 Okay, we are recording. All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the September 14th Amherst Cultural Council meeting. I'm going to go ahead and read the required script from the Attorney General's office. Regarding virtual meetings, which we do when we meet virtually pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 21. This meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so on zoom. This link was posted publicly. No in person attendance of members of the public are permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means in the event that we're unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship. We have a lot of request efforts. We, and we always post our meeting recordings on the town YouTube channel and so that's something that's been useful to me too by the way is to be able to go back and look at previous meetings as well. So then we have to do just a little audio check and make sure everybody has audio so if I just sort of call your name and you can say here or gotcha or something like that. So we can check the AV and Eleanor, do you mind starting here. Julian. I'm here. Thanks. Toby here. Cody. Here. And I see Rachel is coming in right now. Can you hear us Rachel. I can hear you. I'm here. Hello everyone. Wonderful. Okay, so yeah, so I guess we're at a quorum. And there are a number of, you know, sort of action items that we that we do have. You know, there are some simple things that we can do fairly efficiently, especially with a smaller quorum. So like, we have several months worth of minutes that we need to approve and, you know, that's, I think that's an important thing for us, especially as we get into our the minutes of our meetings become more and more important to applicants. So we want to make sure that those are up to date and fresh and what happens is, you know, we'll have a meeting tonight. Somebody will need to take minutes. And then Julian and I will send them out to the group before the next meeting for you to review in advance and then we just vote on them. Once the once the group actually approves the minutes that's when they get posted to the website just so everybody has a chance to sort of, you know, come to a consensus on that. I'm going to go ahead and suggest that we could take a motion to approve all three sets of minutes as opposed to one by one. You know, if anybody has read them over and wants to discuss or has questions, that's, that's wonderful too. That's fine. I'll second that. Okay. Well, I wasn't actually making the motion but I definitely implied the motion. So I will go ahead and own it and Okay. And then we'll do a quick roll call vote and just get folks to approve on that. Eleanor. Yes. Toby. Yes. Cody. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Would you like me to take notes today? That would be awesome if you don't mind. It'd be really wonderful. Sure. I mean, you all, you and Julian are running the meeting and, you know, so I might go off camera because sometimes I can actually concentrate better. I found that out the other day. Okay. Yeah. Also, I, that was the first item then it was the approval of the minutes, right? Yep. And if you look at one of the other ones, you'll see the, and this is important because we're going to talk about the secretary position in a moment. So if anybody's, you know, kind of thinking about it. I think the main elements that we always make sure we have our like time date and then attendees, you know, who, who from the council was in the meeting. And then just, you know, I think Jenny Lind was a long-term, long-time member of the council and she took really, really detailed minutes. I confess, like if I, if I do it, I tend to be more of just sort of forward the action items and try to give a little bit of color commentary. So it's definitely, I mean, it's a really important job. But I think, you know, you can do it in your own way. I would add that you peruse the minutes, especially as Jenny took them and others before her, you know, her model would have been to make sure all the topics are there but nothing approaching us a transcript of everything that said and we do have the meetings recorded for that purpose, but mostly just to kind of track what are the topics, what was voted on and things like that. Well, presumably the agenda would become part of the minutes and just so you all know my, my note taking style is to only record decisions and next steps, not the process. So that's how I take notes. But like you said, it's already recorded so we need to check anything, but you and Matt can go over this first. Truly Rachel if I'm ever taking minutes I just I literally just use the agenda, and I type into it, you know and I rename it rename it something else than I type into it so and it's pretty simple. But of course you would need it in word form so you know whoever is the secretary that's, that is a good thing to just think about is getting that in advance the agenda and work form in advance. So, let's see. That was wonderful thank you Toby this is your first ACC meeting as a voting member welcome. Thank you. I guess you know we have a, actually we have three, three, three new members here on the screen although Cody and Eleanor were here last time but Toby do you mind just sort of introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about who you are and your interest in the council. My name is Toby Barnes and my wife and I moved here, probably 14 years ago. At the time before we were married I was a artist living in New York or working artists in New York, and I continue to still make art. In fact, I think I make more art in Massachusetts or in Amherst than I ever did in the city. And then of course I have my two kids, Syrian Bodie. And yeah, I guess that's about it. I'm probably forgetting something but if I asked what, what drew you to the cultural council like you know where the interest came just we're always curious. Um, I guess I kept on meeting people and talking to people about they always understood that I was from another part of the art world. And if I had known anything about what was going on in town and to other practicing artists and it just seemed like there was a separation between the two so you know, and I've been kind of going on this whole thing where I was, I'm doing everything that I never, that's not an instinct for me to do. And so to get involved or to the see other art worlds. I think is a new thing that I'm trying out. It's like, you know, even if you ever applied for a cultural council grant out of a curiosity. I think I have. I think I have. Maybe two or three years ago. Okay, the reason I ask is last time Cody mentioned that, you know, he was on an application last year and you'll definitely find, you know, from, from year to year, various members are involved with various applications and, you know, we have a very simple and kind of common sense recusal process so like, I just, I mean, for me, I'm excited to have, you know, you here as a working artist for sure. And it adds a lot to our discussion and, and don't want don't want that to discourage you from, you know, applying for the grants and we have a way of, you know, putting that in a box and putting it to the side so that you know you're not in anybody compromised so welcome. Thank you. Okay, so I guess, you know, I think we should probably, you know, hold off the officer election until the end for maximum participation. I'm wondering if we want to move over to the. The amendment request from Davis, I'm kind of going a little bit out of order on the schedule just, just thinking of it. Seems like the public session debris is probably. Yeah, yeah, do you want to speak about that. Sure, I just hosted my session Monday night. I'll admit that I watched Matt's in advance and tried to cover all the topics he covers so that we could have a consistent message. But much like you did, you know, we met with the folks that were there. I have a list some people came in came out I'd have to go back to the recording to kind of see who was who was there. I think it was at most four or five people at any, any given time and we did have some questions. But nothing out of the ordinary, you know, folks wanting to confirm how early, you know, they could have had events in 2022 and apply for those I guess the the toughest one was was the point about an institution can only apply once and there was an Amherst high teacher who, you know, was finding that a little bit of a burden, you know, to have to get with everyone else on faculty and coordinate, you know, all of their grants together. But, you know, it was pretty pretty standard bear but it was, you know, a pretty decent turnout I guess so. And nice involvement with people. That's awesome. Yeah, I didn't have any turnout or I think I had one person but I was not sure if it was a bot, you know, kind of thing so I actually use it. I use as a chance to go quickly through and for, you know, for our new folks this, I think I mentioned it somewhere in an email maybe you know we're required like per the per the MCC guidelines were required to do like one public information set of course all of our meetings are public but one session that's really focused on just disseminating information to folks who you know who want to learn more about the grant process. I won't lie I did I think it did mine on like the day after the grants opened because I had my, we had a we had a due date, we have a new baby and I wanted to try to get in ahead of that if I could and that worked out actually. And so, I went pretty quickly just thinking that if I made a 30 minute recording, you know, and folks could watch it later and Angela was pretty funny she was like you have you've got 80 you're up to 80 views and I was like, Wow, you know, I was like 88 I looked at it right before we came in here so you know, really, really kicking on all cylinders here. You did a great job with it it's really strange when it's not it's not a call like this and we didn't invite all of you to it because we can't have a quorum. So, we have to be careful about that but you're just talking to a screen and their names on the screen. It's that Matt was much more natural with it. I found it a little awkward. It's funny could I. I don't know I don't want one thing that I would say oh Rachel go ahead please. Sorry, I won't put this in the notes but congratulations I had no idea about your baby. And then the question I have is, because I want to ask. Well, I remember because Julian just raised it is that so with the teachers at the high school for example so if they're putting in an application. It's fine as so long as their institution is based in embers like the people filing the application don't have to be embers residents is that because I wasn't it wasn't that it's if you read in the guidelines it will say specifically that, you know, one thing is that the individual who is, you know, the grant applicant, it always has to come down to one person. And, and each year, any particular individual can only apply for one grant where they are the main recipient. You know if if we had it. Let's take the teacher who's at embers time, you know, if she's also an artist who wants to apply for for an art exhibit that she's doing with her own personal artwork that's not related to the school then she can't be the one person on the embers high grant application. Not that part I was just curious whether the person filing the application needs to be an embers resident as well as the organization being in embers. Okay, no this would be more like, you know if there was a science program and a theater program and a music program all coming from the high school. And, and also, you know, basically sponsored by the high school, then that has to all be put together for, you know, a grant cycle for the high school. I did say that, you know, if it's outside of school and it's, and it's a club and like the students who applied for the grant. I always say it wrong PVPA that that there are ways additional ways to do this outside of the organization if it's applicable to the particular group. So, and when these things come come in, you know, one I certainly encourage people to reach out to us if they had any questions like this. And when we've had duplicate things come in we try to work it out but unfortunately once that grant window closes it usually means that people have to do one, one or the other make a decision if they've made the mistake of being on to in a way that's not supported or permitted. Right so just in terms of communications because obviously each of us will be, you know, promoting the grants to various people or organizations that we know so. And questions like that that we can just answer we can answer but like, would you and Matt want to be answering all the questions like just direct them all to you or like, that's what I mean by communications is that because the things that are in the guidelines already we can help to clarify right as as council member. The big thing is we don't want miss communication so definitely don't answer answer something if you know there's there's uncertainty but we have nine council members and and we're, you know, we all serve together. So, for myself I don't I don't feel the need to, you know, lock down and control all the communication. But it is important to say it correctly and I was a little flustered on the call because I know that they can apply for grants as early as July one of this last year but I couldn't find it written anywhere on the call and I'm terrible at remembering numbers so. Matt tell me now if I messed that one up you know. Well, that's kind of a funky thing and I. It doesn't happen much. The answer is it's it's a little bit. It's kind of counterintuitive I guess is the word I use, but I just want to speak to just to everybody. The written materials that are out there from the like on the town Amherst cultural council site, and then that links over to the state mass cultural council site which we have our own, you know page landing page there. And then all that directs to the local council guidelines document. Like that's where all the answers are. And I encourage folks if you get a question or if you're just curious like that's the place to sort of, you know, just take some time and read through that material and then, you know, ultimately I do think that a lot of the stuff winds up being very nuanced or procedural and in those cases yeah I mean reach out to one of us and we can certainly talk about it, but but I think you know, I agree with Julianne you know folks are folks are certainly empowered to speak about our program I mean that's the that's really the hold the to hold just a bit. But the thing that you're asking about is funky now because we're in this direct grant model where we give the cash, as soon as we have it. But with that July 1. So, so we're in September of 22 right now. Somebody could in in our current application window. If they did something as far back as July 1 of this year, they could ask us for money for that project like a project they've already completed or I've already started. I wouldn't go any further back than that. So it's, it's like the application wasn't open but but you know the project was eligible going back. Yes. Yeah, we did get into quite a quite a bit with that and I appreciated in in your session that I watched that, you know you brought up that we expected the funds and they didn't come in until May, and that while we again would expect the funds to be available in March you know if, if, if that's going to be a deal breaker for your particular event, then you might not want to have an event until after the middle of 2023 to be sure that you have the funds in hand and that certainly if someone's applying for an event that's already happened, you know they're no, they're no guarantees you know we, we don't know you can apply it doesn't hurt to ask but, you know they wouldn't get the money until everybody else you know in this this new direct granting which is generally pretty good, but you know it was, it was interesting because it's so much better than what we had before but then there were, there were some folks on the call that were like really we'd have to wait and it's like you know it's not on trees or it's in thin air, you know, it's got to come from somewhere. Yeah, and, and that is I mean for the new folks that the timeline stuff. You know we do this does become a very timely you know like it's a creative and pretty laid back enterprise in general but the timeline does kind of. It really matters because we, you know we have our deadlines with the state and then that in turn gives us the funds or not. The first deadline was September 1 to open the grant application which we which we met thanks to truly one of the most efficient public meetings I've ever been a part of a week ago that was that was amazing that we did we pulled that off. So we that was September 1 obviously October 17 when the grants close that's a that's a deadline on the grant on the applicants, and then we'll have a January deadline for submitting our decisions to the state, and then you know we meet that deadline. And then they don't really have a deadline per se, you know, then, then it's a waiting game for us, the town, the funds will will be dispersed directly to the town office like the town clerk's office. I mean, I'm sorry the town accountant's office and that's like a, you know, we were told it was going to be a, you know, four to six week process I wound up being closer to three months this this current year. I mean, the lesson learned I mean I think, as, as Julian saying like we've been as we've as we've been speaking with like applicants and prospective applicants this year we've been really cautioning them like hey, you know, we'll turn this or like and the town is amazing when they turn it around within a couple days they really got the checks out the door so quickly. But we just caution folks, exactly as you said you know if you're if you're literally counting on this cash on hand to do your project. And you may want to push it into the mid middle of the year beyond I think is, is that being said, you know the state definitely aims to do better than whatever it was, you know they do aim to be like within the February, you know, February, March, instead of like, March, April. Yeah, MCC had a bunch of new processes last year one of them, the online application portal was had an overhaul. There was there was some turnover as far as you know who we were working with mid year, and it may be even above above that I mean I yeah because I'm what in September I met with the guy who had moved up from Maryland to to put it up part of the MCC or the entire thing so there was just a lot of turnover and new processes in a good way, but you know, you got to get the kinks out of it. Well yeah that said I was just going to add yeah I agree Julian is that I think, even in the short time I've been serving on the Council is it feels like things have really improved and been structured a lot better and easier for us to understand from our, you know and to operate from this historical and I was just going to add that with the direct grant model and the timelines that we're talking about, because we're communicating that to all the applicants well in advance so hopefully that helps people both to, you know, schedule their own events or just, you know to manage expectations I think a lot better. So, so the, sorry, what is the January deadline for submitting the decisions, I just want to have that for the minutes. Sure, sure, it's that's on us, January 17. Okay, that's on us to give MCC are our decisions based on the grants. So exactly three months from October 17 January 17. Okay. Okay, thank you. So, I guess before we go I mean I think we should try to get a couple of these pieces of business that are sort of, you know, pretty straightforward done if we can but before we do I mean do any of our new folks. Like, you know there's no there's no question that's too basic or it really is worth just chatting through things if there's something on your mind that you really want to like know. You know now's a good time to ask it because we're kind of just sort of talking about the process a little bit. I do have a question. I know I can't participate with or does not apply because probably we will again. But can I say well it costs this much to get this or is that and no because I see how much it goes into it. But I don't want to step over that. Yeah, I appreciate that question and I mean I guess the only thing I would say, you know, Cody is that you. There's no real line in helping them write the grant. You know that's what we're a public, we're a public, you know body and so everything that we do and say is in public that's why we had to go through the open meeting law training so so none of us have any secret information. So, you know, you can be useful to your, you know, to your, your, your, you know, your partners in the in the writing process of the grant, especially in terms of budgeting things out and all that. Because you know that's that's not a, that's not a, that's not an advantage that, you know, there's no special advantage there because anybody that information is free to anybody. It's on the flip side, when it comes to the deliberations. And you know, really the concern is that, you know, like, if you yourself are getting paid, like that's, you know, that's the bottom line sort of ethical concern you know we if Toby was going to do an actual piece and he was going to pay himself for that work. He could do that in an application, but he couldn't also contribute to that decision. And so, you know, it's, it's happened several times last year where, you know, literally somebody who, in one case we had a member who was just a very close friend of a grantee and she was like look, you know, I just, I'm biased because I love my friend and you know and so she recused herself and I think it's, it's at that time, it's a very straightforward thing where, you know, you just might turn off your video and your audio and just watch the deliberation like a member of the public. And, and you know you'll still be a part of larger discussions where that grant amount is a big piece of the puzzle of all the grant amounts. That's okay but you know the, the main goal here is that, you know, if you have a vested interest in your project, you know you shouldn't be also making the decision about whether that project gets funded or not. And, and, you know, I think when you when you see how it kind of plays out. It's a pretty organic process and, you know, we're always like, we're always just checking each other and, you know, we're happy to talk to you in advance if you're if you're concerned about something. But the easiest thing I think is that when your particular project comes up you just turn off the video turn off your, you know, your microphone and, and just watch like a member of the public and then you just pop right back in and that's usually pretty smooth. Sure. Robert we jumped around a little bit we just wanted to see if we talked about the public info sessions and now we just want to see if Toby or Cody or Eleanor had any, you know, just kind of broader process questions or, or anything really. Like, I had, I just had a curiosity. I know we, you kind of mentioned you like oh some cultural councils are more like event based than others. If that makes sense like they, you know, focus on more of that aspect. And I was just wondering if that's something that we try to do, or if we talk about that or all over just if that plays a role in stuff here. Yeah. Well, and I'll defer this to Julian in a second because she's actually been a little bit more involved in that end but I actually think that our October meeting. Before we start doing deliberations I really think we should talk, we should give it some time to talk about if, if we want to do a local council activity and what we want to do, because we do have a we can actually use. We wouldn't usually use this much but we could use up to 20% of our funds on an event or a local activity. So I think, you know, especially with with the number of new members we have and stuff like, I think, let's let's definitely maybe plan to talk about that at that October meeting in depth because really, you know it's it is sort of at the. We have the discretion of the members, you know, if it's like Julian has been really passionate about the petacucha project which is a really cool international thing has taken the lead on that and, and I think so so if it's it's organic but it really does, it's just starts with you or starts with us, you know. Yeah, I would add that that's one of the reasons I joined the cultural council is I really wanted to see more engagement and more community opportunities for people who are creative to to gather and to share ideas and and we're all teed up with a slate of artists for this petacucha night which I can send everyone a link for it and what it is but it's basically these fast presentations you show 20 images and less than seven minutes and you talk about your work. And I participated one in another place where I lived, and then we were, we had one scheduled for I think it was March 12 2020. And yeah, and at that point, you know, the universities said okay, we're right around then it was either right before after they said we're sending all the students home. It was like yeah it was like that day, and we, we literally called it off, like the day before all of the artists had all of their presentations ready so you know there's there's a desire to do this, but you know, while that while the pandemic has changed we're not out of it so that that's really been something that has has changed the work we do, dramatically. But yeah, I agree we should talk about in October and see where we are and maybe it is time that we could pick that or something else back up and support the community and in an engaging way. That'd be great. I'm glad you asked. That sounds great thank you for talking about that I would be really excited to talk more about that and just about ways that, you know, same as you're saying you can get community engagement around art. Absolutely. Great. Julia with the patch to cut out. It's really in person right. You know, there are groups that that went online with it. But at the time when when we considered it. One we didn't have a following. So we would have had to have built a following for an online event and to we had so many grantees moving online that we didn't want to necessarily compete with it. And, you know, we just have put it on hold. I feel strongly about it as an in person event to really benefit people so maybe it could have gone virtual but I, I guess I wasn't particularly excited about it as as just an additional virtual event with a bunch of virtual events. Yeah, no, I understand. And the reason I'm asking is that this is now like two years later, more than two and a half years later. So, assuming we do one in person. Is this something I mean we don't need to talk about it now but I was just curious whether we would still try to reengage all the original artists or are you open to revisiting or the participants. We actually tried to do a reboot to to action to that would have been scheduled for about this time last year. And we did go back to the original artist and some of them were able to come back and some of the others weren't. You know it's, it's certainly a very appropriate gesture. You know, since, since they did the work to put presentations together to contact them. My experience would be that if we did some of them would participate some of them wouldn't so it would. And many of the folks that were going to participate on the second attempt said that's great but I'm going to do a whole new thing. So it's even worse they've actually done their two different presentations in some cases that have not made it because of this crazy thing. So, good question. Thank you. I want to pause and say welcome to Leah as well. Great to see you can hear us. Sorry, my work ran super late I teach dance and it just gets hectic and all the parents and students are just like having questions afterwards on like the first week so it ran way later than I thought it would. But no, are you at that forum. Yeah, so we've had five, because we're all voting members so we've had five so we've been in good shape and we did approve our minutes. There's a couple there's one other fairly quick I think action item and then two things that probably will take some some discussion so if it's okay with others I think I'll move us I'd like to move us over to the Davis baits grant request extension request. And then for the new folks just so you know, the past couple of years, we spent an inordinate amount of time approving requests for people to reschedule their activities their events and stuff, mostly due to pandemic related stuff. And interestingly, in this coming cycle will be able to just approve extension requests. Just with two members of the Council doesn't even have to be chairs or whatever just say that. That's what that section was I wasn't quite sure. Yeah, so, so I think that's something that the MCC recognized how much of a burden of time. It also you know it's kind of rough on a grantee. If they want to reschedule they've got a good idea, and the Council isn't going to meet for another month or two they don't want to meet on their hands or, or, you know, plan something that might not get approved so I'm grateful for the to the state for making that decision and that being said, I can. I will cautiously hope that this is our last extension request that we have to have a you know roll call vote to approve. But in short, you know, Davis struggled to get uptake on his on his project. As it was originally conceived, working with the town's leisure leisure services. And you know he reached out. There's a he and I have an email chain that goes back years at this like multiple years at this point and and it's been, you know, good faith efforts on his part to make it happen. And so, you know, he reached out and he said, look, I'm kind of at the end of my rope like, can I just cut bait and, you know, I said well, I think the council would approve an amendment request if you wanted to try a different venue at a different time, you know, would likely approve a request. And so he turned around in like 24 hours and got letter of support from, I believe it's the senior center. Yeah, senior center. Yeah. So as I gather he's a he's been a multiple, you know, multiple awardee of ours and certainly has been a good faith actor for us so, you know, happy to open for discussion or just to take a motion if nobody has any concerns. I don't know if I'm a second or a first motion to gay to approve his request. He's been, he's really worked on this he's been really working in good faith and keeps trying. I'll second it I could I have to second I just put in a lot of time with this gentleman. So I'll take a second. And then I'll just do the Hollywood Squares game here. Leah. I approve. Eleanor. I approve. Cody. Toby. You have any light either. I approve. Rachel. Yes. And Julian. Yes. We are unanimous he will be thrilled and I really hope that it just it happens this time. But this one to bed. So, and one thing I will share with folks, you know, is, is if you've been poking around them as the MCC website, you will see that, you know, the state appropriation has come to us. I actually didn't compare it to previous years. It's, I think it's 53,000 something. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that's the appropriation that we know we have. So that number will go up slightly based on how much money we're rolling over from previous years and stuff. Significantly, actually. Yeah, I think, I think so too. So. Holly and I work on it. What we'll do at the beginning of our granting process is we'll, you know, we, we as accounts that we'll have an actual amount that, you know, that comes out of the town's bank account and Robin will sort of help us make that happen. So we'll have an actual amount. And then, because it's really important that we have a bottom line amount so that we can deliberate and, you know, allocate the funds, according to that. So things like this where we can get Davis committed and moving forward. You know, now we can hopefully assume that we won't have to re repurpose his funds. So that's, you know, it always feels better to spend the money now on the project that's come forward than as opposed to, you know, rolling it into a future year or, or years. I actually think that we should, we should try to do the officers next unless, unless anybody objects just I think I know Chrissy's trying to make it but she's running a little late and it's 20 till seven already. The only other kind of voting item that we have is the Amherst media piece, which and that that that does require some discussion but I think the officer thing we need to get to kind of get that vote done. So, yeah, I kind of kind of open it up for discussion and comment, I guess. Do you and Julian nominate yourselves or you want. Do they just reelect or. Yeah, I mean, I will just say that you know, I felt a little, you know, it's like, we're not trying to steamroll this process or anything by any means and if somebody else really feels like they have the energy and go get you to step up and do this thing like, you know, I think that we'd welcome that. We'd welcome that discussion. I will say that, you know, it's, it's pretty unconventional for like the co chair model, you know, talking to folks in the town and other boards. And you know we've had, we've had some bumps with it early, but I really think, you know, at this point we're in a pretty, I won't speak for you Julian but you know at this point I think we're in a pretty good place in terms of having complimentary skills so that we can sort of, you know, help the council move forward and you know, so I would be happy to, you know, put myself forward as a or take a nominee maybe it's more appropriate to have a nomination I don't know but but I personally would be happy to continue to do it. I thought, yeah, you seem like you know what you do. So I would definitely not thank you. Thank you. Julian what do you think. I agree with Matt you know as far as the co chair model you know we had a lot of changes with the direct granting last year and, and again we have a lot of new members and, and yet I think it, we, well we've had some bumps that we are making it work and I think one important thing for everyone just know is, I think Robin can maybe speak to this better. We have in general, you know, perhaps more money than surrounding towns that were able to to award. And, and with that, we have more applicants and more questions and, you know, the only reason that I'm co chair is that Matt, you know, I guess there was there was a nomination and Matt reached out and asked if I would co chair, and having been through this. As amazing as Matt is, you know, I know for myself, there's no way that I could, I could share on my own. It's it's it would just be too much time. And Matt, Matt does more of the work than I do all I'll be honest. But, you know, I think, Matt, there's there's some value and having some support and not having to go at all, you know, on your own and, you know, if you if you look to Gigi who was chair before and she and Jenny I think work together similarly now Gigi was, you know, retired but putting a book out you know, the schedule was more flexible. You know, I think it would be hard to have a full time job and take on chairing all by oneself. And, and I really appreciate you know the group effort and I've appreciated working with with with Robin, and I've appreciated how, you know, everyone pitches in Rachel has pitched and provided additional support with different kinds of documents and tracking that we're doing so I certainly would be happy to continue. And, you know, it's, it's, it's a pretty big effort. And, and I'm happy to continue taking care of this but as Matt said, if anyone feels strongly that they'd like to step forward. Yeah, you know, it's it's not that I have to do this and I would, I would be happy, you know to support someone else in this role. If somebody felt like this was their time, but it's wonderful to work with you all however we do so. So I have to confess to being the person who nominated you as co chair Julian, because you weren't. That was one of the. Um, but I think sorry I'm just going to kind of provide my two cents is that I think you to have complimentary strengths, and I think it is a lot of work for somebody who for anyone you know whether or not you have another job and a wife outside of this and I this is for the group to kind of I think the key is that if we go ahead with voting the two of you in as coach hairs, I personally would like to see you take turns running meetings and, you know, so we get kind of have a different exposure to two different styles of leadership and I don't know if you all are doing it you would matter doing this this way because you've already decided this is how you want to manage the situation so I'm just kind of raising that as an idea whether you know, you would consider that so like take turns running the meetings and, and I don't know in communications with especially applicants I imagine you get a lot of those and my, I was going to ask if it would make sense for example if I'm talking to somebody who's interested in applying and have would have specific questions that the chair or treasure would be in a position to respond to I would just say email these people in a group email and they can decide who's going to respond who's going to follow up, and then it's not like, you know, you have to go tell Matt or Matt has to tell you would tell Robin whatever. That was just good that that's just that that's kind of a detail, but I mean it's it's also like in terms of management is you know is that something you think would be effective so I am just stating my support for Julian and Matt to continue co chairing and, you know, maybe look at how the meetings can run in the future and, and just along those no I'm not going to, I'm not going to be the secretary but I will happily take notes in turn, if people are, you know, open to that. I would like to respond thank you, and all points noted, the email correspondence that that is exactly how we're doing it. If an email comes into one of us individually we would we would add the other on on copy. And so so we're always both in the loop. As I said, Matt, often, you know, tends to do do more than I do, as far as I don't I don't know how you do it Matt, but certainly, you know if there's an email and I've noticed that, you know, it's not responded to, which, you know, then then I'll respond to it but often Matt gets to them before they respond to me, but we're always both on on copy, and it's a lot of volume to go through so I think I think that's working Matt and I have have discussed, you know, trading off running meetings, and, you know, we can, we can certainly do that on the other And Matt is so damn organized. I'm more creative and a little bit of a free spirit and I wing things so we might go off track a little more. And, you know, the, the other limitation I have is that the later the meetings get in the longer they run, because I have narcolepsy, they're sometimes when, you know, in these evening meetings, I am not at my absolute best. So, one of the factors I've looked at for running a meeting is, you know, the earlier they would be the, the better I could guarantee that I would be in a good shape to participate so. But, you know, it's something that that we certainly can can try. And, and, you know, I appreciate all that you've done Matt. And really just, I can't hold a candle to your level of order and organization. Well, thank you. It's funny because I never really thought of myself as that kind of person but just have as organized. Oh my God. Yeah, I, I'm organized, but you're organized. I take that as a compliment. Well, we'll see what happens two months from now when you haven't slept. Well, yeah, that's that is something that I just I want to say that, you know, I've, like I said, I do think that Julian and I have good complimentary traits and that helps, you know, that benefits the council and that's really the whole point. But I also, yeah, you know, having a young, young, another young child now under the age of zero basically. And then also, you know, I have a lot of other commitments as well, like between work and the town finance and things like that. So, Julian and I have already talked about this this coming year, you know, particularly in the deliberation meetings. It may be that I have to miss some of them just based on other commitments and that really makes me feel more comfortable knowing that she's, you know, she's there and vice versa I assume so that we can, you know, like the whole thing doesn't hinge on us sitting at our desk at 6pm, you know, on a, on a given Thursday night so yeah. I would say there are LCC's who do use co models and there are also ones who like rotate secretarial duties. And I think some other things it's not unheard of because we do have, and we have one of the higher intensity workloads of the LCC's overall and then of the ones that are all volunteer were probably up there, which I had not realized until direct and also, I'd only done it one year, which is, this is a lot of work for for volunteers and volunteers are quite counted on to reduce costs of organizations and governments and it's a whole other thing but really shouldn't the intensity of the load should not be on volunteers. We can do anything about it right now but it's, it's saying that I would not mind someone coming in either helping assisting co and being trained or not at certain points of it so I'm not quite sure how to. I'd have to figure out how to do that. And I'm in theory only on for another year. I'd like to pick up here, Robin and say that, as a matter of fact, we're looking to all of you to be officers, you know, in some fashion, as far as, you know, people rotate off the council. There is an opportunity for everyone at some point, you know, it'd be very difficult, you know, to come in your first year, you know, and, and, and chair, because there is a lot to know and we learn from the best, you know, Gigi and Jenny, you know, we're really fortunate to have had the time that we had with them and we hope that we'll we will benefit you as well. So we are very much in need of someone to, to start to learn the ropes as treasurer, because we, we do lose Robin and in a year, and it is going to take, you know, pretty much an entire grant cycle. Yeah, to kind of learn how this is done. And it's getting streamlined with the direct granting. So, but this is an area where someone who is new can be very effective. And yet at the same time, you wouldn't be accountable, you know, for every last detail. I tend to work pretty closely with Robin on signing off on all the forms and everything because it's just been easier for us to coordinate our schedules, because I'm an Amherst and you are in Mets. Yeah, so I, you know, I have a pretty decent understanding of it, but certainly not Robin's understanding. So this, this is something that we would very much like someone to step forward and assist with. And, and with the intent to, you know, if everything comes together next year own this going forward. You look over and help me like you're not busy enough, Cody. Well, I'm going to touch on that. I didn't say to myself what is, but an early space to my own obligations was coming of very soon. Just down the hill a little. I mean, is that the shape of your hockey season. Yeah. Yeah. I don't mind I'd like to just kind of bring us back to we want to do. Let's let's actually get an election vote on the chair vote on the treasurer. We can talk about it, you know, if anybody's willing to kind of serve as a co-treasurer apprentice the secretary personally I do like to have a secretary because I find that if the more I do the notes that the easier and faster it comes but as Rachel and Robin both said it's frequently that it becomes a rotating thing and if we have to rotate it that's okay I would just try to get a schedule done in advance so that we're not trying to figure that out before each meeting that's that could be quite time consuming. I would say with with with the secretary. I would prefer that's that we elect one person, but with the understanding that it is flexible, and if they cannot attend someone else, obviously, we'll pick it up but I would like to have a dedicated officer. I think we might have to yeah that so I'm fine with with rotating as as we need, but I think it is good to set the expectation that we have one person. And yeah, I like that idea. Yeah, but is the secretary just taking meeting notes. Yeah, I, I feel like I'm able to attend a good amount of meetings, like most of them during the grant cycle so I would be willing to do that but not if someone else really wants to do that. I'll nominate Leah. Yeah, I'll second that. Yeah, I just thank you. I'll look at some notes from last year because I know they have to be specific. Thank you for for putting your hand up to do that. What I was going to also propose is, first of all, Matt and Julie, I think I think I thanked you when I was, you know, supporting your co candidacy again but if I haven't. Thank you both very much and thank you also to Robin for all that you do and part of like, I totally agree with you that the officers can and ought to be supporting different functions so I think maybe like for us co chairs is to work out specific functions where you think you can delegate out to different people. Right. We don't have to have titles per se but it's like for example we have the subcommittees right doing different tasks so that would be really helpful from management and delegation standpoint. So, I appreciate that Rachel I think that's a good, that's a good point and that that is one reason I like the subcommittees honestly is, you know I feel like, if you're not an officer sometimes they can feel like you just show up and go with the you don't go with the flow and it does give folks a chance to do things and like Eleanor is asking you about local activities that's another place where you know a member who's not an officer in a given year can can you know actually have some action steps to carry through between meetings. I actually have an idea since I'm starting to see the shape of things come out like, you know in a fairly organic fashion. You know, if, if anybody wants to potentially, you know, throw their hat in as a an apprentice treasure. And I want to say it's, you're not 100% committed to doing it next year whatsoever. You know, if nothing else, Robin, we could just use the help in terms of processing. I want to say that as treasure. I really got a much better idea of who's out there what's out there what's going on, who's doing it and a lot of people, you know, send in a note saying oh blah blah blah do you need this and I get back to them and then they send a note and we kind of know each other a little bit. People send in thank you notes I mean it's very it's very nice on that level it's just a lot of work, but we were also between both set both kinds of granting and coded and working out the kinks and not, you know, not knowing how it's going to work out so I think it would be better. But yeah, I mean if anybody wants to just assist apprentice come in to do it in the future all of that. And you would get a good idea what's going on. I think someone who especially who could help with kind of the, the online, you know, keeping, you know, an Excel doc or you know, just all of that recording for reports and stuff that would be really helpful if someone could help with that. It's, it's tough we've got a bunch of creative people and you know, I will tell any group that I'm the last person that you want, you know, as as bookkeeper. I continue to like double check it which probably but I'm not as particular as I would be because I know you're going to. I'm pretty good at double checking but you know, nowhere ever am I. It's, it's a pretty manageable process but you know it does have some some day to day involvement so somebody could apprentice that would be fantastic. I don't know. Like what my son is going to be next year so I don't think I can, but yeah no I think, I think. Yeah, yeah. Are you playing the colleges. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, you need to. Yeah, that's like the paperwork and stuff. So, you know, we know we want to have sort of officers and this is a position that it's going to be important to us, but it doesn't need to be an elected position tonight I think it's going to be a conversation that we can let unfold for a little bit longer. You know, I think the main thing we want to see is that there'd be somebody to help hit the ground running with the FY 24 grants. That are coming up. You know this next round so I think maybe this is a conversation that we just need to keep, keep having and you know as folks. I mean I, I, I appreciate, you know, Toby, Cody and Eleanor and being like, this is my first meeting second meeting I'm not, you know, like, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't come running into the treasurer type thing on my first couple of meetings but but as things go along I think you will see that, you know, the actual, the actual cash that that, you know, goes out, really does represent, you know, the essence of what we do. It's to distribute cash and so, although it is as Julian said doesn't feel like the most creative thing in the world it really is the essence of our work and it's what people come to us for honestly I mean. So it's, it is nice and I agree I find that Robin has a better sense of who did their who actually did their project when it was going to happen when it was supposed to happen than anybody because she's the one who has to look at the receipts and sort of sign off on it. And then the other piece of which I'm really interested in is like the tracking part of it allowed me this year I literally had a spreadsheet where I had the dates of everything that we funded in a column and a spreadsheet. And then I like wrote those down, and then I went to it all, like we're not all of it but I went to a lot of the stuff that we funded. And so, you know, being close to the actual to the action. Let me actually, you know, participate in more of the art. So, you know, I had a person. Yeah, looks as well. But I'd like to make a proposal that we vote on the slate, if that's okay because I think we, you know, I don't just kind of vote on the slate because I don't think we have any competing parties right now and just sort of, you know, put that out there as as with the co chairs, the secretary and Leah by the way thank you for stepping up and I just want you to know that every other secretary, if somebody's not going to be there, just put out the call and say hey can somebody else cover the cover the minutes it's really not a big deal. So, so we appreciate you doing that. I agree with Julianne it's important to have somebody named. And then and then Robin we assume you're open to another term as as treasurer. Yeah, never tell you what the tweaks are and you guys can figure out how to do that best organizationally. I was going to say, people were always Rachel say. Yeah, go ahead and finish and then I'll talk. Go ahead. Oh, I was going to say Rachel you were talking a little bit about how important the subcommittees were and I know now that I know like last year and like the year before that and the year before that Julian did so much of the work with the petra kucha and now, like, you're also a co chair that's also so much work if we wanted to create like petra kucha subcommittee and kind of divvy up some of that, like event production that's something that I take pleasure in because like, like, work on something and then get to go it's so lovely. And I wanted to be part of that that would take some load off of. That'd be wonderful. Yeah, that sounds great to have basically like project teams. Committee, I mean, maybe for me just the front term in terms of like it's just things to get more bogged down. But, but yeah so we'll give like a good name to subcommittee so that's a great idea I was just going to say that. Robin I'm cycling out I think the same time as you. Well, my first one was really short so people said we could do another one that's the work. I was going to offer. I don't want to be a treasure and training I've run businesses before but I'm happy to help you. Okay, I'm in the coming months and you know maybe in a similar way when I help kind of set up the granting scoring system, I can help maybe put some kind of you know just templates in place for whoever's going to take over his treasure after you. So, if that would be useful, Robin I can talk to you or talk to co chairs after the meeting but you know this putting my name on a slate or anything it's not just offering some support and assistance. I have a question. Does that have to happen to every meeting? And so, and you know I grew that group of sheep so that's something I can dance and do or smooth out the day in between stuff. So, that's really really to at least help and have time to think about do I want to fall or roll and change. That's that's that we really helpful Cody and I think that makes a ton of sense you know if if that's a skill of set of yours I definitely think that that would help. You know because one of the big shifts with the direct granting is how much needs to be kept straight at one time. It's not it's much less of a trickle it's more of a flood. And then there's trickles and then there's a trickle that's right but it's you know we didn't have this immediate flood that we have this this time and so yeah I mean if you're comfortable with spreadsheets and then doing that kind of thing and really I mean, in my book if I have a lot of paper and I have somebody you know, check this one off this date like that, that would be really helpful to us so I would be appreciative of that and I would also want to say Rachel thank you for you know, volunteering to help out and be a part of it too. I don't think we're looking necessarily at an official spot here for for the, you know, treasurer support so so I think we as long as we know that we have some folks who are willing to, you know, step up and help Robin through the process that's that's the most important thing. I'm just so so grateful for both of you offering to help and what unseen to come coming together here is Rachel especially the way you put it that, although you'll be rotating out that you could use your business experience and mindset to look at this as far as how you can get it to a point where it's a process and it can be handed off and that we have a lot of clarity about, you know, the process and handoffs in a way that that maybe we're not in a position where we're looking for someone to train for a year. So I think we could get it cleaned up like that. And, and certainly, you know, with with Cody helping and learning the ropes as well that's a that's a winning combination. So I think we've got a good way to go forward and appreciate all of you. So, does anybody want to make a motion on kind of the slate that we have in front of us now. I'm sure I'll make the motion because y'all who are on the slate can't make a motion. Thanks. I think you're probably not best not to. I don't know if we need to second. Yeah, I second that motion. Yes. We have a third. That's great. And then we can, I think we all vote so I'll just do the roll call Leah. Yes. I approve. Robin. Yes. Cody. Rachel. Oh, did you make the motion? I'm sorry. You made the motion, right? Okay, sorry. Julian. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Did we hear from Toby? Yeah. I think he did. Yeah. Or maybe he may have thirded the motion, which I took to me. Yes. Thank you. And Christie, you know, I'm here and Christie got tied up and he's not able to be here, but Christie Anderson is a returning member too. And so I think I'm excited. I really think we have a great. Group here. You know, I really do. And then I'm excited about this. This cycle. And now I think we get to have a, I know it's seven 11. I think we need to get out of here by seven 30. If that works for folks, we actually have, I think a pretty interesting media semi pseudo creative discussion now in front of us. And I will give a very, very brief introduction to what this is. Essentially I mentioned at the beginning that we can use up to 20% of our. Allocation towards local projects. And this current year. We have a local project called an accessibility round table. And that was sort of the culmination of a year and a half, two years of work on accessibility. Specifically disability related accessibility, but we also really worked to try to broaden that into, you know, you know, racial, socio-economic, geographic, like we did try to make a broader version of accessibility than. Then solely disability, but we did start with disability and that's been sort of the center of it for most of the time. And so anyway, we put, we put some money aside as a local council prop program. Towards an accessibility round table. And this was going to be something we were going to do in the fall. And then things kind of happened really quickly. Where Charles Baldwin, who is the program representative from MCC, who focuses in on. Accessibility. He said, well, yeah, I'll come do a thing with you guys. And then we wound up doing a really fun discussion with Charles, which is posted on our website. Around accessibility for cultural councils, essentially grants cultural, you know, entities. And so we, we did it. It didn't cost us any money. And it's on our website. And we, in fact, point our applicants back to it. In this current application process. So on some level, we can just say, check, you know, we, we, we did what we said we were going to do. But we do still have the funds set aside to fund this round table that we had, that we had intended. And Julian, well, Leah originally, you know, had started a relationship with Amherst media. Relating to another piece of our work. And Julian had picked up that conversation. And he said, well, I should take a step back. Amherst media, which is our local access TV station. They basically said to Julian, you know, we can do an accessibility thing for you. Like we can do, we can do what you're talking about. We can go, we can take cameras. We can go out to talk to some of your members, some of your grantees. Go back to Charles Baldwin with the state. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can do it. We can go out to talk to some of your members, some of your grantees, go back to Charles Baldwin with the state and help you put together a little, an accessibility round table that becomes, you know, essentially a show, like a, you know, a short, a short videotape segment on accessibility in the arts. The other important piece of context is that. Amherst media actually came in. With a grant request for this in this last round. And none of us really knew what it was because we had, we hadn't really talked to them in advance. And so we didn't decline to fund them, but we funded them. They, they asked for 2,500. We funded them for 250, like 250, because we appreciated the spirit of things. And we wanted to indicate support, but we also had no idea what they were talking about. And really it wasn't anything that had sort of been established yet. So Julian did this, had these conversations and sort of. You know, had these conversations and sort of got to the point where they said, well, we'll make a proposal to you. You know, to do your accessibility round table. So, so it's not a grant. It's something that we are collectively talking about potentially funding with them as our partner. And the fund, the funds would go to, you know, pay their staff who would do the AV production and everything else. And so that is, that's kind of the thing on the table right now is, you know, you know, if you want me to share my screen, if you didn't have a chance to look at the Amherst media letter, I'd be happy to kind of pull it up just so we have. Yes, please. I would love that. Okay. Yeah. It'd be like one round table that's recorded or they. Recording different people, like all location and then putting it together. So it's, it's sort of a mini documentary is what I would. Yeah. Three to five minutes in length. Focusing on accessibility. You know, you can, you can see the, I'll give folks a chance to read this. Hey, Christy. I will. Oh, man. We have. 20. 500. And so. It was. Big much. Because. They don't. Really. Say. Why. It's that much. Unless. Unless. They want. To promote. It on. Facebook. Which does. Require. My. But. They don't. Say that. So. I agree with. 250. Yeah. I think that's a fair point. Rachel. Yeah. Okay. My question is. Yes. I understand the. Proposal and the spirit of it. And I guess I am. Curious as to the individuals making this. This documentary and. How many of them actually have. Experience with this. With either accessibility or disability. Because the perspective could be very different. I was also going to point out that. To interview five to seven artists and then cut it down to. Three to five minutes. Is. I think that's a pretty big. Cut. Yeah. My. Is. Can be. Is. Was. The idea. To. Somehow. Off. Is. To. No. But. That. Say. Julian. I think you're muted Julian. Yeah. I'm not sure you completely understood your question. I want to come back to that. If you're asking about. Would this fund stipends for the artist in, in the video and. I'm. I was just waiting for everyone to pause and read the letter. And then I had wanted to present. A little bit more context since I've had the. The conversations with Amherst media. And how, how this has come about. So. Let's let, let me just give a little more context and then we can get, get back to the questions. So. We're, we're kind of looking at as far as. Accessibility. We're asking our grantees. Now it's, it's a requirement on the grant applications. For them to accommodate. People to participate in the events beyond. Adねぇ. Requirements that we had previously that just. Were you know, it had to be in a building that was handicapped accessible. And during the pandemic, you know, we, we found that. It really. It's trying to light on the number of ways that people can't access art. arts, culture, education. And it's not as simple as just, you know, people who can physically walk into a building and attend. And so what we're asking people to do, in some cases, you know, it's okay, yes, they can walk in, but you should have a sign language interpreter, or work that would, for people who can't see, you know, when they go to an art gallery and there are paintings, how can they experience what the content is in the painting? So this piece that we're looking at, doing with Amherst Media, comes out of the round table as far as kind of being a mini-documentary or public service announcement to raise awareness and to help inspire people to learn more and to know what resources are available and just to think differently and to think from other people's perspectives, right? So and can this be put out there in a way that engages with the community more so than honestly the preaching to the choir type thing? The people who are going to come to an accessibility round table are really invested in doing this. Now, how can we push the message out there to raise awareness where, you know, people aren't so engaged that they're going to come do an hour or hour and a half session with us? So this kind of evolved organically because, yes, Amherst Media put in a grant application last year and well, it sounded great. We weren't, we didn't know how we would be involved. So now we're kind of circling back and saying, well, we do have these funds and the way I see it, this wouldn't just benefit the Amherst community. I think there's a possibility that it would be used throughout the Commonwealth, you know, especially if we got Charles Baldwin involved and went back to the MCC and that perhaps they might send it out to all the LCCs if we do something great. So I just think if this is our mission to raise awareness and to help people figure this out and to gather as a community in a more inclusive way, that there's some value here and we have an opportunity and that maybe we can deliver kind of something that sees culture in a way that helps. Before you go, I just want to welcome Christy and introduce her because we have several new members who may not have seen, but this is Christy Anderson. I just want to say welcome. So glad you could come, Christy. I'm sorry, I was stuck in traffic out of Boston for hours. Yeah, we're all here. We are Avengers assembled and we did do our officer election, Christy, and we're all here together and this is going to be our group for the fall. So I just want to take a moment to celebrate that because, you know, over the course of the year, it's not frequent that we have all 100% in attendance. So it's just a nice moment to have Cody had a couple more questions. Cody, I wanted to make one one quick response to your initial questions, though. Just a slight a slight shift in sort of this is this is this will be our project. So this is not them coming to us for money, so they can go do something. This is this is almost us contracting with that. Well, this is us contracting with them to do this for us. And so, you know, doing it with a mean is a nonprofit municipal who does have paid employees, you know, for me that that does feel good as a resident to, you know, to continue to build a partnership with a strength, frankly, a struggling, you know, nonprofit municipal who is an important part of the creative arguably, you know, the creative scene. I personally think that they're really important. And so, but I think you're because you're asking very the kind of questions we would ask of a grantee who's coming to us for funds and we'd be pretty rigorous with their budget and things like that. I think this is one of these things where if there are areas that we're not comfortable with, you know, in the proposal as presented, we and really Julian would sort of go back to them with additional follow up questions or terms or conditions and, you know, kind of move the conversation along that way. We could also say, no, we don't want to do it. It's a waste of money. We don't want to do that. That's definitely on the on the table, too. But I just want to put that frame out there because I, you know, I think it's helpful. Before the whole state, I know I presented to a group actually that was part of it. So, you know, I would, I mean, obviously we can continue to discuss, I guess I would, I would say, you know, we could, we could entertain a motion, you know, something along the lines of, you know, to go ahead, Toby, please. No, I have a, I have a child with disability and I know that you know, I didn't learn about ableism until, you know, until it's, until it's, you know, somebody that you know are close. And I know that the people surrounding my child always need the most because they're always under, you know, the, the paras and all these people, it's, it's, you start to see like most people that are surrounded my child, my, most people surrounded by my child are underfunded. So, yeah, I, I feel like and with the whole visibility thing, absolutely thumbs up. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. And I do think that further work we do on this, on this topic, you know, we can definitely engage the school systems more explicitly on that. You know, I think they, that is probably where you have the most concentrated energy around, you know, disability supports. And I don't just say that because I'm a special education director. I, you know, I also think it's true in any community that is where you'll see, you know, the biggest concentration of those supports. And in fact, we could, you know, so that's a good example of something we could ask Amherst media to do is to include some representative of the school system or of the student body, you know, however you want to take it in, in this, I think that'd be a worthwhile thing to do. Um, just to bounce it off of that, I do know there's a free clinic about disability history that I wonder if we can plug in with that idea of the school system and it would be the most that teachers do this curriculum. That's right. That's a new curriculum. That's a really good point. They just had a big story about that too long ago. Leah. Um, yeah. Um, that actually, that brings up a new point of the new, there's an English program at the high school, which is like disability literature. So that would be an interesting teacher. I think the teacher who did it is the same one who created the LGBTQ literature. So like very like cutting edge English stuff. But I think it is important to have as narratives and stories are being created by the ACE, by Amherst media, but the ACC, like checking in on it because I feel like it's easy to like cut something down into like like I want to make sure that the people represented are being like understood and their stories are being able to told and it's not kind of like cut down to like three sentences. I want to feel like, like I feel like it is important to have a small video that can like have a lot of widespread, but it's also important to remember that like people's stories come first and to edit and interview and present it in like always having how that, always having like, I did that like with the artist project, always thinking about how these artists wanted to represent themselves and having that come first before like using it to project like an agenda of the ACC, which obviously I don't think they'd want to do, but I think it is important to just make sure it aligns with the presentation that we want to be putting out. And to make sure it aligns with the presentation that the artists want to put in after. Very good point, Lea. I've almost wondered if now you are considering that sort of if video may seem like fabricated, not true, what is that in my in my words, October being disavowed in history much. Could this be almost an impanel of these participants when they get this chance to tell their raw story? I'd like to make a note based on that comment, Cody, and also on Lea's comment. And this is, you know, I think I'm hearing kind of a lot of like conditions and notions that we can pass along to Amherst media as a part of the project. So I might suggest, you know, to Lea's point, you know, they talked about sort of like a final cut concept, you know, where we do, you know, the cultural council and also frankly, as Lea said, some of the folks who are in the video, you know, do have an approval, the right of approval on something before it kind of goes out. I think it'll be a nice way to sort of, you know, honor that, make sure it's the right story. And then, Cody, to your point, and then I think maybe more broadly to this discussion, I think it does make sense for, you know, for us to say to them, we want to do this with you, but we also want to partner with you on it. And, you know, and let members of the council who are interested reach out to Julian, you know, and have discussions with Amherst media, like, you know, just, just, we wouldn't do it as a public meeting. We wouldn't, you know, hold a big public meeting, but, but if folks have, you know, a vested interest in it, helping you, you know, be a part of the process, like I think we could, we could very much put that expectation out there as a part of the contract that, you know, that we're, it's, it's not just we're going to give them the money, they're going to go out and create something, come back with a polished five minute thing and we're done, like we want, we do want to have a, we want to have our voice there. And then to Lea's point, we also want to make sure that the stakeholders voices are being heard too. Because we don't want it to turn into like this person talks like it does a 30 minute interview about like their art and their life, their story, and then it gets cut down to like their disability, like defining and being like the factor that's the quote, because these are all artists. And I think a lot of these people like really care about their art outreach, maybe, I don't know. I don't know if that'd be more or less than disability visibility, but I think having both of those things present, and I'm sure Amherst Media probably agrees, but I just like wanted to say that. Yeah, so I mean, looking at the time and sort of, I think we could go pretty deep into content ideas, but I also think that if we sort of, if we want to make a decision to move forward with this sort of partnership with them, and kind of commit the funds, essentially, we can certainly, if somebody is interested in being a content consultant, maybe perhaps Julie and they could just reach out to you and say, hey, would you please let me see cuts and let me be a part of the conversations and just sort of do that in organic fashion so that it's like, anybody who wants to put in that extra time and that extra thought can. Absolutely. And I think that there Amherst Media is going to need additional inputs here. Absolutely. And I do want to say though that, well, we should have inputs, we also should, the only reason we would commit these kinds of funds to them is that, and I can go into this after this, but we do have confidence that they can produce something that's meaningful. And I would like to see, you know, yes, artists highlighted it in there, but I also would like the message that we need to get out to people applying for grants, or whether they're applying for grants or not, around how can you welcome the community. Some of that stuff that Charles Baldwin spoke about in our roundtable, as to what is meaningfully accommodating people. I think that's important in there and I think one of the things we might need to go back to Amherst Media about is that the length of this, that they're envisioning might not be able to do everything that it needs to do. I don't want to question too much because a one-minute commercial is a lifetime when you don't want to watch it, but three to five minutes is awfully brief at times to get certain messages across. And I'm no expert here and they are. So just quickly, this is kind of an aside thing, but they are at no additional cost formatting and like us editing and releasing some of the artist showcase work. They're preparing those right now. I guess we just have the Amherst ballet one that they had done, which we can point all of you to that. Matt, it might be online somewhere, I'm not sure already, but they have a couple of other pieces they've collaborated with us on that gives us a high level of confidence that they're worthy partners to go forward with on this. And I certainly welcome working with all of you. This is not an area of expertise for me at all, not film, not accommodations. It's just, you know, generally from the sentiment of really wanting to benefit the community. Yeah, I would be happy to work with you all and share my insight as a disability advocate. Absolutely. And also you are one of our grantees, so you can speak from experience on all sides. Wonderful. Robin, what about the dollar amount that is on this letter? I mean, that's what they asked for last year, right? So are they going to, I'm not sure I understand, they're going to put it for another grant. Are we going to take it from administrative funds because we have to spend the administrative fund. The administrative funds here. So they're saying that they'll be $10,000 or something. Well, we don't, I don't want to go any more than what they've had, but I definitely want to be sure the budget is balanced. So they're saying that they put $250,000 from the 2022 grant towards this. And then it would be $2,250,000. Is that a realistic number? Yeah, great. And I don't know if it's realistic to do what they want to do. Yeah, that's that. But if they're willing to do it, I mean, this is their proposal. I think, yeah. Pretty cheap, I think. So yeah, we can definitely do that. We're also in the next budget year. So there is, yeah, there's, there's grant money that wasn't spent from 22 and even 21. And that has to be unencumbered, which means it's being held for those purposes. And we release it and we release it into this year's budget to be used. So yeah. I just want to make sure, wait, this is money that we put aside in the granting process. So, you know, for the accessibility round table, this is the money that we put aside with Mass. Oh, you mean from the accessibility, there's like 1600 left? This is what we, I mean, I understand the books in town might look a little different, but this is what we put aside as a local project this year with the Mass Cultural Council for this project. So I mean, Julian took that number from what we presented to them. And that's, you know, that's kind of how we got that 2250. Yeah. If we're still looking to spend, if there's still money, then having a like event around this video, like a release, or I guess it's if it's five minutes or wouldn't really be a release, but we could also pay to have this video be shown as like a commercial in front of like Amherst media things, or Amherst inner Amherst cinema, or broadcast it and publicize it in some way, or we could put it back into the cycle, but those things to increase the outreach of this video might be interesting. So, sorry, Cody, I missed that point. No, I just, I like the idea of... You're muted. Yeah, Cody's audio is cutting out. Cody, we're gonna, we're gonna table this for a second with your audio. Just in the interest of time, we certainly can, if we want to continue having a broader discussion, we can table this until October and pick that back up. I personally think that we have enough good will and sort of good feelings towards Amherst media to approve moving forward with an agreement, you know, and I think the ongoing input from us and sort of a reciprocal dialogue with them will be important. I think individual members here can certainly reach out to Julianne and be involved in that in kind of an ad hoc format, but I think that we, I personally would support a motion, in fact, I'd be happy to make a motion, you know, that we empower Julianne to go forward with, you know, an agreement with Amherst media to produce a video, you know, within the parameters they described there for, for the amount they described there, you know, with the understanding that, that we want to have continued involvement, creative input, and, you know, and we want to make sure that the artists and other subjects of the video have, have approval as well, that it's not, you know, that it's not something that just gets done about them without their input. So I'll go ahead and make that motion to empower Julianne to move that forward. I'll say it. So seconded and then does anybody want to have any further discussion? And I don't mean to rush this because I, this is, you know, it's a commitment, but I think in the interest of time and good faith. So why don't we go ahead and vote then? And we'll just do, I guess, a quick roll call, starting with Rachel. I'm going to abstain or I would vote no, because I'm so concerned about the representation and how the approach of this, because anyway, do I, do I need to, to clarify or can I just cast my vote? And I just don't feel like the way we're going to go about it is setting people up for success. And I'm not questioning the professionalism and the dedication of Amherst media and everybody present. So I think there are other ways to use the money to contextualize individual applications and what did this, but their accessibility considerations might be based on their particular projects. And I personally felt that Charles's presentation was very good. And so that's, that's all I have to say on that. Thanks. So I think what we'll do is go ahead and continue the vote, but then we can reopen it up for further discussion. Because I mean, I point out that they definitely focused on highlighting Charles in their video. So I already saw that part. Christy. Yes. I would vote yes. Robin. Yes. Toby. Yes. Eleanor. Yes. Leah. Yes. And Julian. Yes. Okay. Well, I mean, it's one of these things where you hate to not have a unanimous vote on something like this. You know, so, Rachel, I don't know if you want to just hope for further discussion or sort of speak more about your. I don't, I don't want to keep people here for a long time because I know I think, you know, already a bit past time. I think my personal concern is that we have all watched our share of training videos, presentations, and I think that with this, because if what we're aiming to do is to really make our, you know, encourage our applicants and ourselves to provide an atmosphere that really wants to include everybody in, in these activities, then I think it's really hard to make a video that's so short that's going to really resonate with people because it's going to be impacted by, that's, that's why I asked the question in the beginning, what do the creators of this video have in terms of their own experience in working in these areas? So, because I think that would really affect the perspective and the representation. So, I think this is, I'm just talking off the top of my head now, but, you know, Leah had a good idea about like having people tell their own stories and their full stories. So, can we not post somewhere on the town website or create a platform where individual artists can share their own stories that, you know, revolve around this topic. So, you know, and then people can just get their own takeaway from it. And that's, that's, that's not really related directly to what we're talking about here in terms of funding Amherst media. So, I think that's, that's just my personal position. And I think in the interest of time, I mean, I definitely appreciate the thoughtfulness of those, those points, Rachel. And I think, you know, Julianne will do a good job of stewarding a lot of these thoughts and concerns in her communications with Amherst media. And, and, you know, we'll make sure that we do our best to have representation and to let the subjects, you know, give, give approval to their, to their stories. But I think those are good thoughts. And I also think that, you know, we're coming up to a new grant cycle. And next month, we're going to put on the agenda, you know, a discussion of, do we want to do a local activity and what will we like to do? And I think, you know, some of those thoughts can inform that discussion. And I do apologize. I have to run. I'm, I'm definitely getting pulled into some bedtime activities that that really shouldn't I have to go. Yep. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Go take care of everyone. Good night. As far as the remaining topics, I think they could be deferred. It was setting up the deliberation schedule, which we will have to have to do. And I don't think we're in any way prepared to do that this this evening. So I'll regroup with with Matt and figure out how how we can take care of that via the email. It really won't happen until the soonest would be I think the last month of October. But more realistically, we probably hit the ground running in November, and we'll have to have a whole slate of obsessions and talk about, you know, how we'll conduct this business. So that will be all nailed down definitely in the October meeting, but not not something that we can continue with tonight. And then the other piece is a grants update, which it sounds like you and Holly, Robin are are are working through that. So I don't think we can really fully do that just tonight either. So does anyone have any other business to attend to this evening? But I quickly say something just like very shortly in response to Rachel before it leaves my brain. I was gonna say one of the most when I did interviews, one of the things that I think we should like pass on before this project is before the filmed interview, I had a phone call with the people I interviewed. And we just like talked for like an hour, sometimes like over an hour about what their work was, like what was important to them. And then based off of that, I wrote up questions based off of the conversation. And then I emailed them to them before the interview. And so that way it was felt more in control of the people being interviewed. And I think if we see it as a model of like, like doing that, like not just like having cameras, like kind of a more gradual approach, I think that could be a way to center the people more in it. And I'm sorry to take up more time, but that was just something that maybe worked with them, we could pass on to them. Because I think it worked really well, especially for people who was like their first time being interviewed. It definitely like help with nerves, like the first thing I'm going to add is that is that I'm going to ask Jim to, you know, remember media for him and any of its staff that are participating to watch, you know, this portion of the recording, because we've spent a lot of time on this. And I think the best way for him to process this is to hear it from all of you, which is possible because we've reported this meeting. So thank you. And Rachel, I very much hear where you're coming from. Respect that. So I'm sorry, you were going to say Rachel. Oh, I was just going to say that with the best of intentions, there will be, there will just be things that are left out. And I'm not saying that, you know, it has to it has to address everything, but it's just not knowing who the audience is going to be. I really find it very difficult. It's almost like an impossible task if I work because I've done production myself. So it's like, from the perspective of Amherst media, and especially having all these content consultants and people approving. I, yeah, hopefully it'll be more forward to you and I appreciate that you're taking this on. So, so I don't have, you know, I was going to preface what I was going to say. I'm going to say something that's really unpopular, I'm sure. However, it's, it's just a concern I have. It's a valid concern. It's a valid concern. I don't have any authority to be able to to approve something like this that it is qualified to speak to this, you know, but we do have a lot of people who want to promote awareness and to help our grantees achieve this. So I think we have a way to do it. And I think hopefully the good intent and the skills of those involved will be enough to carry this through. But this is not going to be ready in time for this grand cycle anyway, right? No, it's a more long term thing. Right. Okay. Yeah. Then I think, yeah, I mean, it's definitely worth without doing. It's just more like, okay, you know, the implementation, I can just see being very challenging. So, but, but there's no, you know, so thank you all. It's nice to see you. I'm going to put down. Yes, I motion to adjourn all in favor. Julianne, I'll send you and Matt the minutes. Am I supposed to send it to everybody or just to you? No, no, you send it to me and Matt, please. And then, all right. Thank you so much. Captured the basics. Thank you all. Good evening. Good evening. Good night. Good night.