 And Ben or Philip, do you want to read the script? And give me a start time for the meeting to either of you need me to pull up the agenda. You know what, that statement's not on that agenda. That's what I was just looking for in the packet. I can pull one up from another agenda. Hi everyone. Sorry, I had to step away for a bit. I'm single parenting this week. So my son needed me. Where are we at? We're just about to call the meeting to order. Are you doing that? I can. Oh, there we go. There's the statement. Now I guess I can. All right. So we start with the statement, right? You can just say that you're going to start the meeting, but you don't need a time. Yeah. So seeing a presence of a quorum, we're calling the Amherst Human Rights Commission to order at 636 on Wednesday, November 16th. And pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. The 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 needs. Great. Thank you. Now I'm going to pull up the regular agenda. And then you can. Or today's agenda. Jen, before you do that, can we. Just take a moment to acknowledge the new members. So I heard, I think I heard you say in the background that. Today's the end day before they can be sworn in or. What is. Yep. 30th day. Actually the first part on the agenda is, is welcome. It is. Can you see it? Perfect. Yes. Okay. Perfect. So we can go around. I'll stop share for now. So everybody can see each other. Yes. And welcome. Thank you for coming. And joining today. And. Yes, as Jen said, when you receive the packet, if you could just go to town clerk's office and get sworn in. I think it's worth going around for some quick introductions. I was on your interviewing committee. So my name is Phillip. I'm one of the co-chairs of the human rights commission. I will pass it to Ben. Hey, how's it going? I'm Ben Harrington. I'm the other co-chair. I also got to meet you. I actually had a face the last time we spoke, but today I'm doing double duty, but yeah. So I just want to welcome you again and look forward to working with you. And I will pass it to. Victor because he's in the top right online. Hi, my name is Victor. I recently joined the HRC at the beginning of this. The beginning of this school year. So. September on that time. I'll pass it to Juliana. My name is Juliana. I've been on the HRC for the same amount of time as Victor. And I will pass it to miss young. Hi, I'm Pamela young. I was part of your interview committee. So we had a chance to meet and. I'm the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I will pass it to the assistant director, Jen. Hello, my name is Jennifer moisten. I'm the assistant director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And Pamela and I are your staff liaison. So we kind of help run meetings and answer questions about the town and things like that. And I'm going to go ahead and pass it to Liz. Good evening. I am Liz. Hey, good. Laverne knows me from a long, long time ago as Mrs. Skelton. She went to school where I taught and also was a member of church. Goodwin Memorial. I've been on the commission for my, this is my third year. And I helped with a lot of subcommittee work. And I don't, I think I saw Earl in there somewhere. Yes. I'm here, Liz. It's too long since I've seen you. So I'm glad to see you tonight. I'm Earl Miller. I'm the director of the community responders for equity, safety and service department in town. And excited to be here with you on a night. I have no sense of who's left. I have no sense of who's left. Whoever hasn't gone. I think our two new members haven't gone. So either Laverne or Tyler. Okay. I'm Laverne Kelly. Nice to meet everyone. I'm Tyler. I'm a student at Emerson college. I'm really excited to be on the committee. Welcome. Awesome. Go ahead, Ben. Oh, okay. So, um, Do we have to do the agenda review part? I know that's always on our agendas. I feel like we never actually do that. Yeah. I don't think we. I think the agenda is up. So. Unless anybody has objection to it, I guess. But I think. That's good. Next on the agenda then. No, I was just going to say, do we have anyone for a public comment? We don't actually have any. We do have two attendees. Oh, yep. So. Now would be a good time to. So public comment right. Members in the public. If you have a public comment, if you would like to speak, please raise your hand. Don't think I'm seeing any. Going once going twice. Nope. All right. Then we are going to move on. We have a next on the agenda is HRC member report. Does anybody have any. Reporting back out that they would like to do. I have not been able to. Be in attendance at the. Housing trust committee meetings. You know, they keep saying second Tuesday, and then I keep missing it last Tuesday, last second Tuesday was election day. So they didn't have it. So they had a different day. So I'm still. Trying to work and get in control of that. I have been, I don't know if this is a report for now or new business, but I'm going to put it out there and tell me if I'm wrong. I have been requested to have folks. Attend a meeting with the town council. So I'm going to go ahead and think about and share their views on. Updating our athletic fields. At the high school. I know that there's been some controversy around. Trying to get the track. In the inner field. Up to par right now the track area was technically condemned. I know that it is a safety hazard. I know it is a safety hazard. I know it for competition or practice, even though people are still on it, it is a safety hazard. I know because I, as a member of the Massachusetts, think the scholastic athletic associations. Cross country and track and field committee, a national track and field. Member. Hampshire County trainer. And a member of the Western mass track and field officials, associations, board of directors. And a member of the board of directors. And a member of the board of directors. And a member of the board of directors. Deeming the track unsafe for use. I also coached there for 25 years from 1982 to 2006. And so it hurt my heart to have to do that. And. A member of the. Booster committee. Parent group. That oversees and raises funds for all of athletics for the high school. And so, having people go to the. Town council meeting on Monday and during their public comment express to them the importance of having a safe and healthy track. Not only for the high school, but also for community members. Our. Athletes. Our phys ed department. The entire school and especially. Our. School and community members. We have a lot of disabled. Students. As they move forward. So if you could put that on the agenda. And if you can't attend the meeting, if you could like something for me to share, or write something to your town council leader. I think that's it. The other thing is on. Oh. Well, Ben is part of it. So. I've also joined. The community. Juliana's on there. And Ben is our leader for that. Committee. I think we're supposed to be meeting right now, but I'm here. I saw Ben was here too. Juliana is here. So I don't know where that. But that's. But I. Have been in the school. I went to the poker meeting. Yesterday spoke with the students and had a great time with them. So one of our charges for this year will be to make our top presidents know more in the schools, speak to the staff, speak to the students, find out what's going on for them, give a post for school climate, help with Crests when, if there's need, need for some of us to just be an extra body in the school and help out, especially the high school in the middle school. And the other one was Quonset, which we will discuss later. And I want to give a soft cosine to Liz's comments about the track, full disclosure, like, I'm not entirely sure. So there's a lot of great area here for me, right? So I'm the assistant facilities director, so I'm heavily involved, clearly. I'm also the chair of the regional school committee. So I'm also heavily involved. But if you had any questions that might help you make a more informed public comment, you can reach out to myself. And I'm also volunteering Liz, because she has a plethora of knowledge too. So do we know when that meeting is going to be that the town council is going to it's Monday. If this Monday's meeting, there's supposed to be the track and hopefully some additional funding to help not only the track, but the fields around the track. And we're trying to put turf there. It's very and it's an interesting place. If you walk from the stairs to the track, you sometimes are knee deep in water before you even get to the track is a lot is a lot. If you need more individual information, I can go over a little more. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And I definitely will reach out to you for some more information. Jen, you have your hand up. Yeah, I was just going to add on to Liz's statement and Ben's now that it's and I think the controversy is less about the track and more about the turf field from what I'm hearing here in town hall. So yeah, that's the whole that's like the main issue, but it also affects fundraising for the track because it does. So what was approved was that if funds were raised, we would go with this option A, the three options option A being the synthetic turf field on the inside in the infield. But but so the grass field isn't actually on the agenda. So what the base, if we don't meet the fundraising goals, right, it's the base part of the track is going to get redone and it'll just be grass on the inside. I guess I can just expect if maybe but yeah, so that that is like the main part is the synthetic versus it's essentially synthetic and completely redoing the track or just resurfacing the track like that's kind of what it comes down to. And I think that people who might not be at the high school or or don't know enough about this or who don't have kids playing sports right now when we go to other sports fields, everybody else has a really nice field. Most of them have turf and then you come to Amherst and you know it's hard to play lacrosse. It's hard to play football. It's hard, you know, when you play lacrosse, you have to get down and scoop the ball, but that's hard to do when the grass is like five inches high. So there's just a lot that goes behind the the track. And you know, if you think about the kids, almost every team that they go to play against in another town has a turf field that is very nice. So the other issue is that we got from Ascender track to an all weather track in 2000. The track should be upgraded at least every eight to 10 years. So if you think about 2000 to 2022, we're talking about at least two almost three cycles that have gone by with nothing being done and it's torn up. And you know, it starts affecting the entire, not only the track itself, but the outlining grassy areas. And according to what I know is that if we don't get, if we can't figure out how to work with the infield as well, we're affecting soccer and lacrosse and field hockey and football and in ultimate and those are the sports, never mind all the phys ed classes and all the town members that go and use that facility. And we have to figure out the drainage system and that's the biggest issue. And that's what we really need to focus on so that we can make it safe for everybody's use. Okay, but thank you everybody for that. And if you would like any further information, it sounds like reach out to Ben or Liz about that and that town council meeting is November 21st. We'll also be arguing about it at the school committee meeting tomorrow night. So if you want to hear like the robust conversation, and to be honest with you, you can hear what the controversy is because there'll be people from both sides talking. I don't know. All right, moving to action and discussion items. Up first, I don't know if Earl, if you're still with us, press update. Sorry about that. I've had a long day, so I'm using it anytime I can. So I'm really proud to press. We are the fastest department in the country to deployment by a pretty great deal. So if you know the timetable last December, the council made the kind of department official. I was hired in March. The responders were hired in July. We came out of training. We were sworn in July 5th. We came out of training September 6th. And so really you're looking at a two month window for them till deployment. Work is going really well. We're finding that we're able to bring a kind of unique perspective to things. I'm trying to think of some good calls in the last week. We took someone who was struggling with cooking and some fire safety stuff to buy a different kind of burner to avoid that sort of risk. We worked with the historical society to support some folks who had been staying there to find a new space to be at. Continuing to deliver meals at the senior center. If you've been to kind of any count event in the last three or four months, you've seen my folks there, including the South Asian festival a couple weeks ago. We're busy. We're small department. So I don't want to promise you all the world. We're 11 people, 12 on the 28th. We'll bring our next person on. A young woman. I'm really excited for the town to meet. But 12 people can only do so much. So right now we're nine to five Monday through Friday. And this is really allowing me to train folks and to really put eyes on them as they're doing their work. July 7th, we will be breaking out into our regular shifts, which means that the town will have seven days a week, nine a.m. to 10 p.m. coverage from Crest. And that really is kind of our next step. We know that folks would like us to have kind of later hours. You know, what I would say is there isn't really an on switch in this sort of thing. You like you can't just kind of turn it on. It's there. You have to make sure folks are comfortable that they're doing the job safely that they feel supported. And we're not really quite there for a third shift yet. We really still need to be able to see each other. Great deal. So, you know, we're, we're working with municipalities all around the country, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Durham, North Carolina, Denver, learning from their mistakes and sharing them. And one of the things I'm really proud about is we're actually starting to support other communities who are starting to develop these ideas. We're meeting with a group from Florida in a couple of weeks, a group from Alabama and really just, you know, helping them to hopefully avoid some of the mistakes we made and take some of the good ideas. So, you know, I could rattle on about this forever. I do all day. So I think the much more interesting thing is to answer questions if you have them or get out of your way if you don't. Thank you. Being modest, girl, when you say you work in nine to five because I've seen you at some of the controversial football games and some of the event events over at that high school. So stop. Don't tell yourself short breath. I'm working seven days a week. I'm trying not to work them like that yet. And hopefully soon I'll be able to take a few more days off. But I know folks worry about me and I appreciate that about this. This is a dream job. Like I, this is all I want to do. So I don't ever feel burnt out about it. I've been waiting my whole life for this. The other thing is for Tyler and Laverne, we use a lot of acronyms. So if you don't understand what something means, please raise your hand because Cress and CSJCC and yeah, we use a lot of stuff like that. So you don't know what those acronyms mean. Raise your hand and somebody, Jennifer or Pamela, somebody will tell you. Would it be helpful for me to just say what Cress is? I think maybe every, so Cress is the third leg of public safety in town. We're a co-equal branch with the police and fire. We're unarmed first responders who really have an anti-racist mandate in our charge. And it's pretty, we're the first department like ours in New England. There's maybe about 20 in the country. So we are on some untread ground. But I think Amherst is the right place for it. I think getting super into the weeds in it probably would take all night. And I don't think you want that, but it's, we're very new. So we're, this is our 11th week of being out. So, you know, we're kind of expanding every day today. Some of our folks did survival center deliveries. Really, we're trying to, my goal in this is for us to be as helpful as we can as often as we can. And unarmed to me doesn't just mean not having weapons. It means that our engagement shouldn't cost folks anything. So we don't do fines. We don't do tickets. We, we are a consensual service. So anybody in town who we show up to talk to, if they don't want us there, we leave. That doesn't happen often though. I think most folks have been receptive to us, but it's, it's, it's, if it's tricky for you to wrap your head around, don't worry. It's tricky for me to wrap my head around and I live in it. It is a new way of doing things. We'd love to, any of you all who are interested, we're looking at having an open house, but anybody who wants to come tour our space, talk to our responders, we have an open door for that. Yeah, I have a, I have a question and a follow-up. So there's just a recap there. So it's not costing us any money to have you here tonight, right? Not yet. Not yet. Keep talking. Yeah, not joking. So no, in all seriousness, what has been like the biggest challenge in getting rolling so far? Yes. You're totally created a whole new department. Like that's, that's got to be tough all the way through. I think the biggest challenge has been the like limitations of managing people. Our responders all took a big risk, right? They took a job that's not guaranteed to last forever, right? This idea, excuse towards failure. More of these departments have failed than succeeded. So finding people and recruiting them and training them, it was a big task and it continues to be, I would say supervision is tricky. I'm the only supervisor in the department, which means I supervise 11 people. And so we've broken that up. Now we have some group supervision happening. We had a group supervision today, motivational interviewing. Next week, we'll have one in vicarious trauma to make sure that they're processing the things they're seeing. I don't, I would consider them all luxury problems. I don't have anything I can't get through, not yet at least. Perfect. Tyler, I think you're clear to go if you want to go. Okay. So I'm just a little curious about how the program is interfacing with calls. So is it interfaced into like police department business line or even into the emergency dispatch services? Or is it like a separate phone number and a separate program that people would need to reach out to? That's a great question. So there's two answers to that. I'll give you the right now answer and then the January answer. Right now, we aren't plugged into dispatch. We just, we have to buy a new console for dispatch, a big setup or we have new radios. So we're very much still in the, I would consider until January a very soft opening. The main way people are getting ahold of us is by calling our number, which is, is widely available if you go on the town website. Now it's not just my name there. There's other things listed, but our phone number is there. My cell phone number, which is widely available. And, and then people just show up to our office. So it is pretty routine at this point that we, it's funny. I was closing up yesterday and there was a UMass student who was just in our conference room studying. And I hadn't really thought that our space would be used for that, but, you know, great. And so people will come and say, Hey, my neighbor had a tough weekend. I'm concerned about them. Can you come and touch base with them? And we will. And yeah, so right now we're, we're also working a lot with the senior center. So we're doing their wellness checks. We're getting calls from a survival center, Craig store, kind of driving it that way in January. We'll turn on the dispatch system. Our folks will get trained all through December on the radios, which is just if you've never carried around a radio all day, it's tricky. It's easy to, to knock the app off or any of those things. So come January, we will be dispatched. You'll be able to call 911 and we will be one of the dispatch options for the town. And that'll be really at the discretion dispatch, which isn't a departure from what happens now, right? You call in, they decide if the fire department or PD go out. And the thing I would say about that is we have a really great relationship with dispatch. They've been a part of our implementation process since before I got here. Mike Curtin, who you all probably won't get to meet. He works very early and kind of is always up there, but is just a consummate professional. So our relationship with the PD is kind of as a sister agency. They don't have, they don't have oversight over us, but we do work collaboratively. And so if there was, you know, I think the kind of follow up question, which I don't want to get ahead of you, Tyler, is what happens if we need the PD? What happens if we're somewhere and it gets dangerous? We're on the same dispatch system. So we would be able to call for backup. And we're using the exact same dispatch folks. So did that answer your question? Yeah, definitely. Also, really encouraging to see that people are still using it even without it being integrated into dispatch yet. Definitely, it seems like there's quite a bit of demand for it and evidently demand for it is a UMass study space as well. But I'm also interested in like whether you're planning to be sending people out jointly with PD as well, because it seems like there's probably going to be a lot of ambiguous calls that might need expertise in both directions. Yeah, that's a great question. So often people will will say, are we going to co-respond with the PD? Because there is a clinician who goes along with them sometimes who comes out of their car. We won't be coming out of police cars. We knock on wood. We'll have our own vehicles soon. But we're using some town vehicles right now. There is the potential that will parallel respond. In looking at the work, and we're doing a lot of tabletop work, we actually think that's mostly going to be with the fire department actually, because they currently take a lot of mental health calls that that may fall in our wheelhouse. And, you know, we're working through kind of regularly who would take lead depending on what situation and what those transitions look like. Pamela and Jennifer were at our so once a month, we have a call type meeting. And that's where all the PD, all the fire department, all their leadership, us, the town manager's office, DEI, sit down and kind of talk about what's the barrier to us taking types of calls and how do we surmount that. So yeah, it's, you know, I'll tell you guys the numbers. I have September numbers. We're still working through, our data guy went to Africa for a couple weeks to see a relative. So we're catching up. But our first month, we had 1800 engagements with people in the community, largely driven by us participating in kind of every engagement we could. And we did 270 service deliveries. And that wasn't the whole month. That was September 6th till the end of the month. So those numbers, you know, my personal goal, and this may not actually be is for us to do about 4000 calls a year. That's kind of what the leap report called for that 270 month would put us, you know, pretty good on target for that, especially considering September is a little bit of a slow month. So I would say calls have slowed down a little bit as we've kind of paused set points to get back into training. And there's just, you know, part of this is you get into the work and you realize, oh, I didn't realize that was going to be a big thing. Now we have to pause. Today we had a really lovely session with Alan the tree guy. I do not know, I'm not remembering his last name right now. Do you know Jennifer? Snow. Alan Snow came in and we learned about the history of the merry maple. And if you were there at the memorial tonight, there were there were crest responders there. There will be crest responders there tomorrow. We're doing trainings on doing traffic details. We're now working with DPW on how we can support those initiatives. If you voted in town on election day, you almost certainly ran into a crest responder. They were working as constables at just about every election site in town. So, you know, every time I think I got Tyler, my big thing would be I tell people, ask me this Friday what I think crest is. And I think I will have a really solid answer for you. And if you ask me next Friday, it could be a completely different answer. Because, you know, we're just kind of responding to the work. And the great part about Amherst is the people we work with are giving us really active feedback. So we're finding that some things we try, hey, it doesn't work. And some things we never thought we do are, we have Vanessa and Brittany who've been two of our big engagement folks. They've been doing a lot of events. We ended up having to buy a bunch of stuff to make slime because now we have families bringing their kids into the office during the day, just to kind of, you know, entertain them for a little bit. And we're glad to do that too. You know, my part of my vision for this is that we don't meet every single person in town through the worst day of their lives. We don't want to, a 911 call is a failure, right? Nobody wakes up and goes, the municipal government is going to come solve my problems. So for us, you know, that's not the best place to meet anybody. You're not really going to get to know who they are. So we're working really hard to meet people wherever they are, whenever they are. And to that point, you know, we've been invited in by various groups and stakeholders in town and, you know, received tough questions. I think there's still a lot of tough questions to ask. And I think as you all see that January rollout, I think there's more. The thing I do just want to say, because I said it to the CSSJC folks, I think it's important for you all to hear, we are the slow approach, right? Force is how you move things along quickly, right? If I want you to move somewhere and I can't arrest you and I got to talk to you, that means I need to be willing to put in more time into that engagement. So our average engagement is about an hour right now. We've had calls last as long as the entire day. We've done eight hour calls where we've taken people to meet some of their needs. And so I think I just want to kind of keep expectations reasonable. I don't think what you're going to see is us kind of showing up and everything changing really quickly. But I do think our way is the slow way, but I believe it's the right way. I'm willing to bet my whole career on it. Julianna, go ahead with your question. I just want to say that I really appreciate the flexibility that Crest seems to give, because a group and a department that can adapt and change and grow depending on the needs of the population is exactly, I think, what we're looking for. And it's really great that you're doing this. I think it's a feature. I think part of us being small right now means we have really unique skill sets. And it's important. It's such a diverse town. And I learned more and more. I think South Amherst is like, okay, everybody in South Amherst is kind of one archetype. And then you dig in and it's like, okay, this street is different than this street and their needs. And I think part of what we're really focused on is not just over serving the folks who have been historically kind of over served by public safety. So we're not kind of sitting in the apartment complexes waiting for things to go bad. We're going wherever we think people are and meeting them where they are and really trying to hold clear to our values. And one of the things I'm excited is I think you're going to see a mission statement go up on the town website that I think lines up with what folks have asked us to be trauma-informed, anti-racist. But that being unarmed doesn't mean we're toweredly or untrained or unprepared. We're excited. We're enthusiastic. We have yet to run into a situation we didn't feel like we could bring something to. And you know, and also, you know, sometimes somebody doesn't want to meet with us today, but we'll be here tomorrow and we'll give it another go. And so, you know, that's the other piece is sometimes it takes us a few times to really build trust with people. And we want that. One of the things I said when I first got into town that I still believe is I'm not going to ask anybody to trust me. I want people to watch our work. And if it's trustworthy, trust us. And if it's not, then you shouldn't. But the work will speak for itself. And it has. I don't mean to be giving you a tail fish. This is my baby, so I think about it a lot. No, I appreciate that. And I just, I do want to share something. I don't want to get into a bunch of the semantics of it. But I think your team and you in particular do such a wonderful job being at the Amherst Survival Center. I know that we had an incident there where it did involve police involvement. Tyler and so police came and responded first. And then Crest came or responded after. And it was a racially charged type of incident. And so Crest just being there to be able to talk to the individual after the whole thing, I think really helped out that individual's day. And you didn't get to see Earl, but that individual stayed and stuck around and was really just, it was almost like something was good at the center for that person to want to stick around because I thought that person would just immediately leave after that interaction. So I really do appreciate that. I appreciate that so much. And that's, you know, that was a great opportunity to have a conversation with someone about something that was really difficult, right? It's hard to exist in the world. Anybody have any other questions for Earl while we still have them? So I'll just give you guys some timetables if you want to think about having me back sometime. We will have a report that I'll be able to deliver to all the groups that are interested, probably middle of March, we're looking to get that going. And then we are obligated to have one of those a year after our first appointment. So next September, there will be the kind of formal, we're partnering with an outside evaluator. And the numbers will tell the story, good, bad or indifferent. And I'm really excited to have such kind of thoughtful committees to really help the town to make those decisions. Is this worth continuing? And, you know, I can tell you, I believe it will be, but the numbers will tell their story. And so I'm always glad to talk with you. I think your work is some of the most important in town. I think human rights are so easily forgotten. So I'm always glad to come back. And if there's ever an issue or anything, folks can always get a hold of me. I always want to be responsive to everyone in town. And I'm going to get out of here. Have a great rest of the night. All right. Thank you, Earl. Night, Earl. All right. Next on the agenda, we have DEI update. Oh, go ahead, Jen. Just real quick, because I know Ben has a hard stop at 7.30. And I'm trying to get times for the two events that are coming up shortly, why everybody's here in a group. So on December 10th, we have Human Rights Day. And so typically in the past, we've had like a little candle vigil where the 2022 proclamation will be read. And then as a group, the Human Rights Commission has read and the community has come in and read the Declaration of Human Rights and usually have like some hot cocoa and some snacks and stuff like that. So December 10th is a Saturday. So I wanted to check in with the group to see about timing, what time would be good to have that event. I picked 4.30. But perhaps that doesn't work for everyone. So unfortunately, I have an engagement that day. So I've already explained to Jennifer that I won't be there. But it's really a nice little event. So if you can make it make it there, please do. I can I can tentatively say yes. But I'm also tentatively saying yes without having a basketball schedule in front of me. So I'll know in two weeks whether I'm affirming yes. But if I am free that day, I will be free all day to accommodate whatever works best for anybody else. Okay. Is 4.30 a good time for folks? That includes you, Tyler and Kelly Laverne. So it's just 4.30 on a Saturday seem doable for everyone. Yeah, that works for me. I think that works. Oh, we we can't hear you Laverne. Can you hear me now? Yeah. That time works for me. Great. Thanks, Tyler. Yeah, I think that time should work for me as well. Okay, Ben, Philip. Yeah, that works for me. Pamela. Okay. So the other one really quickly, so I want Ben to be able to hear the DEI report. So but real quick is Kwanzaa celebration. So Liz and I have been kind of working on that. And we don't have to go in all the details now. I can go into some of those later. But we have to come up with the time. So the first day of Kwanzaa, which is Unity, which will be the day that we kind of used to celebrate is December 26. And so we are looking at maybe a four hour, maybe plus event. So I was trying to look for times from folks. You know, I think we're going to be able to have some food there. So we could do like 11 to three or 11 to four or I don't know what works for folks. It's the day after Christmas. So it's in person. Yeah, it's in person. Yeah, I will be out of town that day. So I will not. And so, Ben, it'll be great if you can be there. Yeah. Yeah, I have like my family's coming here. So I don't whatever time works best for most. Well, for me, just because of that, like the earlier, the better, but okay, I think 11 to three sounds good. I don't know if anyone else has objections to that. 11 to three works for me as well. Yeah, I don't think I'll be able to come. Oh, no. I'm not telling you yet, but okay. Is it timing or you're just not around that day? I'm not sure if I'll be around. Okay. And Tyler, are you on? Are you around? Which day is it? It's December 26th. No, I'm going to be traveling. Okay. And Laverne? I'll be traveling that day. Well, not that day, but I will be out of town. Okay. So we'll have as many folks as we can. So that's good though. And 11 to three seems to work fine. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. That was it. Thank you. Okay. So I'll start with the DEI updates and I'm sure Tyler and Laverne, you are familiar with the DEI, but just since this is your first meeting, we do tend to use a lot of sort of shorthand. I will just say DEI is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The town created a new department last year and Genesee Assistant Director. I'm the director. We were both Jen and I sworn in on July 5th when the Cress Responders were sworn in. And Cress is Community Responders for Equity, Safety, and Social Justice. Hopefully I got that. I got it. Jen's shaking her head, so. Safety and service. Safety and service. Okay. So that's the Cress acronym. So the DEI department is Jen and my self-worth, just a department of two. And to give you a little bit of oversight, we really divide our work into three broad categories. So we're tasked with working internally with all of the departments, staff, boards, and committees. So we are the staff liaison to three boards. So the Human Rights Commission, the African Heritage Preparations Assembly, and the CSSJC, which I won't even attempt because I'm tired. And then there are, in addition to those three, there are another 44 different boards in the town. And so our job really has both an internal focus working with, you know, everyone who's involved with the operation and supportive town services. We have an external focus. So we hope to partner with both the colleges and the university in the area, as well as nonprofits and other business entities in town. And then the third part of our job, the part that I think we both are really interested in and have passionate about, but as really difficult is the town has decided that it would put efforts into becoming a more diverse, welcoming, and inclusive community and addressing racial healing or racial reconciliation. And that's really the hard part about the job. It's where I think our passion lies, but it's definitely the most difficult aspect of the job. So that's just a little bit of an overview of the department and what our role is in town. So for updates, Jen and I have completed a department self assessment tool where each department will review on a number of different categories related to diversity, equity, inclusion. So there's a chart where they're asked to provide demographic information about not only their staff, but also the constituents or clients that they serve, as well as consultants or volunteers that they interact with. And then following that demographic chart, there are 15 questions on a variety of issues related to DEI. So a thorough assessment tool might ask five times the amount of questions that we're asking, but we really, I wanted to get started. I wanted it to be a soft start, but one that was sort of comprehensive. So hopefully we will have a sort of a broad brush picture of how each of the departments are doing around different issues on DEI. That assessment tool has, we've completed it. It's with the town manager for review. And upon his approval, then we will send it out to the departments to start gathering that information. We've also completed our strategic plan. It has not been provided to the town manager yet. We have a colleague in the office who's reviewing it for edits and for suggestions, but that will go to the town manager shortly. We met with a director of workforce equity and inclusion at Amherst College last week and have exchanged some information with them that department is interested in providing some DEI workshops or trainings for the town. So we're really looking forward to what I think will be a great partnership between Amherst College and the town around some of the workshop, professional development workshops that we hope to give. Jen and I met on Monday night with the racial equity task force of the League of Women Voters. Much like this meeting, they wanted to check in with us, see what we are doing, see where our priorities are, asked where they might be helpful in supporting us both in collaborating about different programs that we might offer, as well as offering support for an expansion of our budget at the town council meeting. We both attended the South Asian Festival. I have served on the hiring committee for currently serving on the hiring committee for the comptroller's office and Jen is serving on two other hiring committees, one for libraries and Jen you'll have to remind me what the second one is. Oh planning department for master plan or a planner. Jen and I both attended the Roger Wallace excellent in teaching dinner and that was a really wonderful event. We got to meet more members of the community or I got to meet more members of the community. Jen knows everybody and then learn more just about the school system and the award. I had a meeting with the disability access advisory committee and they're very interested in having this office support them and wanted to make sure that I was well versed in the American Disabilities Act and 504 regs and that we as a department saw disability access and accessibility as part of our charge which we do. Jen and I have also done and participated in a number of different training events. The Mass Municipal Association had a webinar on conflict in municipalities and managing conflict which we've both attended and then the Massachusetts office on disability had a two-day training on monitoring access so basically all the technical parts of the ADA like you know which way a door opens what percentage of incline there needs to be where you know toilet fixtures need to be placed I mean just all of the technical aspects it was very informative and very jam-packed two days from like 930 to 230 but you know it's the type of information that is really necessary for us to know. In addition to that I attended a northeast government executive council webinar on municipal financing which was really quite informative and great because we are entering the time of year where Jen and I will need to put together our budget and think about what we might need for support from the town going forward. I also participated in an anti-hate training which focused on support for the trans community and the last thing that I guess I'll mention is that we will have an interview on the 22nd to fill the last slot for the HRC so this commission would be complete with as far as membership concerned. On our to-do list Jen and I have made a commitment that we will calendar events for both the Human Rights Commission and the work that we want to do on racial reconciliation that we're going to try to get an idea of what the number of events might look like and try to sketch out some dates I think it'll be basically like not specific dates but like the second week or the third week and one month and then just try to plan all of that information out and then we're working on a list of possible partners and for that for those events so we know that we will have a partner through the League of Women Voters. We know that we'll have a partner through Amherst College through the Workforce Development Office and then there are possibly other partners in the community we'll be reaching out to a lot of different organizations in the community so that's what I have Jen. Is there anything I left out? I just ran up the stairs sorry. No I thank you from when I'm aware of you got everything. Thank you for that report and I think that this is a great opportunity for the Human Rights Commission to also extend that offer that as the League of Women Voters is there anything that you would like from us would like to see a support or anything that your department can benefit from the Human Rights Commission? Yeah so with the funding requests I mean we of course love lots of money because we could think of a million different ways to spend it but the financial requests that I've placed at the top of the list and that I've spoken with Sean Mangano the finance director about is finances to support an external consultant to work with the town on the creation of the resident oversight board and I you know I am very hopeful I feel optimistic that the money will be allocated for that purpose I think that the town counselors are in support but that's that's certainly the number one financial ask. The other financial issue that we really have to try to resolve and I think this is going to take a little bit more creativity is that you know the town is somewhat restricted in how it spends its money on different events and generally you know celebrations call for food and that's a hard thing for us to do so we I think we need to really think more creatively about a permanent solution for that and just how we are going to both balance the responsibilities of doing the the cultural events with the other events that I hope will be really focused on education and and information I think there's a you know celebrations are great but as I shared with the HRC at your retreat there is this philosophy that you need to move sort of beyond just holidays and heroes until little things that are more substantive so it's just us finding the balance between those two activities and they can you know they can occur simultaneously they don't have to be one or the other but that's something that I think that that we're going to be striving to work on and we'll have good discussions about as we put together this calendar of events for for the rest of the year. No that makes sense and I know that the HRC in particular does do some celebrations a lot of celebrations with that but I will offer my volunteering if you would take that on if you want any help with that I can offer some time to that but other than that I was going to say something else for our new members oh yes for our new members the DI correct me if I'm wrong family the DI department also filters through any complaints filed by the public about human rights offenses that want to be investigated if you could go into detail with that that would be great. Prior to the creation of the DI department I mean the Human Rights Commission has is long standing the town has had one for many many many years and under the prior bylaws the town council or I guess it would have been city town selectmen or the town manager would appoint a human rights director and in the past that person has generally been the human resource director for the for the town. Once this department was created then those responsibilities have shifted to our department so and my role as director of the of the department I serve also as director to receive human rights complaints that would come into the commission so a person or would make a complaint to the commission and and then I as the liaison to the commission would investigate I you know I've only been in town now for about four months and we've only had one complaint and the in the four months I think in general there's fewer than six a year and Jen please correct me I'm sure it really varies but there does not seem at least currently to be a lot of activity part of that might be that people don't know that they can make a complaint when folks are aware that they have an avenue to complain then you generally see more complaints coming in thank you for that recap on that I just thought it was important just to highlight that for new members uh anybody have any other questions for a DI report right seems like a no all right then uh next on the agenda item is the CSSJC which is the community and safety social justice committee which I am a member of update um of the July 5th incident uh I'm trying to recall where we were at last time around I've I've done a whole lot of work on that um so the CSSJC had a meeting a joint meeting with the town council on November 1st or 2nd I believe I forget which one uh it went into the various hours of the night I don't remember how long but somewhere around 12 o'clock or one o'clock in the morning is where we ended and they're kind of at a standstill with the motion and the next meeting was this past Monday on 11 14th of the town council with that motion to the incident of July 5th in town and I guess are you both aware what July 5th I'm sorry for any members Taylor and Laverne now so a quick little brief blurb here I'll just give really quick um July 5th youth were in a complex waiting for their car to be fixed by AAA and police were called on a noise complaint that escalated into more of I don't know what you want to call it but it escalated because a police officer said to the kids that they had no rights and the officer um its partner clarified that there's been various reports um from the police department um on the incident as well as other community member um outreach into that so that's a very vague and brief quick little one but there's more information about it if you google it or just look into any of our previous meetings and packets but that's kind of what I'm talking about so uh then on Monday the town council passed a motion which I believe Jen shared with everybody or was that just the SSJC Jen you know I did send it out but I didn't send it to Tyler and um Laverne so I will send those to you guys in a few minutes um or right now actually I can just forward it to you guys right now that's great thank you Jen uh the importance of it um there's various I think there's seven items on it uh the importance in particular to this group is that the town manager will be writing a report and I'll just read the language here is that the town manager will report on actions to be taken or and or progress in addressing the above no later than four months from the date this is voted on so no later than four months of Monday which was the 14th draft reports to be available to the town council the SSJC and human mission as well no less than two weeks prior to town council meeting where the items will be discussed that the CSSJC and HRC provide written advance advice to the town council five days prior to the town council meeting at which the items will be discussed when that report comes out from our town manager Paul Bulkerman will be advice that this committee can give as well as the CSSJC committee can give on that issue I think that is kind of where we're at with that aspect of it the other stuff that CSSJC is doing is looking into there was a request that came in from I don't remember if it was a just resident about the new school and they're having discussions tomorrow as Penn mentioned there at their meeting as well as with the turf as to whether or not security cameras should be put into the new school and kind of what's the benefit what's the reason why so that's more just of a questioning that I think the CSSJC is doing us to like what is the reason for putting them because that is being proposed and I believe being voted on but I'm not sure about tomorrow but that's at least being discussed tomorrow at the school committee and Jen or Pam I am missing anything I feel like I'm doing a pretty botched report right now so forgive me for that if I'm missing anything no I think that the update on the town council meeting the passing of the motion the letter around around video surveillance at the new school and then a request for financial information about consultants who've worked with the police department and the other issue was I think they're going to return to a discussion of reviewing the finances for business and talent that received our performance and I think those are the major issues that they've discussed at the last couple of meetings thank you for that do we have any questions in regards to that or any comments I know that was a lot of information thrown out at once anybody I'm not seeing anybody okay so like I said and as far as that motion goes once Paul sends over that report this body will give its advice as to whatever that report entails and kind of what we think of the overall healing process of the town around this incident can be done and again it is just the advice that the town council will hear from this body if that is it then on that then I am going to move to the next item which is UMS PD Hampshire college incident and Yale incident UMS PD incident Jen you're going to have to help me out with that one I don't know why I'm blanking here oh so there oh go ahead pay no that's right go ahead there was an incident on the UMass campus where it seems a student was well what I'll say is their chancellor sent out an email to all the students because there was an incident where a gentleman who was of color was arrested on campus and they had received several complaints because I believe what it sounds like is that people really felt like it was not warranted so I believe that the police officer was um kind of patrolling an area that was under construction and so that there shouldn't have been any traffic there whether it was on foot or by vehicle and from what I understand the student walked through it or by it or somehow and the police officer you know asked him must have asked him not to be there and asked him what his name was and so forth and it just escalated from there um and uh it ended up in an arrest so let's see I can pull up the the letter and share it on screen can you all see the letter on screen yes now thank you for sharing that Jen and for pulling this up if you could send that to us as well I I know I have it somewhere but just for other members that'd be great yep it's all part of that complete packet and I've sent that off to Tyler and Laverne already perfect thank you then yeah are you guys all set with the screen share or I think it is it is in the packet so if you all just pull up your packet on that too they can have that the other incident I can share that one too yes yes please was on Hampshire college and that one is in regards to uh seems like a misprofiling on the police's end to um Holtzema was that person arrested or was that that person was not arrested so I don't know all of the background to that but I do know from what I understood was that the person was misprofiled and there were dogs involved so there were two dogs I believe um in the same area where the person that the police were actually looking for so Hampshire college does not have a police department they have a campus safety um and I'm not quite sure the correct name that they use for them so but they um oh CSW campus safety and well-being and so campus safety and well-being called the police department and in regards to a person who was uh had a concerning behavior so from what I understood too that they were threatening others um in a very violent manner with with threatening with weapons and making hand gestures that was of concern and so they UMass police came I mean Amherst college police came with the two dogs trying to search for the person and then uh they found this other individual somewhere in the same vicinity and the the person that they were originally supposed to be looking for was found in Hadley I don't really have a good idea of the the time like if it happens simultaneously or not but um and so Hampshire college was a very upset and the student was very upset and other students were very upset no truly right and that the full articles in the um package as well the numbers can take a look at that and then I will just add in that there was another incident brought up to my attention of um oh Pamela do you want to speak on Hampshire college before I go yeah I I think it's important for um for folks to know that the Hampshire college um campus safety and well-being called the Amherst it was it's actually our police department not Amherst college our police department because the person that they had previously identified in one of their buildings was the subject of a be on the lookout notice from the North Hampton police department um and the person had actually I believe left an ID in the library as the Amherst police department was searching on Hampshire's campus for this person for whom uh there was this be on the lookout notice they encountered the student the student was um was handcuffed while they determined the idea but determined the student's identification um but the and the individual um who was the subject of the be on the lookout notice was found some sometime later it was was not simultaneously like you know it was probably a few hours later uh in Hadley and the I guess the the um the geography is such as that you can walk from Hampshire college through the woods and trails um so that is why they were searching that area right the um the person who was the subject of that be on the lookout notice or the allegations of that notice were that the individual was threatening harm to others harm to law enforcement so it was a quite serious um you know allegation which is why I think they responded in the way that they did right thank you for that and then what I was just going to bring up and I guess this is more of a question about logistics is that uh I've been made aware and also been reached out to by some people um in regard to a UMass incident that pertains to a bus which is PB I forget our bus transit um but basically a black woman was asked to dispose of an open container drink and did so and then it seemed as if there was some perceived bias on the bus driver to have her removed from the bus after that and then UMass police was involved and so I guess the logistics question that I have is that someone on the bus is reaching out to me to file a complaint with the HRC I told him that I would get back to the mess to whether or not that's something in our purview Jen I mean we can't really tell anyone not to file right typically what we try to do is if we can't if it's not in our purview we try to get them the resources so that they can be linked but there's an application on the HR website page so if you go to the human rights page and they complete the form then it'll come to us okay I will direct them that way then or they can always feel free to come to the office and we can I will help them out in that way then I think that this whole topic in conversation pertains to the motion that the town has passed and so I think this is where kind of where out as a town and at as an advisory committee to the town is that police and public opinion of each other or just opinions in general go in various different ways yet we all coexist in the same space and so how do we make that a reality to actually coexist in the same space and so I think that it is good that we're doing this kind of update on reporting of the past previous months and also with the town council passing their motion and so I think that these next couple months from the forum the HRC as an advisory committee can be pretty crucial in this part to give advice to town council to the DI director our department and just hopefully moving our town into a more healing type of environment is what I will say to that and then we have Yale and that is I victor I don't mean to put you on the spot but is there any update on Franklin is am I getting that right um not to my knowledge I haven't gone any updates um but that doesn't mean that there aren't any updates um it could just be that the family is dealing with it on their own um as I was made of where that a bunch of the actual investigation was not public knowledge um so um I feel like even if I didn't know some things uh I don't want to like say anything that the threat me to say but um yeah I don't I don't really know anything new could we give our two new a background in regards to the Yale incident please yeah um so basically um I'm forgetting the actual date but last month um a native Amherst resident that doesn't live here currently but he lives in New Haven um he was out late with his girlfriend they were just enjoying a night out where um a group of supposed Yale students um attacked them just as they were passing by on the sidewalks um first it was verbal accusations about um some things that the that Franklin's girlfriend did and then it was um some cussing and some slurs that were passed around and then when um Franklin's supposedly got defensive the kids jumped him um fairly bad he had a broken jaw um he had to get the surgery on his nose um it was a bunch of stuff that actually um required him to call the ambulance but um luckily uh for some witnesses that were nearby um one of them was actually uh trained DMT so he jumped on the CNE uh helped Franklin and then from there they brought him to the emergency room and so far at least um when I last talked to everyone uh they couldn't find this group of people they just had faces but they couldn't actually contact them or find them uh so I hope I really do hope that maybe they have some more information but what has come to me hasn't really changed um so far and I hope I'm not missing anything else anyone remembers anything else you're good all right uh does anybody have any questions with those various updates I know that was a lot of update on that one I think for the UMass one uh I'm rather concerned or specifically the UMass one about the UMPD um arresting a student I'm rather concerned by since I don't know how UMPD generally operates but I know Amherst College Police Department usually interfaces a lot with the Talon and Amherst Police Department and some of their work ends up meeting over to the Talon more broadly so I don't really see UMPD's action just being contained to the UMass um campus and it's worrying that it seems to suggest this incident specifically that they might have escalation problems from a little concerned as to whether that's like a pattern of um escalatory behaviors by UMPD which is I think especially bad in the college environment where um a lot of the people they'll be working with are more impulsive more generally um or if this is something that's more isolated yeah I I don't know the answer to that I I mean this is kind of the first that I'm hearing anything from UMass PD as well with the bus incident um that I just gave go ahead Pamela um so I I can't answer your question specifically but I can say that um the UMass Police Department and I believe um Amherst Amherst Smith in Hampshire College used to be in a um have a memorandum of understanding where they contracted for police services together um and so there was one police force that covered all three campuses I think it was um Smith Amherst um in Hampshire or maybe I don't know anyway the um police departments on college campuses can receive permission from the state to operate as special police departments with the ability to carry weapons and to make arrest and um and so I I do believe that the UMass Police Department actually has those special powers so that they would have so in in essence they function in the same way like a police department would function in a town and municipality they have the same powers and it really varies a little bit from campus to campus some campus police officers don't have those types of powers and don't carry weapons um some do have special police powers and do carry weapons and can make have arrest um powers and it um as I said it just varies a little bit from from from campus to to campus but it's my understanding that the UMass Police Department would have arrest powers the same as if they were police department in a municipality so it's almost as if the campus is a town um unto itself generally in those types of cases where officers make arrest on um campuses they would do like a municipality would do and refer cases to the district attorney for for prosecution but the other part of the question is for as like I don't know the history of how that police department has um has function in the past and I don't actually know whether Amherst Police Department whether Amherst College Police Department um is uh has special police powers or um carries what carry weapons I I do know that the Smith College Police Department which was in partnership with a couple of the other colleges did have um police powers and could make arrest on campus I believe UMass PD does carry um weapons I think I have seen that uh I think a point of clarity for me and it just might be my not knowledge of how that works um is jurisdiction wise does that fall under so like the university would fall under UMass PD but does Amherst PD have any jurisdiction on campus even though it's in town so I mean that's a good question generally um in the in the in my experience where colleges have have held had where colleges or universities have police departments who have arrest authority they limit their authority to the confines of the campus itself but I I don't know you know I don't know um the specific answer to that question most um of the institutions where I've worked where they've the police have had arresting powers on campus they've worked you know they work really hand in hand with um with the local police department so for example at North Shore Community College where I worked with three campuses um Lynn, Massachusetts, Danvers, and Beverly all um police department the colleges police department actually had authority on each of those facilities at different locations and they had special arrest powers but they collaborated with the police departments in each of the municipalities where we had those facilities um they worked um often with Lynn I don't know if you guys know Lynn Massachusetts but you know it's um it's in a larger city urban city um and the campus itself was right in the heart of downtown so if um if someone was fleeing from a downtown town arrest or whatever they were likely to run through our campus so they worked the the campus police worked hand in hand with the police from the municipality in Lynn and I would suspect that that is true um here as well so if an Amherst um an Amherst a town of Amherst police let's just a scenario I am um a town of Amherst police is pursuing someone um through the town and the person gets to UMass campus um they're not going to stop right they're gonna continue to pursue them they're not going to say oh wow you made it on the campus it's not our so I'm sure they work very very closely hand in hand um and so I I'm sure the the um the town police department would pursue a person if they were on um if they were on campus and I'm sure if they would notify the the campus police that they were pursuing a suspect and I'm sure that works in reverse as well so if they weren't quite close okay yeah thank you for clarifying that and Tyler to your point and question um I like I was saying I don't know the history of them but I will say that something that I will I guess applaud UMass PD on doing is um having an outside investigation happening in regards to that incident so they've hired on councils non-related to the school and police department to kind of look at what happened in that way so I think that that was a good move on their part anybody else have any other questions no all right then we already did E and F um on the agenda upcoming events is Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr day celebration um do we know if the I know I've never actually attended the church event but I know that that is our pancake breakfast event Jen now you want to take that one Jen and do you want me to take it or whatever we can piggyback on each other because Jen and I both can evolve with uh so yeah so the um Martin Luther King breakfast committee that is I think that they're trying to have an event um I don't know that it is going to be in the same manner that it has been in the past which they've always do a fantastic job on their events um so uh I so I'm I'm trying to reach out to Heather hollow sister have their hollow Lord so she is um I think the president right Liz of the she is the president Richmond has stepped down as president he's staying on the committee as far as the um scholarship committee is concerned but Heather is the president and Marisha Joyner is vice president vice president yeah so um last time I spoke with Heather she said that you know maybe we could do something in collaboration and I really didn't like I really want the breakfast committee to say kind of separate from the town because it's a grassroots thing that's just been going on for so long and I always honor them when we have our event here I don't like I'm not trying to replace their events you know their event is fantastic um hence the town still has an obligation so uh as far as our event so I'll start with the proclamation sister Hala has the proclamation so she will be the community sponsor that it's going to uh submit the proclamation to the town council through the human rights commission so um she will be doing that and then for the event of the day haven't quite gotten there yet I need to wait until after Thanksgiving if folks have ideas of what they want to do for any event that would be great so pre-covid one year we um always have a bell ringing ceremony that rings 15 days we usually celebrate have our celebration on the 15th and the breakfast committee usually does their event the weekend before the holiday the Saturday before the holiday I think Liz right correct so if they were to pull something off which is a big if right now it would be January 14th right and so we tend to celebrate I like we've been doing it on the 15th so one year we had uh we had it in the evening so we we had a bell ringing ceremony and the council read the proclamation and then we had a candlelight vigil walk through downtown um and to the back of the woodbury room at the jones library where we watched some footage and then we read one of his speeches it was like a community reading so that the community was involved and I think last year it was online we did the same thing but we included the kids from the heist from the middle school I think were involved in that one so each year they just kind of keep changing so folks have ideas that's great and I'd like involving the youth as well Liz sure I'm not around that weekend actually but you know me whatever you need up until Friday morning I'll help you do as far as the town's breakfast committee I know that they're not going to have a breakfast so for those who don't know Pamela and Tyler um the town um and Laverne Laverne knows all about cut girl please I I know she knows I know but come on but she knows she could probably tell you more than me um the Wesley united and Goodwin memorial um have been in partnership with this breakfast for good lord I was on the committee in the 90s so I don't know how long um and they used to have a breakfast and um after the breakfast people would adjourn to the auditorium and there would be a program so I know that this year um they're not going to do a breakfast but they're still thinking about doing a program in the auditorium of the middle school so we don't know what that looks like yet and if they're going to be able to pull it off but um hopefully we'll be able to get some answers on that front so and then we can then always go forward with ours as well so yeah questions concerns comments so um the there is a national day of racial um healing that is sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation which um occurs the day after the Martin Luther King holiday and um I have suggested that the the town participate in that the the Kellogg Foundation actually produces um materials for engaging in conversation around racial reconciliation so it's a pretty easy lift to just adopt the materials that they have um and to you know schedule some time and places and um someone to facilitate so hopefully that will be something that we might pursue this year as well and that would hopefully be our kickoff right Pamela for um as you know racial healing can happen in one at one event I wish it could but it cannot so um we it'll be our kickoff it'll be great those both events sound good and yeah I just I'm sure during our December meeting we'll discuss more about um what's happening and on that day um and anything we can do to help uh next event is Black History Month and Lunar New Year Festival do we know when Lunar New Year Festival is yeah so it starts on January 28th and it runs through the middle of February I believe okay it's about a month long so it might run to the end of February but it um so Black History Month we had one celebration in person and the other have been on Zoom and they've all been very well attended and fabulous and we've included the uh middle schoolers the Lunar New Year and slash Spring Festival that one's a little bit newer and so we have celebrated it for the last two years with the minister from the First Baptist Church has joined us and then last year we also had um one of the teachers who teaches um Chinese the her class came in and was involved and so I'm really looking forward to being able to have that event in person because I think we can do a lot more with that um so I'm really excited about that um and if you don't know about the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year you should they get like little red envelopes that have all kinds of like money and different stuff so like a fabulous event and history there so I um that's where we are we're a little bit far away but there's just things to start thinking about and if people know folks who would like to be involved with any of those events then that would be great and as I said the MLK proclamation is with Sister Hala and the Black History Month proclamation uh we don't have a sponsor yet so either the Human Rights Commission can sponsor them or if you know of a community member that would like to sponsor it that would be great too and the same with the Lunar New Year so that for Laverne and Tyler the the council we create proclamations and then the the counselor approved them and so uh then they read the proclamations which is a lot of um so it's really nice because you're getting the buy-in from the town council as well which is our legislative branch so um yeah that's so I really right now my focus is on human rights today which is pretty simple I think but then we have everything we need for that but then Kwanzaa is coming up on December 26th and so Liz and I have been working on a program for Kwanzaa I know that she reached out to Poku Victor Juliana um for oh Juliana said she won't be here sorry uh to see about their involvement so I'll be following through with them next week I told them that I would give them some time and then I'm gonna come in and put my hand down and say no you're gonna be there and this is what you're gonna do okay yeah yeah and so we're for Kwanzaa we're inviting a lot of the um elders in the community so it's going to be a very nice uh event hopefully over at the bank center I did get one person who said that they would definitely participate um I know that you spoke to a few people the young person who I talked about catering is going to be gone okay family so he's not going to be able to do that so we'll be able to you and I can talk further about what to do about food food or no food or some food or what kind of food yeah okay yeah Jen would it be helpful then for the um upcoming events I guess for commissioners to think about where they want to plug in and what they would like to be a part of and possibly in next meeting have kind of an answer that's yeah that would be great yeah because I think both those events have been good and I will say um to add into the Lunar New Year um and Spring Festival celebration that I think the past couple years have been very informative and teaching wise from different um various members of the community so I really do like that aspect of it and that if we could keep that that'd be great because I think a lot of people go into it not knowing what it's about yeah it's a fantastic celebration and it's full of history and culture so um and I just I'm so happy to do it in person because it just changes the possibilities of how we can continue on with that event so yeah so Philip I have a question for you and it you may not even know the answer to this but in the past AAGC Amherst Area Gospel Choir we you all have put together a Black History Month luncheon it's usually the Tuesday of the week the kids are out on vacation so that would be the 21st of February and the Amherst Area Gospel Choir came in we sang freedom songs and did some other songs and got the community involved while they're luncheon and I know that that stopped during COVID and I'm not sure where you're at with that so we're talking we're talking uh the center right yeah he doesn't I'm sorry you gotta you gotta put me in where I'm having a conversation you know the place that you actually were yes uh yeah you and I can connect because I just had a conversation about that and I think that that would be happening this year if we can make it happen so if you all are willing to do it and very you'd have to call Jackie Wallace right yeah well we'll definitely see what we can make happen but yes it is on our radar at the center that was just a sidebar sorry yep all right I guess I should add with Black History Month at the beginning I know everybody wants to go so we um at the beginning of Black History Month on the first we have a flag-raising ceremony that Miss Judy Brooks um who is a who was a well respected member of our the Black community may she rest in peace um she really I believe she created the event itself the flag-raising ceremony and so we start Black History Month off with the flag-raising ceremony and then in the middle of the month try to follow up with another event and then or something or towards the end of the month so it ends up being like two separate ones although I guess I need to find out when the first of February is February 1st is on a Wednesday okay yeah so we'll make them two separate events yeah and if you're thinking about something else just be aware that the kids are out of school from the 20th to the 24th yep perfect yeah thank you for that and then right before we close just um if you had said last meeting that you were going to um write up a little blurber something for Facebook for November if you could still get that into Jen if there's any loose ends that need to be tied up there and then as well as we just need to go through December really quick and assign for our two new members it's just um a couple sentences on the various days um that happen in the month that we post on our Facebook just to acknowledge um human rates related issues so for December first we have World AIDS Day would anybody like to take that on so did didn't we go all the way through December last time did we I just remembered Juliana but I remembered Juliana saying that she'd already given me something for that was November right Juliana African abolitionist that I didn't do abolitionist but I know I did um the national day of I think the international day of peace um there was a human rights day um I'm not entirely sure but I know I said at least two total emails two just somewhere and they should be somewhere now yep no I've posted yours and so I've already posted the one that was for there's one tomorrow's international students day so that's been posted on our human rights Facebook page and if you are still on Facebook or if you're on Facebook please go on and uh follow us are you're not on Facebook anymore Facebook I don't know what that is you call me old Victor what are you saying tell your parents so did we then go through December does anybody else I don't know let's it's getting late and so this committee you know so um we can always I can always send it out in the email that works for me and then people can respond individually and so yeah then I will move to adjourn this meeting and time at 8 19 all right thank you everybody for welcome Tyler and Laverne it's a pleasure it's nice to see you Laverne all right bye guys bye bye bye everybody be safe out there happy thanksgiving yes yes