 Awesome. So we'll call this meeting to order at 635 it looks like and I'll read this little paragraph that I love to read every time. Pursuit to chapter 20 of the access 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. The instructions below, no in person, no in person attendees 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. I'll just do a real call vote. Liz. Here. Victor. Here. Ben. Ben, are you with us. Hello. Oh, there you are. Hello. Yeah, I had to step away earlier like my son's package got stolen so I have to like talk to the police right then so. Oh, sorry to hear that. And then I am also here. It's always so weird. Got to refer to myself in the third person. Next on the agenda, we have reports and comments. So we will open it up to the public, which I believe there are no attendees, but we will open it up. No, no attendees. Alrighty, so then we'll move on and we'll go to HRC reports. Miss Hey good I know that you had a report on the housing. Is it healthy trust or. Okay. So I, I, you know, had conversations with said I wasn't able to go to the meeting because I had a prior commitment for this month. So I spoke to said he wasn't actually at the meeting, but he did report that they're still working with the town to try to find more affordable housing for the people that live and grew up and work here in our town. And he would inform me that there was a vacancy on the housing trust committee. So I am in the process of talking to my husband to see if about actually joining that committee as well. That would be great to have someone on this committee on that but of course if your time allows. I want to circle back and maybe put it on an agenda item because I literally just went to a town event for the school and was there for a total of maybe 20 minutes and had about five different conversations about housing and the unfairness of policies and procedures going to apply for section eight in within town and different various means like that I know that this committee has taken on housing. As an issue. I just want to see where we are at and where we want to move that as a committee also. But that could be for a later conversation. Another report that I have is from the CSS JC. I am a committee member on that. That's the community safety social justice committee. And after this committee had filed the complaint against the police officers in the July 5 incident. The CSS JC sent out a letter to the town to get into a town hall meeting. The town hall meeting occurred on August 5. And there the town gave reports and different things that they did to investigate into the incident. I think correct me if I'm wrong in this young that no police report has been or no complete investigation has been finalized but that is coming down at some time. And also I sent out that email to this committee on the DI report that mission prepared. So there's a lot of moving pieces to that. I think I can say a lot, but I also will leave that to this group. If they have any questions or want to say anything. I don't know. But I did read the report. And the thing that bothered me a little bit is that they kept using abuse of power. But when you filed you did not say abuse of power. You said abuse of authority. And I'm wondering if there's a difference I thought for me, it seems those two words are very different to me. So, for them to say that there was no abuse of power. Fine, but but that's not what our charge was. I thought our charge was abuse of their authority. So if somebody could clarify that for me, that would be great. Maybe Pamela. So I think that the legal terminology is equates the two, or they're very similar and the definition that I found through the Department of Justice use abuse of power as opposed to abuse of authority. So that's why the terminology was included. Victor have been any comments on the report. She's with the report to be honest with you like, like the piece that bothered me was that like them citing the mass general law, dealing with teams under the age of 18, operating motor vehicles, when they clearly weren't operating the motor vehicle at all, like because they were waiting for triple a and a parent to come so like, I don't I don't know it to me it kind of had like, I don't want to go to extremes but it kind of had like the Trump and Charlottesville talking about this good on both sides like, like I don't, I don't, I don't know I don't I thought they could have worded that part differently you know I mean it just seemed like a justification for the action. I think that's a valid point. Because in my estimation like their their sole job and it should have been like communicated to them and there should be some retraining, definitely based on this but like their sole purpose of that that point. It's a broken down vehicle so yes there was the noise complaint so they get there and it's a broken down vehicle. Their safety should have been priority rather than this like this use of like authoritative power you know. Yeah, I feel that's what we're here for and those are completely valid, for sure. I just, you know, the more I thought about it. I thought there could have been a dialogue that went something like, we received this noise complaint, you know, what's going on. And the students responding however they responded again, I don't know what happened before the tape started rolling. And I could imagine the police officer saying, Okay, you're waiting for somebody to tell the car, but because you can't drive right now. I'm going to call a parent, and I just want you to keep the noise there's been a noise complaint, if you can just keep it down until all of that happens. And that would I think squashed everything. And again, I don't know what happened before the tape started rolling, but I could just hear a different way of approaching that whole situation. And that's what I think that Ben is getting at where we have some teenagers yes they're out at late at night. Apparently either one or two of them were driving maybe one I don't know. So, yeah, okay you can't drive let me call a parent to come pick you up. And in the meantime, if you can just keep it down a little bit. That's all. Victor you have anything. I think overall, I just kind of another young person, I'm kind of enraged with like the whole situation itself. Sometimes when I look at the report it kind of undermines what actually happened, even though it kind of does explain the kind of overall actions both parties like kids and what the police officers took. I feel like there's more to it. Both the influence included with the police officer as well as kind of the attitudes of the young people in the video that the report doesn't really talk about. I don't I've never read the reports I don't know what you really would include but thank you. I think that for me and being a part of the town council meeting and being a part of the CSS JC. I'm very concerned with the way that it's being handled by the police because the way that it is being done and misquoting or using a very broad quote from chief leaving stone, but that basically after the after the event happened, he talked to the police officers, and basically the police officer said that he was angry at the time and he used miswords and that seemed to be kind of enough until this committee or commission filed police report, then a formal investigation started to happen. So without that complaint filed on behalf of this commission. Nothing would have got done is what it seemed like as far as from the police department. So I think No, I just turned my thing on I was waiting for you to finish. So I think that it very much to me seems like the investigation still needs to happen. Still needs to be done. The people involved for my understanding from various people that know the individuals involved have only been contacted yet have only been contacted by the PD, in a way that they would not like to speak to a police officer or the police commission or the police chief. In a way that will further investigate kind of what else happened that night, like to your point to say good. There's minutes before that interaction on the video that we've seen there's minutes after the interaction that we've seen all of it a little bit becomes hearsay. Yet, none of that is being investigated in a way that is productive and pertains to the overall human right violation that happened. Because a human right violation happened. In that video. They are told. They have no rights by a position of authority. If you switch the roles around, and the kids telling the police officer, you have no right. That does not hold as much meaning as it does. The other way around with the police officer telling the kids that they have no rights. The police officer knows that they have rights and is sworn in by this town to uphold those rights. Yet, that was not done that night. And so, I fell as if this investigation is kind of being derailed is kind of being set off to the side like oh we're just going to forget about it. The school is going to happen things will cool down. And I don't want that to happen. I don't want that to be the end result of the July 5 incident happening and now we never hear about it again, or everybody has done their due diligence of an investigation in strong quotations. And so, therefore, I don't know where to move from here, and I would welcome. Any input on this to see where this commission can push the agenda to be reviewed. I know that in our talks last night, we discussed the human rights commission on the CSS JC's committee that we have the way to have complaints come into the human rights commission, and then an investigation happened. And something like that happened to where a police investigation is not the only investigation that's happening because, in my opinion, that is not enough. So the way that the bylaws are currently written a human rights commission can take complaints from anyone in town about any of the protected classes or any discrimination allegations of discrimination. The laws give this commission the authority to do that. Typically what would happen was a complaint would come in, and then in the past, the human resources director acted as the, I'm going to say, investigator or the person who would review complaints on behalf of the human rights commission and Jen has shared with me in the past. That she and Donna can nearly, you know, sort of had conversations and went through that process together. So I would think, well, I know that the HRC certainly still the bylaws exist so you have the authority to to go for it with your with the complaint or to seek additional investigation from the police. A legal sort of obstacle that is, that's before the town is that only the police department has the ability to investigate and discipline the police officers and that is a function of the collective bargaining agreement and the personnel policies and departmental policies of the police department. There were a resident oversight board that that was envisioned by the working group, then there might be another alternative but right now, from my review of the of the collective bargaining agreement and the town bylaws, the only place, those are the places where where there is any authority to do that that human resources commissions authority is somewhat limited in that. And I, you know, I don't recall that you have the ability to have like subpoena power or to hire an investigator. So generally what the town has done with with those bylaws is seek to have some sort of negotiation or discussion with the parties to reach agreement and that's generally, I'll say that Jen has described this process between external parties so I, I don't know what the history has been. If there's been a complaint that's come in against a town employee, the, the situations that she's described in the past have been situations where two people who are involved or connected to the town in some way or another, one of them files complain against the other and it comes to the HRC. So I think the course of action would be to seek a response. And I think from the police department to the complaint that you have filed. I think it would be to, to seek authority to have an intern, you know, an external investigator or someone else to review it. I think this the situation is a little bit messy now in that once the role was created, then the responsibility for HRC complaints have moved to this position. And I don't know if having a complaint come back, you know, to me to have involved I think you need someone outside of the current process to really assure yourselves in the community that there is equity impartiality, you know, bringing it back to me again would not seem to be the proper course of action. I think those are the, those are the possibilities for review within the town where we're simply limited by the collective bargaining agreement and I would, you know, that would be true of other instances so of other town employees who are members of the of a union, you know, which would include most of the town employees for DPW or, you know, other other things. Generally, the discipline and review and investigation of of employee personnel issues for union members is done according to the collective bargaining contract and the obstacle is, you know, how do how does the committee work around that or seek other ways of having additional investigation and the DEI report that was written. I, the police at that time had sort of presented that they had completed their investigation but they were aware that they had not gotten information from a number of different people. And so the report was written with the door open for them to go back or for addition for people to provide additional information to the police so we get, you know, the town gets a more complete picture or different perspectives about what happened on July 5th. And I think that they are in the process or have tried to be in the process of doing that. As you've stated, some of the families involved are reluctant to speak to the police. And so, then again, where, where is there a place where those families might go. And my suggestion was that they might come to the HRC because that's the I can think of no other avenue that would exist. So we filed the complaint has there been a response to our complaint to you Philip or to us as a collective. There has not been no response. All right, I think, you know, we talk about this again and should. I don't know, at least they could respond to the complaint. And I'm not sure how many days or weeks they have to respond to. I mean, even something as simple as we received your complain and when we're investigating is a response. It won't be one that I like, but at least it'd be an acknowledgement that it was actually filed. And that's another troubling piece to this whole thing. And on another note, you know, I went to the little, the gathering of about 200 300 people. It was a lot of people out there for the back to school event and I saw, you know, the EMTs and I saw the fire department, but I didn't see anybody from the police department, and I'm not sure if they was invited so I can't blame them for not being there but that would have been nice for them to, you know, show up with maybe the bikes or one of the horses or the dog. What's the dog's name. I can't remember the dog's name used to be at the school all the time. Come on. So what Winston. Yeah, so wait Winston passed away and the. Yeah. So the, the officer has received another puppy that's in training but there's once. Yeah. So I think that's a very valid point and I was wondering and I wanted to reach out to you. Miss younger just hadn't done so yet. What is the appropriate time for a response I know that's not your department or anything but if you know. I actually believe that there is a time limit in the bylaw so I'd have to I will make a note to go back in. I can. I can share that information. I think I'll have to start. We have to share the information away that doesn't violate public meeting law, but I will note that the I can inquire I think there is a time frame that is included in the bylaw. That'd be great. And then I do just want to acknowledge that Juliana has joined the meeting. Yes, I'm a lowly. That's all right we are talking about the complaint that we had filed with the police department and the response that is being taken by the town. And I sent over some stuff earlier in the month that you should have got as far as the reports maybe have any. I also just do want to note and I'm trending very lightly here so bear with me and nudge that the report done by the department of the town be revised in a way that is seeming to be less legal. In a way that kind of does take away the narrative from the kids and their experience, and also in a way that possibly doesn't make it seem like there was a partnership between the police department for that invent like report that was an investigation because that's how I took it and I think that's how many others took it and I know that newspaper articles ran with that. And so getting clarity on that. That was not an investigation that was a report out to buy the department. I think it's needed. I think there's a lot of misinformation out there on that report. So I was at that point was made last night and I will definitely bring it back to the town manager and to. I'm sure he'll have a conversation with town council about what they would like me to do as far as proceeding is concerned. Thank you. Anybody else have anything else they want to add on this topic before we move on. I was next on the agenda so then we're going to move into item number three be how can HRC support community. I think that is more of an open ended questions to commissioners and slash I would throw in possibly a slash on that community how do we do outreach for this commission to fill up the vacancies that we have. Can I jump in? Yeah. So there are the other two committees that the DEI department is staff support to or the CSS JC and the African heritage reparations assembly. And both of those groups also have a desire for community engagement and community outreach. So what I did not have this conversation with the CSS JC yesterday but certainly have had the conversation with the African heritage reparations to think about ways of engaging the community that would involve all three groups because there's some overlap. You know the charges are different but there's certainly some overlap in the communities that are served. And one of the things that Jen and I are planning is to begin engagement around the resident oversight board so the report was completed. It's my understanding that there was not community wide discussions about the resident oversight board that has to be a decision made about the model of the board and how it would function and all of all of those sort of things and typically the community would be engaged in conversation about that. So one thought that Jen and I have discussed is inviting members of the three boards to be involved in the outreach and engagement in the community about the resident oversight board. One of the things I think that's very important when we go about setting up the community engagement and we're thinking that there will be a variety of ways in which we might invite people to engage. But some may be in person some may be virtual or hybrid but and trying to think about different times of the day and different days of the week to gather the most input. One of the things I think is really critical is that the book that we developed a script so we have a have had some conversations with the communications director about creating a script that everyone would use be as far as like the types of questions that we might pose to the public so and creating a fact sheet about the process. So in my vision is that it might be like, you know, the five W's of a resident oversight board, you know, something that really looks at what is it how will it function where would it you know those sorts of information on a on a two pager so that there is some information that's provided. I do think as I said, before it's critical that while we're gathering information there's there is a script that the town really speaks with one voice and so there's probably a need for us to have discussions as a group, meaning the three groups about what that script would look like and how it would function. So that is certainly one way I think then which the board will be able to engage the communities and to talk about not only the resident oversight board, but your, your vacancies in your charge. So I'll stop there. I like that idea of having those three groups come together and doing outreach. Is it possible for this committee I don't know open meeting laws too well, but for this committee like the event today the back to school night, could we have had like a tabling event there to just make a public appearance. Yep. Yeah, we could have it right right so as long as we're not deliberating and talking about like Human Rights Commission business so to speak right. We absolutely can do tabling at that different events like and I would add like, we could do the farmers market. It's a little late for the rotary fair but like, yeah, we absolutely should do those things but like, I also I also want to double down on the, like the collaborative effort with the other groups. I love that is an idea because we have like overlap in like duty and function but also overlap in audience so. I don't like that as an idea. It's my, my two cents. Yeah, that's great would commissioners be interested in someone like that like tabling either at the farmers market various events in towns, just kind of gauging like, I don't want to say okay let's do this and then everybody be like oh I'm too busy to actually do that so that was a good thought, but it's not actually happening. I won't. I will say that I'd be like 15 million things so I'll say like, if I possibly could I would but like take that with a grain of salt because like, there's like 24 hours in a day. But, but yeah, like, yeah, I actually, I absolutely cannot commit. I'll say that. I can commit to one of the Saturdays of the month if other people can do that I know that our students are now going back to school. They're starting this senior year. I know that I don't know if Victor's doing football I know Juliana. Are you doing cross country girl. Yes, no maybe. I'm doing volleyball. Oh yeah, you know what, that's a stupid thing because I already knew that. So, so yeah if we want to set up a table and at one of the farmers markets on one of the Saturdays in September. I'm down for that. Maybe even October after that it gets cold so I don't like cold. I'm just saying. The farmers market the one in front of mill valley. The one that comes in on Saturdays from like, right, right. I forget what it's called that's a different farmers market but I don't see. I mean we'd have to obviously collaborate with them to see but I don't see why not does anybody know the name of that. No, but I think that's isn't that run out of the schools no. No, no, that's separate the mobile markets. I feel horrible I drive past it all the time to get a booth at our table at the farmers market, but we need to ask the Chamber of Commerce, I mean how does that work. I'm not sure. We just can't just roll up in there and set up a table, somebody has to know right. I don't know because I've been seeing people roll up in there setting up tables outside of the market. On the other board I'm on kind of pretty much just did that, like, so I'm on the board for embers media. And that's that's how they've been table so they just kind of the real a table I guess we call it. Well, I will actually ask. I know is john page still on the. I'll ask somebody maybe I'll even ask Jennifer, maybe I'll come come in, come and do your office Pam, you know, come up there and we start chatting and then later and no work gets done, but now just get. Yeah, Jennifer does know the work when we come up when I come up there. Yeah, and Jennifer does know the answer to that question, because I know that I, the town has acronyms for everything and I'm not going to remember the acronym, but Jennifer, Angela and Brianna have a role where they are engaged in community engagement I can't think of what their title is but that's part of their responsibilities. And one of the things that they did do was to go to the mobile market so I know that they will you know someone here will know the answer to that question I just, I don't know it. But also another opportunity to partner with those other two groups because if you have one representative from each of the groups, you, you don't have to worry about open meeting law and because you know but you still have a little cohort there to participate to spread the word for, for all of, you know, for all three groups so that's another possibility of a place for collaboration. I, I think that they're, I don't, I know the CSS JC is does not having an opening I think they're that there's not an opening on that board or but I could be wrong but I believe there is one. These are one there. Well then maybe it's the African heritage reparations assembly that doesn't have an opening but at least two of the three does have opening so that would be, you know, another place to to, to share some oversight so Well, even if the CSS JC or the African reparations committee doesn't have an opening. It's they can still be part of our table to give people an idea of what those committees do. So that's, we're not having a meeting, we're explaining what our mission is. And so I don't think that's in violation of open meeting laws. I don't think so either to Ben's point, especially if it's only like two of us there. I am wary of my time as well, but I do want to see this get moved. So I will commit at least to two Saturdays to the farmers market. Other than that I'd have to look at my schedule. I can't be like pop in supportive when I can be like I have like, like for instance I have fall basketball coming up so Saturdays are are tough for me but if I have like afternoon games I could pop up in the morning. Because what time does the farmer's market end. I believe two o'clock one o'clock. I think the whole time we can be there to with. Either I can't do the 17, but I can do the 10th and or the 24th of September, the 17th I'll be out of town. Let me know. Yeah I think let's try and shoot for the 10th so Kamala if you could have Jen send us information and then if the other two committees in town want to join in and set up that fine as well. Being on one of them I guess that's already mean that I can do double duty there. So we'll see what happens with that. So yeah, if we can make the work. Miss hey good will be table in there. Okay. All right, I've noted that down as a question. So. All right, awesome. Then we have. Oh man the town really does have a lot of acronyms for everything that you find it. A htf that affordable housing trust fund. Yeah, so we already did that one. A large a report. So I believe that's the African heritage reparations assembly. So I can give you just a quick update that that they are looking at a couple of, of collaborating with UMass, and another entity on some grants that would bring in the possibility of a solar farm that would connect to it's still in the development. So I'm not being able to exploit. And I can't explain it very well but essentially the solar farm would be a business that would be owned by the BIPOC community and might be able to generate funds to the BIPOC community. So I'm exploring that as, as a possibility and have had some conversations with UMass, and there's a, so that, and then there's a second grant that might be sort of tied to that initiative through the Robert Woods Johnson. Robert Woods Johnson's foundation so they're in discussion about that they're also very, as I said mentioned earlier concerned about community outreach because they are thinking about pursuing two different avenues for how reparations might be distributed to community members in Amherst and so part of that discussion is around eligibility. Part of the discussion is around identifying people who would, who would self identify as African heritage so they're in those ongoing conversations about that and looking at ways to collect both qualitative and quantitative data around those two points so but they're just in the beginning stages of those conversations. So I can, yeah, I can keep going through. So, with D&I, Jen and I have set a deadline for Tuesday to complete our first draft of a strategic plan that would be both for the department and for the town as a whole and the, so we have sort of mapped out what would be the strategic priorities for the department and they overlap with each of the three committees that we're supporting. In addition, we have designed an assessment tool that would go out to other departments in town with the goal of having them do some assessment and then reviewing that information so that by the end of the fiscal year townwide we would have DEI strategic plans for each department so just, you know, a roll out of assessing and then gathering that information with the goal of having a strategic plan for the entire town by the end of this fiscal year. So, we've set an internal goal of completing our portion of that strategic plan for next Tuesday and we'll share it with the town manager and get feedback. And then we'll also share with him the assessment tool and sort of roll out a plan to issue that out to the various departments. In addition, you know, we are working and provided the CSSJC with a draft outline for, so I'm going to do two here right now for the resident oversight board that was just shared with that group last night. It's in the vision is that the timeline for the board to go live would be about 10 months. A lot of the research suggests that you need a minimum of six months. I think that a realistic timeline is a 10 month timeline we've devoted two months to just community engagement and if there are other aspects of the timeline that might go quicker then, you know, that's great. So it could maybe be less than 10 months but I think 10 months is realistic thinking about the scope of the work that we have to do. We need to get community involved in the selection of the model. We need to develop policies and procedures so the members of the resident oversight board will have to be trained. The town council will have to draft a bylaw and pass it so I mean there's, I think 10 months is ambitious but I think also, I think 10 months is realistic, less than that I think would be extremely ambitious so we've gotten started on that. I just have a point of question or just a favor on your end. Can you send the oversight plan oversight board plan to this group. Yep. So that way we can look at it ourselves as well. Yep, we can do that. Thank you. Yeah. And so with the crest. The cross responders are finishing up their final week of training. There is a plan for them to go live on September 6. They have met with the other law enforcement units in town to talk about the types of calls that they will be addressing. And they expect there to be as Earl has sort of said a soft rollout so they're going to start fairly with fairly limited number of calls and then over time as they build capacity they will take on take on more. He is hoping to hold Fridays as a basically in service days so that the responders will have an opportunity to be together in large group and debrief and you know learn from that experience. So, you know, he's obviously very excited about about that process. They are now have an opening for a responder one of the initial eight people who was selected to be a responder is, you know, no longer part of the program and so they have an opening that they're going to hire for that person. And they do believe they have, they've had a lot of interest in the position so they think that they'll be able to make a good hire fairly soon. In addition, they are hiring an implementation manager part of the grant that created crest was required that there be a support from the mental health component and so they're, they are hiring someone into that implementation manager role who has that back, who has some background in that area, I believe so. So, they're, they're working on that hire. And I, I think that's it I might have missed something else but I'm sure that I can reach out or prepared a one page report for the CSSJ and I can send that I'm sure to this group as well so. Yeah, thank you I was going to ask if you can send that. Is there any way or possible. I guess this might be an oral question that we can have him just kind of come to this group. Next meeting to kind of give us a report out as has to how the first months going how things happening in town. So I would. So your next meeting is going to be September. 22nd. Is that right. Yeah, yeah, so I mean I would send him an invite but know that in that first month of implementing and going live that he's feeling like, you know he needs to put his attention to the work but I think he would, you know, if he's available I think the answer would be yes. One thing that that Earl and Jen and I have talked about is sharing the responsibility of staffing the evening. Commission so that, you know, not no single person is responsible for multiple evenings during the month so we're, we're going to try to get a schedule going and rotating I've done the last to primarily be because I think I needed to be at both of the, of the last two meetings Jen was away. Earl was busy and so for the last two meetings for this group are for all three groups I've been the contact person but I, it's likely that someone else will step into that role. You know at the next meeting might be Jen and then, you know, but yeah I can extend an invitation for Earl to to come. That'd be great thank you. Our next meeting is the 21st. Okay. All right. Yeah. Anybody, any commissioners have any questions for miss young on the various reports that were given. I don't just say thank you for being thorough and we appreciate you being here to give us those reports. Welcome. Yes, I'll echo that as well. Next on the agenda is membership quorum. I don't, I don't recall why that was on the agenda. Either banner miss young was it just that we need more members. Yeah, believe so. I think we actually do review that like every year like what constitutes a quorum but like it's what's here right now constitutes a quorum at this point. I know that we Jen and I met earlier in the week with members from Amherst college and I think in the past that there have been members from the colleges who have students who have sat on this commission I don't, I don't know, but. Yeah, there was one when I first came on. So there, that might be another opportunity to, to draw from this, you know, college student population to have a member have members from any of the three colleges in town so. Maybe that would be good how would that outreach look are we able to send flyers or. I don't want to say table. Yeah, so one of the things, and I'm going to be attending. There is that we have a contact person for Amherst college so there I know that there's someone that we can can connect with, and that that person would would be able to get the information out to the Amherst college students. Next Friday, I believe is the community breakfast at UMass Amherst. And I will be attending that event on behalf of the town as well as I think another of other town staff as employees so that I don't have a contact at UMass yet but that might be the place where I might learn of a, of a contact and Amherst college actually had is having their welcome event tomorrow between, I think, noon and two, I am unable to attend, but I know that Angela is going to attend and I think that there are also some district. Some counselors who may be attending as well so I can ask her to inquire about a connection at Hampshire college. She did share with me but that to her knowledge this is the first time that Hampshire college has reached out to the town to, to have town members and staff attend their welcome event for a new student so we can at least inquire from those about that. That would be good and yes, I would not be able to attend that event tomorrow but if any commissioners are able to and willing to just even going around and talking that would be great. I know school starts for our high schoolers so that's going to be out of the question but I get it. Yeah, and then I do know that UMass is having event series, I believe it starts on the 14th with their. I think it's like OEI office. I'll look into that and see maybe send something out. But yes, if you know anybody that wants to do this type of work. Now is your time to shine and join this committee. All right, and then we vaguely talked about this in the beginning but the retreat. I don't know if anybody else has notes on the HRC retreat as to what day was finalized whether that be. Was it the second or the ninth question. One of those two Sundays, we're looking at doing a retreat Ben you weren't here. The last time for that meeting do either of those days work for you for work better for you. October. For October 2. I put it in my calendar book, and I put it in my calendar on my phone on October 2. So I, I'm sticking with October. So I thought we wanted to stay away from the long weekend which was the night. That's true. That's true. I do remember that. Yep. October 2 work for you Ben. I'm kind of touch and go until I have like a schedule. Okay. Yeah, I mean I could. I'll tentatively pencil it in. Got it. And hope that I don't get scheduled for. Are we doing it in person. Yes. Somewhere. That's the other. Library. Yeah, I was going to say we've typically done it at months in library. That's, that's kind of weird. And I don't know if Jen has the end on that or not. And has the end on everything related. Right. Yes. Yes, I did know that in person. I have no idea location wise where that was going to be. But yes, we can. Say, I think almost. I must say Miss. Hey, good book is good enough for me because if you put it in there, I know you're taking notes. October 2. Time wise, we'll figure that out and we'll see. Ben. UI and Jen and miss young can connect and what works in that way. Miss. Hey, good. You did say that you wanted it to be in the morning. Is that what you were saying earlier today? I would like it to be. I mean, the thing that I have to do in Boston is not a. A must. It's more of a support for someone who's doing some work around a cancer walk. So it's not mandatory that I be there. I would just love to be there for her because I've done this work. She, she's doing the. Boston marathon route. Yeah, it raises money for the Jimmy fun and cancer research. And I've done it with her in the past and I just wanted to be there to support her when she finished, but. Yeah, I have to say if we have to we have work to do so. Right. I appreciate that. I will say on a personal note, earlier meeting for me is great, rather than a midday later on. Yes, that's what we've typically done is had it like the first half of the day. Yep. And then you have lunch and then you go your separate ways and that sounds good to me. Yeah, especially the lunch part. That's my favorite part of the. I like the vision board concept, but yeah, it's like, like sandwiches. Awesome. All right. And then next on the agenda we have upcoming events. On the 25th of September, there are international day of peace. Did anybody take that on for a post. Awesome. So if you could just make sure to get that in some time before the 15th. Oh, perfect. Awesome. On top of the number that this Friday the 26th is women's equality. And I sent an email into Jen with a short write up. Perfect. And she can edit it any way she like because I'm not like that. So, yeah. That's awesome. Thank you. I think that that's important. And also while we're on the conversation of a posting on Facebook, maybe we should post about some vacancies on there. I don't know how many people are actually looking on that, but we do have a good following there. When we put out the statement seem to get a lot of traction and a lot of shares so we can put that on. I think we don't have access to that miss young side. I don't know if that falls on you or Jen. They're on social media that'd be great. Right. Oh, this is great because I'm going to. All of my questions so far asked Jen so I will. It will ask Jen. That's a busy morning tomorrow. And then myself, Victor and Jen are working on a lot Tina's heritage month Victor. But we're looking at an October date sometime in between the first and the 15th because that is when the celebration is, but we will finalize that and get that out to everybody. And see what happens with that event it's going to be more like the Juneteenth event that we put on with the town. And I definitely want to get some salsa happening with the salsa in the park people and different things like that so we'll see what we come up with and you should also talk to Miss Gravara group of Latina women that they're teachers actually and people that work in the school and they have a group miss Miss Gravara, Alicia Mariana. Who's the Spanish teacher that's married to Mr. Shaw, Marty Vicente, and some others are part of that group and they do performances as well. I'll talk to Nick Shaw, but maybe getting some of the kids from Bomba involved with that. Yeah. Yeah, if you could send me an email missing that'd be great and I can reach out to them and say, perfect thank you. Priority talk to some of the students from Bomba and they say that they're interested in helping out we just got to reach out to them about like a time slot or something like that we can figure it out. That's great. Love it. Then October. Let's see the next meeting that'll be the 21st October. There is a long list of things of awareness months of celebrations. I think that for the sake of time, since this list is pretty long here. Why don't we try and connect offline in a way that does not promote or violate open meeting laws but if anything jumps out to you from this agenda that you really want to take on, you just send it to Jen that you want to take it on and possibly CC me or Ben, or the both of us. And we can make sure that those all get taken care of so we have pulling prevention month domestic violence month AIDS awareness month down syndrome awareness month family history month Filipino American heritage month Italian American heritage month LGBT history month disability employment awareness month October 2 is international day of non violence October 20 spirit day and pulling and October 22 is international gathering awareness day. That's a long list and I don't think that it we could go through in that way so if you could just anything that jumps out to you that be great and anything that is kind of left behind will reach out and see if people can take that on. Other than that other topics that the co chairs did not permit on any for the agenda. Anything else. I did want to circle back and this can be a conversation for our next meeting. I do feel as if and then and miss hey good if you can jump in because you have more experience and I do on this issue. The town's issues of housing. I know that this committee has taken up some issues with that prior to my joining. It has been done what can be done. It's been an issue. Many community members. I feel like that's a point of conversation that I have often with them as they miss. They hear that I'm a part of the Human Rights Commission and the CSS JC, or even the Amherst survival center they really feel as if by pop families in particular being pushed out of this town. Absolutely. So when there was the whole situation with the UMass grad students kind of being pushed out of like North Village and all that, not even kind of I don't know why I said kind of absolutely being pushed out. So we initially went and kind of like, we sort of play like the fact finding role. And so at the time that that's when we had Matthew charity who was like, so he was like a lawyer. So that was probably helpful through that but yeah like, so we have the ability to kind of like, gather like a narrative from the folks that were down there and like, I guess horrible. But, and then like sort of like confront their administration with them, you know, like, it's probably like the most active thing I've done something on the Human Rights Commission but yeah absolutely like the personal opinion is that like the housing issues. Anywhere we that we can be like helpful with the housing trust and those kind of folks. That's awesome but like anytime that we can come in and like advocate for our residents like. Those are key moments for me. Yeah, I completely agree. Miss a good did you have anything else to add. Not at this time. So I think if we could just put that on the agenda for a point of discussion. That'd be great. Other than that, I think that we are done and this meeting can be adjourned here unless anybody else has anything else to say. Now, we don't need a roll call vote for adjournment right up. Okay so meeting adjourned at 739. Thank you everybody. Pamela I'll try to come up there and have a powwow with you and Jen.