in and you'll have up to three minutes to make a comment. And then we'll be listening carefully, of course. And then we'll have a second public comment period later in the meeting. All right. So I'm not seeing any right now. So we are going to go ahead and move right into our survey. And it's going to just take me a second. I'm going to pull up the latest version of our survey, which is looking really, really great. Let's see here. Okay. And the Dunny U Institute has gone ahead and turned the link into a tiny URL. There's a full link as well. And also a QR code. Let's see here. Can you all see my screen? Okay, great. All right. So this is our cover letter here. And this is sort of our final review of, it is our final review of the survey before it launches tomorrow. So I just want to make sure that we read it carefully and take our time. I can still make changes this afternoon. So, and I did send it to Ms. Bridges and to Irv, so they'll be able to provide me if they have any additional feedback. But essentially everything that we have discussed as an assembly has been included. There were, there was a public comment last meeting from Chiara. And I wanted to review some of what Chiara had suggested with the group. So let's first, though, go through here. So this is pretty much the same as it was. This is an edition, if you can see where I'm highlighting here. This survey is the first to explore Amherst residents' attitudes about race and reparations. Dr. Irv Rhodes had sort of the middle of the night epiphany that he wanted something like this to be included in, to frame that this is the first survey of its kind in Amherst to explore attitudes around race and reparations. And then we have our contact information and our membership. Yes, Jennifer, please. Can you change the phone number from the 3001 to 0360, which is the DEI department? So this is actually the phone number to me as it like to the town council. Oh, as a council? Yeah, but we talked about this last week. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Jennifer. No, no, it's okay, because then we just sent you the message because... Yeah. Yeah, I didn't want to put my cell phone necessarily in there because I think it would be more for folks to be able to contact. I've received other voice messages through that number. But the outstanding question is, do we also want to add the DEI department? So whether it's to Pamela or however we want to state it and have that phone number. So I mean, my sense is that this is probably fine. But if folks feel differently, we can certainly add Pamela and or Jennifer's contact information. We have a general email. I mean, phone number for DEI. Okay. That we both get, but you don't have to add that. I just wanted to let you know that. Go ahead, Pamela. Yeah. So I'm thinking that perhaps just to make sure that there's only one singular response so we don't get different responses, only having one number might be better. So its technical questions are going to Kerry and other questions are coming in directly to you. But we're happy obviously to have our number fielded there as well. Okay. Yeah. I think that Kerry seemed like this was thought this was a good way to go. We don't think we need to make it more lengthy. So I will just give the heads up to whoever is responsible for checking the council. I assume that would be Athena. I'll just let her know that this number has been identified in this survey so that she's on the lookout for that. All right. So I'd like for us to go through this both. We're going to go through it as if we identify as black and of African heritage and if we don't so that we can see both because there is a, we added a couple of things here. So this is how it starts. And we'll select, oh and to answer the question from last week, you can go through the survey and you cannot answer anything and that and you'll still be able to press forward. So if you don't click anything, you can still press forward to the next question. So that was an outstanding question we had last week. So here I'm going to say yes and for some reason I need to move this around a little bit. Okay. There we go. All right. And then we removed, I think there was a third option here that we had talked last week about that we removed. So this is, do you identify as black and of African heritage? We're going to say yes. And then for now, let's just, we'll say, yeah, we're actually going to say yes here because if you say yes here, you'll see all of the questions for folks who identify as black and of African heritage. And we'll see the peoplehood question here as well. So we'll just say yes here. All right. And then this was, I thought, by the way, just wanted to really highlight and I think Carrie felt similarly that I think Dr. Chavaz's instincts to really make this a more focused question was a really, really good call. And it definitely feels has a lot of integrity, I think, to put it in this way. So this is again, to commit $2 million over 10 years to the fund. So Carrie hasn't changed this yet, but we had a phone call this morning and we talked about not actually including the amount that was committed to. So to simply say, do you support the town's decision to establish a dedicated reparations fund question mark? Because the amount has already been committed to and that's the minimum, of course, we hope to identify other funding sources. But it would be, it doesn't, it doesn't seem necessary to include that. And she thought it might get too into the weeds to include it. Do other people have thoughts about that? She who? Who's she? This is Carrie from the Donahue. Yeah. I didn't get who she was. Okay. Yeah. I did see, I think Dr. Chavaz put a thumbs up on that and I agree. Okay. Great. All right. So we'll make sure that that gets updated. I know she was, she was going to do the updates sort of all at once this afternoon. So let's then go, we'll go to the next question. This is the sort of general question thinking about your own experience and then having a place here to expand if you would like to. And then we have our systems. So we've added Amherst to each of these so that it's clear we're talking about Amherst economic healthcare, public schools, political system, policing. We have Hampshire County courts and judicial system, and then housing system and social services system. And I really wanted to thank Jennifer Moisten for the suggestion to add the social services system. I think that was really great suggestion. And then there's a space that if you'd like to add other systems, or if you'd like to expand on any one of the systems. So I'm not seeing any hands. So I'm just going to keep moving if I don't see hands and we can always come back. Okay. So this is if you have selected that you identify as descendant of an enslaved person, then you will get the peoplehood question. And this is how that looks right now. So I'd like everybody just to take a look and read that and make sure it looks how we want it to look. All right. So not seeing any hands. So I'm going to go on. And then this is a place if you'd like to expand you can do that there. Okay. And this is our eligibility section. Again, we combine these per the suggestions from last week's meeting into one question. So the question is should eligibility be limited to descendants of enslaved individuals in the United States. And that sort of gets at both of the questions that we originally had. And then there's a general question about any other eligibility criteria that folks feel should be considered. Nice and simple questions actually. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a pattern, which is like a direct question and then room for people to add, you know, which is great. Receive as misspelled in the top. The first part of the question. Where am I scroll back. Oh, to our little. Okay. Yeah. Receive, represent reparations. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Great. That's all right. So moving on here. All right. And then this is and I'll actually just point out so this goes right now set up for everybody who completes the survey to participate in. So this is where we ask about types of repair. So we have the financial assistance for buying or remodeling, renting a home, starting or improving a business, educational scholarships, symbolic acts, such as renaming spaces. So we removed the apology per our conversation last last time. I added public art installations. I'm happy to remove that if folks don't think that's appropriate, but it seemed to me that worked well with this. Okay. I'm seeing you on shaker head. And then we have cash payments. It's a great idea. Yeah, especially with the big conversations about memorials and stuff. And then public art installations encourage visual artists as well, which I think is great if there's something like that happening. That'd be great. Yeah. Awesome. And then other forms that you could fill in. And then this is about sustaining our work. So we really got this into a much clearer couple of questions here, a few questions. So one question about a successor committee, instead of two that we had last time, educational opportunities. And then here's where I wanted to spend a little time with folks with the assembly today in really getting this right here. I thank you, Alexis, for sending in these. So number two and three here, Alexis sent in. Carrie and Aaron had like cannabis, they weren't exactly sure what that meant. I know it came up in maybe the last 30 seconds of our meeting last time. And I think it was Dr. Shabazz. So I'm not sure Dr. Shabazz, if you're able to unmute to speak to that right now. And it looks like maybe not. Oh, Alexis, yes. I guess this is just from my own understanding. So does town employees include like teachers? Town employees include teachers. That's a great question. Jennifer, can you speak to that? We read each other's minds. Teachers are not. So it's a little bit complicated, right? Because there's the region and then there's the elementary schools. And they are part of like the educational teachers associations. They're not like town of Amherst employees, the way that Pamela and I are town of Amherst employees. But if you give me two minutes, I will clear that up. But I also just wanted to say that sentence. I'm moving my arrow like you can see, please select all that. Would you like to see Amherst pursue? Please. I don't see your arrow because you can only see it. I don't know why I think I can do that. Please select all that. Would you? Yes, that is a typo. Okay. Well, so when I just to jump in that like when I was saying it for like all all the things that we had listed before in terms of like the category like so like we were talking about the school system. We were talking about the healthcare system. We were talking about all those things. Like I didn't I I guess that's what I was talking about. I wasn't I was pretty vague, but like I I think that just limiting it to town employees doesn't do enough. Okay. So let's hold that and then see what Yvonne. Yes, Yvonne. Yeah, I think that's what I was getting at too. I thought we had covered a couple of other areas like housing resources and we talked about there being some attention to education for not for education for students like like which ways would be ways for us to activate students in education. Yeah, I thought there were other things that we included and also I think I sent you a note that says cannabis is not an action. Right. So what is the action around cannabis? Right, right. We're going to take an action with it. Right. And I also I wanted to hear from Dr. Shabazz. He's not able to to comment in this moment. So we might need to come back to this. But in terms of what I had sent you Yvonne about like what a truth and reconciliation process seeks to do. And I said this last week, but when Robin was asked this question at the town hall, she talked about how from her perspective, it was like other organizations and entities in the community that would sort of take up the truth and reconciliation process. So she sort of alluded to it as something that was a community wide healing process around a particular harm. And I'm wondering how that differentiates from what we're talking about with the systems and things like that. So maybe we'll just hold this unless other folks have input on that. I know Dr. Shabazz, I've spoken with him about truth and reconciliation several times in the past. So I just would love to get his feedback on that too. So, you know, I was talking again with Mara Keane about what the land trust does as far as, you know, they have at least one opportunity. I don't know if it's every year, every now and then. She talked about it when she came to our meeting. But I'm thinking that programs like that that are supported by the town where and focused at people of color or black people, you know, that these are programs that black Amherst residents can enroll in and take advantage of whatever resources there are that can assist with home buying or with home ownership. And I think that that is some of the stuff that we're looking to begin with with the reparation system. So that's where I agree with you. Is there some kind of, is this just a duplication question? Or are we throwing out our ideas so that like what you just said, which is about like other groups jumping in and saying, oh, we have the means to offer that kind of program as well. If it's something that the committee feels is important, an important truth and reconciliation process for the town. I mean, people can correct me, but I don't think that the town has any programs like that that supports any group in particular. Is that true? I mean, I don't think that, you know, when they talk about home ownership or first time home buyers, the town isn't connected to anything like that. That's like a federal government program. True. I just don't know. And if there is something like that, I mean, that would be great to have as something that's targeting Black families and Amherst. Yeah. Let me look into that. What I would say is like what, for example, Jennifer and Pamela have begun to do in collaboration with Crest to hold like the healing circles and the racial day of healing. That's how I, what my mind thought of as a truth and reconciliation process. And that is differentiated from directing reparation benefits, even if it means, for example, in coordination with a bank, a local bank who would help provide, you know, great terms for reparations program. I'd like to have that included in the list. You know, we have to flesh out the cannabis thing anyway. Yeah. I would, I would like there to be something that says the town, you know, will endorse and support such a program. Because I think that that and then I think similarly with policing, the justice system in Amherst. Yeah. I do. Okay. So many things that happen in the high school around students. I know that, you know, there's folks in this room who can speak to that, you know, that, but I do feel like, you know, their support for students in the high school, but it would be nice if there was recognition and more resources that go into supporting our students in the high school. Okay. I just, yes, please. I'm sorry. Jennifer and then Pamela, sorry. Wanted to follow up with Alexis and her question. So the elementary schools are paid by the town, but when you say town employee, they're looking at the municipal employees. And so the school teachers at the elementary school level are go through training through the school system. So again, it's kind of complicated, but typically when you refer to town of Amherst staff or employees, you're the municipal employee, as opposed to the school teachers. And I don't know if we can mandate that from the school teachers because they are under the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Exactly. That was the word I was looking for. Pamela, maybe you want to add or Pamela, I can't hear you. Here we go. I was going to say, I'm sorry. It seems like there's a desire to add to this list, both of actions that would be taken maybe by the town and also by other organizations or entities within the town. And so you might include everything in the list, but then clarify that first introductory sentences to say that these are elements of a truth and reconciliation process that you might happen within the community, both the municipality and the broader community. And then that would allow you to list some of the things that Yvonne suggested or other folks have suggested that expand beyond the reach or scope of the town exclusively. Perfect. That's an excellent solution. Yeah. And I think we can do that really quite easily actually without a lot of words. So okay. So what I'll do is when we are finished with our meeting, I will get something together that I can just make sure that folks are comfortable with, but you'll just have to reply only to me as usual, just so that we're not in violation of any open meeting law. Okay. So let's, and then this is other suggestions related to reparations. So this is, you know, if anybody would like to say anything else. Jennifer, your hand is still up. Did you, I don't want to move on until I, okay. All right. So here's our demographic. And I want to make sure we really look at this carefully to make sure it's exactly how we want it to be. So we've got how long you've lived here. Has your family lived in Amherst? How long have you lived in Amherst? Yes, Pamela. So in that first set of questions on demographics, you have, you don't have 20 to 30. So you have 10 to 20, and then 30 to 40. Did you mean to skip that? You know, it's interesting. I did not, and Kerry and Ellen came up with these. So, and they skipped it on both. So let me put that in my notes to ask about just so that in case they did not mean to do that. Why do we have to go to 100 years? Is this 100? More than 100 years, really? I'm sorry, Yvonne. Can you say, what was that? I said, I can't imagine someone's lived here 100 years. It could be. We're trying to take an account of centarians. I guess, I mean, definitely a family could have lived here, right, for more than 100. But I think that there's a possibility that we could have an elder that is, has lived here, was born here. And yeah, I mean, it's probably not highly likely, but okay, I see. I hope they give us their name if they're more than 100. We should know that stuff. No, really, for true. Absolutely. Yes, I see, Pamela, I don't know if your hand was still raised. Okay, so I see Alexis and then Hala. I don't mean to go back and maybe I missed something, but was there something concluded about what was going to be on the last list? So like, Ms. Mendez brought up like the various things that I felt like would be good to add to these, but like, was there some sort of decision made about what was going to be added to this list? So I took notes on what everyone said and then offered to put those into a question with Pamela's suggestion of language in the intro, and then to send it all to you just for final approval and just ask that you send it your response directly back to me. But we could also just decide on them right now if, like go, you know, wordsmith it right now if we wanted to do that. No, sorry, I just, I think that I just missed that part. So thank you. Okay, sure. Dr. Millicart Shabazz has posted in the chat, which I think is not, yeah, I will read it out loud. I think he's in a compromised position right now. So he suggests the cannabis and police reform as well. And then he says, do we need so many decades, 20 more years, more than 20 years, more than 20 years is enough of a breakdown. So maybe getting at what you were also, Yvonne, getting at. So how do folks feel about that? Do we need so many decades? Alexis. I guess I'm, well, I don't see the harm in this. I think it would be interesting in seeing in a breakdown how many of our African heritage families have lived here for that many years. Like my family has been here for 50 years at this point. So I don't, I don't, maybe, I don't know. I don't, I don't have a problem with it, but I guess I could definitely be swayed if somebody has a good reason as to why, but also like I don't, I don't see the harm in this, I guess. Yeah. Can you all see the chat, by the way, when I share a screen? You can see what I, like, yes, from my screen. Okay. All right. No, not from my screen, Yvonne, only on my own screen. Yeah. Okay. I didn't, not on my, so when I share a screen, it doesn't show you everything, it just shows you, it doesn't show you the chat. It was a question. Okay. No. Okay. Halla, you had your hand raised? It was a similar comment about all the decades and so it's been covered. Okay. Thank you. There was one other comment that I was trying to get into my notebook and then what was it here? I thought there was another comment. I'll have to go back, unless somebody remembers something that was either misspelled or, I don't know, we'll come back to it. If it will come back to me, I'm sure. Maybe it was Alexis's question about if we had reconciled the last that was on my mind just to, I don't know. I'll make, I'll come, I'll go through it again. It was a sentence that Jennifer pointed out, right? As an ever. One of the other questions was mixed up. Jennifer, do you, which one was that? Can you go to the previous page and then scroll down? Yes. It's this, I'm pointing again. Please select all that. Would you like to see Amherst pursue? Okay. Perfect. I do. Yeah, I have that one. Okay. That's great. Okay. All right. So let's get through here. Okay. What best describes your housing situation? Are you a student? Ivan, yes. It's mundane. And you can skip it if you want. But, and I know Dr. Shabazz can't talk, or maybe he can answer this question. But I've always been curious about why ethnicity was only focused on Latino or Hispanic. Is it just to limit how many checkout boxes there are? You know what I'm saying? No, it's that is the federally designated categories. So under the census rules and regulations, there's only ethnicity is limited to that question. Wow. But your question on race, actually, could you scroll up just a little bit? Yeah. So the question on race could be expanded if you wanted to do Pacific Islanders. But, but that those are since census categories. Okay. All right. It's a lot. It's a longer conversation, but Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's interesting. I always wondered about that. Okay. Sorry. We were driving, I was talking to Kerry on the way home with my children in the car, and they were, they began asking me similar questions after that conversation. So I would be interested in having that conversation as well. Yeah, it's very, you know, like, you know. All right. So maybe Dr. Shabazz will respond in the chat if he does. Well, yeah, Alexis. Well, so, okay, I think it's a it's a it's a muddy conversation only because, like, I, I don't like my understanding is that African American is not a race. Black is a race, you know, race. We're talking about political identity that's that's constructed and can change over time. And so I guess I'm wondering, for our for our purposes, does it just make sense to to ask what is your ethnicity and leave it at that if we're if we're determining who's because we've already determined who's black and of African heritage. I guess I'm, yeah, I don't know, I'm a little bit confused. Dr. Shabazz says, OMB requires five minimum categories, white, black, or African American, American Indian or Alaska native Asian and native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander for race. And then they permits the Census Bureau to also use a sixth category, some other race. So I mean, we could include a like some other race. I mean, I'm just thinking, you know, like, there are white people and black people from all over the world. And like, I'm black and I can check Hispanic, but I'm also like a Caribbean, you know, which is a different, you know, as it's a little different, and the same with, you know, like a white person whose families from Russia, they're not from France. You know, so I always wondered why the ethnicity was even a question and so narrowly limited to just Hispanic or Latino, you know. But that's not here nor there. I was just, it was just a general question. I agree with with a Lexus around black or African American. And I think that's because of the new you know, the new category that was created for African American. And so just so I understand you, Yvonne, so we get this right. When you say you agree with a Lexus, is there an action that we need to take here? Is there a change we need to make? I'm not sure we do. I'm not sure that we can. I think that, you know, and I will, you know, he wrote Hispanic or Latino is a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. So Spanish culture could mean from Spain, which is now we're in Europe. But then Haitians won't have anything to check, right? I'm just saying. No, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it is a little crazy. It's crazy. But I was just, you know, pointing that out. I don't think we can take off African American. I don't think so. But I just brought up the idea that that we're, you know, we're feeding into a system that is limiting for people to check off. So I would like prefer not to say is great, or I also would like other. Okay. In each category say prefer not to say, but also other some other race like some other. Okay. Okay. So we'll add that. I did see Pamela and then Alexis. So I was just going to say there's a strong argument to have your categories match the federal categories in case you want to use the data for additional purposes for grants. If the categories align, that makes it much easier to report the data. And I, you know, I recognize that there are politics behind the various categories, but it is in your best interest to have the categories aligned with the federal categories. That makes a lot of sense. And I think Dr. Shabazz is also here. He has agreed to that with that too. Yes, Alexis. Okay. I'm okay. That's fun. I, okay. I guess I just have to get over my own personal qualms about this, but I guess I'm wondering if this can just be an ethnicity question rather than a race question only because like, I, how, yeah, but if not, then that's okay, I guess, but like, if it, if, you know, I don't know. Okay. Maybe I just need to get over it. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Do you want to sit with it? Yeah. Sit with it, though, and we can come back to it if it's still feeling like it's, you know, well, is that okay if we do that, Alexis? We'll keep moving and then we can come back to it. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to hold myself in this moment. Okay. All right. So we have voter, we have age. And then this was the income question. I wanted you to see how this turned out because we had talked about this. So the other thing I wanted to say is in talking to Kerry again this morning, like, what answer are we, so what is this helping us to determine, you know, that we're not already determining say from understanding how people view the economic system and Amherst. And so I'm just curious if people have thoughts on that. So if you, let's say you said, yes, let's go and look. Okay, then we broke this out into three months, 12 months, three years, and then it's been over three years. That is how it looks right now, but the floor is totally open for suggestions on that. And we should look out, Dr. Shabazz will be switching over to his phone so he might pop out and then need to be brought back in. Yes, Pamela. So I think the benefit of these questions is their correlation to some of the other questions that you've asked. So if you're, if you, if someone responds that, you know, they're interested in having housing for, for example, for our housing efforts around renting for reparations, and you see that there is a correlation to this income question, then you can say, you can talk about, you know, a demonstrated need because of the correlation between the two. So, I mean, I, you know, I think that it's probably worthwhile and keeping it, if it will correlate to some of the other answers. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And it just, I don't think there's any reason not to. I agree. Let me just see. Okay. So then you get to here. Thank you for taking the survey. My name is spelled wrong. Carry. We'll correct that. And then this takes us to our engage Amherst page. So I'm not trying to like visit our website. I feel like it should say visit our engage Amherst. I don't know, but that's just to get that out there. Like website sounds a little, I don't know. I don't know if people have thoughts on that. That's picky. All right. So the other things that I wanted to, let's go back actually, Jennifer made an excellent suggestion after one of our recent meetings where if you do not identify as black and of African heritage. So let me just go here. Let's say no. You get this question. Okay. So this is a question to say, okay, you're not going to go in and answer about the systems. But if you don't identify, but have you witnessed this? And so to say yes or no, and then to be able to expand Jennifer, is this sort of what you had envisioned with that recommendation? She just stepped away for her desk for a second. Oh darn. Okay. Well, we'll come back to it then. But does that look okay for everyone? Okay. Great. All right. So the other thing I wanted to show you is this. So there's a couple of things that are happening right now. The person who, my ex-mother-in-law who works on our design is creating a flyer right now for us that is going, this is Carrie shared this one. It was something that they used in Williamsburg to do a community wide survey. And it sort of makes the ask to folks. And I wanted to share that I had an email conversation with Rep Mindy Dom yesterday. And she, I think someone might need to mute. Oh yeah. Okay. It's Dr. Shabazz. We just see, there we go. Okay. So Rep Dom made some really great suggestions. She is going to help us get this out. She's going to send it out to her constituents, hopefully in her newsletter, as well as through her social media channels. She also made some other suggestions about making sure that all of the council people get it out to their constituents. Of course, the paper survey, which we're going to have. And so this is essentially something like this we'll have, but with our logo and our words. And we'll, I wanted to just kind of give you a little bit of a thought process around what I had in mind for getting this out. Let me stop the share. So if we can get all of these changes made this afternoon, which I think that we can, as long as I hear back from folks about the truth and reconciliation, I will do that as soon as we finish up. So if you could just respond to me on that, that would be great. Then the, we have that list, you might remember that we use to get it out to folks. So what they'll have is an, I'll be drafting an email, they'll have the flyer, they'll have the link, the tiny URL, the QR code, as well as it will be on the engage Amherst page. So there are going to be multiple ways that it can get out. And we'll use all of the lists we have the town of Amherst, we'll of course put it in through all of their community calendar, all the different ways that they can get it out on their social media. But I think we only have three weeks really to turn this around. So I just want to really encourage all of us to get it out. Alexis, is there something Amherst media, could Amherst media put this on the carousel? Is this something that can happen on the carousel or is that only for a bit? Yeah, definitely. Okay, great. Oh, maybe, hold on. Dr. Shabazz, are you? Hello. Hi. Yeah, I was going to suggest we could do a short video like they do for the birds and the light. And because I see that going around and around all the time. And if we could just for a few weeks have a similar thing like the birds, I think it would be a great outreach. Could you say more on that, Alexis? Yeah, I can, I can speak to that. So those were actually videos that were sent in, like we didn't, we had no part in making those. But if definitely if someone's willing to be representative or like if a number, I don't know, it doesn't really matter how many people want to be a part of that, but basically can speak to the initiative and what it is and how to access it, that can, that's a pretty easy video that we can throw on carousel, absolutely. And then it would also be available on a place like YouTube and then you can share it that way. I don't know, it's, yeah, it's another means to get the information out. So there's no problem with that. Okay, I don't know what that is at all, but I think it sounds great. Like a commercial, basically. Oh, okay, okay. Jennifer? I was gonna say what about having a, like a, not a town hall, but just like a, an event where people come specifically to fill out the survey or answer questions with the survey. I don't know if I know that like the, I think it was, maybe the health department did something like that for the, or it was the senior center for the agent dementia. So they would have like events, like specifically, you know, to go through the survey with folks. So that's an idea. And then I don't know where, where you are with the list of things, but like the PGOs and the principals and all of that would be great. Yes, I have all of those are pretty solid. But I think that's a really, really great suggestion. And I just want to, so Repdom, I'm just reading, she said, she wondered if the elementary schools could include it in their newsletters. And then she also had suggested, are there any, anything that like particular mailings that the town's going to be doing around this time that this could be tacked on to? She suggested like a tax water bill or a census street list thing. I would, I, there are three places, two places to check. One would be at the collector's office and I can do that later either today or tomorrow. And also with Amherst Wreck, because those are the two departments that send out stuff in like a mass bulk mailing. Awesome. If you could do that, that would be fantastic. Thank you, Jennifer. I'll coordinate with you. I did want to quickly review a public comment that we received last week. I mentioned this earlier on one of the notes that I have here. And I think that Chiara might be here. So Chiara could definitely correct me if I'm wrong here, but one of them is whether we wanted to include a working definition of reparations, I'm sorry, excuse me, of African heritage anywhere in the survey. But you know what, I'm going to go to a public comment period again. So maybe I think since Chiara has sat through this final review, maybe she could speak again with respect to these things so that I don't misspeak. And let's just see here. Okay. So let's do a quick time check because we've gotten through the survey and I want to get to the elementary school building project discussion before folks have to leave. So, Halla, what is your timing looking like? I'm available to 330. Excellent. Okay. Yvonne, I'm actually over my time. Fair enough. Fair enough. As soon as we can get this done, it would be great, but I can stay a little longer. But okay. All right. Thank you. And Alexis? I'm good. Okay. Dr. Shabazz? Okay. Dr. Shabazz is not able to respond at the moment, but I'm sure he'll check in when he can. And how about Jennifer and Pamela? I have a hard stop at like 325, but Pamela may be here. And also you guys can continue if needed. But Dr. Shabazz said he was switching to his phone. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So let's just see. Okay. So just about three weeks or so ago, we got a public comment from Maura Keane. Maura was coming to speak about the very exciting elementary school building project that we have happening in the town and asking if the AHRA would like to take a position or provide any sort of endorsement for the project. So I first just want to make sure everyone is aware of the project and what the town people are going to be asked on May 2nd. I don't want to waste our time if everybody knows. Is everyone pretty much up to speed on that? Yes. Okay. Great. So then I just want to open the floor for some discussion here to see and just to give a little context to this. There are other committees of the town who are either writing opinion pieces like the ECAC, which is the climate committee. And there are other folks in town, whether they be individuals or with organizations that are making endorsement statements. So we have complete flexibility here. We can do nothing or we can do something really substantial or we can do something in between. So the floor is open for discussion on this. Yes, Alexis. Oh man, I didn't want to be the first one to say something. I see two hands, but I can't see the, who has the other hand up? I think it's an attendee. It's public comment. Oh, the public comment. Okay. Yeah, that's right. I forgot we can see them both. Well, go ahead and be the first. Oh God. Okay. So I just, I think that this is a, I don't know if this is something that's necessarily appropriate for our body to be, and obviously I'm not trying to make a decision. This is just something how I feel personally. I don't know if this is something that's appropriate for our committee to be speaking on or endorsing only because it doesn't tie, like I can understand how it can tie into like the environmental sort of aspect of it, but I'm not sure if this is like really speaking to what we're working towards. I can say personally I want the building to be built, but I'm also very aware that there's a controversy with our teachers and how our teachers are being paid and the cutbacks in the budget and our ability to be able to sustain how we're, you know, Amherst is, you know, laws itself on its education and how are we, exactly are we sustaining that? How are we providing a competitive salary? How are we assuring that our teachers are able to live in Amherst? And so this kind of like goes back to some of the main issues that we're trying to address and trying to fight against. And so I'm someone who like, you know, is torn and feeling like I want both to happen, but I know that people are, I don't want, in short, I don't want to be a scab. So I'm very open to hearing how other people feel, which is why I didn't, I didn't want to speak first, but like I don't know if this is something, because of the controversy and because of like how much is at stake for both sides. Like I don't know if this is something that we should be doing as a committee. Thank you, Alexis. Thank you for being willing to go first. And I know I totally hear you and curious what other folks, if anything. So if we did want to make a statement of endorsement or support, I don't think that means that we couldn't also support our teachers at the same time. So that's one way to think about it. But part of what they're asking is to not do that in support until the contract is, part of what they're asking is to not support the school until they're being given reasonable compensation. So that is, they did, you're right, they came out and they made that statement, but they have since, I don't know if you've seen that, Alexis, and maybe you have more information than I do, but they have since retracted that statement in a written in a follow up statement in which they said that they have no position on the school building project, but that they do want their contract terms to be properly negotiated. So I don't know if it would help us if we I could provide sort of the statements that are out there to the committee so that we can take a look at them and then revisit this next week or if other folks have particular opinions that they'd like to share about this right now. The other suggestion is we could have some folks at our next meeting who are involved in the yes campaign in the school building project that could come speak and answer questions and clarify things. But again, it's, this is, you know, I'm personally on my own writing an opinion piece in support of the school building project, but that's I will be doing as my own individual person. So it's really for the assembly to think about whether as Alexis said, yes, Alexis, please. I didn't mean to cut you off, please. No, no, no, go ahead. Well, I guess, I guess, yeah, go ahead. Well, so I'm wondering if this can be like, I, it feels, I feel some sort of way that I can't really put my finger on, but like if this is not a mutually beneficial sort of exchange, I don't, I don't think that there's any reason why our body should be supporting this effort if, if the schools are not sort of in tandem with our work as well. That, that feels a little creepy crawly to me. And so being that if, if something as, you know, as easy, well, okay, it feels easy to me as its cultural competency being mandated in the schools, that's, that's, I'm, I'm just learning that's something that can't be mandated. And so I'm wondering like what part of the reparations effort are they willing to contribute to or they're willing to, I don't know, I feel like this shouldn't be a one sided sort of relationship, not to, not to feel like there's like something hanging over whatever, but like I, I'm not, I'm not hearing any sort of support or, or I'm not seeing any letters written in support of our work, which is feels just as important. So, yeah, I guess I'm wondering if this, if this is going to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Yeah, so I think what you're saying is like, what is the connection, at least what I'm hearing is what is the connection. The one part I wasn't clear about Alexis is you said like there, like when you say there, do you mean like the town of Amherst or the, like who do you mean when you say they're not writing letters in support? Or, you know, I just wasn't clear about that. Whether, whether that's like the yes vote or, or even the, you know, the school system in general, I'm not hearing from either of these bodies. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's kind of, maybe we can sit with this over the next few days and we've put it out there. We've heard some comments. I'll try to send some information. And I think sort of from my perspective, it's the town of Amherst that's really building the school and that we need, you know, for this is my personal opinion. This is something that I think we need to, you know, move forward with and I understand that I think it's important to make sure that we feel that there's a connection in any endorsement that we would make or support that we would want to give as a body. So both of those feel true to me. Yvonne, you had your hand up. I just had a thought that I kind of agree with Alexis, except that just to make it clear that if we make an endorsement, it's really about us supporting our constituents. And so that, you know, an endorsement of the school means that this would be, this is something that we think will benefit the Black community in Amherst. And then so we need to be prepared to answer those questions about why this would be of benefit to the community. I mean, I think that's what should drive any kind of endorsement that this committee makes, you know, is that it is a direct benefit for our constituents. Absolutely. And even that can get a little bit dicey, I think, when you're, you know, like. As you know, I mean, they'll be like, you know, if something, one person could be unhappy, and then it's like, oh man, that committee endorsed this. And look what happened, you know, like there's always this, you know, open door for criticism, or, you know, ruffling feathers or whatever, you know, so that's why I think that we need to be very strong and take a stand if we're going to endorse anything so that if there's any kind of backlash, we could say, oh, well we endorsed it because of this, you know, and I don't know what this is. You know, in this instance, what is this that we're endorsing for our constituents, you know, and be very clear about what that thing is. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think Dr. Rhodes and, and even Deborah would have, Ms. Burgess would have some good insights on this as well. So all right, well, you know, the I think people are receiving their mail in ballots this week and but the vote is not until May 2nd. So we still do have some time to continue the discussion and make a decision one way or another. So if there aren't any other comments, I'm going to call the second public comment period. And we'll take a look here. And Jennifer, are you moving? Oh, Jennifer left Pamela, are you able to move? Are you a co host? Oh, I am here. Oh, okay. Yes, you are. Okay. Who's moving? Who's moving folks? I think that's Jennifer. Thank you, Jennifer. Oh, I let Chiara in first. Okay. Welcome Chiara. Okay. Thank you. There you are. Yeah, just a couple of things I wanted to touch on. So to your point about the a working definition for African heritage, it's a very broad kind of term that can mean a lot of things from major for people. There's people who are of African heritage all over the planet, if you want to be technical. And there's also people who are black who are indigenous as well that may not necessarily trace their their lineage to the continent. So if you could provide more more clear definition as to what you're describing, you're asking people if they're of African heritage, I think that would be beneficial. I also wanted to know when the question where you're asking about whether people are descendants of slaves, what I was trying to kind of trying to get at last week was, if you could include whether they are black black American, and then also also you can say descendant of slaves, but really we're getting at what at the ethnicity of the people would not necessarily whether or not your answer was a slave or whether you're the of the black American ethnic group. I can specify that as well. And I was curious how you're how you're lining the questions that I know that if you answer that question yes or no it will take you to another set of questions. But I'm curious, when you're asking about eligibility or you're asking about the form of reparations, is that just everybody being asked that question I know I know also everyone who is black who feels that I will be asked that question but will you specifically be breaking that out from those who are descendants or is that kind of all collected together and will just be disaggregated later on based on who checked which boxes. But I think it's important that you also specifically ask those questions of those of the black American ethnic community to be able to compare the answers that you get. Also, you're asking about or you're discussing about the school and whether the HR should make a statement about it. I'm agree in agreement with Alexis and that I don't necessarily see the the inherent correlation between the two and I think it's best to to steer away from any other lateral issues unless it's very specific to reparations or any kind of reparative work and if you're asking questions like what percentage of the construction staff is going to be black Americans or what percentage of the teachers hired or etc those type of questions or you know the land that the school is being built on you know things like that who owned the property etc if you're not going to be looking at those type of questions I don't think you shouldn't make a statement on one way or another about it but that's that's my public comment for today. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks Gara. I see Lauren is coming in next. Welcome Lauren. Can you hear us? Can you hear me? Yes now we can hear you better yes. I have a few comments good afternoon. First is my concern that the whole work of the assembly on reparations is kind of feeling like a fill in the gap for the chronic issues that black African American people of color have been dealing with for a long time through the issues of systemic racism and anti-blackness and it's not really getting to those issues that caused the the issues in the first place so that's one of my concerns and from your discussions and your questions on the on the survey concerning like race and ethnicity I was just wanting to share some of my thoughts about the term black you know I consider myself black I consider myself a personal color I consider myself African American but there are those who maybe of mixed ethnicities who could consider themselves black but because of the the way that that term has been used historically they may not want to attach themselves to that so I don't know if that was you know in consideration when you were you know drafting those questions so I I just think it's important to provide a context a context of history for the word reparations and I don't know if you're going to have a definition of of reparations because I'm a little confused as to um the historicness of of of reparations discussions now and might have you know the current or the the the the current um you know pain and murder that that has been in you know our current um news that has brought upon these discussions but from my understanding and from you know what I've read that there have been um forms of reparations such as like the forming of HBCUs and also like during the um after you know the civil war there were certain areas that were given to um Carolinians black Carolinians um that could be considered form of reparation so I'm I'm just kind of confused as to how you are putting that that term in context um also yeah I I think also in framing um the discussion when I think of my family history which I don't I'm not really able to go back that far but when you just think of the history of slavery you could equate the word slavery to forced labor and I think it's important with when framing and having listening sessions and community discussions that reframe um the topic of slavery by you know reiterating that those who were enslaved were working they were you know growing rice they were growing tobacco they were growing sugar it wasn't like they were you know just slaves or enslaved not doing anything but they were you know building into this um country's economy and so I just I just think that that has kind of been lost in and and not really put forward in the framing of of this um of the discussions and the discussion of reparations um I have a few more comments so I hope you can bear with me um I wanted to know too is there going to be like some kind of formula for how local governments town town governments will determine how to disperse you know reparations is there like a percentage of how much the town is is black or of color and um also like what resources the town has available like in particular in in immersive you know universities and educational institutions are a pillar in those towns um as far as economics will that be more of a way to you know provide funding or provide resource to a reverberate reparations um fund um I have some other comments but I I think um those are the main ones and also um I what I don't know if you guys are aware but there is a organization called h e r e higher education reparations um engagement and um they have some resources on their website um and I also I I also just actually want to say that because I I often say that I am a parent I am a mother of three children who are in the Amherst school system I just think it would be kind of inappropriate to endorse the new school project one being I think it's going to go ahead anyway um and and the way that the um the town council um votes on certain things I think it's kind of been apparent that depending on who you are and you know depending on who you are and and who's asking for money it it it depends on who gets that money so I just from also from the history of you know what's been going on in the school systems I just don't think it's appropriate for for the African heritage um assembly to be endorsing the new school project those are my um my thoughts thank you thank you very much Lauren thank you um so we still have four of us we have one more public comment uh halla did you do it it is 3 30 but if the public comment does keep you three minutes I can stretch it up it's going to be the medical okay yeah so we'll we'll take Mara and then we can quickly adjourn the meeting since we've um we've covered everything we still have other things but they'll forever um yes let's bring Mara in um and I will do that because I think Jennifer had to leave welcome Mara hi this will be really quick I just wanted to suggest that for the survey you might want to set out a table at the farmers market that's starting in a week or so and get people there because that's a lot of town traffic and have people fill it out there that is an excellent excellent idea do you know when that starts Mara I thought it was next week okay I know it's in April okay I think the town has the ability to get a table is that true Pamela that the town can get a table okay so I'll send Jennifer an email and see if she can look into that that would be that would be excellent it's a great idea um okay thank you was that your full comment Mara yes okay all right thank you well thank you everyone this has been really a great meeting and I hope um everyone has a great week and I'm going to adjourn at 3 32 p.m and we'll see you soon thank you bye bye