 Okay. Welcome everyone. I am going to call to order the July 25th African Heritage Reparation Assembly meeting at 2.03 p.m. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. So we're just going to take a moment to make sure that everybody can be heard and can hear. And if you could, at the same time, please state the time that you need to leave the meeting. I'm going to do that upfront today because we've run into some challenges in previous meetings where people have to leave. So just if you could tell us what your hard stop is, that would be wonderful. So welcome, Ms. Bridges. Nice to see you for your first meeting. So good to have you. Thank you very much. Very happy to be here. Yeah, thank you. So we can hear you and I assume you can hear us. Absolutely. And do you have a hard stop today? Three is fine for me. Three o'clock. Okay. All right. Great. Welcome, Lynn. Lynn is joining us today. Thank you. Can you hear us? And can we hear you, Lynn? I can. Thank you. And I'm out of here as soon as you're done with me. You're always welcome to stay. You know that. But thank you for joining me. I enjoy this meeting, but I am going to leave as soon as I'm done. Thank you. Okay. No problem. And welcome, Pamela. Again, nice to have you here for a second time. I can hear and I'm happy to be here. Excellent. Thank you. And Yvonne, haven't seen you in a couple of meetings. So good to see you. Yeah, it's good to be here. I can hear everything is fine. And I do have a hard stop at three o'clock. Okay. Great. Thank you. And Hala. Yes, I can hear you. You can hear me and I can stop when we're done. Okay. Nice. Dr. Shabazz. I'm here. Thank you. And I have a soft stop at three o'clock. But so it's not hard. Okay. Good. I like that. Dr. Rhodes. I'm here and I can hear and I have a hard stop at three thirty. Okay. Great. And Alexis. Hi. I do have a hard stop at three. Okay. And Jennifer, I assume you can hear, but let's make sure we can hear you again. I can hear you and you can hear me and I don't have a hard stop. I'm here till you guys are done. Okay. Great. Well, I would have liked to take a few minutes to give Ms. Bridges an opportunity to introduce herself. And I would still like to do that. Please just bearing in mind that we we it sounds like we have about an hour. We have two two issues that we need to get through today and I'd like to get to a third, but we'll do our best. And so we'll start with you, Deborah, if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself and saying maybe very briefly why you decided to apply for and join the committee. I will thank you for welcoming me. My purpose was my family is seven generations and Amherst, including Indigenous and the history that I've lived since maybe since I've been born the history that I know of the harm. I just wanted to be here and let people know as being a descendant what that was like. As opposed to I realize people tell stories and archive stories, but when it comes from a descendant, like for me, people might not really know the real history, like remembering sitting on my grandfather's lap, seeing his tears, letting him him telling me what exactly went on here. And people wouldn't know the smell, the smell of him, the tears, the stories he's told me. I think only descendants can do that and put their experience in with that. So that's me. Well, thank you. We are so blessed to have you, Ms. Bridges. Thank you so much for joining us. And Pamela also was here last week, but I don't think everybody else was here. So Pamela, would you mind unmuting and just maybe sharing a few words? Also such a blessing to have you as our new DEI director. And I was just thinking this morning and reflecting like, wow, we have a DEI director like we did this, we got to this point. And so it's really awesome. So if you would, that would be wonderful. We can't hear you. I'm still getting used to having a microphone on. So Pamela Nolan Young, the DEI director for the town of Amherst, I'll be working with all of the boards, commissions, the town council, and also with town residents in ensuring that we meet sort of the vision that the town has created for itself around DEI work. And I have a wonderful partner in Jen. And I certainly want to emphasize it's a partnership. We each bring, you know, different skills to the work and are looking forward to working together on that. So I'm just happy to be here and to assist you guys. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, you've really jumped into a lot of stuff going on. Okay, wonderful. So we see that Lynn is here. And Lynn is here because we are going to start by talking about the draft special legislation. You've all seen a memo now from KP law. You've also seen a draft of the special legislation. We're not going to spend really much time at all talking about the content of the legislation today or the memo. What we really want to hone in on today while we have Lynn here with us is the process for which the special legislation is going to move forward. And so Lynn has put together very thoughtfully a proposed process for how we might move this forward and wanted to come here today to ask for the assembly's feedback on that process to answer any questions. And this is up for conversation in the next town council meeting on August 15. So this is our opportunity here. I've sent you the process that Lynn sent to me, but I'm also going to bring it up onto the screen now for us to look at. And I'm not the best at sharing screen, but I'm going to try here and see where I get. So just please bear with me. I'm going to move this thing down. Okay, here we go. Where are you? Of course, I had it already, and now I can't find it. It looked like you had clicked on it at one moment. Did it? Okay, I sent it to you all right. So I'm going to do this. How's that? Everyone see that? It's loading. Okay, wonderful. So Lynn, I'd like to turn it over to you if that's okay, just to sort of go through this if you'd like, and then we can open it up for some discussion. Does that work for you? Absolutely. And first of all, thank you for taking this time on as we move toward the end of July and for all the work this committee has done. Whenever the town is in the process of proposing special legislation to the legislature, that special legislation has to be approved by the town council because it's on behalf of the town. And so when KP Law came forward with the memo and the draft legislation they sent you, I figured it was best if we all agree on what the process is for how that's going to move forward. And let me just say the only other experience that the council has with this is when we moved forward and I just want to tell you up front it has not moved forward in the legislature and that is ranked choice voting. And that also is considered special legislation. It requires home rule and the committee did a fantastic job on this and it came to the council as it will in this case as a recommendation. And in the process of it coming to the council's recommendation, I don't think we did, if we did a tweak we might have done that's about it. And then we filed it in December of 2020. And at that point we had been working with Representative Dom and Senator Comerford and both of them have been absolutely diligent about that process. Okay, now I could talk about the political side of this and I'm more than glad to but I am going to encourage that at some point you ask Joe Comerford and Mindy and myself back to a meeting to talk about what you can expect at the legislative level because I think that that would be really helpful for you to understand. And I will just tell you from the experience we're having with ranked choice voting it's nothing but frustrating. I'm like so frustrated at this point because it may die at the end of this legislative session and we may have to refile it again and then it's an issue of timing. And then the issue of what happens with special legislation. So you as a committee have a recommendation that has been developed by KP Law. We want you to spend time putting that together. We want you to spend time reviewing it. We want you to spend time looking at how that special legislation supports the goals of your recommended distribution of funds. The only reason that this legislation needs to be filed is if you choose to distribute funds to individuals because at this point the town of Amherst cannot do that. With special legislation approved by the House, the Senate and signed by the governor you would we would be able to do that. Okay and that's the reason for special legislation. There are many other things the committee may choose to recommend be done with the funds for reparations. Those don't require special legislation. This is the only thing that does and so what I'm suggesting to you in the second bullet is that you prepare this when you're ready you bring it forth to the council. I suggested that there be a report with it not a really long report but something that gives the council flavor of the debate or any other documents you looked at. And if you want an example look at what we got from the group that did rank choice voting. Bluntly that's a very thorough report and it's a much more complicated issue. Okay then this is so don't be turned off by how thorough and lengthy it is. Once we have that report it will come to the council. The council will review it along with a special legislation. We'll have a joint meeting with you or at least a meeting where you make a presentation and we have discussion and an opportunity and we've had those before with the finance committee and so forth. And then once the and the council it does get to mess with your what you recommend because that's what councils do. Okay and once we come up with a recommendation of the legislation that we want to file then we will officially vote and we will officially file it. And in that process in addition to just you're having a meeting and talking with Mindy and Joe and myself if you would be willing to include me about what happens at the legislative level I think it's also important to think about what kinds of things the council is going to ask. And that's that's one reason why I say in the hollow bullet to the extent of second hollow bullet a preliminary or final allocation plan and you're into far and then in the third hollow bullet to the extent possible the recommended process because as you as you have been able to gather I'm sure from the discussions about reparations people are curious they want to know they're not just curious they want to know what do you want this money to be used for and how will you make those decisions. And so and I'm not here today to discuss any of how you want that money to be used or the decision process I'm here only to make sure that you and I have a conversation about this proposed process so that when we bring it to the council on the 15th of August you have already had your opportunity to weigh in. For example let me just say the council may say well along with that brief report we would like the following and then we'll come back and you know a revised draft of this would be given. So let me just stop with that and see what questions you have and Michelle I'm going to have you call on people as you choose as chair. Sure thank you very much Lynn that was very very helpful and it will start with you Dr. Shabazz and then I see Dr. Rhodes' hand is up right now those are the two hands we have. Thank you I just would like to see if we could kind of get chart this process in relation to if we want to move forward with getting this to the legislature. I think I see that the earliest for submitting and moving this into the process nothing's going to be looked at before January even if we turn over something tomorrow is if I'm reading that correctly so our our sort of first timeline step in gantt charting this at the earliest would be would be January am I correct? For it to actually go to the legislature now clearly it could come to the council well before then and let me just be further more explicit because this is where we get into the messy legislative process. Legislature in Massachusetts is a two-year legislative process if nothing passes after two years they die and it has to be refiled so this will be the beginning of the next legislative session because we elect new state officials this November. So it can be filed anytime after that and the what happened last time and frankly it happens every two years and that is last time we actually had a change in leadership at the house level and so the committees took even longer to be appointed and then once they're appointed it takes a while until bills are actually assigned to committees and this is where Mindy for example is extremely helpful in trying to steer it to the best committee so that it stays out of the certain committees that that's what she really did for rank choice voting and even then it looks like we're going to have to refile that this coming year. Once it and we're we're now going through what looks like that surge of let's get it all done by the end of July 31st 2022 before we all go home and run for election and that's I don't want us to get caught in that process again with any of these because we have this coming we will as I mentioned refile rank choice voting and we will also have at least one or the piece of legislation probably being filed as well but the short answer is the earliest we would file it is January and I am more than willing to help develop that flow chart work plan whatever with Michelle and the rest that's ready. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Shabazz do you have anything to respond to right now with regard to that? No this is great. Thank you. Okay great. Okay Dr. Rhodes. Just a clarification then am I understanding that these two whole points that you referred to are related to if we were seeking to have funds distributed to individuals? Yes. The legislation is only necessary if you're going to be asking to distribute money to individuals other than that we would not need to file any legislation if in fact the committee says we want to distribute money to individuals then we have to file this legislation and in that case and in the broader case when it comes to the council they're going to want to know well how do you plan to spend your money in general how do you you know what's your plan and what's your decision making process because as you also may remember once decisions are made this is how we would like to spend your money the money that's in this fund or the interest however you again recommend that that has to also come to whatever council is seated at the time for approval but the bullets here really apply to the issue of giving money to individuals. All right thank you for that so one of the things I would note I don't we haven't voted on how you know if we were going to distribute this to individuals which is something that we obviously have to do as a and b the second part is if we vote not to distribute to individuals this does not have to go to special legislation but you are also saying that if we do not go with individuals the town council still is going to want to know answers to a hollow point the two hollow points that you just referred to that is correct thank you and let me just mention and again I don't want to get into what you're going to spend the money for but I want us to see clarification on whether or not scholarships are considered giving money to individuals versus something like a home payment toward a home okay that definitely is but I know one of the other things from time to time that has come up is the issue of scholarships and I want to make sure we clarify whether that would be considered giving money to individuals okay and Lynn thank you for raising that point I want to further clarify for the committee that when we're talking about direct benefits or directing benefits to an individual that could be in a grant for a down payment on a home it's we're not we're not talking strictly about a cash payment so just to differentiate that we've never really as a committee talked about cash payment benefits we haven't had that discussion yet but in some reparative justice plans and some conversations about reparations cash payments are made so I just want to differentiate that any grant that we would make to an individual like Lynn said for a home a home ownership down payment for example would be considered a direct payment to an individual that would require this special legislation just to further clarify that yeah and Michelle if there's any additional nuances of this I'm going to also urge that through Paul you arrange to have our town attorney attend one of your meetings for any of those points of clarification absolutely that would be fantastic Michelle just to clarify individual grants and or scholarships and or down payments for home ownership all of those would be considered money going to individuals is am I stating that correctly that's my interpretation of KP Laws review yes already so Dr. Shabazz I'm going to go to Yvonne since they haven't had a chance to speak and then we'll we can come back to you Yvonne yeah I wanted to add that if we had anything that also would be considered a grant for um legal aid or legal assistance that would also go to individuals but I also wanted to ask um uh you know um Lynn you were talking about nuances so one of those nuances I think we might want to investigate is if we give money to let's say the Martin Luther King breakfast to redistribute that money as a scholarship that is the one of those sticky nuances because event you know it is it is a grant to an individual but we're not we're not giving the money to the individual we're giving the money to the organization right right so I think in a couple of different ways like if we give money to legal aid to assist individuals with legal um fees that's another sort of nuance that that I understand that would seem almost feel like a loophole right in in the and that would be something I mean I'm going to urge I'm bringing it up not that we want to go the route of loopholes but bringing it up as that we want to be as transparent as possible in every way because we don't want a lot of questions around like well this happened and this was like they skirted around the rules you know what I'm saying so I think that we should be really you know cognizant and aware that there are ways that we could do it but we may not want to do that right and those are exactly the kind of nuances that I want to make sure that we're all real clear about okay absolutely yes and I think it will be great to have somebody Lauren specifically because I think that she drafted this to to join us and answer these questions dr. shabazz thanks so I just wanted to also get an understanding that um the for this entire process though the town is in support of our utilizing the services of the town attorney of getting the help that we need you know if it's one meeting if it takes two meetings is that uh correct uh hi uh oh my car uh paul bachelman it manages the town attorney's um contract okay uh I have never seen that's not true I have seen one or two situations where we didn't feel the question that was going to go to the town attorney was necessary or appropriate but in terms of for instance you all wanted draft legislation and an opinion paul did make sure that happened it was a little delayed not through any efforts of his or mine um if uh you know I I will continue to support and uh I'm sure paul will as well that you would have access to the town attorney for other questions absolutely okay so um one of the questions I'm not seeing any other hands at this moment so maybe while other members consider whether they have questions or comments to make I'd like to just point out that um Lynn this is really thoughtful and very very much appreciated um and especially considering as you said it's the second time that we're doing this as a town council so um my question was related to timing mostly in that we have until June 2023 to complete our charge and my sense is that for us to go through the consultative process with members of the black community it's going to take us some time to get through that and to begin making decisions about eligibility and use of funds and it may not even be that this committee ultimately is the recommending body this committee might for example recommend that a stakeholder committee be put together to make those recommendations similar to say CPA um so I just want to be really clear with you as the president of the town council that if our report isn't fully fleshed out by the time that we'd like to get this submitted let's say in January or February or perhaps we'll make we'll go through everything and then decide to submit it in June at the same time that our report is completed um but if we're not there at the time that we do want to begin the process of submitting the special legislation I just want to make sure that we'll have that opportunity to discuss the reasons why it's not been fully fleshed out um at the time of doing so yeah I I really encourage you to get as far along as you can before you bring the legislation to the council and the January thing I'll just be honest if this didn't get filed until March or even June of 2023 that would be fine you still have a full year of additional legislative action so it a home rule can be filed anytime it's just the first time it can be filed under this upcoming legislative session is in January of 2023 there's nothing magical of saying if it doesn't get filed then okay it can get filed after that okay great perfect um so before we let Lynn go are there any other questions from committee members about the process does the committee feel like it wants to take a vote that it endorses this process does it want to um endorse just by uh you know consensus here does have any suggested changes or recommendations and I'll also look to you Pamela and Jennifer if there's anything that either of you would like to add um we would be very happy to hear that I Dr. Rhodes yeah it feels like to me that it would be really fruitful to have some of the questions that Yvonne raised in terms of nuances answered by K.P. Law before we move on to other matters related to this because of you know those answers would in at least in my view my view give me a greater capability of voting on whether whether or not we want it to a have distribution to individuals and b if if we did not then we would not need to file a special legislation so those nuance questions are really important to me would you scroll up to the just slightly sure and I I just wanted to make sure that I said yes that could involve any number of discussions including additional consultation with the town attorney arranged through the town manager yes absolutely I I hear you and what I can do when we finish up is um I can work with Lynn and Paul um to have a discussion with Lauren about her schedule and when it might be best the best time for her to come back and meet with us as well as Repdom and uh Senator Cumberford if that's appropriate of course Lynn anytime that you're able to join us and partner with us in this is very welcomed and appreciated so um so I'm looking um to you Pamela or Jennifer if you have anything that you wanted to comment on or add at this moment or if any other members have anything to add at this time before um my my senses if I'm hearing if I'm hearing back we will have another meeting I hope next Monday before the town council meets again but it sounds like generally we have some consensus around this plan we have some questions I think there's a lot of built in to this plan that allows us to do the various things that Irv is mentioning and Yvonne is mentioning so um just one last call here and Pamela I saw that you unmuted yes please oh here we go eventually I'll get the hang of this I don't really have anything to add other than I agree with Dr. Rhodes that I think the consultation with KP would be the most helpful in deciding on what steps you want to take for going forward excellent all right so we will work on that um and if there aren't any other questions or comments at this time then I want to thank Lynn for joining us um and we will be in touch soon it's always my pleasure to be here thank you so much thank you so I am going to move us um I'm going to call for public comment now I know that there is um or at least was let me get a look um yes there is somebody in the audience that I know would like at least one person that would like to make public comment and there may be others so I'm going to pause now to take public comment and then we'll move on to um the rest of our agenda so I will make our public comment statement here quickly during the public comment period the chair will recognize members of the public when called on please identify yourself by stating your full name pronouns and residential address residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes at the discretion of the chair based upon the number of people who wish to speak the HRA will not engage in a dialogue a comment on a matter raised during public comment but we will certainly be listening very closely um and I do see one hand is raised so if um Jennifer would you bring Meg Gage into the room hi everybody um hi Yvonne what a treat to see some of you I haven't seen in so long hey big Gage how are you doing fine is that Yvonne I'm going great have where you been where have I been I don't um anyway um we'll have to catch up and Alexis is there too and Deborah anyway first of all that was very interesting discussion it's not the second time the town has tried to get a special legislation every single year of town meeting we asked the legislature to allow residents of Amherst who were not citizens to be able to vote in local only elections every single year we did it and every single year they didn't they didn't do anything so I'm just saying it's it's a tradition a long well-honed tradition um I some of you were at the last scheduled meeting that didn't actually happen and I'm just for you this will be repeating myself but I really want to do that I am on here now to apologize sincerely for speaking at the finance committee meeting before the council vote without having first come to you to share my opinion I did try to and because of busy schedules and various things that didn't work out and I should have not commented because I hadn't spoken with you as a group um so I apologize uh and I know the issues that I raised are being raised still and I look forward to a healthy conversation about about your the future of what you're going to do I am planning to submit a proposal to you for your next meeting from the League of Women Voters Racial Justice Committee of which I'm a member uh and I will send it to you in writing and uh before the meeting and hopefully I'll be able to squeeze on to your agenda next week we are sponsoring a webinar with uh Sandy Darity and Pristin Mullin about the book they wrote from here to Equality and we've made an agreement with them to buy in lieu of an honorarium to buy $2,500 worth of their book books and we're working we're trying to uh we're organizing a book reading that will happen sometime after the uh stolen beam reading and we're hang on I'm just in a meeting kiddos you can come in but you have I can't talk to you right now sorry about that um I'm not on there visually am I that's no matter um then you don't see these cute kids and our grand dog that we're taking care of I'm on vacation and I'm so sorry about that because um um we are uh working with Sandy and Kirsten to put this together as one of our Judy Brooks conversations and we would like to explore with you the idea of cosponsoring it with the assembly I don't think you'd have to do much because we're already all over it in terms of the work and organizing the books and figuring out how to pay for the $2,500 worth of books but it seems like it would be a good way for show uh active conversation among different people working for racial justice in town and because that's what the book is about it seems that this would be a could be a positive thing um so I'll be sending you and writing something spelling out that proposal uh in order for you to discuss it at your next meeting uh and I also I had a very helpful conversation earlier today with Dr. Shabazz and Michelle I've got to figure out who gets to be doctor and who's just by their first name but I'll figure that out anyway um I'm happy to be Meg but um about a conference finding a way for the League of Women Voters Racial Justice Committee to have a exchange with the assembly so better understand what you're doing and because we've discussed your work several times in our meetings and it would be helpful to have an off-the-record discussion about what you're thinking and share some of our deals of what we've been thinking uh so but that's still on the road and everyone's so busy I can't quite picture how we would ever make that happen but I think that would be another positive way to uh move this conversation along there's nothing wrong with people sincere people who are trying hard to do the right thing disagreeing from time to time that's not a problem the problem is when they can't talk about it with each other and look at in depth of what they're thinking is and what their experience is we all bring really different experiences and as a white person I know I have to be modest whiner you know I'll never know really uh what it's being living the life as a person of color uh but but white people and people of color can be in these conversations together nonetheless so I look forward to that and I'm gonna apologize that I spoke at that meeting without letting you know you know talking to you first it's good to see everybody hey Jen I love this group and Alexis and I are working on a project so uh fantastic good I appreciate all you're doing and Michelle your leadership is important thank you very much Meg thank you for for coming today and we will definitely be looking forward to seeing the proposal okay thank you bye everybody I'm gonna put my hand I'm gonna mute hey if there is anyone else who would like to make public comment please go ahead and raise your hand now all right not seeing any and I am seeing uh that Pamela has for hand raise so yeah I was just gonna um ask Meg but I think she's gone so maybe Jennifer got it the title of the book that she mentioned I wasn't able to capture that it's from here to equality okay thank you okay wonderful so the second item on the agenda that I want to make sure that we get to today actually there are two items that I would really like to get to today starting with that mass humanities application that we submitted I want to start by really thanking Hala for the tremendous work that went into that application I don't know if others have worked with mass humanities or who have applied for a grant it was my first time and it's a lot of work and it really turned out beautifully I appreciate all of the feedback that we received Miss Bridges your feedback and the end was incredibly useful and helpful for the application and so we did submit the application and I heard a couple days later from the grant director and the grant director asked for us to produce a couple more things by 5 p.m. today so I've been working on those things those things included so we listed Hala and Alexis as the humanities directors for the grant and those two people needed to submit resumes so I will be submitting Hala and Alexis's resume today there was also a piece about the budget that was really the biggest actual piece that we needed to define better so the way that a mass humanities grant works is in this case it's a $20,000 grant and then there's a $20,000 match that the that the organization applying needs to contribute and the way that it works is that of the 20,000 18,000 of that can come from in kind donations and 2,000 will need to come as a cash contribution so this committee will need to vote when we vote on an operating budget to include $2,000 if we are to be successful in getting the grant we will need to contribute from if this committee would still like to move forward with it we'll need to contribute $2,000 of our funding to do that which will have to go through the town council for approval and then the rest of the the match the 18,000 comes in in kind contributions and so what I've been doing behind the scenes here since speaking with the director of grants on Friday is to try to get some letters of commitment from one Matia Kramer. Matia has written a very very very good letter of commitment stating that she will commit X amount of hours over the next nine months in kind toward the research as an extension of the research that she's already helped us with in addition I've spoken with Alexis and Jim at Amherst media and they are providing a letter of commitment to provide in kind contributions in addition to what they'll get as a result of the the grant budget and so it doesn't have to be so specific that every single dollar that 18,000 has to be spelled out but the director of grants felt that some letters of commitment would be helpful in terms of us receiving the full $20,000 award so I'm going to pause there and I see Dr. Shabazz that your hand is raised. Yes it sounds like you were seeking a motion so I was prepared to offer one. Please tell me what you reflect to me what you heard in terms of motion. I was going to offer a motion I move that the African Heritage Reparations Assembly approve up to $2,000 in a $2,000 request of up to $2,000 is a match in the furtherance of this mass humanities expanding Massachusetts voices grant application. Great thank you for offering that and if we are ready to make that to vote on that that would be really fantastic because what that would mean is I could get it to the town council sooner than later because it will need to be reviewed and approved by the town council. I saw Dr. Rhodes hand go up and then Yvonne. I just want to second that motion. Excellent okay Yvonne. I feel like it's, first of all is it necessary I guess I'm trying to figure out if you um it this is a motion that will help you move ahead with the proposal that you've already turned in that you that's due today. You said it's due today. Correct. It was due last week but we admitted it on time and then they gave every applicant a window to deal with any you know issues. This isn't an issue that needs to be decided today. It's really only an issue if we are to receive the grant. So that being said I think it would it would behoove us to move forward with it today because if we end up receiving the grant and then we have to go through this process and get it into the town council it may not line up. So my preference. So my question is the up to $2,000 I guess that's my question. I mean if you're getting in kind information from Amherst media and from this other consultant will that equal the 18 that you you know what I'm saying if it's not 18 then we're going to have to kick in more money. So having it be a certain amount of money I mean we can vote it through but if it's $4,000 instead of $2,000 we have to re-vote anyway you know what I'm saying so I'm trying to figure out what it is how far in the process you are figuring out exactly what that ratio is so that we can vote on something that's more accurate. Yeah that's an excellent question and to be very clear the minimum amount is $2,000 and what Yvonne is saying is that if we don't have in-kind contributions of $18,000 then we have to kick in more at this point given the in-kind contributions that I have received from Amherst media from Metia Kramer and from the committee which is actually what we that's the way that we can sort of fill in the gap there is if each committee member is willing to contribute in-kind which we will be doing through our work naturally every discussion we have on this is volunteer hours so I have a formula that I'm putting together that gets us to that $18,000. It's only if the person on the committee is working on that particular project it's not general work it's specific work to that project. Yes exactly but my point is I think that we'll all be contributing to the project maybe at different levels so some of us may only contribute you know by talking about it meetings whereas others of us are going to form subcommittees or contribute in more significant way. I guess I'm saying talking at meetings I don't think becomes doesn't count yeah I think it has to be real you know real work on the project itself i.e writing an article or interviewing someone or writing a report you know something that's real and tangible specifically to that project. Yeah okay that's a good clarification I think what we could do with this motion potentially is give it some more flexibility or we can hold off until after I've submitted and we receive notice from the grant director that what we've submitted is going to be it's going to fly basically and I would be happy to hold off on it until next week so that we know we should know that by then if that if that's something that the group would prefer to do. Deborah was your hand raised did I see your hand raised no okay or Hala was it was your hand raised yes please. But you covered it with the volunteer hours because I think the hours on the grant would go to that potentially because that's specifically for that project so. Yes because it was specifically for that project yes but us going to meetings doesn't I mean not sure that that applies but working on the grant or coordinating folks who are going to be working on the project that would that would also like if we if one of us ends up being a coordinator that would definitely be like you know work hours. If I might to just clarify my motion on the floor it and if there's a different way to modify or to amend it to to reflect a possibility that we don't have to come back and revote an amount my view is that one it's going to be up to mass humanities as to the funding level they may approve it at 20 they may approve it at 16 I'm not sure if it's a fixed award that anyone they award it's going to be 20 or if they look at the budget and they may say no this only really needs 16 from us and all and so if it was even 16 then then the prorated 20% amount is still going to be less than 2000 so I figured that up to would mean that if we did get maximum funding of 20 and if we did have letters of commitment expressing in kind contributions of 18 then up to two would cover whatever circumstance even if we didn't get fully funded at 20 the other piece of this is is that in terms of we can I'm happy to withdraw folks aren't comfortable at this point but it seemed to me rather than kick the can if we are you know are are continuing in our support for this project which we've already voted before is something we thought good to do we've you know all the way back to the beginning of starting the writing so if we're still good with it then to me I'm just trying to find a way the spirit of my motion is is to go forward with approving whatever it is the request so that we can begin working on the request through the town manager through the town council to have that funding piece guaranteed or supported so that again mass humanities will know that that's not a that's not a question they you know we've we've moved on it and we're getting the the the cash amount in addition to the letters saying in kind so what would be helpful for me Dr Shabazz right now in terms of having three minutes left I'm going to be when we get off this meeting working from three to five o'clock to get those remaining items over and we have a five o'clock deadline what would be helpful for me is to have a motion from this committee that gives me the direction to on behalf of the committee provided in kind donation commitment of up to whatever amount I need to fill in you know what I mean for people on this committee who will be working directly on this project if we can do that by consensus if you all say yeah Michelle it's fine go ahead write it but if you want that in a motion if you want to give me that direction in a motion then we need to do that now with the last couple minutes we have left and then I'm comfortable going forward with your motion as well but I'm also fine to wait on that until next week so I saw Alexis and then Dr Rhodes yeah I was just going to ask if if adding more in kind stuff has to be included in that like can can more in kind labor be added retroactively no yes everything has to be into her by five p.m. today so and I'm sorry that I only met with her on Friday I've been working on these other letters of commitment with Amherst media and with Metia Kramer I've reached out to Mike Kelly who's the head archivist at Amherst college he's on a leave a sabbatical a research sabbatical so unfortunately I wasn't able to get a letter from him but but we do have to have it in by five p.m. I think probably if we received a letter later if it was a reflection of what was in the budget we could submit it but it has to all be reflected in the budget today by five Dr Rhodes we need to dispose of the motion on the floor yes one way or the other okay Dr Shabazz do you want to withdraw it and wait till Monday next Monday or do you want to move on if this isn't helpful or necessary for you for five p.m. and there are still questions about it I'm happy to withdraw it okay if you if that works for you that would be great if somebody would be willing to make another motion that directs me to write a letter of commitment on behalf of the HRA to contribute in kind donations up to whatever amount is necessary for specific work on this project that would be helpful yes Yvonne please yeah I don't think it's the in kind I think it's the cash donation that we're voting on yeah I don't think it's the in kind but I've agreed to withdraw I've agreed to withdraw the the cash the the authorization to request the cash donation if that's not important I'm hearing now though whether by consensus or by motion the chair is asking if it's okay for her to include in addition to the amounts she has secured in letters from Amherst media and from Mattia Kramer to include whatever portion to make up the 18,000 of members of this body of which for me individually I would say yes you feel feel free to incorporate my support for and then I can make a motion thank you okay so my motion is that um we empower the chair Michelle Miller to move forward with actions to submit our the changes to our mass humanities proposal that that will include in kind amount up to $18,000 and a cash match by this committee um of more than $2,000 it has to be up to or more than $2,000 if I made to your motion are we requesting that out of our pockets because I'm kind of low right back from the from the from committee coffers from the committee from the committee's coffers I don't know if that makes sense the first part made a lot of sense okay I'm wondering if we should hold off on that second part until Monday of next week when so do you want me to adjust my motion you would amend it yeah I will amend my motion Alexis you have to go I see you I see you thank you so the motion the motion is to empower the chair to move forward with uh the mass humanities grant changes um that may have budgetary implement implications that we will vote on during the next meeting or if we if we would just say like you did at the first time that will include in kind contributions up to $8,000 $18,000 okay so we so the motion amended to empower the chair Michelle Miller to move forward with the changes to the mass humanities grant that can include or will include some in kind um amounts up to $18,000 of which ahra members will contribute that's that's the piece yeah that I yeah I okay sure does that make sense what doesn't make sense to me is that the cash donation is actually the most important part of the of the motion because we have to vote on cash not the income the income can go through it that doesn't matter it's okay that we have to vote on okay so if everyone's fine basically with me saying that the committee writing a letter on behalf of the committee and saying that we will provide in kind services um as committee members toward this project it's sort of innate we've already agreed that we're going to do that but I just want to make sure that everybody that there may be a committee member who says you know what I I don't want to provide in kind contributions to this project if that committee member exists right now please speak um and then we can just do away with the whole motion I think all together because I'm hearing that there's some consensus that we can just I can move forward with that letter and then next week we'll go ahead and do the money part as I would like to do that because I want to know what the cash donation is perfect does that work for everyone okay awesome that's great and okay so it's 304 um the last thing I'll say is I am really really excited to get an engaged Amherst page up for our work um and to have a more lively page that people can go to start uh to to supply thoughts feedback um engage with us um African heritage residents can um begin to engage and find ways to connect with us and so um that's one of other items in the engagement piece I would really like to spend the majority if not all of our meeting next Monday um discussing engagement with the black community we it keeps sort of getting pushed because of these other items and I I just I feel we really need to spend and if we can commit to a full hour and a half um of doing so next week that would be really great is Monday um at 2 p.m. next week possible for everyone yeah yes Yvonne checking for counter I'm gonna wait yeah yes Deborah that works for you Ms Bridges that's that's August 1st that's August 1st right yes oh my god July's gone I know I know yes oh wow okay yes I'm okay with that okay perfect Hala that works for you Dr Rhodes Jennifer Pamela okay um we're saying two to 330 yes let's commit a full hour and a half let's dig into engagement we need to get out there and um and so let's let's do that if there are any other items that people would like to see on that agenda just send me an email and if there are I don't have any items that I didn't anticipate and uh we're not going to approve minutes we're going to hold off on that um if there aren't any other member reports I'm going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting at 306 p.m. okay anything else all right thank you all awesome meeting see you next time