 Okay, so we are now recording. I'm going to start the meeting and I think I'm going to put the minutes off to the end of the meeting if that's okay, because I want to, you know, maximize our time with Paul and Marlena. So, and Marlena, I don't have that in my inbox yet, but. Yeah, right. So it's my, my browser was slow. So I'm about to forward you. It's a thread that's got a few things in it. So. The thread has. Sorry, my browser just slowed me down. So there's two emails that we I sent you on the 30th in the same thread. So I'm forwarding you the thread and if you scroll down in it, you'll see, you'll just look for the two emails that I sent you on the 30th and I'm just trying to get my. For me, I probably can scroll down. I've got my email open. Let me just morning Carolyn. Good morning. Good, how are you. Good. Sorry, we had a very long chain so it's in the ether it's on its way, but there are two that I sent on the 30th one has all three letters in it. And then I sent the second one a little bit later that day that had the revised version of the, the one letter we were discussing earlier today. Okay. So which should we I just opened the one actually that you sent on the 31st. Yeah, I just opened the value good energy logo. Yeah, so that's okay sorry. So that's the second one that has the revised letter so just to back up. I sent one on the 30th that has 3 or we. Yes. I sent one on the 30th. That has three files attached to it. introductory text. So I wanted what you think, think of that one. And my mistake, yes, on the 31st, then I sent just a revision of one letter that I thought might be make everyone comfortable. So that's the stuff to talk about. Well, I wonder if we, I just wonder if we, if we start, um, yeah. I'm wondering if we start with the, the latest, most updated version that seems to be something that could, isn't quite as specific. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got, maybe it's helpful to just say big picture, we have to submit three versions of the letter. So is it helpful just to tell the group what we're talking about? Please do. So you're kind of coming as Stephanie started, and I started talking a little bit before everybody joined. Um, so we're working on, excuse me, getting the documents finalized that we need to make available to the public as part of this required step, which is our first big milestone of making the aggregation plan and associate associated documents available to the public for a 30 day period of comment. And then with that, we'll do a presentation. So that's the context for this. We've got the aggregation plan finished, we've got the education outreach plan finished, and we've got the model electricity supply agreement finished. So the pieces that still need to be finished are the mailing materials. And these are the letters that go out to people telling them that they're going to be automatically enrolled. Those letters have to be part of this process. They have to be written now. They're governed really by the DPU. And so we have to get those finalized. There are, because of the way the aggregation plan is written, it accommodates as much flexibility as possible for this program. So while the intention is to use Massachusetts class one REX as the voluntary additional renewable energy that's purchased, the wording of the aggregation plan has been written to accommodate the ability for other types of REX. Shouldn't you choose to do so? It may be that in the future, there are other types of REX that are available that you want to use that aren't available now. And it also is sometimes the case that people start these programs or cities and towns start these programs with one vision and then modify that vision for whatever reason over time. And so the idea is to give you guys a plan that has the flexibility to do whatever you want, even though knowing right now your intention is to do one particular thing. Because of that flexibility, we actually have to submit multiple drafts, multiple versions of this letter. The DPU says, well, that's all well and good that you only give us this version of the letter that shows that you're going to buy extra mass class one REX, but your plan says you might do other things. So show us what that other thing would look like if you were to do it. It doesn't mean we're ever going to use this letter. It doesn't mean that at all. It's really just checking this regulatory box because the DPU doesn't like generality. They like specifics. They want to see everything. So we have to submit a version of the letter that shows you're going to buy extra mass class one REX and that's really where we've been focused. But we also have to submit a version of the letter that shows a scenario where mass class one REX is not maybe the only or isn't the thing that you're buying as voluntary REX. And then there's a third version that we have to include, which is a version that provides custom pricing to a very, very large commercial account. And that's something that's allowed by the contract that will be signed with the electricity supplier. It's a scenario that happens very, very rarely. I think in the history of years we've been doing this. We've maybe only sent such a letter two or three times. It's very rare. But because this is something that is allowed under what we're submitting to the DPU, the DPU says we don't like vagueness. We want to see what it looks like. So we have to actually create three versions of the letter. So just to know that they're all three almost identical. There's just some very minor changes. The big thing that I think Stephanie wanted to talk about with you folks is the version of the letter that illustrates what the letter would look like if it were not only mass class one REX that were being purchased as the voluntary component, what that scenario would look like to satisfy the DPU that we have a plan for how we would describe that. So there are a couple of ways to approach that letter. The way we historically approached it is we've shown what it would look like if you were to purchase a blend of mass class one REX and national wind REX. Now we're not saying you want to do that or that you think national wind REX or a good idea. The reason we typically do that is because that's the typical approach for communities when they don't use only mass class one REX. And it's nice and specific and the DPU likes to see specifics. It's not a commitment to doing that and it's not saying you want to do it. It's just an exemplar letter and the DPU understands this is exemplar. There's another way to do it though which is what Stephanie and I were just talking about which is not to be quite so specific and say that your other voluntary REX are going to be national wind REX just because everybody else does it that way. But rather to say here's a scenario where we're buying mass class one REX and something else and we just won't specify what the other thing is. So it shows that your voluntary REX are mass class one REX and other but we're not going to say what it is. So those are kind of the two ways that we've come up with to handle this letter. We think if the DPU comes back and says well what are the other REX I would be very surprised if they did that but if they did we would provide some answer and it would it be something that would slow the approval process down if they wanted to talk about it because they always have questions and they would just ask about that in the regular course of their questions. I guess that's kind of I feel like I talked a lot there. I hope there's more oxygen left in the room for you. This is good but I hope that provides some helpful context. I think the really important thing I want to convey is that these are exemplar letters. This particular letter is an exemplar letter. It's not intended as a statement that Valley Green Energy has the intention to purchase mass class one REX or that it's a validation of mass class one REX. It's not or I'm sorry national wind REX or other REX. It's not a validation of non mass class one REX. It's it's not any of that. It's really just to check this regulatory requirement box that exists because the DPU looks at your plan and says wow this is a really flexible plan. Show us what it would look like if you did one of these other scenarios that is technically possible in the universe of this plan. That's what it is so we just have to we just have to meet that requirement but it's not even necessarily a letter you would you might So um Andrea had a question she had her hand up actually first and then Adele go ahead Andrea. So I can imagine us deciding that because we want to focus on local that we would want to buy um REX that are local but older and that people are not getting a high price for on their roof you know for their pre you know 26 in 2006 REX or whatever it is um in order to be able to um you know prolong the value of people's rooftop solar that would not be a class one REX you know beyond the 10-year period so I'm in favor of this. Okay Adele. I agree with Andrea and um I I think what Andrea is saying is that she prefers the second option that Marlena provided and and I do too so I vote for that. Okay um anyone else have comments questions? I would just say that it makes sense to be the broadest um have the broadest um identification of where we're going and so that makes sense to me. And Darcy. Is there a way to well nothing I retract my comment I I can see what Andrea and Adele are saying um I would just like to foreclose um you know non-local non-equal to class one REX possibilities. And I think in the point that Marlena is making is obviously that this doesn't lock us into anything specific and I agree my feeling has been we should be with a more general that gives us more um bandwidth to sort of do something else. So um and Tom. I will support that um we're trying to guide towards best practices I I um it's it's very difficult it's perfect versus good almost type of thing um so I'd be open to um setting setting the uh the goal for the perfect but enabling the good is a pathway to get there so okay options great so I think that's your answer Marlena so that's the way we'll go okay all right you repeat the language one more time so I can put it in the notes um you know Darcy I can look at the recording and fill in any blanks if you okay if you want okay so sorry I just lost my agenda here okay um was there anything else about the letters drafts that you needed or the letter draft um so I guess I just it would be great if I could get like a written sign-off on the three versions um excuse me and on that um as I said I did a slight revision to your introductory text to make sure you're okay with with that as well um and then I had in my email on the 30th included just some questions about the website okay let's go to those actually sorry um I thought we weren't doing the three different versions I thought we were doing the most general version oh so there's a requirement we need to do all three versions the question really was what is the language in the version that accommodates a non mass class one rec scenario but when you do need to submit the mass class one rec version that's the one you're most likely to use certainly right now we have to submit this broader version and then we have to submit the one with custom market pricing for very large customers because that's accommodated under the way the contract is built and and if we don't the DPSU is just going to come back and ask us to do it so we should just do it okay sorry I'm just trying to find your questions it's in the bottom of the email on the 30th um the very bottom of it last two paragraphs okay sorry I've got um this is quite a thread the here's what I propose is that the one uh yeah below that that language is in this email and you go below that um from the last two paragraphs as I want to touch base on the website and then those two paragraphs okay why don't I just let me just open oh my goodness I was just going to say let me open that email all right I'll just share the email and scroll down to that paragraph sorry all right so you all should be seeing the email yeah okay so do you want to just go over that then yeah so I think that that the penultimate paragraph I think we've already addressed so the one question I had was about the domain so it sounds like your domain ownership is expiring um later this month correct on the 27th okay yep so I put that in my calendar for us to go ahead and pick up that domain once it expires so we'll just buy that and then once we own valleygreenenergy.com we'll redirect it to the website that we set up which leads me to the next thing which is there is a website that's set up um we're still in the process of proofing it but the the pages exist um this does not replace the need for each community to have web pages with downloadable versions of the documents we've been working on so there is just to clarify there is there are two parts to web content from the dpu's perspective there is the requirement that each community has to have a web page that has the files that we're making available to the public available and I can give you kind of like what standard text is that communities typically use on those web pages but they do need to exist and we have to show screenshots of them to the dpu as part of your filing so that's that's one piece but then separately we build and maintain a program website that has all the detailed information that eventually will have self-service forms on it and that we up to date on a rolling basis to meet regulatory requirements this is a more detailed robust website so that's the thing I'm talking about right now so once valleygreenenergy.com exists we'll buy it and we'll point it to the website that we're managing so that's I think that penultimate paragraph is kind of addressed based on knowing this domain being available as part of that website though there's room for a big picture on the home page I've added some placeholder stock photography which is supposedly from the Connecticut River that's out in your area I can buy that image and use it but if you folks have a high resolution image or photograph that you'd like me to use on the website I would be delighted to use it so I just wanted to flag that too some people care a lot about that image others are happy to have me go and find something so that's entirely up to you so that's what those two paragraphs are about with those details in place that website that we're building is finished this email does not address the municipal web pages but we can talk about that right now if that would be helpful focusing on one thing at a time I would just say if you came up with an image maybe just float it by me and I can float it by the group yeah you know send me well I narrow it down you know I'd just say choose an image and let us know which one you're thinking about and we'll just take a look and say yes fine yep no I was just gonna say I'm sure we all each community probably has their own stock images but I just trust if you find something that you think represents us I'd be happy to just go with you know an image and share it with the group that's great so that link that you see there which says we've got a preliminary website together if you click that we'll go to the home page and you'll see the stock photography image that I stuck so yet you can take a look at that already it's just got a bunch of watermarks on it that's what stock photography looks like when you have yep okay it's like landscape Connecticut river image okay do folks have any feelings about I mean you know understanding that we're representing three communities I think if anyone has any opinions just sort of jump in I can't really see you all at the same time so just do we have access to this website but do you mean have access to it you mean like just to look at it yeah it's just their web pages sure um I think what I'm asking is has has Stephanie forwarded that to all of us I don't have it I haven't I haven't looked at it yet and I haven't had it yet this is their page yeah this is their page right I would like for all of us to be able to look at their page yeah no I'm not I haven't not shared anything yet okay yeah yeah so this has to be revised still because I think I took some of the language in here from some of the early language Stephanie that you gave me from the letter and I'm looking at it now and realizing I need to revise it but um yes this is these are web pages that you folks should take a look at for sure yep thank you I like that photo if it's a stock photo does that mean that it appears on some other website yeah I could yep I mean I buy I buy these from these enormous stock photography resources so um yeah I think the only way you get something that doesn't appear somewhere else is if you personally either took it or we pay incredible sums of money for something that's really unique and special but I don't think it's coming from an enormous catalog of images so I'm sure other folks have used it but I am certainly not aware of it being used on any other aggregation websites but if you have a nice photo yeah okay and it kind of looks like all the hills around so yeah it could be any of the hill towns right what I was hoping for I was hoping you'd say that yeah it's like generic enough that it could be anywhere but it is absolutely it is supposedly from your communities it's not like it's just a generic river somewhere in the country is it actually supposed to be from your area yep yeah no it's great is it the Connecticut River yeah if it's not the Connecticut River that way I think kind of would be a problem but but uh if it's the Connecticut River yeah yeah that's what it says on the description of it okay um so I think we're good with the picture moving past the picture um so Marlena is it you know are we at a place are you going to make more edits before we all take a look are there things you need to do first before we start giving feedback well I'm realizing that the like the Valley Green Energy Purpose list there I called from the earlier text that you provided for the letter and I don't think maybe we want to I think we want to modify that a little bit yeah so I could take a crack at it or I mean if that's something you folks want to do you're welcome to take a crack at it beyond the first page the content and actually beyond this part of the first page the content is pretty standard for what we would make available for any aggregation at this at this stage so you'll see red just indicates things that still need to be done you know the files aren't finished once they are I'll upload them and create links and and I'll send them to you folks as well and once the dates are in place you know you can see that's that's what the red text indicates um but otherwise it's a pretty standard chunk of information that that we make available and you're definitely welcome to take a look at it so I think the only the only thing that really I I think needs revisiting is that very opening section so just let me know if you want us to think about it or you want to take a look at it and and take a crack at it I would I honestly at this point I say just take a you know take a crack at it I don't think there's I don't think we need to sort of spend a lot of time wordsmithing this little piece just because especially if it's you said there were things that were might be flagged by DPU just I'd say just edit it and we'll take a look at it when you've got it fully drafted all right I'll do that um and any more on this page nope okay I'm just going to close it out because it's just easier to actually talk to each other um okay so just to give an update I've talked to our communications director about putting together our page and um you know and so she's she's on it she was the one who had the domains um had secured the domains for us which she can no longer do um because basically our town doesn't we don't have a credit card for the town and you need a credit card to hold the domains it's such a ridiculous system so um she's been using her own card for a lot of different things and for obvious reasons needs to stop doing that so um I tell you know so the timing is good at least for you taking our valley green energy domain but also the valley green alliance domain means it's also expiring on the 27th so sorry we can go ahead and grab that then as well that would be great is that a dot com also or dot org I think it's a dot org all right so it's valley green alliance dot org and valley green energy dot com uh no I think it's uh valley green energy dot com I'd have to look again I I'd send you an email I think I'd have to double check my I'll get back to you on what the exact domains are just so we know okay I don't want to say off the top of my head all righty yeah and I don't one thing we can do so like we don't want to buy like every domain out there but if you feel like there are like you want to have the dot com and the dot org but you're only going to use one we could still buy both and we just point one to the other um so you know they're still all going to the same place yeah I mean maybe we should just do that just buy dot com dot org for both I think that makes sense yeah one service we can provide we have a credit card thank you yeah it's ridiculous we had one for a while but for some reason it we needed to not use it anymore so I don't know what happened but anyway okay so um what about Tom and Carolyn do you have any questions about the website I want to give you an opportunity while you have Marlena here to sort of talk about the website piece for each community yeah I mean so the um so the web page so I imagine that we would have a page on our website that talks about valley green energy and then just links right away to this um you know landing page um so I don't know that we would need really that much information on our page um locally but I assume that needs to be ready to go at the start of the public common period right so on the day that we say we're we're opening public comment on may second then our all of our web pages have to be ready to go then right but really it's just going to be linking to um the valley green energy the mass power page that you just showed so that should be ready to go right yes and mostly yes so yes everything needs to be ready to go once the publicity goes out for the public comment period in the presentation regarding the content it can be very simple content but you do need to actually have links to download the files on your page now that doesn't mean you have to host the files we can host them and I can send you links to download them in our servers but you do it does need to it has to be like a brief paragraph of text about the program about the public comment period how to submit comments and then it'll be four links like we download these files so it's very very simple straightforward stuff um and then you can also include a link over to the energy the website that we're managing um but the screenshot we need to show the dpu needs to show that the files are there on your like available from your municipal web page so I think that's the safest thing to do but like I said you don't have to upload them or deal with the hosting piece as long as you can just get a web page built we'll be able to do it can't you just provide the source code have you know have it be done and then the IT person can just upload it into any page yeah so I can that's what I'm saying I can provide pretty straightforward content for everybody that that you guys can then can use it it's very simple and then just so you know about this web page it needs to be available for the duration of the public comment and review period with these links to the files on it because the dpu is going to go looking for it so we're going to submit it as a screenshot but then the dpu separately goes and looks for it as part of their review if they don't think it's easy enough to find if they think it's really hard to find they'll flag that so they're they don't like it when they have to use the search feature on a website to find these pages they want them to be in what they call quote a prominent location but they don't define what that means um so I would just recommend everybody try to find a permanent home for a valley green energy web page and a link to that web page this page should also exist after the program launches and again it's going to continue to can't contain very brief content at that point just a brief introduction of the program and then a link over to the website that we manage but just think of this as a permanent web page that you just need to find a home for kind of in perpetuity and I think that's the piece just to be clear about that it has to be on in perpetuity yep okay um any more questions there tom any questions I'll just I will definitely welcome the content and so what I'm understanding is you have to be able to access those files directly from the pellet but then there can be a button that takes you to the mass power choice hosted valley green energy web page is my hearing that correctly yes yes so there needs to be like the little list of the four files I'll give you guys because I'm going to package everything up for download and I'll give you guys links it's going to be four files at the public and download it's you have to have a list of these links to them and then you can have a little thing that says go to the valley green energy website yep good I like the picture good I I wonder on this point of the website if it would just be helpful to just step back and give a couple sentence on like why are there these two requirements because it seems like a whole lot of stuff and it seems duplicative so why is why are the towns the towns have to do this the reason is that the regulators the department public utilities is trying to balance two things one thing they recognize these are complicated programs and they want a website with all the up-to-date detail and so they recognize that's too much of a burden to put on municipalities and they let there be a separate site and that's the one we'll manage for you and it's going to have all the detail on it we're going to keep it up to date with all the new requirements so that's all going to happen but from the regulator's perspective also of course these are municipal programs and so citizens ought to be able to find something about it the municipal website and that can include a link to the program website with the detail but from the regulator's perspective the municipal website also has to meet has to have certain things on it and that's what marlena went through and that's what we'll provide the text for but so that's the two things they're trying to balance too much detail to burden the municipalities with but citizens ought to be able to go to their municipal website and find something so that's those are the two things we're trying to accomplish okay it's impossibly detailed when you're dealing with the with the regulators and right now it feels like there's just a million little irritating things and I'm I'm sympathetic to that we'll get through it okay and as you say I mean some of it it sounds like a lot but then once we actually do it it's not quite as complicated putting together the web page is not going to be all that complicated so okay anything else so we can or we can move on so the education and outreach section a when we had talked about that we had listed a whole host of organizations and contacts and now having met with you and realized that we need to have you know evidence of contacting all these places getting screenshots wondering um and I know we already talked about this a little bit but wondering how we can consolidate or make this less burdensome or should we revise our section a so I think it can be less less painful than it might seem with regard to doing outreach to a list of communities we don't need to save the emails for everything you've done now if for some communities that's easy for them they want to just send an email and copy me on it but you don't need to do that you can also just do it and then we'll say to the dpu here's the list of organizations that we sent the announcement to but I really think core that we need screenshots of our copies of we need the final announcement we need to have a copy of that in there we need to have screenshots of the municipal websites with these pages and that I mentioned and then the announcement you know wherever it is on the municipal website where that the announcement is about the public comment period like on a calendar page or if there's a news item on the whole page we'll need to have that if you do social media and you just let me know that you did it we'll get the screenshots that's very easy for us to go and look up if you do something on a bulletin board it's tricky to drive all the way out to out there and somebody could snap a picture that dpu loves low tech loves it otherwise I don't think we need to kill yourself on the screenshots just let me know that it was done and then we'll figure out if we need to get screenshots because everything else is electronic we can go and hunt down social media we can check to see if the local papers picked it up or not it's not something you have control over but you don't need to send me screenshots of every email you sent to everybody or every form you filled out to try to submit something somewhere you don't need to do that does that help but we do need to provide do we need to provide what we sent like just if we so if we sent an email we have to provide a copy of the email with a list of organizations we don't even have to do that I would say I would say don't kill yourself with that I would say no if you sense no I think it would be fine if we said the announcement was sent out to this list of organizations or you could just say we sent it to everybody in the section A and then I'll just go and grab the list from there okay so you know we sent it to these organizations we sent it to these newspapers you know these whatever we posted it on the social media platforms I think that's enough as long as I have the announcement that was sent if you manufacture something different from the announcement like somebody gets really motivated and they're like let me do a little informational flyer I would need to copy that so anything else that we so anything else that we produce as a group needs to be included so any kind of outreach that goes out they need the materials that were distributed to people yeah can I rephrase if it's listed as something we're going to do we have to provide evidence that we did it otherwise we can do whatever we want in addition yes so if it's listed we have to provide evidence what that evidence looks like can be less than it seems the dpu wants to see the core of materials that are sent out because they want to make sure two things one the public comment period is genuinely being presented like that that you're making a level effort to make that truly public it's not some secret thing so yes we did something and two you're not selling the program as a savings vehicle so that's what that's what they're looking for with this so they want to see the announcement they want to see any materials that are created which we haven't created any so that can keep things very easy other than an announcement we haven't we haven't created so anything so far and if I can add extra screenshots with us doing the legwork I will but I think from your perspective if you just want to do the things in the list and then say we did it we can take it from there I think just to be clear if we do create something to promote the program that isn't in our list we're not I want to clarify we're not required to submit whatever it is we created or are we because again I yeah we we are required to if yes so what's in the list is the minimum you have to do that's what you're obligated to do that's how to think of the list if you do something extra you're not obligated to do it but if you choose to do it and you've created a material like a handout or a flyer to do it then the DPU wants to see it that's the okay that's the piece I want to get to so we can as long as we're using the materials that are all being submitted to DPU we can send them to anybody but if we create anything at all that is about this program we need to submit it as part of the package that's the part that I want clarification on okay that feels very okay thank you yep so you don't have to create anything else if you do create something else I would just ask like show it to us so that we can take a quick look at it and make sure you don't run afoul of any you know of these DPU rules before you send it out and so it's fine to do that but you don't have to do anything more than what's in that list it's just if you do we got to show the DPU what it is okay that's just good to know and should an interested outside party create some flashy you know other materials that's not on the working group correct so the DPU wants to see things that are official municipal communications but if there is an environmental advocacy group for example that's in the community but not an official designated representative of the municipality then they have a lot more latitude in what they can say and do and no they their materials and efforts do not need to be submitted to DPU and are not subject to DPU rules I so I want to be clear that we have that okay so let's just say for full transparency and disclosure here we are three community representatives here are part of a separate advocacy group that is supporting this effort which is wonderful what we want to make sure though so again you're saying that if they create something they wouldn't have to necessarily run it by you either I think there is a little intersection of your involvement in this committee and then your own group separately so I mean they obviously know what we're working on so I wouldn't expect it to be anything that would be controversial but does that matter I mean if they're already sort of part of this inner circle would you all want to see what they're doing or not I mean we have this situation in other communities as well where committee members are also part of local advocacy advocacy groups I guess the guidance I always give people is in what capacity are you acting when you are putting this information out are you acting in the capacity of an official designated representative of the municipality if so then whatever you're doing is subject to DPU rules if you are not then know whatever you're doing is not as a general rule it can be helpful though if you're getting confused about where the line is in your own life to just try to always keep the savings disclaimer peace in mind just don't pitch the program as savings just have a savings disclaimer and that will help you to run up like not run afoul like a lot that one little thing but I would not I guess I would not kill yourselves trying to figure this out in part because like so what's the risk the risk is somehow some piece of information gets to the DPU that wasn't submitted that they didn't know about they were surprised by it and it's breaking a bunch of rules because and the reason they got a hold of it is because somebody's complaining and they felt misled that's the scenario that we want to avoid that we're trying to protect you guys from but it's also a very unlikely scenario right you're not out there pitching selling promising so as long as that's you know you're kind of keeping that in mind you're not out there going this program's going to save you a hundred dollars and it's guaranteed and you know like you're not you're not doing that so it's not likely that the public's going to go to the DPU and say these folks misled me but that's that's the scenario that you know that's that's the scenario but it's not something where the DPU has the manpower to go out and proactively look for stuff and say oh we found this flyer nobody told us about it that's not what's going to happen it's more that we need to show them what you're doing show we're making a good faith effort to be transparent and then try to corral everything that's you know likely to potentially bubble up but if it's something that's out there in the world and we can't control that's fine as long as you know it wasn't something that wasn't done as an official municipal communication the list of official municipal communications is typically pretty small compared to what advocacy groups do and that's fine like take a narrow view of that yep okay okay all right any other questions on that topic all right then i'm going to move us on to the cca draft and i think um Adele you had maybe some specific comments or questions oh you're muted Adele okay i'm unmuted now um yes i asked to have this on the agenda because i unconcerned about the lead community section um because it's it uh which is on page three i believe of the document which currently says that the lead community oversees the consultant contract and other contracts currently the town of amherst is designated as to serve us the community now we've only designated amherst as the lead community for the purpose of the mou so we need to either delete this whole section or um clarify that it's only under the mou that amherst has been designated the lead community and that we haven't actually even discussed what would happen when we once we form a jpe we don't even know whether we'll need a lead community after we created a jpe that is governed by a board so um you're you're exactly correct about that we put this line we added this language to the plan because of the decision to file the file the plan under the mou not the jpe when you switch to the jpe we would need to file an amended plan to reflect the jpe structure so everything you said is correct i think we could this is all what we have in here now is just assuming the mou and it would be revised when you're when you're under the jpe maybe we can just um i don't know if this addresses that are necessary but you we could just say the lead community um or as specified in the mou the lead community oversees the consultant contract blah blah blah i don't know if that works for you if that clarifies for you adelle or even that's necessary could you repeat that caroline i i missed it what could just say under that section um as specified in the um mou the lead community oversees the consultant contract and other contracts currently the town of amherst exacerbated sleep community that certainly works from my perspective um adelle does that address the does that address the issue from your perspective um yes i i think so um it said um i hate to ask you to repeat it again caroline but but it but the way you modified the sentence it's you inserted mou under the mou the lead community yeah i think that clarifies it and um and then if and when we um convert to a jpe this document will have to be amended anyway right i mean i would think that was just going to be taken out how does everybody else feel about um i was just i was just saying that it would be taken out when we amend it so yeah i it means that i guess we would have to have an amendment anyway so it wouldn't require an amendment only for that purpose because we would if we were changing to a jpe then we would amend we would be be amending the whole thing or we would need to amend this the cca agreement um yeah so yeah i had the same concern as adelle well we're going to be taking it out when we become a jpe and we amend the documents probably i mean it sounds like you're thinking still at least a year i mean i know things might change at the dpu but we don't anticipate that their timeline's going to change anytime soon correct for review no reason to think so but oh we also just don't know it is a new administration maybe they'll be faster but yeah it's going to take a while so it's going to take a while for sure and paul is there any do you feel like um if it was left out altogether and just existed in the mo you that that would be an issue in the dpu in other words if that if that paragraph were stricken and there was no mention of the lead community at all but it's still existed in the mo you um that would be a problem at the dpu well we can certainly take it out and if they they want it in there they'll tell us so they usually they want to know who's going to sign the contracts but why don't we just take it out and you know they say well we want more information about the lead community you know how this works then we'll put it in for them but if it's an area of concern we can just take it out and maybe they'll be a jpe by the time they're done anyway so we just fix the whole thing then yeah that's the hope so why don't i just take i'll just take it out i mean i think once we start launching this comment period and get through this piece of you know putting the aggregation together you know we'll be able to focus just solely on the jpe but just to get this piece through the gauntlet right now it's just like focused i mean i know i feel because there's a lot of other things happening too that we just focus on getting this piece done forward done and then we can get back to the jpe and we can give it our full attention then so all right so lead community is out of there yes happily but i just um i'm wondering if it's can you know the very first paragraph municipal aggregation plan says you know talks about valley green energy is a joint municipal aggregation program designed blah blah blah blah and then it says valley green energy was developed by city of northampton towns of amherst and tell them the communities does it make sense to say operating under an mou there i mean it just sort of with amherst the lead community i think it's from my perspective it makes sense to say who's the contact person you know who is leading this um just for an understanding perspective from whether it's from the dpu or the our community residents um and i don't know if that makes sense but it it sort of seems like okay we're um you know the fact of the matter is amherst is the point person or point community i should say and so it seems like that's a piece of information that people might want to know so i'm not trying to you know be the dead horse here but maybe it makes sense just to put something in that first paragraph then as opposed to calling it out as a separate section that's certainly from my perspective which however you either we can make that we could certainly make that work if whatever you guys want i i my question is why you know less is more let's let's go it's less i mean what's the downside if we don't have it in there does it just become a flag that we get questioned on or well don't we have to submit the mou anyway that seems like something we wouldn't just part of the initial filing it's possible the department of public utilities will ask for it we don't know but it's not part of the required filing that's why they do require you kind of describe how it works in the body of the document which is why i put in that text about the lead community but they don't initially require the mou but they may well ask for could we just include the mou just so they don't have to ask for it you know i mean then we already have it you know and then and then they know because the the point people are the consultants not any of the communities so we'll we'll find a place in the filing for the mou so that's in there so they'll have that from the start we'll take out that lead community paragraph that's a couple of pages in and then i guess the only thing left is should we add to the second paragraph there the the reference to the mou and the lead community as caroline had suggested or would you prefer that we not do that i'm sorry can you repeat that again sure so i i think the guidance i'm getting just to summarize is delete the paragraph about the lead community which appears currently in the draft on pages three to four delete that add the mou to the filing so the dpu filing is a many hundreds of pages along with many exhibits we'll find a place in there to include the mou so they dpu has that from the start and i think the only open question here in my mind is caroline had suggested in the document on in the second paragraph adding a reference to the mou there so that that second paragraph would refer to the mou and amherst does lead community and we can either do that or not as you prefer i don't know if it matters to you stephanie or tom it's it's not really a big deal i mean if we if the mou is in there then they can see how this thing is functioning you know i mean the language here also says currently the town of amherst which implies that it doesn't mean it's the the lead going forward so i wonder why this is that much of a red flag if it says currently doesn't mean yeah i'm i'm gonna i'm just realizing time i have a hard stop in like a minute and a half and we haven't approved the minutes yet but i think you know like we're in this as a spirit of collegiality and community and i think we can just i don't feel the need to you know to do to change to make these kind of changes um we're keeping the paragraph keeping keeping the paragraph as a lead community in that's what you're saying yeah yeah i think the word currently for me changes how i'm reading that and i don't think it's a problem right i mean caro unless you're like i want to take this over like i'm happy that stephanie is uh i was thinking more that you were going to take it over but that's okay yeah no i and no i have no problem with it i don't have a problem with the paragraph i was just trying to see if you know right there so let's just leave it in and move to the minute so um i just want to you know to be respectful you know adelle i want to make sure again for me the word currently changes things are you okay with that i mean if we know that when we become a jpe we're going to take this all out anyway i would prefer at least adding under the mo you um to that sentence thank you okay so maybe we just add so paul add under the mo you yes okay all right great um we only have a minute um for the minutes and um is there anything else on the cca before we move on to the minutes for anybody okay and are you good okay i'm going to assume she's good all right um paul and marlina you certainly don't need to stay for the um for the review of the minutes and um i will say i think we're going to schedule another follow-up meeting at the end of this one i think um paul had said that there may be a few communities that might be interested in sort of joining on early as we start this process and i think we need to have a conversation about that um separately because i don't think that's going to be a quick conversation and i think um paul if you think it'll be helpful you to join us in that conversation um that might be helpful at least for part of our meeting or or just to sort of introduce the communities and why you think that might be a good fit for us at this point um and this information only came to me like a few days ago so i wasn't holding back i'm just i want i thought we'd have more time during this meeting to talk about it but we'll schedule another meeting that sounds great i'd be happy to participate in it and i think you know these things just come up so i think these these might fall off right right away anyway just on their own so it was just a preliminary indication but be a good thing to talk about at your convenience so we know how to deal with others as they come along okay great i would also like to add to that agenda for that in particular meeting uh discussion of bills in the current in the legislature that pertain to municipal aggregation so that we can get paul's impression of those sure okay i mean those two topics could take a chunk of time anyway so all right great then will um paul we'll let you know um i'll i'll check in with you about potential dates that work for you as well and we'll come up with an uh a proposed time at the end of this meeting excellent so so marlaine if you and paul want to jump off you can because minutes are you know you don't need to suffer through that thank you so much great appreciate your time thanks everyone take care thank you okay and um minutes real quick um they were in the packet does any and they had actually been sent by darcy a while ago do uh carolin or tom want to make a motion my second okay voice vote carolin tom also yes and i'm a yes so sorry thank you everyone no worries tom will um are are you going to be away for a while i just want to make sure i can still check in but um it's it's really whether i'm in an airport or on an airplane or in a meeting that's the only thing that keeps me away okay i will um i'll send you know we'll talk about dates in a minute and then we'll send them to you and see what might work thank you all right thank you so much tom so long all right so um follow-up meeting to discuss the items that were listed i'm just going to pull up my calendar here i think you know for me sooner would be better than later um the week of the 17th is just not going to be good for me at all so i could either meet next week if we did next friday the 14th at nine would that work for folks i could do that works for me as well who knows might be heavily drugged after my surgery days before but yeah sorry about that andra um okay well let's um and darcy what about you yeah i can make it then all right let's tentatively say uh april 14th at nine we'll see if tom is available and paul is available and i will send out an invitation to everybody and it'll just be primarily those two agenda items i think it's just the the discussion about adding people on at the beginning um or you know um waiting or then and then also about the bills the legislative bills yeah and we had talked also of stefanie about the possibility of having a brief presentation from local energy advocates just to share the types of things that we've been doing um one of our most recent of which was a vote to and this was before we decided not to immediately go forward with the jpe to we voted to fund um stipends for community advisors so um we now have to figure out what to do about that um but we have a bunch of other programs too that we want to tell people about okay sure um do we want to i so i can only do an hour long meeting that morning because i have the solar bylaw working group next friday so could we put it on the like following meeting yeah and maybe we even have a meeting just about local energy advocates you know we devote an hour to you all talking about what you do we don't have that one okay all right well all right well let's um i'm just worried about i don't want to short shift it either though so um i'd rather put this off on like the following meeting agenda if that's okay or do you definitely yeah we i didn't mean the next meeting okay so so there's still a quorum here um i gather from what you said that the question about adding sooner than later another community is not purely hypothetical well no it is still kind of a hypothetical because like paul just said they're considering i he gave us the name of two communities that might potentially be interested i don't want to say them now just because i think they're just thinking about it so i don't want to announce it now i'll let him do that um and they had conversations with him so um they are interested in becoming an aggregation but they sound to me like they're in very early stages and i mean i don't want to have the big conversation now my concern is that we're at a point where our three communities have been working together for a while and i'm concerned a little bit personally about adding some other communities into the mix at the outset um because i feel like there'd be a lot of catching up to do and i at this point don't think we want to slow ourselves down in any way and i don't also know how you know i i think folks have some pretty strong feelings about the things we want to do with this to get it started so again you know adding other communities in the mix might sort of change some of that conversation a bit at this stage so anyway we can have this conversation later but that was my initial feeling about it when he threw them out there so there's a couple but again i think they're just considering i don't they've approached him so i don't think they're i don't know how far along they are in the process okay so okay anything else we're a little bit over time um what were the two things for the next meeting Stephanie they are the um the um potential for um adding new communities to the inter municipal cca starting out so out of the gate like adding them now while we're moving our application forward or um waiting so a conversation around that and then also the current bills that are in the legislature that are relevant to cca and paul gromer will be joining us for that meeting okay okay all right so next meeting oh uh we have no public comment so we have no one in the public so um next meeting tentatively right now april 14th friday at nine a.m. Stephanie all right thank you all thanks have a nice weekend