 had and kicked the meeting off. Got it. All right. So I'm calling this meeting to order at 633, a meeting of the African Heritage Reparations Assembly. Pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. See instructions below. 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 welcome, everyone. Nice to see you all. Nice to see you, Dr. Shabazz and Irv and Hala and hopefully our others will be here soon. So we're going to start with some announcements. We haven't met actually since Dr. Jemison resigned. And so I'd like to take a moment for us to thank her for her valuable contributions and just really take a moment to honor everything that she brought to the assembly and that I think she'll continue to bring to the assembly. And we will later in later in the member reports, if there's something that you'd like to add, please do so during the member reports. If you'd like to make an offering or add anything to that. Moving on, please to announce that the town council voted to move the $210,000 into the reparation stabilization fund last Monday. So that's something to be really excited and happy about and was pleased to see that. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at that meeting, but it did happen. I can verify that. I also wanted to share that Jennifer and Paul and I attended a really excellent conference yesterday that was sponsored by Northeastern University called Racial Redress and Reparations. And maybe others were there as well, but I wanted to note that it was great. And at some point, if we can get together some notes to share, we will. And all right, that's it for announcements. And so we're just going to do a quick agenda review. And Jennifer, I'm sorry, we should have covered this, but do we have any minutes to approve tonight? No, the packet went out so late, so I didn't include the minutes because then nobody would have been able to read them. So absolutely. That'll start off for the next meeting. That sounds great. Okay, excellent. So for tonight, we're going to start, of course, with our public comment. And then we'll do a quick review of our meeting etiquette. We will talk about the proposed items for the AHRA website. Really not talk, but try to vote on them. I've prepared a motion for us. They were in the 11-4 packet. We briefly looked at them, but between Jennifer and I, we couldn't remember exactly what happened. They didn't get voted on, though. So we're hoping to do that tonight. And then if Alexis does come to the meeting, she will have an update on the Reckoning in Boston viewing plan. So we'll hold off and wait for her for that. And then we have a debrief from the Town Council presentation that happened on 11-8. And then I am going to present resetting of the AHRA strategy, which I apologize. I did prepare some slides to help us with that. And I apologize that I didn't get them too sooner. I've really been working hard on getting all of the thoughts and feedback and everything together. And so I didn't get it kind of into form until just before the meeting. So I'll share those when we get to that portion. And then, again, we'll have public comment and member reports. Actually, before public comment, it's not showing on our agenda tonight. It was just probably a minor oversight to put a BAM update. There was a meeting, a joint meeting of BAM and the AHRA. So we'll ask one of our assembly members who participated in that to give an update. And then I believe that Irv will have an update on the census. And then during member reports, we will have an opportunity for that. And then we'll finish up with upcoming agenda items and meeting schedules. So any questions before we go ahead and move on to public comment? And if you want to just raise your hand, if you have a question, that would be great. All right. So we'll go ahead and move on to public comment. During the public comment period, one of the co-chairs will recognize members of the public. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name, preferred pronouns and residential address. And just to mention, you never have to provide your full address. So if you just want to say you're from Amherst or wherever you're from, that's fine. 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. No speaker can cede their time to another speaker. The AHA will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment. Take a look. So I see we do have Will Norris would like to make a public comment. So just one second, Will. Oh, your hand went down. Just go ahead and there we go. Okay, great. All right. So Will, you should be able to speak. Let's try it again. Here we go. Yeah, the wrong folks got moved into the room. So I'm sorry about that. It's just kind of moving around on me here. I think that Will should be okay. Yeah, I think, can you hear me now? Yes. We can. Well, yeah, I really just wanted to let everyone know that it's been a few weeks that I'm here again, just listening in. And I'm hoping to over the coming weeks and months move forward, my reporting. And I just want everyone to be aware of that. I'll be kind of talking to whoever I can. And I hope to reach out to people individually for conversations if everyone's amenable. So just wanted that to be on folks radar. So and, you know, again, just wanted to be transparent about that. I'm here listening in. So thanks. Thank you, Will. Anybody else wishes to speak? Please raise your hand. Okay. So great. So I'm just juggling moving around between between things here. So thanks for your patience. Okay, so we're going to move on to our action and discussion items. And just starting with our meeting etiquette reminder, and I will bring up our ropes here, share the screen. Let's see. I think I'm sharing. Is that working for everyone? Okay, I did it without canceling the meeting. So just, yeah, we want to take a quick peek at the ropes again. It's been a few weeks since we've met. So I'm going to stop the share here. I think. Yep. All right, good. Okay, so we can move to the proposed items for the AHRA website. And they were available in the November 4 packet. I'm going to once again share my screen. Oh, thank you, Jennifer. You're much quicker at this than I am. So I do have a motion prepared. I'm not sure if folks had a chance to review these items when we initially, when they were initially brought in. But why don't we just take a moment, if there are, just take a moment to sort of look over them again. And as a reminder, these items are being submitted as they come through assembly members are submitting them to Jennifer. And then Jennifer is compiling them for us on a weekly or bi-weekly or at whatever pace they're coming in at. And then as we vote on them, Jennifer will add them to the AHRA website. And so if there's something in this list that you'd like to pull out that you would not like or that you'd like to discuss, when I make the motion, after it's seconded, we'll just have an opportunity for that to happen for anything to be pulled out. Otherwise, if everything looks good, we can just go ahead and vote on the motion. All right, so I'm going to go ahead and pull up the motion. So I'm going to read the motion. This is a motion to approve the items submitted to the 11 for 2021 packet for publication on the AHRA website. I second it. And do we have any discussion on this? Okay, great. Then we'll go ahead and move to a roll call vote. So, Irv, how do you vote? Irv, you're muted. I said I'm going to abstain because I did really to vote on yes or no or yes when I really didn't go through and look at it would be not right. So I'm going to abstain. Okay. That doesn't impact our quorum. Does it, Jennifer? We can still move forward with the vote. Okay, great. Shabazz, Dr. Shabazz, how do you vote? Shabazz, yes. And Hala, how do you vote? Lord, aye. And Miller, aye. So this vote, this motion, excuse me, passes three, yes, zero, no, and one, abstain. I'm just, I'm going to bring that back to council, not council, but to the clerk's office before I go ahead and say that's final because you have one who abstained and then there's one, two who are absent. Yes. Okay. So, yeah, let's clarify that for sure. And then if we have to do something for next time, just let me know and we'll go ahead and do that. All right. So let's then move on. We do not have Alexis here yet. So I'm going to skip the reckoning in Boston for now. I can say, though, that she has a plan and it looks like it's moving forward. And she can talk more about that if and when she's here. So we'll move on to the debrief. I thought this is sort of seems like a long time ago at this point, but there was a presentation to the town council based on our initial report. So I wanted to give folks the opportunity to offer any comments or feedback or anything really pertaining and just keeping our ropes in mind. But anything really, if there's anything that you'd like to share, this is the opportunity and you can just raise your hand. Well, I'm glad that we had that opportunity to present. And I think that overall I was, I feel I just want to express that I feel that we did a lot of work in a really short period of time and came up with a really robust and rich report in such a short period of time. And I think the council really appreciated that. And I personally received a lot of really great feedback about the dedication and commitment of this body. And so I just want to express that. All right. So here we go. I have been thinking, and I'm just going to change my view here. There we go. Better. So I've been thinking a lot about our work and our timeline and everything that we have been asked to accomplish in our charge. I've been doing a lot of research. I looked very, very deeply at what California is doing. Dr. Shabazz had brought that to my attention now a few weeks back. And yesterday during the conference at Northeastern, there were folks there that were working on that. And so I did a deep dive into that. I looked at what other communities are doing and have done. And Dr. Jemison also provided some really excellent feedback to me as well when in sort of with her resignation. So with all of that in mind, I have a proposal to bring to you. And I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. And I guess it's going to be, let's see how this is going to look here. So share screen. Go. All right. Does everyone see that? No. Okay. Now. Yeah. Okay. Give me a thumbs up if you see it. Great. Hala. Dr. Shabazz, do you see it? Okay. Great. Let's see. Okay. So one of the things that has really, you know, that I've been reflecting on is the timeline that we have been asked to complete this work in and sort of how much time we've spent over the past several months really dealing with just trying to land as a body, understand what it is that our charge is asking of us, and also sort of being bogged down into some of the administrative aspects of, you know, running a municipal or municipal committee. And so I'm proposing that we take a longer view approach. And this is something that Dr. Jemisin also recommended. And, you know, there's, there was a, there was a conversation that happened again yesterday in this conference about sort of meeting like understanding reparations now and the urgency and also understanding the importance of really taking the time to develop a thoughtful plan. So I'm proposing that we request that our charge be extended to June 2023, which as I said in the advantages would give us another budget cycle and sort of take that particular pressure off right now. And it's also a chicken and egg debacle, you know, sort of a chicken and egg dilemma that we have here when it comes to developing the plan and the budget. I'm suggesting that we take a little pressure off and meet once or twice per month as a group, as opposed to meeting weekly. It will give us a little more time in between to get organized and also allow us to organize into subcommittees in between meetings. Just some of the advantages I mentioned here are sort of to lift us out of the weeds, ensure the process is truly community generated, take the budget cycle pressure off and also take into consideration that we'll be getting a new DEI director. There was just a new council. There's a sort of a lot of change happening right now. So that's sort of the broad picture of what I'm suggesting. And I'm going to go through this and then we can just open it up for discussion. I also thought about how this is sort of like a startup in the sense that reparations, the conversation about reparations is not new by any means, but developing municipal local plans is new and it requires innovation and it requires funding. And so I am suggesting that we use some portion of the seed money, the $210,000 that we have to actually develop the plan. And so here we would hire tier one and tier two consultants to help us in areas like education, community outreach, economic marketing research. We could hire expert witnesses to come and give testimony. We'd be able to develop our census and website and host and develop educational events. And so for a timeline here I'm suggesting that we have three phases. Phase one is our data collection. So this is where we're really working to win the hearts and minds and those are Dr. Jemisin's words and really building awareness and education for ourselves and our community and people outside of our community even. This would allow us to bring in expert testimony at public meetings. It would allow us to expand our historical and modern research and collaborate with public schools and anchor institutions. This phase would also include community engagement and communications. We would develop a multi-level community engagement process that would allow us to really help for this to be a community led and truly community engaged process. And then also in this phase we would be developing the foundation further. So the black census, we could begin any state legislation that we may want to get the ball rolling on and we could work on documenting our process. So that's phase one and I see that happening between January. I kind of figured with the holidays in December we may want to limit our meetings and maybe have one more meeting in December to really sort of hash through some of this. But January through June, excuse me, that should say January 2022 through June 2022. And then phase two would be the development of a draft plan. And this is where we would take all of the data that we collected through our educational process, our community engagement process. We would have partnered with professionals and then in that process here in phase two we'll develop our criteria and our eligibility and make recommendations for a plan. And here it doesn't mean that we won't still be engaging with community in phase two, but the robust portion of that will occur in phase one. And that will be from July through September 2022. And then phase three, which is again I'm assuming with the chicken and egg piece of things that the phase three is then okay, we've done this awareness work, we've done education work, we've collected community data, we've engaged with our community. And now we've developed this draft plan and we're going to identify funding sources based on an actual plan. And we can develop funding sources through the town, through anchor institutions and through private residences, private residents, excuse me. And that would be between, so that would basically take place in our next budget cycle. And again, this doesn't mean that we couldn't be working on those things, but it would take the pressure off of us right now trying to get what we're going to get and rushing through and having to send people out and advocating, you know, I think that with the new town council coming, with the DEI director coming, with the sort of groundswell support that's coming for these things next budget cycle, we're going to be perfectly positioned and we're going to have an actual plan. So I'm going to stop and just open it up for discussion and please feel free to raise your hand at any time right now. And Dr. Shabazz, yes. Well, thank you for this proposal, this and resetting idea. There are some compelling points that it puts on my mind. But before going into that, I do have just some questions, terms, things I'm not clear on. One being tier one and tier two consultants. I'm not sure what that, if I'm clear on that. Yeah, that's a really good question. So I, you know, and I actually took that from, I think it was California and the way I think the way that it's described is we may have some consultants that we're hiring that are like profess, professional organizations that we want to work with. And then we may have sort of boots on the ground like ambassador type consultants that we want to pay and compensate for their work in whatever portion, whether we're talking about education or community engagement or any one of those areas. So that could really be defined by us, but it's just to give us flexibility and also to sort of signal that we want to be able to compensate people who are going to help with this work. Okay. Halla. Oh, I'm wondering if we're not going to, I will need more time to vote on this. And I was wondering if we could get, if I could get this, we could get this information so I could read it and internalize it a little differently. I do thank you for this work. And then I have a question about, do we bring the proposal to town council because then they need to vote would need to vote to extend the charge. And I don't know about that. Yeah, so I did a little research on that in terms of what our pathway would be. So first, just to acknowledge absolutely. This will be sent out tonight to everybody and this proposal will not need to be voted on tonight. We can, you know, work on, we can do, we can talk about it tonight and then think about it between now and the next meeting, tweak it, whatever everybody would like to do. What we can, I did bring a motion that would, and I can actually just, let me see, I can show it to you here. So I did bring a motion that would allow us to approve the request to the town council for an extension. So if that portion, if we felt like we wanted to vote on just that, which would mean that we would follow the process, I asked Councillor Heneke to outline the process for me and also lays on Councillor Brewer. So I do know what the process is if this body wants to approve that we request the town council extend, then we can, I can go forward with that process if we approve that tonight. Thank you. Yeah. How about you, are there any questions or comments or? You know, I appreciate the effort and I appreciate everything that you've done with this. However, there is, it's a lot to digest and to think about. And when you were going through it, like incredible number of questions came out. And I have questions about sequencing and also about expenditure of funds. And at this particular point in time, I think that there's a lot of things that really need to, that are precursors to this that need to be thought about beforehand. And so I just need some time to sit with this and think about it and jot some things down in relationship to it. However, I do agree that the motion that you have, we definitely need to vote on that extension tonight. Great. Thank you. And, you know, now that this, yeah, one sec, Jennifer, now that this has been sort of the proposal has been presented in the public body, it gives us the opportunity to go home with it and, you know, think about it and, you know, work on modifying it, amending it, doing all of those things on our own and then being able to bring that back. It's hard to, even though I didn't have it ready in advance anyway, but it's hard with the open meeting law. So I'm glad it's been presented. What about what Irv just said with respect to, you know, I just want to acknowledge that requesting an extension, I really, really feel strongly that we will, and I think Dr. Jemison really felt strongly as well, that we will create a much better and truly community, you know, lead reparations plan if we have more time. And I feel like we will have the support of the council to do that. But I also recognize that that means more time on this committee and assembly than maybe one anticipated. And so, but also thinking about meeting less frequently as well. So Jennifer, before you go Irv, Jennifer had her hand raised. Yeah, I just, I wanted to check in with how that process works with you extending it out as a counselor. Did you talk to anyone about that? I don't know that there's a problem or not, but usually we don't have counselors sitting on boards and committees for that length of a time. So yeah, I don't know how it would impact in terms of my staying on necessarily like if the council determined, I think that council, I think that there's some support for me staying here until the end of the current charge. I'm not sure I've had, because literally the only questions I've asked so far to counselor Heneke to understand the process for even trying to get an extension and then counselor Brewer, you know, more just about the process. So I don't really have a good answer to that question with respect to me being on the committee. And of course, my desire would be to stay on the committee and see it through. And I would understand if there were good reasons for that not to be the case. Yeah, I was just thinking because your chair, that's not like. Yeah, that's a big deal. I see Pat has her hand raised. So maybe Pat wants to offer something. Let's see. We'll bring you in Pat, one second. Every time I go down to the Zoom, it keeps asking me if I want to leave. I guess I'm going to have to stop the share for a second. I can let Pat in if that's easier for you. I can do that part. Yeah. Thank you. From everything I understand, a counselor sitting on a time limited committee is appropriate. And one of the examples is the elementary school building committee. It has counselors on it, but it's a time limited committee. And I will do a double check about this. I know that we voted not to have counselors sitting on an ongoing town committee. But since this still, even if you extend this time limit, I think it would be appropriate. And as I said, I will check with Lynn this evening or tomorrow and get back to you with a clearer answer than that. But I think it is fine. Thank you, Pat. Yeah, Herve. What I think is that we need to just bring the emotion to the floor now, have someone formally move on the motion to extend and get that out of the way. And then move on to whatever other discussions we want to have around the other items you present. All right. Do you hear? Let me pull that back up here. Sorry, Dr. Shavas. So, yeah, I take a different view on that. If the question of the strategy reset requires additional time to think about it in terms of whether that's the right direction to go, then there may not be a need to extend. The extending to me is premised upon if you feel that we're in need of a strategy reset. I'm not sure we're in need of a strategy reset. I need to get my head more around these points presented, as well as to get a sense of how this reset with this addition of time will produce a better plan. So, for me, I'm not in an urgency tonight on the question of the need to extend our work to June 2023. Yeah, Jennifer. Obviously, I don't have a stake. I think whatever time you guys need to make this work meaningful is important. But do remember that there are two members that aren't here that that makes a big difference without them being here. So, you should just take that into consideration too, because that's a considerable amount of time and a different commitment than what they signed up for. Yeah, I really honor that, and I think that that makes a lot of sense with digesting the proposal, with digesting this potential motion. I do feel like giving the other members an opportunity to consider all of that is really important. I just want to add on a personal note that I feel like the pace that we were working at was really, really hard for me personally, and I know that I'm in the chair spot, but it's a lot of work and it gives us very little time in between to process and to gather information and to get it to Jennifer in time that people can see it and all of those things. And I really struggled with feeling like, and I would not speak for Dr. Jemisin by any means, but I consider that Dr. Jemisin a loss to this committee, and I just worry for us that if we are moving fast and furious, we're going to burn out. And so I just put that out there. And I don't know Dr. Chabaz and Dr. Rhodes, you still have your hand raised. Dr. Chabaz, did you want to speak? Please. Yes, my additional point was that I thank you Jennifer for what you offered the thing that I would add as well. There's also this question of whether we're going to try to get ourselves back up to a seven member body. And so there's this additional person even in the that that's also a question mark here. So, you know, a lot of these things go into thinking about the resetting the strategy resetting, but also go into thinking about the question of extending requesting an extension of our charge. And Dr. Rhodes? Well, I agree, you know, having more voices weigh in on this is what being really good to do. However, at the end of the day, I, you know, and again, I would like for that to happen. But at the end of the day, when I look at it overall, trying to get funding and do a funding request with one budget cycle that's truncated as it is in terms of when we came on board and when we got chartered as a committee is just too short of a time. And so I know that, you know, deep in my heart, I believe that no matter what, when the other people are on board, they're going to agree with that. So I have no problem in terms of letting other people weigh in. Thank you, Irv. Are there? Oh, Dr. Schwarz. Thank you. So what I add to would like to add to this in terms of my my thinking about the pacing issue, reflecting on the past few months as you have as Madam Chair, and also thinking in terms of the question of the, you know, if we are trying to add a seventh, get back to a seventh person or not, you know, and the question of the strategy that comes into play here. So I wouldn't be averse to trying to go to an every other week kind of meeting format as opposed to a weekly meeting format. I think part of the weekly was the pressure of an October report when we just came into being in September. The part of the pressure was the budget cycle and the desire to try and weigh in on, to first of all inform ourselves about potential funding streams, but then as well to recognizing the deadlines for putting forward reparative justice, this reparations plan we're developing as for some of these funds, it was a grueling pace, but it was for that specific set of reasons. So I'm not averse at all to thinking going forward to an every other week kind of meeting for the reasons that have been mentioned, giving ourselves time to collect information, to approach people, to perhaps make presentations, to get all of this to Ms. Moyston in time for posting and agenda setting and open meeting law compliance. So absolutely, I could see making a decision as we do build our calendar out going forward to look more in the direction of a bimonthly or every other week type of meeting. So with that said, let me turn more to the strategy question. I view the strategy, our initial strategy was about the question of first of all, creating a fund, creating a financial instrument, a fund out of which reparative justice efforts could be financed, not as a one and done, but over time. As the problems that have occurred have developed over time, the solutions are perhaps things that will need to be addressed over time. And so you build a fund, a kind of endowment that would be able to fund those efforts to repair. Then the question becomes, the other part of our charge, our work in the development of this plan is the ongoing mechanism as the efforts are made to build this fund, what are the mechanisms going forward by which the reparative efforts could be determined, could be assessed, could be recommended to the council, for the council to then approve, and then here's the fund that those efforts to repair would come from. So it's how to plan that out, how to plan out that mechanism, that successor group as we have called it. And so part of my concern with this extension, are we in a way sort of de facto making ourselves the successor body we originally envisioned. But planning wise, the view was to present a plan of how we would have a successor group, an ongoing mechanism that would invite from the community that has been harmed, ideas of things that could be done to promote reparative justice. This body would like, again, my example I keep going back to being the Community Preservation Act group, that they receive these proposals, they would vet those proposals, they would have hearings on those proposals, they would then recommend those proposals for funding out of the fund. So for me, I felt that, and at this point still feel that that is a doable project over the next four months, without having to meet every week. In fact, ideally not meeting every week, because of how it allows us time to get to really do the work and organize the work. So that's my initial sense of a strategy. And then we could present that out in June, the Council could then work with that, modify it as they wish, but hopefully, if our work was well done, approve it, approve the creation of the successor body, approve the work necessary to build the fund that could be an ongoing funding mechanism, not a one and done, but also for those kinds of funds that are like an ARPA that are time bound, the successor body could again develop proposals, vet proposals, present to the Council those proposals, and take on that work. So right now, that's still the process in my mind and a process again, not necessarily requiring weekly meetings, but probably requiring that we not meet weekly in order to be able to effectively have time to do the work. And I need to get my head around some of the points that was raised in our Chair's proposal of this strategy resetting, maybe look at some of the California information she's looked at, look at some other things she's looking at. So I'm not discounting the presentation. I'm only saying, as my comrade Hollop said earlier, I just need the time to let some of this sink in, to process this, to look at the information, to mull it over, and then perhaps I could see the need for this strategy reset. Okay, one of the things floating in my mind is how the community safety reform process unfolded. And here were people meeting furiously, weekly, grueling schedule, all of it open and before the public on television. I watched many an episode, this intense amount of work that was done, only to then things be bungled along the way toward the end, not being given full time to present their views, the question of whether, you know, their views were going to get a full audience before the council or if it was all going to be distilled through the town manager and what the town manager said would be the final report, it was just badly done at the end. And so I definitely don't want to go down that path and put in that kind of grueling work to then, you know, have things go that way, although it seems though some of it's been corrected, some things have been, have been, you know, gotten back on track. So, but nonetheless, I have that going in my head that leads me in thinking in some ways towards reset, towards this time extension rather, in some ways, it still says to me, well, maybe not if depending on the scope, the scope of what we see as our work. So that's my share on it in terms of trying to give, articulate a little better where I'm sitting right now. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Shabazz. Or before I call on you, I just want to check in with Hala and see not to, just want to check if you had anything that you wanted to add. No, I'm pretty much in a lot of agreement with Dr. Shabazz. But thank you. Dr. Rhodes, sorry. So Dr. Shabazz, one of the things that I admire about you is that you talk in paragraphs. And it's also one of the things that is difficult for a lot of people to follow. So what I would like for you to do is tell me what are the three things that you really are recommending? Three of them. And then let's see if we can have a discussion about that. May I, Madam Chair? Yes. All right, I'll give it a try. So one, I'm recommending we do, as we do our calendar build out, go toward an every other week meeting and not try to continue at a weekly meeting pace. That's number one. Number two, I'd recommend between now and that next meeting, having some opportunity to take a deeper look at the strategy reset that Michelle Miller presented and be able to come back with at the next meeting to have more discussion and see where we may be in terms of our work, of our strategy going forward. And three, I would say that the real work at hand right now is to take clear stock of where we are on the fund, on the financial mechanism, and kind of prioritize another round of discussion about that for our next meeting, that that be an agenda item, sort of where we are on the funding piece. That was impressive, I got to say. I appreciate the question and the answer. I really appreciate Dr. Shabazz. One of the things that when I listen to those three things, I want to come back and swing back to the question at hand. And the big question at hand, and I think with dispense with that is in terms of us voting on the extension of time, that it seems like we're going to agree that we're going to have other people come who are not here coming way in on that. The other thing is, since that's the case, then we're left with the second thing, which is the overall presentation that Michelle made, and then having time to digest that, and having other members also having time to digest it, then coming back and having a more fuller discussion of that. So if I dispense with those two things, then that brings me to the question of, all right, if those two things are off the table and we're putting those off until a further time, what are we wanting to deal with tonight so that we can move ourselves forward? That's a really good question. I just, if I could add a quick note about the proposal and just one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about, and also again, Dr. Jemison and looking around, I think that the opportunity to engage as many people as we can in this process is really important. And I think that engaging professionals and professional facilitators, professional, whoever is something that, like the community safety working group did so well, is to engage really, really good consultants that could sort of take the work, not take the work off of the body, but let the body do what they need to do and let the consultants do what they do best. And so I just, if you look as you begin to look through the plan and when you get a chance to do that, just thinking about each kind of, like the last thing that I want to do is rush to develop a plan that folks feel was sort of just streamlined through without the sort of fullness of the community. And also I do think we need help on a sort of professional level in some of the areas that we're working in because of our time constraints and because in some cases we may not have the actual expertise to do some of the things that we'll want to include and do. So I just want to add that when you're sort of thinking through it. Yes, Jennifer? A couple of things. One, I just want to speak in regards to Dr. Shabazz's comment about the CSWG and the members and how they were rushed. I think that one of the things was a lot was learned from that process. And a lot of the things that a lot of processes that they used were set up for boards and committees and departments that have already been created. And then that is just the way that it's always moved. And so I think it made us realize that like just because that's the way it's always been done doesn't mean that's the way that it needs to work moving forward. So I think a lot of that was stuck with the CSWG because they were this new group with new energy that fit outside the box of what we normally have happen in local government. Two is that it's never too late or, you know, it's not necessarily never too late. But the ability to ask for an extension is something that can always almost happen, right? Like there's no I'm not saying that you guys don't need. I'm not weighing in. I'm just trying to let you know that the option to ask for an extension can happen continuously without although I understand why you would do it now because it just takes a lot of pressure off of feeling like you have to get this done right away. So I do understand that. But again, extensions can always be asked throughout the process. And then consultants, even though one day I would wish to be one, there's, I think that, you know, this group really, this is a very community driven. This committee is built to have community input. And so that is what needs to drive us. And that's how we get our recommendations. So when it comes to consultants, because they are expensive and it is going to take a big chunk out of the budget, right? But also you can't rush the consultants because you don't always, rushing a consultant doesn't get you always the work the way that you needed. Two of the reports happened without information from the consultants from the CSWG, right? And then it was added in. So you just, you have to, I mean, that has to happen that way. But when you're under pressure and having a consultant come in doesn't always make the needs. And then the process for getting a consultant is very timely too, because it has to go out to bid. So you have to take those things into consideration. So if you are thinking about having a consultant that needs to happen probably sooner than later, because it's about a month to a month and a half before they actually, you get everything done and all the agreements are signed. Thank you. That's so helpful. And you know, I was looking at, and we'll add this to the packet, counselor, Bob Milne, she sent over a community engagement sort of process that she's been working in partnership, I think with UMass and maybe a couple of other counselors to develop. And it's a really fantastic process. It hits all the stakeholders. California also put forward two community engagement flow charts that are extremely helpful and that I will also include in the next packet to show how we might go about that. And so, you know, in terms of consultants, I think it can look different ways, but we definitely want to make sure that we find ways to reach as many, because that's what's going to sort of develop the awareness, the education, and also engage the hearts and minds of our community, the more of these people that we can hit and engage with and include in this process and this shared process. The one thing about like whether to extend or not, I do think though we can ask for an extension anytime, I'd rather be proactive so that we can set our schedule out and be not trying to always chase things, but actually be really on top of things and have this plan set forward for us that we can depend on and that we can know sort of what we're doing as opposed to trying to like get through, you know, a bunch of stuff and then realize, oh shoot, we need more time. How do we give in our self more space in between? Because this is an area where processing is really important. I mean, all areas are, but I think that in particular for us to process, for the community to process, for the council to process, all of that. So, thank you though, Jennifer. Thank you, Jennifer. And Irv, did you have your- I do, and I think that, you know, we really need to think deeply about A, where we are now with ourselves and B, how we wish and what we wish to spend the money on. And when I say that, we have the money in the stabilization fund. But there is a process that has to be followed in order to spend that money. That process includes going through the town council and getting a two-thirds vote, which means you're looking at town council meetings and their schedule. So, we need to keep that in mind. But the bigger question, the more important question is, how do we organize ourselves to be able to make a decision, either now or in the future, before we dissolve or we're extended, in terms of what we want to spend this money on in the next month, two months, three months, six months, etc. That's a big question. What do we wish to spend it on? Now, it's sort of like the dog who caught the car. Now what? So, we have to make that decision. And that is not a small decision because whenever you start expending money, it starts coming right back at you in terms of your values and what you really believe in. So, that's on our table. That's on our plate right now. Town council and everyone else has done their job. They have put the money at our disposal. We now have to figure out how we want to spend that money and when. So, I'm going to suggest that we sort of wrap this discussion up and take an opportunity to, between now and the next time we meet, reflect on it and be prepared to come to the next meeting with thoughts and input and all of that good stuff. And we'll also make sure that our other members are privy to this information and so that way they can call with any questions or anything like that in between. And then, you know, I'm looking at the clock. It's 735 right now and without Alexis here to offer her report on the racial reckoning. We do have a BAM report that I would like to make sure we get to. I'd love for somebody to report out about the meeting. And I'd also love for Irv to talk to us about the Donahue Institute and what came out of that. So, is that, does that feel like a good direction to go in at this point to sort of wrap this up and let's move on to the BAM report? All right, let's do it. And who, if one, two, or three could give all of the above, whoever was there, I'm not sure who was at that meeting, but I would love to hear a report of the joint meeting that occurred between the AHRA and BAM on, it was last Saturday now, I believe. Let me just get that date. It was the 27th. So, if one of you would like to report on that, that would be great. Yes, I can get the ball started. So, we actually did not have a quorum of AHRA assembly members. We went through the motions of accordingly, but we actually did not have an actual quorum of the AHRA. There was an opportunity, however, for during the time of where we were in, as we called it, a joint meeting that we opened for questions. We opened to sort of share with members on the there who have been regular members of BAM that were present. Anticipating it as a public meeting, we also opened during that time for non-BAM participants to be on hand. So, that's where we first met Will Norris, one of our attendees who spoke during public comment. And so, we were able to hear from Will the work that he's doing and his interest in this work that we're doing. Once we came to the kind of conclusion of that round of questions, we then closed that out and went back into BAM proper, and that's where Will and others who are not a members of the African heritage community of Amherst were excused for the duration of that part of the meeting. We did have an opportunity to really discuss and to talk about engagement, community engagement with the African heritage community. I don't want to overstep on the Black Census report that Dr. Rhodes will bring in, so I'll just sort of leave it short, put it put it into this paragraph at this time. Thank you. Great. Well, I just want to say how much I appreciated that that meeting even happened, and my apologies for not being able to be there, and I do hope there's other opportunities, but it really is great that that happened and came together, and I'm glad to hear Will was there and others, so that's great. So thank you. So Dr. Rhodes, I'm so used to calling you Irv, and your tagline here is Dr. Irv Rhodes, which I know, of course, but so now I'm going to call you that. Dr. Rhodes, would you mind giving us the update there on the census? Well, the summit information was in the packet, and I must admit that I'm really impressed with the work of the Donahue Institute and what they've been able to do. In order for us to move ahead, now it's in the hands of the town manager. He's been given that proposal from the Donahue Institute. That proposal would allow the Donahue Institute to move forward. It would give us an extraordinary means of looking at the African American population here and Amherst on a census block by block nature and also looking at it from a geographic point of view, as well as giving us tools for the committee itself or for individual town members or anyone else to use the tool to look at where African Americans are situated in this town. Once we have that in our hands and once it's completed, my thought is that that we go to where Dr. Shevize has always talked about in terms of getting people boots on the ground through individual interviews to complete the census of African Americans in this town. This gives us an incredible opportunity to do that. African Americans are around 2,300 in Amherst. Those are the people who actually identify as being Black African Americans. They identify it. They have identified themselves that way via the census to the census worker or via a form coming from the census. We know that there are 2,300 people in Amherst who identify as Black African Americans. It's now up to us to track them down. I will say I was really impressed and I think it's probably we can add this. Actually, I'd have to talk to, I don't know how it works in terms of like proposals like this that include budget items, but I think if everybody could see this, it would be really great because I was very, very impressed with what they put together. I was really encouraged by the price that they offered to do this at and so thank you Irv for getting that. I thought it was a part of the packet, but if it isn't a part of the packet, that proposal should be made available to all of the members of AHRA because it's an impressive package and the charge for this is like $3,500. I think that's what they're charging. Right. And just to say that we, if you keep in mind, in addition to our $210,000, we had the money that Town Manager Bowman set aside from us last year basically of about, I think it's $6,000 or something in that range. So Jennifer, were you going to say something in relation to this? Yeah, I don't remember seeing the part of it about the proposal. Like I don't remember that being sent to me, but perhaps it did. I'm forwarding it to you right now Jennifer. I have it right here. That would be great. If you could just check with Paul about, it was only sent, I think it was sent to Paul and myself, but I, yeah, so I'm going to send it to you right now. And then if we can kind of, I'm not sure who sent it, but if you send something to Paul, that doesn't mean that I'm going to necessarily see it, right? So if it needs to go in the back, I should have done, I sent it to Paul and Michelle. And my thought was that Michelle was going to get it to you if she thought it was appropriate. And anyway, there you go. You did the right thing, and that was on me too. And again, I'm still not, I don't know why I'm having like a bit of a concern about whether or not that document would be part of a public record. Something is raising a flag for me, but I don't know what it is. Jennifer, yeah. Anything that you send to Paul can get called out as a public records request, so it just doesn't matter at that point. And anything that this group is going to have any kind of discussion on any document that supports the discussion needs to be part of the packet. Perfect, perfect. Okay, my apologies on that. So you have it now, Jennifer. I did just forward it to you. All right, great. So great update there. Is there anything else about any other BAM related updates? Any future BAM work updates or anything like that that should be reported? Well, I can hazard something else. You know, the idea is how to invite members of that 2,228 or 2,300 as Dr. Rhodes rounds up, how to find ways to really reach them, to engage in this discussion of repair, and what comes up for them in thinking about how do we repair the harm from this legacy of systemic anti-black racism. And that's in our genes, as we say. That's epigenetic. What makes sense? What comes up? And one idea that is in terms of, you know, small gatherings, small both with public health concerns in mind, and small in-person gatherings in terms of, you know, an understanding of our culture as African heritage people. And in talking with Jennifer about this, she made the point that, you know, through 2022, I'm sorry, through 2021 at least, the guidelines of the town of Amherst, you know, is not promoting large in-person gatherings. And I get that. But as we go into 2023, and if, you know, people are properly vaccinated and booster shots and, you know, care is made with where we meet and ventilation and how we meet, maybe it's possible to start with groups of 40 to 50 at a time out of that 2,300 to come and discuss and to begin to engage. Because, you know, just the email, just the email contact or going through our public media, like Amherst media or newspapers in town, I don't think we're, I don't think that jobs with the culture that I know, where people can look at each other, feel each other, talk to each other, have a sense of each other's, you know, intentions and tone. And so, you know, that's where the idea has come up with, you know, looking at a venue where we could gather in small groups, break bread, you know, have a beverage and have some discussion of these matters to engage and to get to begin to draw the ideas of folks. So, I just wanted to see that out there once again. I hope people don't see that as being somehow divisive or uninclusive. It's just a matter of how, if we're talking about a specific community that has been harmed, how do we engage with that community to talk about repair, restitution, restoring on this municipal level? How do we begin to talk about it? What's possible to imagine? So, I just wanted to see that idea back out there that I hope it's something that this assembly could think about, to think about how to support. I personally feel, you know, a small amount of funding for those kinds of gatherings of people is as important, if more important, than tier one, tier two consultants and sending ambassadors out to knock on doors or whatever else we may have in mind. I think those kinds of gatherings are just as valid and just as important. So, I'll put that out there. Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. Really. Thank you for sharing that, Dr. Shabazz. And depending on how we choose to move forward, I think that that is something that could, as you and I have talked about, happen in the very near future in terms of that sort of first phase of really beginning for those things to happen. And I appreciate what you said. Sorry, just one second, Dr. Roads. I appreciate what you said about the public health issues surrounding that and how to be safe about it and all of that kind of thing too. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Dr. Roads. It's important to realize that one of the things, I'm really excited about this because one of the things that this, the Donahue will be doing is filtering out students so that when we look at that 2300, it might be only 2000. We're not sure, but they are going to be filtering out students from this. And that's, and I'm really excited about that. And then, you know, to come back to what Dr. Shabazz is saying, that what you're saying resonates with me because that has not happened in this community. We have not had gatherings, small gatherings of African Americans who can come together and talk about amours and their experience with amours and bring the kinds of information that everyone has been talking about to four so that we can utilize it. Everyone says what they're talking they're speaking for the African American community. Well, I mean, you know, unless they completed some miracle that we don't know how that can't be true. But this will allow us to tap into that. And so I'm excited about the possibility. Thank you, Jennifer. I am always excited about community outreach and engagement. So yes, but also I think in addition to what Dr. Shabazz says, and I was away for some of that. So sorry. But just meeting people at where there are, there are plenty of events that happen that have a majority, if not all, of the black community there where we can interact with them there. And these things are already set in motion or they're already there where we have an opportunity to speak with the black community. So I think that's just an additional way to reach out to people as well. And the ambassador program I think is actually, you know, changing from the COVID ambassadors to more community based ambassadors. So that might be able to be of assistance as well without the reparations assembly having to create that or a consultant to create that. And I think that the community outreach, regardless if there's a consultant's involved or not is absolutely, they would need to do the same thing. So that would truly be ideal if the ambassador program that's already grassroots doing that. That's yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, thank you for all of those updates. And Hala, just want to check in to see if you wanted to add anything to the BAM update. I was unfortunately at a funeral, so I was not there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I am going to have to jump off because two additional Dr. Rhodes want my attention, my daughter and my son. And they are assistant that I talked with them. So please excuse me. Can we still continue without Dr. Rhodes? Jen, we just can't vote. Oh, you're muted. Yeah, no decisions can be made. And I'll, and I'm not necessarily sure that I'll stop recording because then it looks a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Transparent. So. Well, we're pretty good. Continue the conversation. Yeah, I think Hala would, oh, I'm sorry. You said yes. And I'm sorry for your loss. And thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So we can basically, we would be moving now to our second public comment period if there is any public comment and then member reports. And then I did hear an agenda item or two, but I think that we'll do scheduling via email just so that we can incorporate everybody into the mix there. So if we're ready to move on from the BAM update, then we can go ahead and move on to our second public comment period. Just a thumbs up if that works. Okay. All right. I'm not going to read the disclosure again. But this is, well, hold on, let me see if anybody, nobody. Okay, we do have a public comment here indicated as LM. So I'm going to go ahead and LM, you should be able to speak. Yes, hi. It's Lauren. Oh, all right. Yay. I'm so glad it's me. I think so not. Yes, it's me. Awesome. Everyone. Yes. I wanted to just say a few thoughts because I know I'm one of the few newly, I still consider myself a newbie of Amherst. And I'm just glad to be here and witnessing this work that you all are doing. For me, I've shared some of my ideas already and sent them through BAM, sent them through email of like different things that a reparations fund could be used for. And still, I have to go back to the question of when I look at the charge of AHRA, the African Heritage Reparations Assembly, it says to develop reparations proposals. And so it's still hard for me to visualize from the conversations that you've all had of what are those proposals? What are the actual proposals that we are going to work on? I know that Dr. Rhodes, he was focused on the housing. And there are some other things that have come up in your assembly's discussions. But for me, I guess what I'm trying to clarify and share is that it would just be good to, as a community member, to know, are you going to actually come up with actual proposals? Like, for example, a housing idea or a housing plan. Where I live, it's affordable housing. And it was mentioned to me that they put in a bid for more affordable housing, this specific management company. How would the reparations assembly or AHRA, how would they put forward a proposal like that? Is that proposal coming from amongst the members or is it coming from outside? I just feel like there is not enough clarity as a community member that I haven't found that clarity. And I just would like to also add that when we think of reparative work, it to me, it's not just, yes, it's to repair those who have been hurt, which we know, and specifically Amherst, we are talking about. And in the U.S., we're talking about people of African descent, Black, African-Americans who identify that way. But I still envision work, reparative healing projects that will still encompass and include everyone. And so I just feel like we have to set a foundation to make sure that whatever we're putting money towards, it's a way that is not so narrow. It's coming like a root and a tree growing. And we see that the tree and the roots are rooted in reparative justice and coming forth from African-Americans coming from that place. But it's growing out into all of the community. And I think that would be a great mind shift for everyone to have, to realize that African-Americans can come from a place of abundance and just a place of abundance. So I would just like to, I don't know if I went over three minutes, but I would just like to say also that if there was just a simple proposal of land that is designated for African-American work projects that is connected to reparative justice, like you could plant trees, fruit trees. It could be like just a healing place that people could come to. But I just, I don't know. I don't know if I'm just going on, but I just feel like whatever the projects are, they have to, yes, be rooted in reparative justice, but they also have to be a way for the community to see that that laboratory experience. And yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you. If there's anyone else who would like to speak at public comment, please raise your hand. Okay. So this would be our member reports. And earlier in the meeting, I had talked about if anybody would like to offer anything in response to what I said earlier in the announcement about Dr. Jemison's resignation to make an offering with that. I know that would be, this would be the place to do it. And I also sent an email about that seventh member, the vacancy that we were talking about earlier. And so the member reports would be where if you have feedback to offer in this meeting right now, this is the place to do it. Of course, any input that you have on that, if it's specific or general, please feel free to send to me with a copy to Jennifer, an even town manager, Backelman, if you want to speak directly with him, since he makes the appointments for this. But I'd love to hear any suggestions or recommendations you have with respect to that. Yes, Jennifer. So the town manager sent out another press release in regards and included rep, because he was sending out a press release in regards to key boards and committees and vacancies on those. And so AHRA is included on that, in which I actually probably inadvertently sent them to all of you because I have a group of individuals that I send boards and committees and job vacancies to for outreach. So that's a part of outreach that's being done. Yeah, and I didn't get a chance to look at that email, but I did I did come through to me. So I did see it. Thank you. And this isn't that really the I just I just want to note that there's a lot of engagement opportunities right now between the community safety and social justice between our group and looked like others as well. So if you spread the word, I guess, yeah, I'll I said this privately, but I will say it publicly that I was in awe and inspired by Dr. Jemison, just her presence, her intelligence, her everything made me want to be a better me. And I really am grateful for the service she seated into seated into what we're doing and who she is. So thank you. She did tell me that wasn't the end of her being in local government. So hopefully there's some truth to that. And she'll join in another capacity. And I think she's going to continue to, you know, to advise and provide input for this assembly. So anything else for a member report before we move on? Yeah, I will join in to second everything and concur with everything that hello, Lord, present it. And to just add that I would hope that if there is an opportunity or in these opportunities we're talking about bringing together folks that maybe one of them could could one be a place to thank her for the time of her service on this particular work, but also to perhaps invite her to speak coming from her own, you know, background as a medical doctor about the report that's recently come out and the idea of the epigenetics of the harms that we are presently living with as people of African descent in the United States of African heritage people and would love to have an opportunity to visit with her and talk with her about that and share even with others who could hear more about that as we look at the harm report and think about the harm report and how it can inform our work here in Amherst. Thank you. Yeah, and thanks for mentioning the harm report. I think that if I have it, I can send to Jennifer, I think adding that to our list of items to be included on the website would be great. So I'll make sure to forward that. Okay, so, Holly, did you put your hand up again? Okay. All right, so moving on then to upcoming agenda items and meeting schedules. I did hear a couple things that I jotted down, but if there are other items, I think the meeting schedule we're going to put off to email, but if there are particular agenda items that have not been mentioned, please go ahead and mention them now. And just to recap what I had was to come back to review the reset plan, the potential of extending. Where are we now with respect to our fund and our funding? And then the once folks get a chance to look at the, excuse me, the census proposal, bringing that back into the BAM update next time we meet. Was there anything else, Jen? I don't know if you've caught something different. Okay, that good? Great. So there are no other topics that I did not reasonably anticipate. So I will go ahead and move. Oh, sorry, go ahead, Jennifer. So, yeah, no, you guys don't have an upcoming events section on here. So we'll have to include that moving forward. But now is the time when there's lots of events that are starting to kick off for the town and the community. So one is that December 10th is Human Rights Day. And so as usual, the Human Rights Commission will be reading the, well, the counselors will come and read the 2021 Proclamation for Human Rights Day. But then tradition is that the Human Rights Commission and community members read the Declaration of Human Rights and a visual candle event. Wonderful. And what time is that and where is it? That'll be at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 10th on the North Common at the Mary Maple. That's always a pleasure. Thank you. Juan's is coming at the end of December. Yeah. And we'll get more to you all on that. That's shaping up for that. It's something we approach on a region-wide basis. And we have checked in and heard from folks in Holy Oak and Springfield and other surrounding areas. And so we'll we'll be updating as that calendar fills out for the seven days from the 26th of December to January 1. Wonderful. It's amazing how I feel like we were just there like it was a year ago. And time has really flown by. All right. So if there is nothing else, then I will move to adjourn the meeting at 8 11 p.m. Second. All right. Good night. Thank you, everyone. See you soon.